On July 17, 2001, NCLC held its first Immigrant Justice in the Consumer Marketplace workshop in Chicago. The workshop was co-sponsored by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Spanish Coalition for Housing. A diverse group of over 30 advocates attended the workshop. The advocates represented a range of community-based and legal services organizations, representatives from local congressional and senate offices, and social service providers.

The first portion of the workshop focused on prioritizing debt and budgeting issues as well as access to financial services. Participants representing local credit unions led a discussion on increasing immigrant access to reasonably priced credit and banking services. The second half of the workshop covered a range of topics. Ruth Edwards of the Legal Aid Foundation of Chicago spoke about immigration consultant fraud. Anne Vander Weele of Metropolitan Family Services led a discussion on payday lending issues.

All participants were asked to fill out a survey on topics they would like to hear more about in future sessions. The top five topics (in order starting with the most votes) were:

1. Notario and Immigration Consultant Fraud
2. Debt Collection Harassment
3. Credit reporting and credit repair
4. High Cost Mortgages
5. Student Loan and Vocational school issues

Credit discrimination, tax refund anticipation loans, and rent-to-own issues tied for sixth place.

The next session will be designed with these results in mind. NCLC will be holding its next Immigrant Justice workshop later this year. Check this Web page again in the upcoming months for more details.