Driven to change the system, she not only won a victory in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals for her client, but also helped build the Kirkland Immigration Network to assist other attorneys who take on these cases.

How many cases have you represented through NIJC?

I have had significant involvement in two very long cases. One I have had since I started doing pro bono work seven years ago. It's a Temporary Protected Status case and I help the client to renew his visa every few years. The other, for a refugee man, went all the way to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals where the immigration judge's ruling was reversed. I've learned so much from both of them.

What have been your biggest lessons?

The biggest lesson I've learned, and also the saddest, is that the immigration system has so many problems.

My refugee client was detained for two and a half years. He didn't have much of a choice but to remain detained and try and fight, because he could not return to his country and be safe. Even after the immigration judge's opinion was reversed by the Seventh Circuit, it took us six months to get him out of detention.

With the immigration judge, we had significant issues in the beginning just getting the hearing scheduled. We also had significant trouble getting him to issue a bond decision. Even after we were successful before the Seventh Circuit, Immigration Customs and Enforcement and the immigration judge were unwilling to release my client.  Fortunately, the Board of Immigration Appeals reversed that decision recently and my client was released on bond.  The process seems to be much harder than it needs to be for everyone. Without representation, I cannot imagine where my client would have ended up.

Judge Richard Posner said [during a recent speech to the Chicago Bar Association] that one of the hardest bodies of law is immigration. It seems strange to me that you have this incredibly complex body of law that governs a body of people with extremely different cultures and language barriers, and often, a lack of funds. If I were an immigrant, I would feel completely lost in the system.

If refugees aren't provided with legal assistance, the immigration system sets them up to fail. Being a pro bono advocate for them at least gives them some chance to succeed.

Your work with NIJC, and some of your other pro bono work, has exposed you to different systems of detention in the United States. What do you think of these systems?

I just argued at the Seventh Circuit for a different client who claims he was beaten by guards at the Cook County Jail.  I also acted as co-counsel with the ACLU to represent a class of all children detained at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, which is slowly resulting in improved conditions there.  My immigrant client was also detained for nearly two and a half years.

Based on my background in this area, I have a very two-sided view on detention conditions. On one hand, it has to be very hard to work in a prison. The rules can't generally be favorable to the inmates because prison officials necessarily need to implement rules that make the prisons secure. Those rules sometimes come at the expense of prisoners' liberties. But on the other hand, having known my detained clients and the issues they faced while in detention, it's frustrating because often it seems that their rights were infringed unnecessarily and not for security purposes.

I have spoken to wardens and other jail supervisors a number of times on behalf of my clients to try to work through some of these issues. You have to be careful to respect the jail staff because ultimately, they make the decisions. The jail officials need to show their inmates that they are in control, but there are certainly instances where things could have been handled better. It is difficult for the attorney in these matters because you are getting a bird's-eye view; you don't know for sure what really happened during those instances nor are you entitled to always know why the jail officials handled an issue a certain way.  And, it is possible that your interference can actually make things worse for your client.  It's a sticky position to be in.

My immigration client was detained in three different immigration facilities. It's interesting to see how things work better in some detention facilities than in others. From my perspective, it seems there is a lot of room for reform in these systems. At the very least, there needs to be recognition that what is appropriate for detained adults may not be appropriate for detained juveniles.  Likewise, what is appropriate for those that are detained for criminal acts may not be appropriate for those that are detained for immigration purposes.

Why did you start the Kirkland Immigration Network?

My colleague, Sara Rankin, and I were both handling immigration cases and were starting to field many questions about immigration law for young attorneys who needed advice. We decided it would be useful to have a central place for collecting information on immigration cases. Kirkland has been totally supportive of this endeavor. Now we have a website that includes sample materials, information about judges, translators, country conditions, organizational resources, and case lists from NIJC.

We also created the Kirkland Immigration Network to show a commitment on behalf of Kirkland's pro bono program. We have panel discussions on a regular basis to talk about what is happening in immigration law. Given the state of the immigration issue in the United States, there is plenty to talk about.

Since we developed this program, people generally are becoming more aware of the political issues that surround immigration law - especially as they watched Congress struggle with an immigration bill that was never passed and now see how states are trying to handle those issues on their own. It seems that because immigration is such a current and hot topic, more attorneys are interested in taking part in immigration cases now. This summer, we are working with NIJC to hold a pro bono immigration program series to get our summer associates involved in this important work. Summer associates will be able to take on Violence Against Women Act cases to help immigrant victims of domestic violence apply for protection in the United States, and receive training to talk with juvenile and adult detainees about their legal rights.

Generally, people are beginning to see that immigration has an impact on us all. When you realize that, for instance, the person cleaning your building has immigration issues, or your neighbor's wife had to be sent away because of an immigration problem, you see that these issues are pervasive. I think people are beginning to realize that the decisions made about how to handle immigration issues truly affect us all.