An excellent analysis of the problem. You are trying to plan your practice. Meet the graduating 3L student Aimee Torres Pacheco, ASAP. I will mention her to you. After your conversation with her, you will be ready to write the next draft.

Immigration Law & Practice

-- By JocelynGutierrezManriquez - 23 Feb 2024

Introduction

Growing up my relatives always pushed me to be an immigration attorney. They didn’t push me towards this career because of the money, or the prestige of the job but because they hoped that one day I would help them get a green card. Several of my relatives had consulted with countless immigration attorneys and were always told that there was nothing that could be done in their case. They, however, refused to take no for an answer and were convinced that there was a way forward and that somehow, one day, I could potentially help them. I knew how much a green card would change their life because it had drastically changed my parents’ lives, and consequently, my life. So, from the age of 12, I became married to the idea of being an immigration attorney.

What My Experience Taught Me

After graduating from undergrad, I accepted an immigration paralegal position at a non-profit in New York. At the time, Trump had waged a war against immigrants, and I was eager to make a difference. For a while, I was convinced I was making a real difference in people’s lives by filling work permit renewals, green card renewal applications, and naturalization applications. Although this work is important, there was far more impactful work that we were failing to do as an organization that claimed to advocate for immigrants’ rights.

Every other day, I would screen asylum seekers who had recently arrived in the United States. These individuals were escaping horrifying conditions and abuse in their home country. They didn’t speak English. They did not have much money because they weren’t authorized to work. The family members or friends whom they were relying on for financial support were already stretched financially. If they didn’t find an attorney willing to take their case, they would have to present their case on their own to a judge and would most likely be ordered removed back to their home country. Despite their desperate need for help, we turned them away every time. We used grant requirements as an excuse not to take these cases. The attorneys reasoned that we could file many more applications that met our grant requirements with the same amount of time we would invest in an asylum case. Moreover, the attorneys were too scared to take a “risky” case. Most of these asylum cases were not cookie-cutter cases, and there was a possibility that the client could lose the case. They didn’t want to invest time and effort into something that wasn’t a guaranteed win. They used “professional responsibility” as an excuse to justify turning these clients away and not feel guilty about it. However, we all knew the outcome would be far worse if no one represented these individuals in court. Toward the end of our intake, I would provide asylum seekers with a list of other nonprofit organizations. I would tell them to reach out to them for help, even though I already knew these other organizations would not be able to assist them, for the same reasons my organization declined to help them. We shared this list with them, however, to make it seem like were provided some assistance and to make ourselves feel better.

What Do I Do Now?

I grew tired of saying no to the people I wanted to help, so I decided to go to law school. I thought that law school would give me the agency I did not have at a nonprofit. I would no longer have to do what an attorney wanted me to do, I could make my own decisions about cases. However, I fear that I may not be able to be the attorney I aspired to be after all. If I were to go back to a nonprofit, I worry that I will become like the attorneys I started to look down upon. The unfortunate reality is that nonprofits depend on grants, and if they don’t meet grant goals, they can lose their funding. Will I be able to work on the cases I want to work on, or will I be so preoccupied with “meeting the numbers” that I will lose sight of what is important to me?

If I establish my own immigration practice, I will have more flexibility and control over the cases I take. However, I struggle with the idea of building my wealth off of the same population I am trying to serve. Especially knowing that the immigrants in most need do not have the financial resources to hire a private attorney. On the other hand, I could go into a big immigration law firm. These firms cater to a more affluent population of immigrants, and these clients already have the means and resources to navigate the complexities of our immigration system. However, my goal is to help immigrants that don’t have the means to acquire relief. Although this option is the middle ground for me, I do not think I would find it fulfilling because I would not make the impact I’ve always wanted to make by serving those with the most need. I would simply be pursuing immigration for the sake of pursuing immigration law.

Lastly, I could help grassroots organizations push for comprehensive immigration reform (CIM). Organizations have been pushing for immigration reform for several decades now, with little to no change. In fact, our immigration system has arguably gotten worse. I do not know if I can make an impact in this area, given how divided Democrats and Republicans are on the topic of immigration.

Ultimately, I don’t know what path I will end up taking. I hope that by the time I am done with law school, I have a better idea of what path will help me be the attorney 12-year-old me dreamt of.

• #Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = TWikiAdminGroup, JocelynGutierrezManriquez
• #Set DENYTOPICVIEW = TWikiGuest

Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules for preference declarations. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of these lines. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated ALLOWTOPICVIEW list.