Legal Aid of Arkansas to serve Marshallese community
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2007
Legal Aid of Arkansas will now be able to represent citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, as well as the Republic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia, who live in the United States.
This will affect the Marshallese population in Northwest Arkansas.
The Marshallese population here is between 6, 000 and 10, 000, said Lee Richardson, executive director of Legal Aid of Arkansas, which is based in Jonesboro and covers 31 counties in northern Arkansas, including Washington and Benton counties.
"Springdale is basically it," said Richardson of the Marshallese population in Northwest Arkansas.
Many of them travel to this area for jobs and better education, he said. In order to get help in the United States, Micronesians had to become naturalized, a process that many choose not to do because of the cost.
Members of this population may now apply for representation by Legal Aid of Arkansas, Richardson said, provided that they are otherwise eligible for services.
Legal Aid of Arkansas is a nonprofit corporation that has seven offices and provides free legal help with civil legal matters to those who qualify.
The primary areas of representation provided by Legal Aid of Arkansas include domestic violence, other family cases, consumer, housing, health, income maintenance, individual rights, education matters, wills and estates, and juvenile matters.
The change in the regulation, allowing legal aid for Micronesians, Richardson said, went into effect last week. The Legal Services Corporation board of directors acted on it at its July meeting in Nashville.
Beginning this past week, he said, intake workers on the helpline were told that Legal Aid of Arkansas can now represent Micronesians.
While Micronesians have access to legal aid on the Marshal Islands, Richardson said, they did not have access to it here before this change.
Legal Aid attorneys were forced to stop helping Micronesians (Micronesian is the ethnic group of the Marshall Islands ) a decade ago because of an interpretation of the Compact of Free Association with Micronesia, which barred federal money from going to legal aid for Micronesians in the U. S., according to Richardson.
The Mirconesian situation is a little different than the typical situation with immigrants because of Compact of Free Association agreement between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Marshallese are able to travel visa-free and reside in the U. S.
Legal Services of Arkansas cannot represent people who are not citizens of the United States, unless they are here legally, except in a few cases, said Richardson.
Micronesians do not really fit into either category - citizen or noncitizen because of the compact of free association. They have no documentation requirements.
In order to get help in the U. S., Micronesians had to become naturalized, a process that many choose not to do because of the cost, according to Richardson. Richardson said he is pleased that the Legal Services Corporation has been proactive in taking the necessary steps to close the loophole in the law that prevented Micronesians from being eligible for these services. Carmen Chong Gum, Marshallese outreach coordinator at The Jones Center for Families in Springdale, does a lot of information referral and some of the issues people talk to her about are concerns about legal issues.
"Some of the things I've encountered have been dealing with landlord-tenant issues," she said.
Other issues, she said, concern child support, divorce and garnishment on medical bills.
She said the change allowing Legal Aid of Arkansas to provide legal help will help her job "because I can have somebody higher than me to help, that has the capability."
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