immigration legal services.

Rosa and her CCEW Immigration Attorney Megan

I don't have to be afraid anymore.

This is how Rosa felt after she received her green card with the help of an immigration attorney from Catholic Charities. No sentiment better explains why we offer an Immigration Legal Services Program. Our services remove people’s fears, ease their suffering and bring them out of the shadows.

Catholic Charities’ Immigration Legal Services Provide a Voice for the Voiceless

Rosa used to live in the shadows. Her story was highlighted in this year’s Catholic Charities Collection—it began when she was brought to the United States at the age of 4 by her parents. Her father was a police officer in Mexico. He had just taken down the leadership of a major cartel that was now threatening the family.

Rosa grew up as a small-town kid in Chelan and Spokane. She got married and started a family, but she felt like she could never live up to her full potential without legal status.

​“I always had to settle for less but wanted to do more,” Rosa said.

Catholic Charities provides a voice for these voiceless members of our community. We help them claim the rights they are permitted under federal law so they can bless the community with their gifts, talents and participation.

Catholic Charities Offers Unique Immigration Legal Services

Travel southeast from Wenatchee to Boise and then circle back to Portland. Within that entire region Catholic Charities offers the only immigration services for low-income families. We provide high-quality legal consultations, representation, and assistance to documented and undocumented immigrants of all nationalities, ethnicities and religions.

The immigration services we offer are family-based. That means our goal is to work within United States law to keep families together.

In Rosa’s case, her husband is a citizen, so Catholic Charities helped her apply for permanent residency through him. In similar cases, we help the children or parents of United States citizens apply for legal status. We believe that strong families are the foundation for strong communities.

We also help immigrant victims of crime and domestic violence obtain legal status to protect them from further harm. We also provide immigration services for sisters, priests and other religious workers who come to the U.S.

Serving Immigrants is Part of Catholic Charities’ History

From 1969–1972, Catholic Charities managed the Spokane area Cuban Refugee Children Program. At this time, after the rise of Castro, the national Catholic Welfare Bureau worked with the U.S. State Department to bring more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children to the United States. We made sure some of those kids had safe home environments in Eastern Washington.

Then in 1975, after the fall of Saigon, Catholic Charities began helping refugees start new lives in Spokane. We provided a second chance at life for more than 5,200 people until 2002, when the program shut down in the aftermath of 9/11.

Contact Catholic Charities for Assistance with Your Immigration Questions

Today, Catholic Charities provides low-cost, family-based immigration legal services to families across our region.

If you have any questions about your legal status, call (509) 455-4961. You can schedule a confidential appointment with one of our immigration attorneys. We have a Spanish-language interpreter on-site and other translation services available.