Opportunities From: One Albuquerque Volunteers

NMILC's mission is to advance justice and equity by empowering low-income immigrant communities through collaborative legal services, advocacy, and education. We are a 501(c)3 that collaborates closely with our partner organizations to meet the continuing and emergent needs of our community. This Accompaniment Volunteer Role is part of NMILC's Family Preparedness program, which supports immigrant family members to think through preparing in case of deportation or detention, ensuring their household has plans in place to care for their children and protecting their property/assets. Accompaniment Volunteers play an integral role by prioritizing the impacted people’s safety and wellbeing, supporting them in creating an emergency family preparedness plan and establishing a “circle of protection” made up of client/immigrant community member’s own trusted contacts, accompanying NMILC clients/immigrant community members to their ICE check-ins or court hearings, and supporting with follow up/referrals as needed. Through this work, Accompaniment Volunteers play a vital role in furthering NMILC’s vision of a more just New Mexico for all of us.

Volunteer eligibility/expectations:

This program is intended for experienced and vetted volunteers with the demonstrated cultural awareness and commitment to centering the safety, agency, and well-being of immigrants. 

For volunteers that will physically accompany an immigrant onsite to immigration court or an ICE office, we highly encourage this role solely for U.S. citizens. There are other ways you can volunteer with NMILC if you are not a U.S. citizen.

Immigrant accompaniment requires you to have flexible availability and reliable transportation to respond to accompaniment requests as we receive them. These requests may entail accompaniment to either immigration courthouse hearings or ICE check-ins. Volunteers without access to their own vehicles are still welcome to join. 

Immigrant accompaniment requires you to use both Signal and Whatsapp messaging applications for secure and effective correspondence. 

NMILC Accompaniment Volunteers must avoid engaging with ICE officers or other authorities while accompanying clients/community members; volunteers in this role must prioritize the wellbeing of the immigrant and therefore avoid agitating any agents present. While on-the-ground protest is an important aspect of the immigrant rights movement, volunteers in this role must not participate in such actions while actively engaging in accompaniment. 

Volunteers are expected to share and maintain your own boundaries around levels of social or emotional support you are willing to provide. 

Volunteers are asked to attend recurring accompaniment trainings to stay up to date on emergent needs or changes within the program, as well as participate in continued learning and political education.

Volunteer responsibilities/duties:

Accompaniment is a form of community and solidarity. Volunteers observe, support, and empower participants during interactions with institutions, helping ensure transparency, safety and respect while centering the participants voice and choices. This involves:

Moral/Social Support: Train to build empathy and prioritize impacted people's safety, interests, and well-being always.  

Preparedness: Complete a family preparedness workbook with the accompaniment client. Think through every stage of the work, before/during/after an in-person accompaniment, considering risks of the non-citizen, the volunteers, and the data involved. 

 Documentation 

Before appointment- Advance emergency family preparedness planning. 

At the appointment-Incident Reporting, observer, support the participant emotionally 

Follow Up: Advocacy strategy, Assessment of needs, Mutual aid (within capacity)

All volunteers are required to complete NMILC's volunteer onboarding protocols, starting with completing this form: https://www.nmilc.org/volunteer-inquiry-form

NMILC's mission is to advance justice and equity by empowering low-income immigrant communities through collaborative legal services, advocacy, and education. We are the main immigration legal service provider in the state of NM who provide all free legal services for the full spectrum of humanitarian-based immigration relief.

Helpline Volunteers will further NMILC’s mission by providing preliminary call screening services to help triage callers’ needs, thereby expanding legal representatives’ capacity to reach a broader population of community members in need of immigration legal services. Through this work, Helpline Volunteers play an integral role in furthering NMILC’s vision of a more just New Mexico for all of us.

Volunteer eligibility/expectations:

This program is intended for experienced and vetted volunteers with the demonstrated cultural awareness and commitment to centering the safety, agency, and well-being of immigrants. 

Volunteers in this role are required to speak Spanish and English fluently. 

Ideally, volunteers will have some customer service and/or database experience.

Volunteers will be asked to commit to phone line triage shifts of 1-4 hours/week, on a consistent weekly basis. 

Volunteers are asked to commit to 6-months of weekly volunteer shifts. 

Volunteer responsibilities/duties:

During weekly Helpine Volunteer shifts, the volunteer will answer calls through NMILC’s DialPad phone system to triage callers’ needs, record detailed notes in NMILC’s case management database, and refer callers to appropriate resources as needed. 

Volunteers are not expected to have in-depth legal knowledge and must not provide legal advice, as this would be considered unauthorized practice of law. 

Required training/onboarding: 

Helpline Volunteers will be trained through a combination of virtual Zoom trainings and required shadowing.  Volunteers will be asked to commit to 10-15 hours of training and shadowing prior to beginning volunteer shifts.

All volunteers are required to complete NMILC’s volunteer onboarding process, which includes signing a Confidentiality and Conduct Agreement, Interacting with Participating Minors Policy, and a Communications Agreement.

You will not be considered an active volunteer in this role until our staff receive confirmation from you that you have completed all of the above onboarding steps.

Volunteers will check out one NMILC laptop and headset to use for the duration of volunteering with NMILC. Volunteers are required to use this device for confidentiality and compliance purposes.   

Time commitment/expected hours of service: ~1-4 hours/week (opportunity for more if desired), requested commitment of 6-months.

All volunteers are required to complete NMILC's volunteer onboarding protocols, starting with completing this form: https://www.nmilc.org/volunteer-inquiry-form

Volunteers support NMILC's Deportation Defense team who make biweekly visits to Cibola County Corrections Center. Volunteers must have all-day availability on the day of scheduled visits (usually Thursdays or Fridays) and must complete volunteer onboarding/detention volunteer training. Volunteers must be fluent in Spanish and English. Our programs at the Cibola County Corrections Centers take place approximately twice each month.  We provide pro se assistance, consultations, screenings, and legal presentations to folks in detention.  Non-attorney volunteers support this program by giving Know Your Rights presentations, helping applicants fill out forms, and providing logistical support. 

All volunteers are required to complete NMILC's volunteer onboarding protocols, starting with completing this form: https://www.nmilc.org/volunteer-inquiry-form

NMILC's Wednesday Workshops are walk-in workshops where volunteers support with intakes and forms preparation for community members seeking assistance with their pro se applications for citizenship, residency renewals, or DACA renewals. Volunteers must speak Spanish. Training is provided. This workshop takes place at El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos (Address: 714 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102) from 1-5:00 PM on the 1st and/or 3rd Wednesday of each month.

Volunteer attorneys and other legal professionals increase our capacity by taking on cases, providing technical assistance, and sharing their expertise. When an attorney agrees to take on a case with NMILC, the relationship does not end there. We provide ongoing technical assistance, mentorship, and language support for pro bono cases. NMILC’s malpractice insurance covers attorneys providing pro bono legal support with us. Pro bono attorneys and legal professionals help with a variety of case types:

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) is a status available to some young people and provides a path to lawful permanent residence (a “green card”) for that child. In order to be eligible for SIJS, the child must be subject to a predicate order from a state court in which the court finds that the child has been abandoned, abused, or neglected by one or both parents.

We rely on assistance from pro bono attorneys who are willing to represent the petitioner in state court proceedings. These cases most often include sole custody, dissolution of marriage, kinship/guardianship, and emancipation proceedings. Typically, these are default cases, and they do not require a hearing. We provide support, templates, and step-by-step instructions to help you, and no family law experience is required. Each case takes between 10 and 30 hours over the course of a few months, on average.

Our programs at the Cibola/Torrance Detention Centers take place approximately once each month. We provide pro se assistance, consultations, screenings, and legal presentations to folks in detention. Non-attorney volunteers support this program by giving presentations, helping applicants fill out forms, and providing logistical support. This is a full-day commitment, usually on a weekday.

Volunteers must also be fluent in Spanish or a priority language.

Pro Bono attorneys and non-attorney volunteers work with pro se asylum applicants to complete their paperwork for their asylum cases. Roles at the asylum workshop include doing client intakes (for volunteers with previous experience/training), helping manage the flow of the workshop, assisting with childcare for clients, doing on-site translations. These workshops occur approximately once per month in-person.

All volunteers will be trained on I-589 forms prep and Asylum 101 prior to volunteering. We require volunteers for the asylum workshop to be fluent in Spanish and willing to be flexible with your role.

In conjunction with other community organizations, NMILC is developing a network of attorneys with a wide range of expertise whose work intersects with issues of importance to immigrants. These attorneys could act as a resource for other attorneys or provide consultations to community members as needed.

We are particularly looking for people who can advise on employment law, powers of attorney and other life-planning documents in case of deportation, and civil rights. Please let us know if you have expertise in another area of the law and you are willing to share your knowledge pro bono for NMILC clients.