TRAVERSE CITY — In 2022, Traverse City saw a massive influx of Ukrainian refugees seeking asylum following the beginning of the devastating Russian invasion.
Coming to a new country with few to no belongings, little to no time to make arrangements, and typically little understanding of the American legal system, the new immigrants were in need of legal help.
Marcelo Betti soon stepped in, working with the local nonprofit firm Immigration Law and Justice.
“As soon as the invasion started, we started getting dozens of calls, inquiring about what could be done to help Ukrainian folks, whether they were there or also Ukrainians were here in the US, but were supposed to go back to Ukraine at a certain point, you know, but now we’re afraid to do so because of the war, understandably,” Betti said.
“I would say that before the war, before the invasion started, maybe 10% of our clients were Ukrainian, whereas now we’re probably at around 50%, at least in the private city office.”
The ILJ-MI, formerly known as Justice for Our Neighbors, mission is to provide pro-bono legal assistance to immigrants new to the area, and that’s just what they did. Since 2022, the Traverse City ILJ-MI office has assisted more than 160 Ukrainian clients.
Now, however, many members of the local Ukrainian immigrant community are coming up to the end of their two-year stay under the United for Ukraine program, which was first announced in 2022 by the Biden administration.
“Now what is important to note is that this humanitarian parole program, the United for Ukraine, is really only a temporary benefit that lasts for two years. It is not in and of itself a path for any permanent status. It’s not a path for a green card. It’s not a path for citizenship,” Betti said. “When folks started arriving from Ukraine, around, say, May or June of 2022, that’s about two years ago. So the Ukrainians who arrived early on, their two years are up this spring/summer.”
A process was announced for immigrants who are interested in applying for an extra two years for parole, meaning they can then apply for an additional two years of employment authorization and authorization to remain in the United States.
In preparation for that, Betti has set up a legal clinic at the Slavic Evangelical Church in mid-July. He and his assistants expect to assist anywhere between 30-50 clients go through the re-application process so that they are able to maintain their jobs and the lives they’ve built here.
They will also be working with Bethany Christian Services for assistance in translation, and a few volunteers to help facilitate the workshop.
However, the amount of clients in need of assistance is not the only thing that Betti and his office must consider — it’s also the amount of funding they have. Donations have dropped over the past year as immigration has become increasingly controversial, meaning that pro-bono immigration services, such as the ones Betti provides, could soon be at risk.
“People may not realize that we have a large Ukrainian population that is really reeling from the events of the past couple of years. Again, most of them arrived here without being fluent in English, which, just by default, puts them in a more vulnerable situation or more difficult situation when it comes to finding employment, for example. Most people don’t come here with a large sum of money, like for their lifelong savings; people just fled the war. It’s not like they had time to put their house for sale and cash in and move to America,” Betti said.
I think it’s just generally it’s important for folks in our community to have an awareness of how, how we have a large Ukrainian community and also how other immigrant communities in our area and how those folks would have a really difficult time navigating the immigration system without the availability of free legal services from organizations like ours.”
As ILJ-MI is the sole office north of Grand Rapids that provides this kind of assistance.
“It is very hard for people to obtain any immigration relief or any immigration benefits without legal help because we have kind of a Byzantine complex immigration system, that’s just very difficult for lay people to navigate,” Betti said.
An immigrant himself, Betti came from Belize, and personally underwent the process and paperwork for naturalization while he was studying to become a lawyer, making him all the more dedicated to causes such as this.
“I think that it’s not unusual for folks who immigrated to the United States and happened to find themselves in law school to think, you know what, immigration law seems like an interesting area,” Betti said. “I wanted to go into an area of law where I was able to help people, especially, you know, people in vulnerable situations who needed legal help.
“I didn’t expect that was going to be my entire practice, but that’s how it worked out, and I’m thankful for that,” Betti said. “I think that folks from our organization feel that we are able to make a difference.”