WINCHESTER — When Diana Katterine Roiz Soto walked into the Literacy Volunteers Winchester Area (LVWA) office at 301 N. Cameron St. two years ago, was looking for help improving her English.
But officials with the nonprofit group needed her help as well when they learned she was trained as a lawyer in her native Colombia.
Soto’s legal expertise and Spanish-speaking skills have come in handy. Not only does Literacy Volunteers provide one-on-one tutoring for adults who lack fundamental reading, writing, math and computer skills. It also offers classes on how to become a U.S. citizen.
According to LVWA Executive Director Mark Sieffert, demand for citizenship services is on track to more than double. Last year, 10 people took classes at LVWA on how to become U.S. citizens. This year, he expects at least 20 students.
“Immigration is driving the demand around here lately,” Sieffert said this week.
The number of immigrant clients seeking services of all kinds through LVWA is higher than it has ever been, he said.
Dozens of immigrants come to the center each month looking for help with legal services, and hundreds come seeking help with language and literacy skills. The nonprofit group now has clients from more than 50 countries.
The number of volunteers at LVWA is also growing. It has 150 people who dedicate at least a few hours of their time a week to helping LVWA clients. A year ago, the group had 100 volunteers.
“People want to help the immigrants in their community and this is the place to do it,” Sieffert said.
LVWA has stepped up its qualifications to meet the demand for services.
In December, Soto — after nearly two years of study — achieved an Agency Recognition and Staff Accreditation for the LVWA and for herself, respectively. The designation comes from the Department of Justice and allows nonprofit agencies and their accredited staff to practice some facets of immigration law. Soto can now, as a partially accredited representative, legally counsel immigration clients at LVWA, complete federal immigration forms and represent clients at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services interviews.
“It’s not easy for immigrants to trust an organization,” said the 34-year-old Soto, who moved to the United States because of her husband’s job with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
With the Department of Justice accreditation, Soto can present herself as a professional agent instead of a well-meaning volunteer. “Now we can do it without limitations,” she said.
Helping with adjustment of status, asylum applications, consular processing, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) renewals, naturalization and citizenship processes, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), U visas (for victims of crimes who help law enforcement) and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) petitions are just some of the ways Soto volunteers her time.
Previously, LVWA had to rely exclusively on legal help from Diane Sheehey of Sheehey Immigration Law in Winchester.
Soto got her accreditation after more than a year of volunteering 10 to 15 hours per week alongside Sheehey. LVWA now has a third volunteer seeking accreditation.
“I was skeptical about how legal services fit into literacy,” Sieffert said. But he realized, “You can’t do citizenship without a comprehensive legal understanding.”
Soto said the work is important to her. As a newcomer to the U.S., she said she sees anxiety, anger and depression in immigrants who are fearful about their future in the U.S. “They don’t want to leave their houses.”
Most immigrants in the area have legal status through a federal designation, Soto said, and most families have members who are citizens. But there are some people who can’t find a path forward. One LVWA client who is undocumented has lived in the United States for 25 years and has three children. The woman has been to eight lawyers but has not found a way to achieve citizenship.
Sieffert said immigrants who are here on federal designation live in fear that their status will be revoked by the current White House administration.
The work isn’t easy, Soto said. Navigating federal immigration policy is extremely complicated even for the highly educated.
Sieffert believes LVWA offers the largest aggregate of immigrant services in the area, other than churches, which are the primary source of support.
“If they say, ‘I want to learn to use a computer,’ we don’t ask them about their [citizenship] status,” Sieffert said.
For those with immigration concerns, Sieffert said there are plenty of people willing to help them. “I think people want to build a robust community.”
For more information, call Literacy Volunteers Winchester Area at 540-536-1648.
