keyplay over NDToday

Adela wants to see her children again. T h a t is why the 5 0 -y e a r -o ld El Salvadoran has come to the Notre Dame Legal Aid Clinic lor help filing for perma­ nent residency in the U.S. It is why she is sitting across the table from third-year law student Kira Lodge, telling someone she's never met before about her family and her life. Tears run down A d d a 's face as she talks about her two adult children who have died in HI Salvador since she came to the United States 10 years ago. She talks lovingly of the other two, whom she hopes to see aga in som eday . Adela, whose name has been changed because her case is still pending, was g ran ted political asylum last year by the Seventh Circuit Court in Chicago, and now the Bristol. Ind., resident is beginning the two-year application process for perm a­ nent U.S. residence. For more than a half-hour, Adela and Lodge sit at tha t table, going over the forms the El Salvadoran must fill out to become an American — discussing her case in Spanish, the only language Adela knows well. This mother is one of dozens of immi­ grants who comes to the Legal Aid Clinic from all over Michiana each Tuesday and Thursday seeking help in navigating this country's immigration system. And Lodge is one of the student interns who gives them that help, free of charge. In return, she and other in terns gain a learning ex p e r ie n c e th a t m any call the most important of their law school careers. The courses taught through the Legal Aid Clinic are not required for a Notre Dame law degree, nor do they focus on legal theory or historic decisions. But Legal Aid Immigration Clinic I and II do provide students who are interested in this growing field of law an opportunity to see f irs thand w ha t im m igration is all about. And, along with the other classes PETER RICHARDSO N/The O bserver