PIJD Newsletter

The Immigration Institute of the Bay Area is a historic legal aid organization that has been providing pro bono and low-cost legal services to the immigrant and refugee communities for more than a hundred years. This summer was a particularly fascinating time to work in this field. 

We are living in a hostile time for the immigrant community of the United States. From the beginning of my clerkship, we were bombarded with aggressive policies and acts from the Trump administration. Clients were terrified of being separated from their families and homes, and each day posed a new challenge due to rapidly changing public policy. Although it was a difficult summer, I now enter my second year of law school with a strong sense of purpose.

My clerkship allowed me to strengthen my legal writing and research abilities, work with clients directly, and grow my career in the immigration field. Although not an exhaustive list of my busy summer, my accomplishments from my time at the IIBA include the following: drafting a defensive asylum brief for a female survivor of domestic and gang violence, gathering a decade of proof of residency documents for a client’s U nonimmigrant status application after their previous attorney abandoned them entirely, and completing Motions to Appear Via Webex so clients may appear in court online as opposed to risking deportation at the immigration courthouse.

This summer reinforced my love and passion for working in immigration law. I am grateful for the Justice John Paul Stevens Fellowship that made it possible for me to take this clerkship at the IIBA. I also cannot thank my PIJD Faculty Mentor Professor Abriel enough for her support. There is no better time than now to be in law school, and I am incredibly grateful for the PIJD program for fostering my professional and personal growth at SCU Law.