Supporting clients' needs - Ezra Rash

2023 Justice Fellow Ezra Rash reflects on all the ways he shows up for his clients. From filing legal documents in their cases to encouraging young clients to go to school, Ezra strives to ensure his clients feel seen, involved, and supported.

Ezra is a Fellow at the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy.

I don’t have a specific case result to report on–yet. Nearly all of my current cases are in early stages, and I’ve yet to step into immigration court on behalf of one of my own clients. Any achievements, such as they are, have been small.

However, even a small achievement can mean so much to my clients. A granted change of venue motion brought immense relief to a client’s mother, who had been deeply anxious about getting to an immigration court hearing several states away. Receiving employment authorization has opened up greater options and freedom for another client.

Sometimes, it can be as small as helping a client sort through the many documents they receive at the border and upon release from the ORR shelter–explaining what everything means, what is most important to hold onto and what is less important–knowledge and clarity alone can help to reduce a client’s stress and anxiety.

And then there are the parts of my job that don’t involve direct legal work at all, but can still make a huge difference in my clients’ day to day lives. This can look like lots of different things–helping clients access health care, especially mental healthcare, is very important. I encourage my clients, predominantly teenagers, to go to school. I’ve helped multiple parents and sponsors to enroll a client in school, acting as an advocate for the child with school administrators. In one case, a child initially reluctant to go to school is now thriving in school. In another case, a client’s sibling was still being held in the ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement) shelter, and they were having trouble getting her released to the sponsor, who was a godmother but not a blood relative. I was able to help them get what they needed for the background check, and eventually the child was released to the sponsor–which led to a noticeable improvement in my client’s demeanor and confidence in our meetings as we worked on her asylum case.

All of these things have had or will have an impact on my clients’ cases. Therapy and mental health care can become important evidence in certain T or U visa cases (visas for victims of trafficking or certain crimes in the United States). Showing the child is in school can be a crucial part of the custody portion of many SIJS cases in our jurisdiction (SIJS–or Special Immigrant Juvenile Status–is a visa for children who have been abandoned, neglected, or abused by one or both parents and therefore have no one to care for them in their country of origin). A client being in a better frame of mind during meetings helps me build a stronger case for them, and helps them to become a more active and empowered participant in their defense from removal.

Of equal importance to me, though, is that what I do improves the quality of my clients’ lives in the immediacy. I always try to ask, in my initial meeting with a new client, what their goals are–both long term and short term. Sometimes they have an immediate answer, sometimes they don’t–I’m not sure I could have come up with a long-term goal if asked as a fifteen year old–but it’s helpful as a way to let them know that they are an active part of this process.

This piece was written in April 2024.

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