Optimism in a Time of Fear
A local volunteer attorney is taking what he sees and acting on it to help immigrants. Along the way, he's also inspiring the next generation of civil rights and immigration workers.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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The Executive Order Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program sent shockwaves through the faith-based world this week. It suspends for 90 days the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which is largely administered through faith-based organizations like Church World Services and Lutheran Community Services using federal dollars.
It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to stanch immigration into the U.S.
For Bill Botts, this move is just another swing in the pendulum that he’s observed as an attorney serving the most-marginalized people in our society.
“This is nothing new,” he told the Advance. “The pendulum swing is often determined by economics.”
A retired legal aid attorney of 40 years, Botts has volunteered as an immigration attorney since 2016 with Lucha Ministries. This nonprofit organization “provides low-cost legal representation to eligible individuals for many basic immigration processes,” according to its website. And while the organization is small, it is able to continue its work because of a lesson that Botts learned decades ago — when serving vulnerable communities in politically charged environments, distance from federal dollars can be a blessing.
In 2000, Botts was director of Rappahannock Legal Services when he was informed that he would not be allowed to represent undocumented individuals with federal funding.
“Our first response,” he told the Advance, “was to find other funding. The counterpunch was that if you have any federal dollars, it taints all funding sources. So we gave up on all federal dollars. $240,000 of a $900,000 budget.”
It was a shock to the organization, but Botts was committed to supporting immigrants and knew that dependence on federal dollars was not a long-term strategy for survival.
“We went to local organizations, churches, and governments to request extra funds to represent the undocumented,” he said. And one of the first places he went was to Spotsylvania County.
According to Botts, it was the sheriff at the time who convinced the Board of Supervisors to support the work.
“We don’t know what to do with them,” Botts remembers the sheriff saying. “If Botts thinks he can do something with the community, give him the money.”
That started a drive to dependence on local, private support. It took five years for Botts to regain the funding that was lost, but ultimately he left the organization in a stronger position.
Lucha Ministries continues this tradition, taking no federal dollars for its work.
“We’re tiny,” said Botts, “which is our liability. But we’re unencumbered by federal grants.”
Rising to a Generational Challenge
Today, Lucha Ministries is in high demand, as the push to deport undocumented people ramps up.
“We have increased requests for advice from the community — local churches, people, other organizations,” said Botts.
Local meetings called to inform immigrants of their rights, and how they should prepare were Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show up at their door, have drawn relatively large numbers.
So, too, meetings of concerned citizens about what is happening.
“The MLK prayer breakfast on inauguration day,” he said, “had 500 people. At Day for All People in Richmond they had 400 people there. Neither group had any numbers approaching that before.”
And a recent meeting at the University of Mary Washington where Botts spoke found him talking with several students who, following the event, were seriously thinking about making civil rights and immigration law their life’s work.
The reason for the response, he contends, is fairly simple. “People want to do something, and they’re trying to figure out what to do.” And this fuels Bott’s optimism.
However, he’s not naive about the challenges before him.
Currently, he says, ICE’s position in our region is one of “presence but not detention.”
However, he said, “It’s coming.”
Understanding New Challenges
While crackdowns on immigrants may be cyclical, there are new challenges that have arisen in the current environment.
“It’s been longstanding government policy that immigration enforcement would not occur in sensitive or safe spaces,” said Botts. This includes churches, schools, courthouses, and medical places. “The rationale,” Botts said, “is you don’t want immigrants to be discouraged from going to the courts seeking protection. You don’t want people not sending their kids to school.”
That protection is now in danger, and so traditional safe spaces are trying to understand the new policies.
Botts points to a number of services that people show up to that in past were “safe,” but now may not be. “People come” to school or the doctor or to get food, and “all of a sudden they’re vulnerable.”
One way to deal with this has been to clearly designate private and public entrances. According to Botts, private entrances cannot be violated without the appropriate judicial warrant. Public entrances are places where ICE may freely come in, but they must still have a judicial warrant to enter private spaces within the building.
Botts and others are also tendering advice for what people should be doing to protect themselves.
“There’s a lot of profiling” that goes on, said Botts, so he’s advising people to have their documents on their person at all times. “Having the card is responsive” to profiling, which may lead to a person being detained if they can’t produce their documents.
Mixed-status families are another challenge. “We’re asking them to be aware of power of attorney and standby guardianship.” This way, if some members of the family are deported, the family members left behind have people who can care for them.
Legal Aid Works, he noted, is working to offer training for free on how to fill out that paperwork.
The Work Being Done
Lucha Ministries handles several types of cases involving immigrants, such as work permits and citizenship cases. It also handles administrative cases — Green Card, Temporary Protected Status, DACA Renewals. However, it does not handle asylum cases.
Legal Aid Works, now run by Ann Kloeckner who succeeded Botts, also handles some immigration cases, but the cases Kloeckner’s group takes on are limited to U Visa cases.
U Visas are for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking who are deemed helpful to law enforcement in prosecuting criminals.
The complexity of the immigration system is a reminder that blanket solutions to the issues we have to confront are not likely to yield the desired results.
Botts argues that the move to deport all undocumented people “is just not smart politically, logistically.”
The reason, as Botts learned during his time in Florida, is that “immigrants are both expendable,” which makes them an easy target for political causes, “and a necessity.”
Living Out Your Values
Botts says that this moment is “an opportunity and challenge for the churches to live out what they believe. What does their faith teach about serving the vulnerable. It’s no longer an intellectual discussion — it’s real.”
Yet, he’s confident that churches and others will rise to that occasion.
Botts’ optimism is built on two things. The first is how he reads the political tea leaves: “This type of mass deportation effort is a poor strategy that is not smart and will undercut strategic enforcement,” he says.
However, it’s also built on experience with real people. As people become more aware of the situation of immigrants on the ground, he says, the conversation will ultimately change.
“Since 2000,” Botts said, “my wife and I have been on many overseas mission trips, many … to Guatemala. Our experience is based on seeing what they’re experiencing, knowing that they want to stay in their countries but have no choice but to flee.”
He’s also seen firsthand how confronting that reality changes people.
When he worked at Legal Aid Works, Botts “would intentionally recruit from both conservative and liberal law schools,” he said. What he observed is that conservative attorneys, as they became aware of the situations of the people they were working with, would become “occupational liberals.”
“You might be a conservative,” he said, “but confronting the reality is what creates the occupational liberal.”
He also knows that a willingness to help can change perspectives and lives.
“In November, my wife and I went to Spruce Pines, North Carolina,” he said, “where people are 80% Trump supporters.”
They went there as a part of UMCOR (a United Methodist relief agency) wearing green UMCOR shirts. “Spruce Pines has a town hall that’s tiny,” he recalled, “but there are huge churches. The churches are the community. They may be conservative, but they’re welcoming of those who come to help.”
Perhaps most encouraging is what he experienced at a recent event held at the University of Mary Washington. There, following a forum on immigration issues, Botts said that he had multiple students approaching him ready to do the hard work of civil rights and immigration law and of being public school teachers.
“We have to project humanity and an open hand,” Botts said.
And the best way to do that is to “join a group.” That’s the advice that was given to students at UMW.
Over a 40-year career, Botts has seen repeatedly how people rise to challenges. He’s confident that will happen again.
It’s just a matter of wedding what we see, to action.
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