ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Student registration for the 2010 Conference and Career Fair is now open.
- Tickets now on sale for our 2010 Annual Awards Dinner. Join us as we honor public interest law leaders.
- Please view our latest job postings and see how you can help mobilize the next generation of public interest lawyers.
- Now accepting applications for 2011 Fellowships. Jump start your career in public interest law!
Connect with us
EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS FELLOW, CLASS OF 2008
Name of Host Organization: Asian Law Caucus
City, State: San Francisco, California
Issue area: Immigrant Populations, Immigration Law Reform
Sponsor: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
THE INSPIRATION
As a legal intern at Human Rights First, I was shocked to see that the Department of Homeland Security viewed a man who had paid a ransom after being kidnapped by armed insurgents - in order to save his life – to be as undeserving of asylum as a man who had actually been a member of the violent organization itself. I decided to create a project which would help to protect the victims of terrorist organizations who were being denied sanctuary as if they were terrorists themselves.
THE PROJECT
Through direct representation and collaboration with others, I increase the representation of refugees being denied asylum on spurious national security-related grounds. My project aims to assist the broadest possible number of refugees in need of assistance in addition to spurring immigration law reform.
BIOGRAPHY
Hometown: | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
Law school: | |
Making the connection: | During my undergraduate studies I worked at the Jane Addams School for Democracy in Saint Paul, MN. There, I met many community members who had come to America as refugees. I learned about ongoing human rights abuses committed around the world. And I heard of the difficulties faced by many new Americans even after they have reached safety. These stories compelled me to apply to law school so that I could work for the attainment of currently ignored human rights norms, both in the United States and around the world. |
Surviving law school: | Without a doubt the key to surviving law school is fellow students. I feel privileged to have worked with and learned from my colleagues in law school. |
Recommended books: | American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons by Mark Dow uncovers a startling history of human rights abuses in immigration detention that continues to this day; The Long Haul: An Autobiography by Myles Horton reminds us that stubbornness is an essential qualification for getting things done; Democracy and Social Ethics by Jane Addams is a commentary by one of the twentieth century's great civic leaders that is still relevant today. |