Immigration and Trafficking Staff Attorney

POSITION:  Farmworker Legal Services (FLS), a non-profit law office, is seeking a bilingual (Spanish/English) staff attorney to join its dynamic and committed team working alongside agricultural workers and community partners to provide civil legal services to farmworker and animal production workers throughout Michigan. The position will have an emphasis on farmworkers’ trafficking and immigration cases—such as filing T or U-visa applications for victims of employment-based crimes and exploitative schemes involving the H-2A visa program—and will include significant collaboration with local and national community partners engaged in anti-trafficking work. This position is union supported and ideally will be based in our Kalamazoo office with a flexible remote work schedule option.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Applicants must be licensed to practice law in Michigan, qualify to be admitted by waiver, or able to take the next available bar exam in Michigan.
• Ability to effectively communicate, orally and in writing, in both English and Spanish.
• Demonstrated commitment to low-income individuals, farmworkers, immigrants, or victims of crime through lived or mission-aligned experiences.
• Willingness to occasionally work a flexible schedule that may include travel and evening or weekend outreach.
• Demonstrated success working effectively in teams and independently to meet multiple deadlines.
• Excellent communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
  
  

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience navigating the U.S. immigration system.
• Experience working with victims of crime, immigrants, and agricultural workers.
• Working knowledge of labor-based immigration relief, such as deferred action, continued presence, U-Visas, T-Visas, and H-2 visas.
• Proficiency in Haitian Creole or indigenous languages native to Mexico or Central America.
• Familiarity with or interest in learning employment and labor law as it relates to immigration relief, farmworker advocacy, or legal services.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM: Farmworker Legal Services (FLS) is a growing and nationally recognized non-profit law office and the statewide division of the Michigan Advocacy Program (MAP) that fights for justice and dignity alongside the farmworker community through our systemic, multi-forum community engagement and direct legal representation of farmworkers in their civil legal matters. FLS currently has 10 permanent staff and 8 summer seasonal advocates based out of our Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Ypsilanti (Ann Arbor area) offices. FLS provides a full range of civil legal services to Michigan’s eligible population of farmworkers and their dependents and prioritize cases including wage theft, trafficking, discrimination, sexual harassment, workplace health and safety, housing, civil rights, and labor-based immigration relief.

MAP works to advance the safety, independence, and economic stability of those most affected by poverty, racism, and other structurally oppressive systems by increasing access to justice and working for systemic solutions. MAP has provided civil legal aid for those unable to afford an attorney for more than 50 years, serving 13 counties through five legal aid offices as well as the statewide program that serves farmworkers (Farmworker Legal Services). MAP has a staff of about 220 people in offices in Battle Creek, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Monroe, and Ypsilanti. Visit www.miadvocacy.org and www.farmworkerlaw.org for more information.

BENEFITS: Salary starts at $63,672 and increases based on years of relevant experience.  MAP offers a generous benefits package, including life, short and long term disability, health, vision, dental, fully funded deductibles, and flexible spending accounts. If an applicant does not require health benefits, they can take an annual $1,500 payout in addition to the base salary paid over the year. MAP also has a generous leave policy allowing staff to accrue over 3 weeks paid vacation the first year in addition to 15 paid holidays, as well as a 401K retirement plan, including employer-match for eligible staff after 6 months of employment. MAP is a unionized program and a qualifying employer for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Kalamazoo is a college town in southwest Michigan with its own airport, lakes, nature preserves, and nightlife. It also is located only 35 miles east of Lake Michigan, 50 miles from Grand Rapids, and 2 hours from both Chicago and Detroit. Kalamazoo offers the Kalamazoo Promise (an independent scholarship program that provides students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools up to up to 100% tuition for post-secondary education).

TO APPLY: Please complete this application and submit your resume and cover letter. You can also access the application by copying and pasting the following web address into your browser: https://miadvocacy.bamboohr.com/careers/200. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

The Michigan Advocacy Program is an equal opportunity employer, committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.