For many people not involved with the federal government, the recent 35-day partial government shutdown meant delayed visits to Smithsonian museums or canceled trips to a national park.

But for staff and clients of the Columbiabased Foreign-Born Information and Referral Network, the shutdown complicated efforts for legal representation for foreignborn individuals.Undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Howard and nearby counties come to FIRN to receive counseling, interpretation and help navigating family and immigration court systems.

But closure of the courts during the shutdown complicated those efforts, delaying some cases and increasing the network’s already-growing backlog, according to Hector Garcia, the organization’s CEO.

Over the past year FIRN took on some 4,500 cases, Garcia said; the shutdown postponed about 100 of them. Each day involved contacting clients to notify them of last-minute schedule changes.

It required “us to live a day at a time,”

Garcia said.

The cases varied, he said, from visa See GROUP, page 6