Community Legal Aid aims to help immigrant victims
YOUNGSTOWN
Every year, countless immigrants — many unreported — become victims of sexual assault, human trafficking as well as physical and sexual abuse. That’s what 260 people who attended an event Thursday hoped to help prevent.
Community Legal Aid, a non-profit law firm serving the legal needs of low-income individuals in central Northeast Ohio, hosted the “Helping Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking Victims: Holding their Abusers Accountable” event in Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.
Since the 1990s, keynote speaker Leslye Orloff has spent her legal career advocating for the protection and prevention of immigrants attacked and controlled by abusive bosses, spouses and criminals who often use immigration and deportation laws against them.
After seeing her speak at a national training session, some staff at Community Legal Aid wanted her to visit Youngstown to help educate the community how to use the law to protect immigrants.
“We do enough cases for immigrants that it would certainly change the way we practice for the immigrants we have, and we’re hoping to expand our reach into the immigrant victim community so we can have a greater impact in that area,” said Steven McGarrity, Community Legal Aid associate director.
Read more on the issue in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.