The mission of the Light of Hope Immigration Law Center (LOHILC) is to advocate, educate, and serve Low-Income Immigrant Families in securing U.S. Legal Status. We provide low-cost or pro-bono legal services, citizenship preparatory courses, and much more.
Since 2006, LOHILC has provided assistance to thousands of people with immigration issues such as filing the N-400 application for citizenship, DACA, employment authorization card, waivers, adjustment of status, consular processing, family petitions, national visa center process, fiancé visas, resident card renewals, removal of conditional status and temporary protection status. LOHILC also provides low-cost citizenship classes and free citizenship workshops.
The vast majority of clients seeking assistance from LOHILC are low-income wage earners. Until LOHILC clients secure or meet the requirements to maintain their immigration status, they are ineligible for safety nets like health care, employment leave or federal food assistance. Clients that are in the process of legal cases related to their immigration status must continue to move forward with the legal process and resolving these cases is of critical importance. Although LOHILC charges fees much lower than those of immigration attorneys, when clients are newly unemployed, even modest fees are more than they can afford. To meet these clients' needs, LOHILC has increased the number of clients who receive either pro bono services or services at greatly reduced fees.
Our mission is to advocate, educate, and serve Low-Income Immigrant Families in securing U.S. Legal Status. We provide low-cost or pro-bono legal services, citizenship preparatory courses, and much more.
So far in 2023, we have initiated more than 100 DACA renewals, nearly 200 family visa applications, and 50 citizenship naturalization applications. In total we’ve provided more than a thousand services this year including work permits, advance parole, and services for refugees and victims of crime or domestic violence. As you know, legal immigration processes can be very time consuming. The average length of time our cases have been open is more than 7 years. We have provided more than a thousand client consults this year, and in total have impacted close to 2,000 people in our community.
Light of Hope is one of a few organizations in DFW that assist low-income individuals with these processes. Many of our clients are minimally educated and cannot read or write in their native language. Our clients are not able to afford the services of an immigration attorney, which can range from $5,000 to $10,000 for the services we provide. But while our clients’ ability to pay has not increased, our costs unfortunately have. Each of our cases involves careful analysis and translation of documents, interpretation of processes and regulations, preparation for appointments, and expert legal representation. On average, each client we help costs us $110 more than they are able to pay. That means that every $110 you donate enables us to help one more client!
We also provide pro bono support to the community. Our free citizenship classes this spring provided 85 hours of instruction to 21 students, 4 of whom became naturalized citizens. We are excited this year to return to more in-person events providing workshops to assist clients with free one-on-one help in their N-400, DACA, and asylum processes.
In September, we celebrate 17 years of service, and we look forward to many, many more successes to celebrate, but we need your help to do it.
Will you donate this year to empower the work that we do and encourage your networks to do the same?
Light of Hope Immigration Law Center is a non-profit organization that serves immigrant families and individuals without regards of race, religion, disability, income, medical condition, sexual orientation, gender, or background.
Organization name
Light of Hope Immigration Law Center, Inc.
Causes
Immigrants & Refugees
Operating Budget
$500,000 - $999,999
Counties Served
Fannin, Tarrant, Rockwall, Parker, Navarro, Kaufman, Johnson, Hunt, Hood, Grayson, Ellis, Denton, Dallas, Cooke, Collin
BIPOC Serving
Hispanic or Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black or African American
BIPOC Leadership
Executive Director/CEO
Address
1339 19th Street.