For my work experience placement this year I have the pleasure of working with the Polanco Law firm. This firm started a few years ago made up of just 3 lawyers. It has now grown to an 8 member staff and 4 interns (not including me)! They speacialize in immigration and human rights law. To start out with, I was introduced to all of the present lawyers, paralegals, and interns that work with the firm. Each staff member had their own area of expertise, whether it was immigration, public defense, civil rights or family law. This particular firm tends to avoid family law cases because they are emtional and extremely “messy”. However, when their clients from pervious cases get involved in a family legal dispute they often take the case. I was also told about one staff member who lives near the site of an immigration detention center to challenge the human rights abuses at detainment camps. I spoke with one lawyer about the treatment of detained immigrants and the frequent abuse of their rights. Most of the lawyers and interns spoke spanish frequently with eachother, something that is extremely important as they work with clients who often only know spanish or are more comfortable with it then english. The office was very busy, there was almost always spanish chatter floating in from another room.
I spent most of the day alphabetizing closed case files and filing them away while I spoke with other interns about what it was like to be in law school and what they majored in during undergrad. While we were organizing, one lawyer walked into the room and asked another intern to call ICE (immigration and customs enforcement) to ask if their client was still detained. That moment made me realize that the cases I was filing away, these names I was alphabetizing, were real people who faced unfairness and adversity. Whether or not they won their cases, the names I held in my hands had in some way had their inherent rights violated. There were so many names to be filed away, and this was only one firm, making me realize the importance of the work that the Polanco law firm and other firms like it do every day and the massive size of the problem. Overall, it was an extremely interesting first day and I learned a lot about the state of immigration in our country and what it is like to work for a civil rights law firm. 