September 25, 2023
Read KIND’s intern, Caroline Abramovici, on her journey through law school, her invaluable summer at KIND, and her unwavering commitment to social justice through immigration law.
I am entering my fourth year at Emory Law school this fall and I knew coming into law school that I wanted to be an immigration attorney. I’m originally from South Florida, and my mom is from Ecuador. Growing up I witnessed first-hand how confusing and frustrating the immigration system can be for non-citizens, especially when you don’t have someone to help guide you through it. Throughout law school I have interned and worked with a number of public interest organizations and fell in love with law as a tool for social justice.
I spent my summer at KIND gaining a better understanding of immigration law and the different forms of relief available to immigrants. Going to a law firm and watching KIND attorneys present to pro bono attorneys about the children we help and breaking down the relevant law to them was one way that I started to understand how to tackle a case. Immigration law, with all its acronyms and agencies, can be confusing. But the KIND attorneys who I shadowed broke down the process of common forms of immigration relief and the different players in a seamless way that was easy to understand. KIND attorneys present this complicated area of the law in a skillful, visual way that helps the information be manageable.
My favorite assignments this summer involved talking to clients and getting to know them better. When conducting a client intake, I asked children about their lives in their home countries and what they hope for their futures. These are personal questions that sometimes involve clients sharing traumatic or upsetting situations. Creating a rapport with them and ensuring the clients are comfortable was important to me and something that KIND attorneys modeled. I loved starting an intake with a child who was shy and quiet, and witnessing how they became more comfortable as we talked and got to know one another better. I underestimated how hard it could be to get a child to open up and speak about their experience, but the paralegals and attorneys at KIND taught me how to help a child feel at ease when speaking about uncomfortable situations. Using toys and telling children they can take breaks if the topic of discussion is overwhelming are great ways to allow a child to feel more comfortable.
The immigration system can be daunting, especially for people who don’t speak English. For young children it’s even more confusing to understand the complexities of their immigration cases. KIND’s work is essential because we help the most vulnerable population: children who are alone. There are already enough barriers present in immigration court; not having legal representation because of financial struggles should not be one of them. I’m grateful for KIND’s effort to ensure that as many kids as possible have access to quality legal representation in immigration court.