TIRN

 

 

Since May 2008, the TU College of Law Legal Clinic, with the generous support of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, has provided expanded legal services to the Tulsa immigrant community through the Tulsa Immigrant Resource Network (TIRN). 

TIRN is a service oriented program, designed to reach broadly to many members of the non-citizen community in the Kendall-Whittier neighborhood, and beyond.   TIRN complements the work of the Immigrant Rights Project, a clinical education program for second and third year students of College of Law, by focusing its efforts on three primary goals: 

1) Creating and training a network of local attorneys to provide pro bono representation to vulnerable immigrants; 

2) Educating the community, especially the immigrant community, on legal rights and immigration remedies; and

3) Offering direct representation to immigrants, including those in removal proceedings, in the Kendall-Whittier and surrounding neighborhoods.

 

TIRN is working to meet these goals through the following activities:

Providing legal representation in immigration matters to vulnerable immigrants in the Tulsa community;

Providing continuing legal education programs on immigration law and practice to the private bar of Tulsa as part of the pro bono attorney network;

Coordination with community organizations in providing training and education to their staff and their immigrant clients on legal immigration issues;

Training and education to domestic violence victim advocates on available legal immigration status for immigrant victims of domestic violence;

Advanced legal training and technical assistance to Tulsa non-profit immigration service providers on legal and procedural issues involved in representing immigrants; and

Conducting  Know Your Rights presentations to the immigrant detained population at the Tulsa County Jail, which is currently one of only two detention facilities used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in all of Oklahoma.