I am thankful to Equal Justice America and Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid for creating this fellowship with the Dilley Pro Bono Project. We are at a moment where there is a great need for more effort towards ending family detention. I am honored to serve clients who have endured unbelievable violence and scarring trauma, and have nevertheless had the immense courage to fight for their lives and the lives of their children. I never imagined that I would be presented with such an incredible opportunity fresh out of law school. The importance of the work is not lost on me and I cannot wait to begin what I have been working towards for years.

I grew passionate about youth advocacy while living in Beirut, Lebanon, where I got to know several children working to support their families. These children could not count on a legal system strong enough to counter-balance racial, economic, and security concerns. When I moved back to start at Berkeley Law a couple of years later, I saw a comparable lack of protection for young people in the United States.

I am so grateful to Equal Justice America for giving me the opportunity to work towards protecting the rights of some of the most vulnerable communities. We can’t restrict human rights only to the success stories – every individual must be guaranteed the right to basic living essentials and security of person. I want to do away with the ‘good immigrant’ narrative in my work. Immigrants who come to the U.S., for whatever reason, with whatever background, are entitled to have their voices heard and to be treated with humanity and respect.

The revision of holding policies after an arrest has been at the forefront of recent national debate. After years of studying current practices, statistics render a view of how such policies disproportionally affect marginalized groups. Oluchi Ifebi, a 2015 Equal Justice America fellow and former attorney with First Defense Legal Aid in Chicago, explains what rights citizens have and can choose to exercise if held by law enforcement.