Legal Aid counsels immigrants

More than 100 residents received consultations at event

By CARLOS VILLATORO
Register Staff Writer

The cost of seeing an attorney can be pricey, but on Sunday afternoon at Legal Aid of Napa Valley’s Immigration Forum it was free.

The forum, held at St. Helena Catholic School’s gymnasium, brought together nine attorneys from all over the Bay Area and paired them with individuals in need of immigration advice.

“We have been doing this since we started (Legal Aid) in 2005,” said Diana Dorame, executive director of Legal Aid. “It was time to do this. We like to come out into the community in a place that’s safe for them.”

One hundred or more residents from all over the valley came to the forum to receive 20-minute consultations from the group of volunteer attorneys. Napa resident Juana Mora came to seek advice about her 20-year-old son, who is facing deportation in Washington, she said.

When asked what she thought about the forum Mora said “It’s good ... it’s not so easy for people to pay (for an attorney).”

Mora said she hopes the attorney will be able to help her son. For attorneys like Richard Coshnear, who works part time at Legal Aid and is a Santa Rosa-based immigration attorney, donating his time is doing his part to help people navigate the waters of immigration law.

“We are dealing with questions that people bring to us,” he said. “Most of it is family immigration issues.”

Coshnear said the biggest obstacle for those who want to immigrate legally into the United States is the amount of time that it takes to get a visa. In some cases it can take 12 years or more before the visa is approved.

“You wonder why people come here illegally,” Coshnear said. “(It’s) because they can’t wait to be with their families.”

Coshnear said before he became an immigration lawyer he was a physician’s assistant and would see the large amount of people without access to health insurance.

While some individuals argue that illegal immigrants do not deserve to be able to see a doctor — since they broke immigration laws — Coshnear said “most criminals can pay their debt to society and move on with their lives, when do these people get to do it? I don’t think it’s criminal to cross the border when your family is starving.”

Participants who had problems that could not be solved in the 20-minute consultations were referred to Legal Aid for a follow-up visit, or to the attorneys themselves. Aside from Sunday’s forum, Legal Aid holds similar forums through partnerships formed with groups such as Puertas Abiertas and Calistoga Family Center. For more information about Legal Aid visit www.legalaidnapa.org.

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