Informing communities - Emily Burgess
For immigrants in the United States facing an unjust and confusing system, access to information is key. Knowing their rights, the immigration processes and who they can trust is essential to ensuring individuals are able to navigate the system. But it’s not always easy to get information to communities that need it.
Immigration advocates must get creative, pioneering new programs and strategies to make sure immigrants of all ages get the information they need. Three IJC Fellows share stories of programs they have started, in collaboration with their host organizations, and the impact they have seen in their communities.
Emily Burgess, a 2024 Justice Fellow who worked at Connecticut Legal Services, writes about leading a legal clinic and the work that went into ensuring it was a success. Emily is a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School and now works as a staff attorney with Legal Aid Services of Oregon’s Farmworker Unit.
A few months into my fellowship, I was tasked with co-leading an immigration legal clinic. To say I was intimidated would be an understatement: Despite the work I had done in law school, I had never participated in, let alone “run” an immigration legal clinic. Up until that point, my work focused on asylum applications and SIJS petitions. I had not thought much about other forms of immigration relief, like cancellation of removal or U-visas, since IJC’s fall training. Not to mention, the clinic would also function to support folks in completing standby guardianship and power of attorney forms, neither of which I had ever even seen. I had my work cut out for me.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this practice, it’s that what you lack in experience, you make up for in preparation. So, I spent much of the night before the clinic doing the thing recent law grads are all too acquainted with — I studied. I even pulled out my old outline from my immigration law class (shout out to Professor McKanders!) and tested myself on the basic requirements for common forms of immigration relief. I created individual folders for each participant I would be meeting with, complete with “Know Your Rights” flyers, red cards, business cards, and other resources. I wrote out detailed instructions for the volunteers and community participants to account for the clinic’s logistics. I was as ready as I could be.
The clinic ended up being a success, but not because of me. Sure, I was able to correctly complete forms I didn’t know existed just a few weeks ago. I advised participants on their rights in various hypothetical ICE encounters. I explained what steps someone needed to take to complete a Supp B for a U-Visa petition, which I probably wouldn’t have remembered if not for my prep. But what really made the clinic successful was the community buy-in. A local woman set up a food truck to make sure everyone at the clinic was fed; she worked for hours on end and asked for nothing in return. Someone else hand-made color-coded name tags for the volunteer attorneys and interpreters. Another checked in participants and walked the building’s perimeter to make sure everyone was safe.
These demonstrations of care reminded me of two important tenets: 1) our roles as attorneys are relatively small and 2) no matter what challenges folks face in their individual lives, many will still step forward to uplift and support their community.
When the clinic ended, we all gathered in a circle and each shared a few words about how we were feeling. At the time, I said “orgullosa,” but, reflecting back on the experience, I would choose a different descriptor: “esperanzada.”
