Author: winnieq

Reflecting on my experience as a research intern for TRII, what have I confirmed about social justice work is the difficulty of doing nonprofit work in the field of immigration law. In this field, the majority of the attorneys are working pro bono, while the regulations are changing rapidly, and there is a massive surplus of immigrant clients. Especially during the COVID-19 period, government regulation regarding the asylum application was tightened up to an extreme level. For example, my current research task is focused on how COVID-19 has created a public health issue for asylum-seekers.

This is only one of many examples showing the vulnerability of the immigrant community. The workload of social justice groups has been increasing, while the working capability of ours has also been affected negatively by the pandemic. For example, since the outbreak, TRII has shifted much of its focus to the housing crisis in immigrant communities. Many of the undocumented immigrants are facing the risk of being kicked out of the house by their landlords.

My experience as an intern for TRII has been a positive one, but my contribution has also been limited by multiple factors. First, doing everything virtually has limited my interaction with clients and coworkers in the workplace. With all the courts delaying opening, many of the cases the institute was working on were frozen. Therefore, I have not been doing what I originally expected to do, including getting in-person experience observing lawyers dealing with immigration cases. Second, because I am not a professionally-accredited immigration case representative, my participation in specific cases has been limited. Without the pandemic, I would possibly have been able to shadow more client meetings. But, with the pandemic going on, I could not directly help as many clients as I intended.

If I were to give advice to people who are interested in immigration law or social work in general, I think whoever wants to get involved in this field should be aware of the difficulties and frustration you would encounter. The reality and the future of the field are not the brightest looking forward, but this is also where the help is most needed. With more restricted legislation and funding, representing clients and winning cases is becoming more difficult. In order to get the best out of the internship experience, you should be careful when choosing what kind of organization for your internship. Nonprofit organizations in the field of immigration law focus on different aspects of immigration laws. For example, some organizations specialize in public health and some specialize in women’s rights. Therefore, choose an organization that best matches with your interests.

As I am wrapping up my internship, this experience makes me believe that I want to continue to work in the field of public and social policy. I am planning on going to law school, and when I become a lawyer, I can better serve social justice causes in communities that need the most help.

Interning for TRII has provided me with an opportunity to observe and participate in civic engagement. I mentioned in my first blog that I was assigned the task of conducting research on recent changes to the law proposed by the Department of Homeland Security. I have also been doing research on future asylum seekers who would be negatively affected by the rule change. Based on this research, I have been helping the Institute to prepare its comments on the rule change. After I completed my individual research and finished my own comments, I was assigned to organize a writing workshop on behalf of TRII to mobilize more people to write and submit their comments by the deadline to support asylum seekers.

This is truly an experience where I was able to utilize the network I developed at Brandeis and the organizational skills developed from running the Brandeis debate team: I organized and prepared resources essential to writing professional and effective comments, and I reached out to hundreds of people at Brandeis and beyond. The event ended up drawing people from across the state who did not know about the proposal. Watching them learn about the issue and submit their comments was fulfilling and inspiring.

Helping to organize this event reminded me of what I learned about civic engagement in my classes Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: Legislative Framework with Professor Breen and Deconstructing War, Building Peace class with Professor Gordon. Although those classes share different content, they both emphasized the importance of civic engagement in terms of legislative reform at the national and international levels. The mobilization of the public is key to frame the policies that fit the best interests of the public. And, from my intern experience, I observed that probably the most severe obstacle toward that is to get people involved in the first place. Many people didn’t know about the proposal, or they lacked the knowledge to post a valid comment. It becomes especially difficult when the government only allows a limited time period to accept comments from the public. Therefore, it becomes really important for third party players, such as non-profits, to use effective means to mobilize the public.

For the upcoming project, I was assigned to help mobilize the public to comment on a draft report formed by the Commission on Unalienable Human Rights established by Mike Pompeo. The report, after being finalized, will have a significant influence on U.S. foreign policy on the matter of human rights. The public has only fourteen days to make comments on it, and I am looking forward to helping organize more workshop events in the future to help raise awareness. Although the internship was initially supposed to be more legal-issue oriented, considering the effects of the pandemic, I find that doing advocacy work is meaningful and helpful as well. For the rest of my internship, I still wish to participate in specific immigration cases if I am given the opportunity.

Hello. My name is Wenjing Wynne Qin and I’m a rising senior at Brandeis University. This summer, I am interning for The Right to Immigration Institute in Waltham. The Right to Immigration Institute (TRII) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization that trains and supervises students and community leaders to represent immigrants in immigration proceedings, trials, and appeals, and immigrant communities in human rights causes, including but not limited to housing, employment, health care, education, hate crimes, and domestic violence.

I was originally fascinated by the ambition of TRII to provide a platform for undergraduates to participate in the legal system. After learning from students who work for TRII, I made my decision to apply for this internship because of my personal connection to its mission and my confidence that I could maximize my utility as an intern. This has been a tremendously difficult time, especially for the immigrant community, who will likely be disproportionally impacted by the pandemic. Therefore, any kind of help I can give to alleviate the burdens they are suffering from would be my primary goal for this internship.

During the pandemic, with all the courts delaying opening, many of the cases the institute was working on were frozen. Therefore, I have not been doing what I expected to do originally, including getting first-hand experience observing immigration lawyers dealing with immigration cases. Instead, I have been helping more with the general operation of the institute in relation to fundraising and administration.

The specific work I have been doing so far mainly involves research, including how minority–i.e., immigrants–communities have been disproportionally affected by the pandemic, and on the recent lawmaking change proposals of regulations regarding asylum. For the purpose of my research, I have attended several virtual trainings hosted by Hollaback. I tried to identify how Asian-Americans are being affected by hate crimes stimulated and further perpetuated by the pandemic, and what those discriminations look like. This research will be used by the institute to better understand how racial minorities have been affected by the pandemic. 

I have also been assigned the task of conducting research on the recent rule-making change proposed by the Department of Homeland Security. And, I have been doing research on future asylum seekers who would be negatively affected by the rule change, in order to help the Institute prepare its response. My research results will be used to form critical comments on the rule change and be reported back to the Department of Homeland Security.

 

Because of the pandemic, everything has been out of the schedule, and there have been some communication problems here and there between me and my supervisors, I am trying my best to keep the schedule going forward. And, hopefully, I can be more involved in client-specific cases in the near future. There have been recent cases the institute is handling in regard to immigrants’ housing problems, and I plan to get involved in cases like this when any new case comes in.