More than 6,500 immigrants in Oregon have received free legal counsel in the two years since the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1543 and created the Equity Corps of Oregon, a universal statewide legal representation program.
Lawmakers first committed $15 million from the state’s general fund to implement the program. The money is used to assist with work permit applications, assist asylum seekers and provide workshops in local communities. The program’s budget was halved in the 2023-2024 biennium.
“The number of immigration attorneys needed to serve the number of people we have in Oregon is part of the enormous problem this bill is designed to address,” said Sarah Purce, a professor at Willamette University College of Law. “And so it doesn’t create immigration lawyers, it fuels their interest in becoming immigration lawyers in the longer term.”
Nearly 421,000 people in Oregon are estimated to be immigrants, with 108,000 considered undocumented, according to the Migration Policy Institute. According to the Equity Corps’ July report, one in 15 children in the state lives with someone with a vulnerable immigration status.
“What we believe is that all Oregonians must have access to legal representation for a justice system to be fair,” said Oregon Worker Relief Executive Committee Member Isa Peña. “Our immigration system is complex and nearly impossible to navigate alone.”
Unmet need for immigration lawyers in Oregon
A 2016 survey by the American Immigration Council found that 37% of all immigrants and 14% of detained immigrants go to court with representation. Those with representation were five times more likely to win their case.
But access to representation in Oregon can be a challenge, the ECO report said. Of the 18,500 immigration attorneys practicing nationwide, fewer than 2% practice in Oregon, ECO estimates.
According to the American Bar Association 2023 Profile, the state has 2.9 lawyers available per 1,000 residents, with a quarter of all lawyers in just two states: California and New York.
SB1534 was the legislature’s recognition of unmet needs.
The bill allocates funding every two years to a nonprofit organization, Oregon Worker Relief, for a universal representation program. Funds are to be used, among other things, for attorneys at community organizations, navigators at those organizations, training, a customer service fund to assist with fees related to immigration proceedings, a call center and a clearinghouse.
“The hope of the program is really to expand the amount of services that we provide, expand our network to be able to respond as a state when changes happen in our immigration laws,” Peña said. “I think we have succeeded. I did a lot of great work in the first two years to build some of that infrastructure.”
Willamette’s growing partnership with Equity Corps of Oregon
Willamette University is the only law school in Oregon with an immigration law clinic. The school partners with Oregon Worker Relief’s ECO program, accepting cases and training future fellows.
In April, Willamette announced the launch of an Immigrant Justice Scholars program, a specialized course that culminates with a semester of clinical work in Portland.
The clinic launched in 2022 with the help of Professor Beth Zilberman and is available to second-year and third-year students.
Sarah Schra is one of the Willamette University College of Law students in the school’s immigration clinic, where she works with clinics while juggling classroom work.
There are currently eight first-semester law students and three more advanced students in the class. Students combine classwork and client work as part of the clinic.
ECO refers clients represented by the law students. The students build relationships with their clients, who often apply for asylum, by interviewing them, attending hearings, researching case law and filing forms.
“You can’t skip a clinic like you can skip a class,” says third-year law student Sarah Schra. “We have real people, it’s not just a name that appears in a random case. You think about it in the morning when you get up and take a shower, and you think about it when you go to sleep at night.”
Students are typically limited to two clients during their first semester in the clinic. More advanced students, like Samantha Aguilar, who will graduate in December, have more clients.
Samantha Aguilar, a student at Willamette University College of Law, decided to study immigration law after seeing the challenges her husband faced immigrating to the United States.
She went to law school knowing she wanted to study immigration law.
A resident of Nevada, Aguilar has lived in Oregon for ten years. Her husband is an immigrant and the two managed the immigration proceedings with a lawyer she described as less than stellar.
“I realized there was some kind of need,” Aguilar said. After graduation, she will be a fellow at a host organization through Equity Corps in Woodburn, serving people who would not normally have representation.
Professor Purce said six students have been accepted into ECO’s Immigrant Justice Fellowship. The first cohort of the new Immigrant Justice Scholars Program, which has just begun, will likely become fellows as well. This year, three more students will be selected for the next cohort.
“By next year, we will have nine law students who are in the pipeline to become immigration attorneys,” Purce said.
Willamette University is the only law school in Oregon with an immigration law clinic. There are 11 students in the class.
Request for renewed funding during the 2025 legislative session
The change in funding for the Universal Representation Program in 2023 delayed the start of some initiatives.
For example, a program known as the Colibri Fellowship, designed to increase the number of non-attorney-accredited Justice Department representatives in the state who can represent immigrants, won’t start until the end of this year.
“We had to adjust our pace,” Peña said. “But the need is still there.”
Peña said Oregon Worker Relief plans to ask lawmakers to fund the budget request for at least $15 million.
However, they will have to reevaluate the number in November’s presidential election, she added. President-elect Donald Trump has promised mass deportations from his first day in office.
“I think Oregon has been fortunate and also intuitive enough to put some of these programs in place to protect our immigrant community,” Peña said.
“We know that the recent elections are likely to bring different types of immigration needs, and we know that enforcement plans are coming.”
Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on X @DianneLugo
This article originally appeared in the Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon program provides counseling to thousands of immigrants.
