Nightclub's outreach night helps untangle immigration red tape

By Will Kilburn, Globe Correspondent, 9/14/2003

It's never completely quiet in Allston, but on Monday nights it gets close: Students are back to their studies, workers are back to work, and for the most part Rock City stops rocking until the next weekend begins -- around Wednesday or so.

You'd think this would make for a slow night at the Kells, a restaurant and nightclub on Brighton Avenue, but it doesn't. Every table in the front room is full, the patrons enjoying the last breezes of summer through the wide-open windows. But tonight, nobody's drinking, and nobody's eating. Instead of a brown pint of porter and a burger, the focus is on green questionnaires and, maybe, a new life. This is the Irish Immigration Center's monthly outreach night, which tonight has drawn three dozen people from 14 countries, all trying to find out how they and their loved ones can come to the United States and stay for good.

''The goal is to outreach into the community in a way that we meet people where they are, not coming down to a formal office downtown," said Sheila Gleeson, director of immigration services at the center, who emigrated to the Boston area from County Kildare in Ireland in the 1980s with her husband and baby daughter. She said that while some people assume the outreach nights are an Irish-only event, that's never been the case.

''We've always been open to everybody," she said. ''We have a very strong cross-cultural component to our mission as an immigration center, so as well as helping people get their immigration status straightened out, we also want people to mix in and to learn to enjoy the rich, multicultural society that is the US"

Key to that mission are immigration lawyers who volunteer their services. Seated at small tables on the dance floor at the back of the club, they meet clients one by one, answer questions, and offer their advice on what to do next, sometimes staying at the club until after midnight.

''We do a lot of triage here -- just too many people show up. Ten, 20 minutes maximum per person," said Eoin Reilly of Roslindale, an attorney at Iandoli and Associates in the South End. ''I've had questions ranging from real hardcore political asylum issues with lots of torture, lots of abuse, really heart-wrenching stuff, all the way to scholars from Harvard University who are so brilliant at what they do, they can write their own ticket, and I tell them how to do it."

And while many hopeful immigrants seek help from people with similar roots, the Nebraska-born Reilly said that whatever their background, they need to realize that they're all in the same boat.

''Everybody has a lot more in common with each other, if they're not born here, than they do with us, as an American," he said. ''[We tell them,] don't compartmentalize yourself by nationality: You have a lot more in common with somebody from Suriname than you do with somebody from South Boston."

One thing they all face is increasingly tough and more aggressively enforced immigration laws, which were tightened by Congress in 1996 and again after Sept. 11, 2001. But even though the government has made it harder, people still want to stay, like Polly, a Boston University senior from Bulgaria who wants to begin her career in marketing in the United States, or Nadeem, a 30ish native of Pakistan who came to Boston as a college student and now works in financial services. He's flying home to get married next week and will then have to wait several years before his bride can join him here. (Many interviewed asked that their last names not be used.)

Then there's the story of Gerri Belguendouz, an administrative assistant from Dorchester, whose Algerian husband returned home a year ago rather than risk deportation. Now, she said, it's almost impossible to tell when -- or if -- he'll be allowed back.

''I'm just looking for answers, because the government just doesn't give us answers. I'm fighting for something that's legal, above board, and I'm just not getting anywhere" she said. ''One person can say one thing, and another says another thing, and unless you have people like this that can direct you to the proper way, you can have repercussions that are really ugly."

And really unnecessary, said her friend Marina Winkler, a native of Wexford in southeast Ireland, who sits at the bar as Belguendouz awaits her turn with the lawyers. Now living in Salem with her American husband, Winkler said her immigration process has been relatively smooth, but said that for many, it's far too complicated for good people who just want to have a chance.

''It sounds corny, but it's true -- when you get here, a lot of the immigrants do try and participate in the community, and we're a really good bonus to society," she said. ''So I think we should really scrutinize and make it easy for those who want to be here, because those who want to be here will make the difference."

Love is also an integral part of the tale of Belfast-born Bronagh Johnston, who came to the Boston area with her parents and brothers five years ago. Seated across from her is her boyfriend, Robert, a college senior in Belfast, with whom she's kept up an eight-year relationship. He was scheduled to fly home the next day after spending the summer in Boston on a work visa, and was trying to find a way to return after graduation.

''They're doing everything the right way. Robert is here as a visitor, he's not going to overstay his visa, and he's doing things the way we like to see people doing them," said Kieran O'Sullivan, an immigration counselor at the center He followed relatives to the United States from County Kerry. ''We hate to see people overstaying visas, because when people overstay and become unlawfully present, it often disqualifies them from a lot of the options."

Among those options: applying for a work visa through the usual channels; winning in an upcoming visa lottery; or marriage. Assuming, of course, that she says yes to him. Or vice versa.

''So that might be another option," said Bronagh, who looked at Robert warmly, ''But we're just trying to exhaust our other options before going for that."

For more information, contact the Irish Immigration Center at 617-542-7654 or www.iicenter.org.