Centro Presente: Giving Refugees a Headstart

Juan, a 20-year-old refugee from El Salvador, fled his country's violence last year after his older brother was killed by a rebel group. After a series of stops along the escape route from his country--including an arrest by immigration authorities in Texas--Juan arrived in Cambridge with his mother and sister.

Today the three live in a rented room, and their landlord threatens to report them to immigration authorities every time they try to resist his demands for higher rent.

More than 10,000 Central Americans have sought refuge in the Boston area in the last five years, and many of them encounter obstacles similar to those Juan faces. One place for them to go when they need help is a three-floor building in Central Square--Centro Presente. With the help of about 10 Harvard students, the Centro has helped provide these people with legal and social services during its four years as a local center for the needs of Central American refugees in New England.

Centro Presente helps refugees adjust to life in the U.S., primarily educating the aliens about immigration procedures and, if necessary, representing them at Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) hearings. The non-profit group is staffed by attorneys and other trained volunteers, including Harvard students.

Paralegal System

Most Harvard students who work at the center participate in a program which enables them to act as legal counselors in handling immigration cases. Centro Presente is accredited by INS to supervise such activities, and students who hold these positions, called paralegals, are required to know Spanish fluently and to work at least 10 hours a week for one academic year.

"When someone walks in the door, they get an appointment with a paralegal. At the first meeting, we determine if they fear going back to their country, and if they do, they can petition for political asylum. To do this, you have to show well-founded fear," says Eric E. Thompson '87, who is in his third year as a Centro Presente paralegal.

"We orient people as to what the legal process is in this country, and we assist them in making a decision about what they want," says Emilie J. Yozell, the attorney who operates the legal services at Centro Presente. "The paralegals do all of the intake, screening, case preparation, and they advise people of their legal rights. The documentation [department] also helps prepare the cases. They do research to find evidence of human rights violations."

The documentation department, which "tries to give credibility to cases and affidavits," according to Kimberly M. Sanchez '86, coordinator of documentation, does not require that volunteers know Spanish.

Although only 3 percent of Central American refugees in the U.S. are eventually granted asylum, no one from Centro Presente has ever been deported, Thompson says. The U.S. government refuses to grant these exiles asylum on the grounds that they travel north for economic rather than political reasons. But Jennifer L. Gordon '87, a paralegal at Centro Presente, says she disagrees with the government's deportations. "In all the cases I've seen, initially some people will say that they're here just because they can't make enough money, but when you talk to them more, and they trust you, you find out that what they're really running away from is fear of persecution by the conflicting forces in their countries."

"It's common knowledge that the U.S., because of its own economic interests and show of power, controls governments in Central America," says Sister Rosemarie Cummins, founder of the organization. Cummins, says that it would be contradictory for the American government to grant political asylum to people who who have fled the very countries America supports.

Expanding Services

Since 1982, the center has grown from a small group of people whose services were mostly limited to immigration procedures to a staff of nearly 60, mostly volunteers, which now also provides social and educational programs. The social services program assists refugees in finding housing, employment, medical service and provides moral support as they adjust to a new life in the Boston area.

A literacy program works to lower the high illiteracy rate of the refugees. With almost 50 percent of the immigrants unable to read or write in their own language, literacy is important in the effort to teach them English, according to Corey A. Miller '89, who will teach Spanish at the center this year.

"I wanted to practice my Spanish, and because of all the problems [the refugees have] it is worth helping these people; the government doesn't help them, and teaching is fun," Miller says.

A women's program at the center helps women and their families obtain health care, child care, family planning and Medicaid for children born in the U.S. There is also a Safe Home program which uses stipends to place women and their chidren with Hispanic families for one month, long enough for the women to find employment, says Annette Diaz, coordinator of the women's program.

"These women are generally very poor people because they can't find jobs. I looked for places which would take children in for little money," says Annie F. Pforzheimer '86 about her volunteer work at Centro Presente last summer.

Centro Presente has also been participating in activities "to change the basic structures which are at the root of unjust immigration laws," Cummins says. Centro workers have targeted American foreign policy in Central American countries and domestic immigration laws which comply with these policies as their main problems, she says.

As part of their effort to change the laws, the center has joined several class action suits intended to change current immigration policies on local, state and national levels. Recently, in the case Centro Presente vs. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the center succeeded inestablishing that refugees who were arrested andheld in the local detention center have the rightto see visitors, including legal representatives."Now, legal services have open access toplaintiffs," Yozell says.

Harvard Role

Students from Harvard have volunteered atCentro Presente in previous years, but this is thefirst year that the center has actually made aneffort to reach out to college students. InSeptember, Gordon, the Harvard-Centro liaison, hada meeting for people who responded to postersasking for bilingual students who speak Spanish.

"At first, many people who go to work at CentroPresente feel lost because there are so manypeople working there, and it can be hard tounderstand where you fit in; and that is why I'macting as a student liaison between Harvard andCentro Presente," Gordon says.

Although most positions for students at thecenter are on a volunteer basis, two Harvardstudents currently receive money from federal andstate student employment programs for their workat Centro Presente.

Most Harvard students who volunteer at thecenter, like Brad P. Miller '88, say they find theCentro Presente experience valuable. "I'm tryingto imagine myself as a Central American refugeecoming here and knowing close to nothing about thecountry.