Citizenship Day began with AILA

Seattle-based immigration attorney Paul Soreff saw a need in the immigrant community and, with other devoted advocates, stepped up to meet it. In 2000, Congress passed a law that provided a very short period of time for undocumented immigrants to apply for residency through a special provision under the law (245i). In response, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) quickly organized a campaign to alert the community of this opportunity. Over 50% of AILA members turned out along with volunteers from other community organizations to hold seven informational sessions, followed by seven workshops to help assist clients in applying for the 245i benefit.

This campaign, in turn, provided a model for Citizenship Day – where attorneys volunteer a limited amount of time providing valuable client services without committing to taking on a case that could last months or years.

In 2005, four years after the successful 245i campaign, the AILA Probono Citizenship Day Subcommittee headed up by Paul, Janet Gwilym, Kinza Schuyler, and Andrea Crumpler, rolled out Washington State’s first Citizenship Day. The first citizenship day event was held in 12 locations throughout Washington on a single day. There was a tremendous community response to this much-needed service.

After this first Citizenship Day, Paul – then as AILA Washington chapter chair – presented the idea to AILA National. The other chapter chairs responded favorably to “Citizenship in a Box” – the forms, procedures, and resources which Washington’s Citizenship Day founders created – and so the first national AILA citizenship day event was born with 22 chapters participating. The Washington AILA Chapter (WA AILA), along with other volunteer attorneys, paralegals, and social service providers, helped create an event that is now replicated across the nation. Today, Citizenship Day is hosted by 35 AILA chapters throughout the country.

In 2009, WA AILA partnered with OneAmerica to organize Citizenship Days across the state. Together, WA AILA and OneAmerica, through its Washington New Americans program, have expanded Citizenship Day, increasing the numbers of events taking place every year and dramatically increasing the number of people served. OneAmerica introduced an innovative ethnic media campaign utilizing multilingual ads in eight different languages on buses, ethnic newspapers, radio, and television. This campaign has reached over 15 million households in Washington State, educating them on the importance of citizenship.

Today, WA AILA continues to partner with OneAmerica to coordinate nine Citizenship Day events held in three different cities per year. Citizenship Day has proven to be a good way to develop the pro bono spirit among attorneys and unite them with other community volunteers in a common mission to help our immigrant community.

Thank you to AILA and Paul Soreff for helping to meet this need in our community!