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Meet Martha in Moorhead
Posted on Nov 30 2017
A lifelong Moorhead resident, Martha Castanon is not your stereotypical Scandinavian Minnesotan. Her parents, both seasonal farmworkers, met in Comstock, a small town south of Moorhead. Her father was born in Arizona and raised in Mexico; her mother was born in Mexico and became a U.S. citizen in 1992. Growing up, Martha joined her family working in the sugar beet fields of Minnesota, picking cucumbers in Wisconsin, and working in the onion and spinach fields of Texas.
Today, Martha’s work keeps her traveling – from Moorhead to Crookston, Perham to Park Rapids, circuit riding around northern Minnesota as a legal assistant working for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM).
“When I go long distances, I try to do general outreach in the area,” Martha says. That means “going out putting up flyers, going into social services, department of health, introducing myself, posting tear-off flyers at grocery stores, laundromats, gas stations, schools, and the post office. Sometimes I’ll walk the trailer courts, where it’s common to see clients living, and put up a flyer in the office.”
Bosnian, Kurdish, Iraqi, Somali and other African immigrants, as well as Latino immigrants, live and work in northern Minnesota. Her immigration caseload includes “pretty much everything.” Many permanent residents seek citizenship, which means filling out naturalization forms, practicing for interviews, and preparing for the civics test. People may need help renewing green cards (permanent residence) or petitioning for family members to join them here.
ILCM’s Moorhead office and Community Health Services work together to serve clients with intersecting medical and legal needs. In addition to Martha’s full-time presence in Moorhead, ILCM attorney Kerry McGuire works with Community Health Services as part of the legal-medical partnership. Community Health Services serves 40 counties. Its Moorhead and Crookston offices treated about 500 domestic violence patients last year. ILCM’s services include assistance with VAWA and U Visas. A battered spouse, child, or parent may be eligible for a visa under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Some crime victims qualify for U visas. In addition to helping clients, Martha serves on the Community Health Service board of directors.
Martha has been working for ILCM since 2015. She opened ILCM’s Moorhead satellite office after working for 35 years for Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS). She worked as a secretary for SMRLS for 17 years, and was eventually trained and hired as a paralegal. Martha developed a passion for helping people with immigration while she was working at SMRLS. “I saw how it opened doors for them once they obtained legal status or citizenship,” she says.
The ILCM office in Moorhead is in the Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota office building, as is the SMRLS Agricultural Worker Project. In November, a SMRLS attorney told ILCM staffers visiting from St. Paul that “Martha is the hardest working person in the entire building. She arrives earlier and leaves later than anyone else, and is totally dedicated to her job.”
Besides her work for ILCM, Martha volunteers with the local chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and is a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court Committee of Equality and Justice. In the fall of 2016, she received Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota’s Partner in Justice Award for her skill, dedication, and impact as an advocate.