An advisory opinion has been issued by the Office of Legal Affairs of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), dealing with clientele who will be eligible for free legal services by the new American Samoa Legal Aid (ASLA) group.

As reported by Samoa News last week, the Washington based federal LSC has awarded the ASLA some $202,000 for 2015 to provide legal services to indigenous people in American Samoa. (See Samoa News edition on Dec. 24 for more details.)

According to the Dec. 5 three-page advisory opinion by the LSC’s Office of Legal Affairs, the alienage restrictions in provisions of federal law “do not apply to services provided in American Samoa by an LSC recipient because those restrictions are based on provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that do not apply to people entering or remaining in American Samoa.”

It also explains that the government of American Samoa, rather than the U.S. Immigration governs the admission of aliens to American Samoa, and the rights and status of individuals entering and remaining in American Samoa are governed by the laws of American Samoa.

As a result, American Samoa’s Immigration Office and Immigration Board manage a variety of core immigration functions, including identification issuance, work authorizations, and enforcement of American Samoan immigration laws.

Further, American Samoan immigration agency seldom interacts with U.S. immigration agencies, as no U.S. immigration agency has an office in American Samoa.

Responding to Samoa News questions, Charles Greenfield, the LSC consultant working with ASLA, said the advisory opinion makes clear that the restrictions on who can be helped by a legal aid program based on US immigration categories does not apply to American Samoa.

The ASLA board of directors “therefore has the authority to make decisions on to whom the program can provide legal assistance,” he said and pointed out for example, if the alien restrictions applied to American Samoa, in most circumstances American Samoa Legal Aid would not have been able to assist persons from the independent country of Samoa who reside in American Samoa.

“Now, Legal Aid is able to provide services to people from Samoa who reside in American Samoa,” he said, adding that this is the first time LSC has issued an opinion on this issue concerning American Samoa.

Greenfield also pointed out that the American Samoa Legal Aid asked LSC for the opinion “because the program wanted to make sure it could assist all low-income residents of American Samoa who had a critical civil legal need. American Samoa Legal Aid intends to be responsive to the needs of the community.

“Further, Legal Aid knew that US immigration laws did not apply to American Samoa and thus sought clarification from LSC,” he said. “American Samoa Legal Aid is delighted to receive this opinion from LSC. The program wants to be responsive to the needs of the community. The LSC opinion provides American Samoa Legal Aid the freedom to do that.”

Additionally, the American Samoa Legal Aid has just now received very good news from LSC, which has decided to provide funds to American Samoa Legal Aid for 2015, he said.