Michigan Immigrant Rights Center

Michigan Nightlight: In your view, what makes your program innovative, effective or remarkable?
Michigan Immigrant Rights Center Supervising Attorney Susan Reed: We created the program because we saw a need to help all the service providers and advocates, in particular those doing farmworker advocacy, and a need for immigrant advocates to be able to speak with one voice. I saw a need to have a resource center that could help us all tell our stories and tell the stories of our clients. We don’t come at this work from a political place, we come at from telling the stories of our clients and lifting up the experiences they have had. We saw a need to develop a network of pro bono volunteers who could work on immigrant rights. The programs offered by government are stressed, and we saw a need to involve people who are

I think the best lesson has been the importance of real collaboration, deep collaboration -- not just sticking two logos on an event, but taking the time to develop real, meaningful collaborations in our avenue of advocacy.

corporate counsel or corporate lawyers in helping individuals. They often don’t get to work with just one person and know they can really change their life. It’s been really successful.
 
What was the best lesson learned in the past year?
I would say the best lessons are just the power of true collaboration. It’s easy to think if I have been doing this for 10 years I know all the perspectives, but I learn so much every day. There’s always some new issue facing the families and the advocates, and facing our clients. It’s so great when you can have a true collaboration. As an example, we have a great relationship with the Hispanic Center at WMU. We just really know the way they work and work well with them. I think the best lesson has been the importance of real collaboration, deep collaboration -- not just sticking two logos on an event, but taking the time to develop real, meaningful collaborations in our avenue of advocacy.
 
What was the hardest lesson learned in the past year?
I feel like we learn hard lessons every day about the limits of the remedies that our clients really have. They’re up against some very hard realities in their life. There are some really good things we can do to help stabilize their immigration status or their children’s right to receive public benefits despite their parents’ immigration status. We are optimistic, and we know we’re skilled. We often can jump in and make thing right, but can I think of a lot of cases where we have learned hard lessons about the limits.
 
What really differentiates this program?
I don’t think there is another program exactly like ours. We just created it in 2009, coming from a farmworker advocacy place because it was something we wanted. Everything we do for our program comes from the place of things experienced by the individuals and families we serve. It comes from that place of service -- we’re not taking marching orders from some kind of

We’re inspired by our clients. Our clients are survivors, people who have self-selected to seek a better future in spite of the huge risks they face.

outside entity. We’re not exclusively a policy think tank. We’re closely networked with advocates who work in communities every day, and we let that guide the services we have. We’re really open and really able to hear from our communities on what is going on and what they are seeing. This allows us to have a very Michigan-centric focus to our immigration work. For example, we’re having a real problem here with access to public benefits for U.S. citizens who are children of immigrants. It allows us to address those federal issues right here, and that’s what makes us the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.
 
What are the keys to success for your program?
Again, I think I’d go back to really listening to community advocates and our community members, listening to the feedback we’re getting listening to stories being shared. There are many times we thought we can’t do anything about an issue because we would be spinning our wheels, and our advocates come back and say no, you have to do this -- and we have found that case and can make a change in a systemic way. I think it’s being caring and committed to our relationships with our advocates across the state.
 
What are people in your program most inspired by? 
We’re inspired by our clients. Our clients are survivors, people who have self-selected to seek a better future in spite of the huge risks they face. They see so many unknowns, but they have decided that, typically for their children, they need to make a radical change, take a huge leap and make that choice to emigrate and to migrate. We serve a lot of survivors of domestic violence who have been through impossible situations, and they continue to try, they continue to move forward. That’s inspiring every day. Our clients are people who wait or hope for something to be better and who took huge risks to come here, or our refugee clients who had no choice but have absolutely huge survival skills to be able to make that journey.