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EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS FELLOW, CLASS OF 2008
Name of Host Organization: Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project
City, State: Boston, Massachusetts
Issue area: Immigrant Populations
Sponsor: Greenberg Traurig Fellowship Foundation
THE INSPIRATION
I went to law school intending to go into immigration, but I wasn't sure in what way. Then in March 2007, a large immigration raid on a factory in New Bedford, MA terrified a community and showed me what devastating effects immigration detention and lack of counsel had on families. As more reports of raids came in, along with criticisms of everything from detainee health care to telephone access, I discovered how few attorneys represented detainees and decided I would add myself to the list.
THE PROJECT
My project helps families affected by detention by providing information and representation to detainees on their bond and deportation cases; advocating for more humanitarian release, alternatives to detention, and other policies that reunify families; and providing family law and social services help to families separated by detention and deportation.
BIOGRAPHY
Hometown: | Long Beach, California |
Law school: | |
Making the connection: | After college, I joined Teach for America and taught high school English to new immigrant students in Texas. The experience made me inspired, depressed, energized, frustrated and everything in between. I decided to become an immigration lawyer to help bring stability to the lives of people like my students. I still have pictures of those students handy to keep me on track. |
Surviving law school: | I only applied to law schools offering financial and public interest support because those were most important to me. Once in school, I went to public interest panels and events, wrote public interest advice for the newspaper, did clinical work and skipped on-campus interviewing altogether (I recommend this if you can). Surrounding yourself with supportive and similarly focused people is invaluable. |
Recommended books: | Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario is a heart-wrenching nonfiction account of a boy following his mother to America; Yo! by Julia Alvarez is an amazingly creative fictional account of a Latino writer's family; Prisoner of Trebekistan by Bob Harris is a hilarious and thoughtful memoir of a former Jeopardy! champion (my favorite show!); Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a classic. As a lifelong book lover, this is my childhood favorite. |
Favorite website(s): | www.cnn.com and www.fivethirtyeight.com - I am a political junkie www.bloglines.com - to organize the dozens of friend, humor and vegetarian recipe blogs I read www.televisionwithoutpity.com - for snarky recaps of my favorite guilty reality TV pleasures. |
Music I love: | I am hopelessly out of date, so I listen to early Madonna, the Fugees, Erykah Badu, folk singers like Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, and jazz vocalists like Astrud Gilberto and Ella Fitzgerald. I also like Shakira, Julieta Venegas and Wyclef Jean. |
Words to live by: | "This is the true joy in life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can." - George Bernard Shaw "I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" - Emma Lazarus |