Houston Immigration Assistance Hotline Reports Brisk Business

HOUSTON, TX — President Trump's executive orders concerning travel and entry to the U.S. have spread chaos and confusion, not to mention fear, among immigrant groups in America, and though the orders have been widely reported on and discussed in various venues, undocumented individuals still have lots of questions.

Enter the Texas Immigrant Rights Hotline, the creation of various Houston-based non-profit organizations. The hotline is designed to field questions and concerns about immigration law in the U.S., and was set up with assistance from law firm Vinson & Elkins.

"The majority of the calls that we’re getting are from folks who do not have permanent legal status, who are undocumented, who are concerned about how to ensure that their family doesn’t get torn apart," Kate Vickery executive director of the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, told KUHF. "And a lot of families who are mixed status, perhaps undocumented parents of U.S. citizen children, those families have a lot of concerns right now about how to ensure that their children will be protected and not end up in CPS custody should their parents be deported."

The Texas Immigrant Rights Hotline, which began operating on February 22, has fielded more than 500 calls since then, and some came from as far away as Florida and Los Angeles. In addition to questions from people without legal status in the U.S., naturalized citizens and legal residents are consulting the hotline's volunteer workers.

The hotline is manned by attorneys and representatives of the Justice Department's Board of Immigration Appeals, as well as by law students, and can be reached by calling 1-888-507-2970. If you wish to volunteer your services to the hotline, click here for the Houston Volunteer Lawyer's website.

— Image courtesy ailatexas.org