Legal Services for Immigrant Trafficking Survivors

The proposed Legal Services for Human Trafficking Survivors Project will serve survivors of human trafficking in Southwest Washington State, including on the geographically isolated Olympic Peninsula. Funding will expand immigration legal services to survivors of trafficking, with an emphasis on labor trafficking. The project will create language access for indigenous language speakers from Mexico and Central America, who form a significant portion of the labor force in the targeted region. The three organizations to be funded under this request are culturally specific organizations. The lead organization is the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Washington’s largest statewide legal services organization providing comprehensive immigration legal services for low-income immigrants, including survivors of human trafficking. The subrecipient is Centro Integral Educativo Latino de Olympia (CIELO), an organization dedicated to meeting the human service needs of Latino residents of three rural counties with high risk for labor trafficking, specifically in non-timber forest harvesting, fishing/shellfish, and agriculture. Funding will also enable a contract with Pueblo Unido PDX, an organization dedicated to more effectively serving the immigration legal needs of indigenous language speakers. Funded services will include outreach to survivors of human trafficking, especially to indigenous language speakers and individuals working in non-timber forest harvesting jobs; know your rights seminars; legal consultation days; immigration legal services, including full direct representation; case management services for survivors; training for community organizations on recognizing signs of labor trafficking; and staff representation on statewide and regional coalitions that aim to stop human trafficking and to connect survivors to services.