By Valerie Schmalz
“What I really like is we bring a message of hope,” says Raquel Seifert, lead presenter for the Know Your Rights immigrant workshops at parishes around the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
“To be an immigrant is pretty dark right now,” said Seifert. With the workshops, she said, she tries to “just bring them some good news. Some way they can respond to all the rhetoric that immigrants are bad.”
Still, Seifert said, “I try to be understanding to both sides and bring a little bit of light.”
Seifert, the youngest of seven siblings and now a married mom of two college-age children, immigrated from Mexico City to the U.S. in 1998 after stops as an adventurous young adult in Germany, Texas, back to Germany and then again to the U.S. where she met her husband and eventually settled in Northern California.
She is the community outreach manager for archdiocesan Catholic Charities Immigration & Legal Support Services. Seifert and Saul Perez teamed up in the summer of 2024 soon after Perez started at the archdiocesan Office of Human Life & Dignity with a mandate to jump-start the immigration ministry.
Perez and Seifert have forged a friendship in their mutual work and commitment. Perez organizes the events and works with Seifert, who presents the nuts and bolts of U.S. law and regulations, from what rights immigrants have to different paths to legal residency.
Since the first Know Your Rights presentation at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in East Palo Alto, as of early November there have been 23 immigration information and support events organized by Perez, working with Catholic Charities and frequently with the University of San Francisco law school clinic led by USF law professor Bill Hing.
The work with parishes is extremely rewarding, Seifert said.
“We typically go to the Spanish-speaking Masses, where a strong sense of community provides a safe harbor for people who have left their family and culture behind. The immigrant community feels safe at the Spanish-speaking Mass,” where she talks to them about their rights. “That is a very nice thing to offer them.”
Unscrupulous lawyers are preying on immigrants, taking thousands of dollars and offering nothing in return, Seifert said, and the Know Your Rights workshops and one-on-one consultations offer genuine, low-cost or free information as an essential countermeasure.
Seifert said many immigrants have undergone tremendous hardship to get here. “Every immigrant could write a story. Their stories are so compelling, what they have gone through to get here.”
Seifert said the chance to serve the immigrant community is deeply fulfilling. “I feel like I am finally helping the community. That is what I want now at this time in my life.
Valerie Schmalz is the director of the Office of Human Life & Dignity for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
