My name is Ade, and I am an immigrant from Mexico. I arrived in the US with my family when I was 5 years old, and I have worked for everything that I have ever since. One of my greatest struggles since arriving has been gaining citizenship in this country. I am a Latina woman looking for support towards my next immigration lawyer’s fees.

When I was a teenager, my mother, twin sister, and I would meet with a lawyer outside of San Francisco. This lawyer claimed to be helping us, but over time we noticed that he would make promises he could not keep. Not only did he ask for cash only, but he also would not provide any closure on our citizenship case. He continuously promised that our case was “close” to being resolved, but nothing would ever happen. He would just continue to demand cash payments from us, which ended up as most of what we had made up to that point. We never reached out to authorities about his odd behavior out of fear of deportation, and as we all know, authorities aren’t very helpful with immigrants & minorities.

In June of 2022, I was called by a private investigator who was trying to arrest the lawyer that was supposedly “helping” us. Instead of helping us, he was using that money fraudulently, not contributing to our case or any other families’ cases. He was committing illegal acts by using that money for his own leisure and pleasure. This meant that my family’s citizenship case was behind by 4 years, and that we had spent thousands of dollars on lawyer fees that we would never see again because of his illegal crimes.

I have worked from the time I was 14 to now trying to pay every penny I could to see my family gain citizenship and to work towards a life that I want. All of that has taken a major hit because this lawyer did not take our lives seriously.

My family and I are now talking to new potential lawyers, and I have found one for myself. Given the fact that I work in the healthcare industry, I do not make a lot of money and am struggling to make ends meet without a full college degree. My family and I are trying to stay hopeful and gain access to citizenship in the United States, but the high costs of these fees make it difficult to see it as a possibility. I am hopeful that you all can help me get the amount needed to pay for a major part of my lawyer fees of over $4,000, as I am not able to cover them myself with what I or my significant other have. I need to place the deposit before the end of October so that I can get the process moving, as this typically takes 10-12 months to process. It is only after that point that I can apply for my citizenship. If you are interested in helping me reach my goal, please donate to my important cause to try to have the necessary amount to proceed with my case. Thank you so much for your consideration and helping a little girl achieve her dream here!