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The big picture: A lawyer from Pennsylvania, Audrey Kwak has been volunteering with the Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ) to work one-on-one with an immigrant woman to help her avoid deportation.
- Audrey works with “Maria,” a mother of four who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico ten years ago and currently lives in Mississippi.
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Maria was arrested during the largest workplace immigration raid ever conducted by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) in a single state. In all, seven chicken processing factories were raided and 680 immigrants were detained that day.
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Maria currently faces deportation back to a dangerous living situation in Mexico, and Audrey continues to work to keep Maria’s family together and in the U.S.
A personal touch: A child of Korean immigrants, Audrey says that she’d always been interested in immigration law, but her current job doesn’t give her much exposure to it.
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After finding a project listing from MCJ on We The Action, she signed up to help young immigrants apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. But the organization quickly followed up to ask if she’d take on a case resulting from the ICE raids.
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Since their first conversation in September 2020, Audrey has spent more than 100 hours on Maria’s case, including working with a translator to have Zoom conversations with her and meet her family.
A source of support. Maria grew to trust Audrey so deeply that, after she experienced a violent robbery in her Mississippi home during the holidays, Maria immediately contacted Audrey for support and advice.
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“It really speaks volumes to Audrey’s commitment to both being an attorney and a person of support for her client,” said Max Meyers, an immigration attorney for the Mississippi Center for Justice. “In a traumatic time, Audrey was the only person Maria could think of to help her.”
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Over the holidays Audrey helped Maria navigate the immediate aftermath of the robbery, and even found new opportunities to help Maria stay in the United States.
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“I don’t feel like I did anything extraordinary,” Audrey says. “I just feel honored that she trusted me enough to talk about it.”
“She wants to fight until the very end.” Max says that Audrey’s dedication to building a relationship with Maria makes her a particularly effective and compassionate advocate.
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“Audrey has an ability to connect and build a relationship with her client,” he says. “She’s an incredibly dedicated and present attorney in their life.”
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In all, the Mississippi Center for Justice has already assigned 75 cases to pro bono attorneys and now offers DACA application support for any qualified Mississippian.
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“The only reason we’re able to do work like this is because of attorneys like Audrey,” he says. “Otherwise, we couldn’t have the people power and capacity to do this work.”
“A major impact in someone’s life.” Audrey knows that lawyers are often very busy, but says her experience has shown her how critical pro bono work is to underrepresented communities.
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“After going to law school, you tend to take for granted all the knowledge you gain,” she says. “But after working with Maria, I don’t know how someone could navigate these processes without a lawyer in your corner.”
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She emphasizes that volunteering doesn’t necessarily have to be a time-consuming project -- you can use We The Action to find a project that fits your schedule.
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I think any volunteer work is important, but it doesn’t have to take a lot of time,” she says. “Sometimes all you need is an hour, but it has a major impact in someone’s life.”
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