LALDEF'S UPDATED STATEMENT REGARDING COVID-19

Updated Saturday, August 8, 2020

To Our Beloved LALDEF Community:

The well-being of everyone in our community—and all of those you interact with and care about—is our top priority. To that end, we will continue to do our best to serve your needs, but conditions continue to indicate that remote/virtual communications remain the safest way to provide our services.

Social distancing and wearing a mask while outside of your home are still the best ways that you can stay safe and healthy. Even if you are young and strong, you can easily spread COVID-19 to your older friends and relatives.

The safety of our community is the reason why LALDEF does the work we do. Let us be clear: immigrants deserve healthcare and access to education, resources, and options to keep themselves and their families safe. The health of everyone in our community depends on us being decent, loving, understanding, and protective of one another and treating every person as our neighbor and our friend.

LALDEF will continue to reassess when we will be able to fully open up our office again.

Thank you all so much for all of your support for LALDEF. We appreciate you. We want all of you to be safe, and we will see you again -- in person -- soon.

We cannot wait.

In community:

Lorraine Goodman
Interim Executive Director

Patricia Fernandez-Kelly
Board Chair

General Support links:

Legal Services Update

LALDEF’s Legal Service staff is out of the office until further notice to help slow the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). We, however, continue to work on cases and client support remotely. Appointments are now available beginning in September. Please contact the LALDEF/Welcome House Office Manager at 609-331-9367 to schedule your consultation (Monday-Friday: 10 am-4:30 pm).

OTHER INFO: The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security has announced that it will begin rescheduling MPP hearings. Please check THIS SITE for more information. Individuals should continue to check on case status in English and Spanish by calling the Automated Case Information Hotline at 1-800-898-7180

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has also extended their temporarily suspended in-person services at its field offices, asylum offices, and application support centers (ASCs).  USCIS field offices will send notices to applicants and petitioners with scheduled appointments and naturalization ceremonies impacted by the extended temporary closure.

USCIS asylum offices will send interview cancellation notices and automatically reschedule asylum interviews. When the interview is rescheduled, asylum applicants will receive a new interview notice with the new time, date and location of the interview. When USCIS resumes normal operations, USCIS will automatically reschedule missed ASC appointments.

Please rest assured our legal services staff is keeping up with the immigration policy effects of COVID-19 and will continue to provide updates as the situation develops.

Adult Education Update

Education and precautions are the strongest tools against infection. Get the latest facts by visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 website. Continue to practice good health habits, refrain from handshakes or hugs as greetings, and wash hands and clean surfaces appropriately.

Online Digital ESL classes and tutoring are ongoing.

We are planning to restart offering our other Adult Ed programs (HSE, Computer Literacy Workshop, One on one ESL Tutoring) in September. Interested students can fill out an interest form HERE. 

Gente y Cuentos

Our collaboration with Gente y Cuentos is going virtual! LALDEF and Gente y Cuentos offers a Spanish-language, learning experience based on story telling for adults and teenagers 16 and older. 4/14-5/19, every Tuesday at 5:00pm. Contact Caty Dominguez at caty.dominguez@laldef.org or by phone at 609-331-9367 to enroll.