Immigration Court fun times!

One of the extracurricular/ public interest things I'm doing this year is Immigration Court Watch. It's a program that was started by NYU's law school after 9/11 when there was a strong anti-immigrant sentiment and worries that immigration hearings may not have been affording the due process (oh, what a phrase!) rights of detainees. The trials are usually in regards to undocumented immigrants who will either be deported or have a legal option to stay in the US.

So we work with NYU and observe hearings, watching for any indiscretions by judges, lawyers, or guards. It's a really interesting chance to see court first hand and start learning about immigration law, which I'm becoming really interested in.

Did I tell you that I may be living in the middle of nowhere, rural USA this summer if I can find an organization to work with? I want to work with someone who is representing/ advocating for immigrants who have been arrested in the immigration "raids" at meatpacking plants. We'll see!

Did I also tell you that I am waiting to hear about whether or not I got this really prestigious public interest summer fellowship that Brooklyn Law offers? The other really cool thing about it is that there are a lot of opportunities to get to know the other fellows and past fellows, which is awesome because most of my friends and classmates are really geared towards "big law" corporate-type jobs, which can be tempting, even for someone like me who knows that I want to be doing public interest. I mean, I am a simple person, but it would be nice not to be broke/in debt for the rest of my life!

Back to my story. It's a really interesting experience. It reminds me that everyone has a story, you know? Good things and bad things happen in all our lives.

But after this semester of evening classes, and never having been a morning person (I keep thinking that I need to work on that!) it's so hard to wake up early to get to the courthouse on the days I observe!

And I see the detainees, in their prison jumpsuits, a la this guy,

and they're made of the same material that scrubs are made of. They also wear sweet canvas slip-on shoes. It's so bad, but I keep thinking of how COMFORTABLE they look and how much I'd love to put on a comfy prison jumpsuit and go back to bed.

I know, it's horrible!