NMILC Pro Bono Attorney Wins Bond for Detained Asylum Seeker Through Powerful Community Engagement & Advocacy
By: Delaney Swink / Volunteer & Development Coordinator
When a person seeking asylum enters the United States, they are often placed in immigrant detention facilities. Immigrant detention centers, owned by private prison corporations such as Core Civic and The Geo Group here in New Mexico, have a significant history of unjust treatment of immigrants, including medical neglect, violent attacks and abuse perpetrated by prison guards, lack of legal and language access resources, and other human rights violations. NMILC asylum client, Rudy, experienced this first-hand while detained in the Torrance County Detention Facility.
Rudy is a young man from Ecuador who is seeking asylum on account of the discrimination he faced due to his Indigenous Quechua identity. (To qualify for asylum, one must be unable or unwilling to return to their home country due to past persecution or a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion).
After entering the US, Rudy was placed in the Torrance County Detention Facility. The isolation and mistreatment he experienced in detention took an emotional toll on him. Rudy came from a village in Ecuador where everyone spoke the same Indigenous language and he had a community with whom he could practice his spiritual beliefs and customs. In detention, without anyone who shared a common language or religious practice, he lacked community while also being denied legal resources and materials to help him prepare his asylum case. He was treated terribly by guards. Rudy speaks Kichwa, but the detention center only provides resources in Spanish and English. Rudy’s Spanish ability wasn’t strong enough for him to find meaningful social outlets and support in the facility, let alone understand the complexity of asylum law in the United States. With no resources in his primary language, Rudy had a strong case for release, but for that he needed representation.
Thankfully, Rudy contacted the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, and our detention/asylum team connected him with pro bono attorney, Valerie McLaughlin, to help him complete his application and represent him in court. McLaughlin, an attorney based in New York City, previously provided pro bono immigration support at Catholic Charities Immigration Services of New York (CCIS) under NMILC’s current senior attorney, Sophia Genovese, back when Genovese led CCIS’s Pro Bono Project and detention program. Now, with mentorship and guidance from Genovese at NMILC, McLaughlin volunteers her time and expertise with NMILC in an effort to win releases for detained asylum seekers in New Mexico.
McLaughling shares the incredible experience she has had providing pro bono legal services with NMILC, emphasizing how much she has learned so much from Genovese, and the confidence she has gained while working with her. “One really terrific aspect of volunteering at NMILC is that I feel really included, like I feel part of a team at NMILC as opposed to feeling like a lone attorney dealing with a single case. It is more of a team environment and I feel a part of it, which has been a really great aspect of working with NMILC. And that is truly remarkable because of the remote aspect of this work.”
In Rudy’s case, his main argument for release was the lack of language access. McLaughlin sat in on many hearings for other pro se applicants who faced language access barriers, and watched the Department of Homeland Security continue to avoid responsibility by suggesting they use Google Translate -- particularly unhelpful advice in Rudy’s case, considering Google Translate and other mainstream translation apps do not offer Kichwa translation services. Nonetheless, judges continued to take issue with language barriers as an argument for release for pro se cases, which is why legal representation in Rudy’s case was critical.
McLaughlin dedicated herself to Rudy’s case, and was victorious in getting the judge to grant Rudy a $10,000 bond, which is like a bail amount. Asylum bond is set by the federal government (ICE or DHS), and is required to be at least $1,500 but can range up to $250,000 (with a national median of $4,250 and a national average of $14,500) (Freedom For Immigrants). After a collective fundraising effort among the community, organizations, family, and friends, Rudy’s bond was paid and he was on a flight to NYC to be reunited with family in Brooklyn.
This was an incredible success that was made possible by McLaughlin’s powerful pro bono advocacy. McLaughlin built a relationship with Rudy and his family who lives in New York, and is grateful to have the opportunity to share in the celebration with them. She is invested in the lives of her clients, and notes that “it takes bravery to do this work; even in this one case, I was emotionally invested and on pins and needles awaiting the judge's decision; I knew the odds were against us and I felt so personally responsible for the outcome.”
Not only was McLaughlin able to foster a meaningful and lasting relationship with Rudy and his family, but was also able to engage in advocacy on a larger scale. For McLaughlin, it was not only about learning new law practices, but also learning how the issues are framed by the experienced advocates. McLaughlin notes that “his was something that I first became aware of by completing the great training you all provided which touched upon many aspects of the representation but included for example the high number of detainees and how detention impacts the ultimate outcome of an individual's claim....along with the many due process issues associated with the practice of detaining folks at the border.”
McLaughlin recommends any attorney who has the desire to get involved in pro bono. While not everyone can take on a full asylum case, there are options for pro bono attorneys and non-attorney volunteers to help with asylum pro se services, translation, or other means of helping out.
Anna Trillo is an Equal Justice Works Disaster Resilience Fellow at NMILC.
Posted October 23, 2022 by Flaviano Graciano, Communications Manager