I am Helping them Realize their Dreams and Reuniting Families: Life of an Immigration Lawyer
Kimberly Medina, an immigration lawyer in Fort Collins shares what the immigration process might be like for immigrants coming to Fort Collins.
I showed up at Medina’s office, a little, charming red house located on Cherry Street, and suddenly I was greeted by Medina, who came flying down the road on her bicycle. Medina welcomed me into her office, even though it was a Sunday morning when they were usually closed.
The office felt inviting, as if you were stepping into your own home. There was a waiting room with children toys and multiple offices in different rooms. Medina said she wanted the office to feel comforting since the clients she works with often are going through a though process.
When you walk into Medina’s office, it feels like a private sanctuary where you can express your thoughts and concerns without feeling judged. You know that Medina is there to help you. However, I was only coming into the office for a mere interview. As we began talking, I quickly realized why someone coming to her for legal advice may not feel as relaxed. Here is our conversation:
Beyond the Oval: Tell me about yourself and how you ended up as an immigration lawyer.
Kimberly Medina: “I originally started practicing law in San Fransisco in the early ’90s. I worked with homeless families and did a lot of community-based, poverty-based law. After some time, I moved to Honduras for six years, but then came back to Fort Collins, since it’s where I grew up and it’s where my family lives. After I returned, I went back into the practice of law and that’s when I started practicing immigration law in 2013.”
What were you doing in Honduras?
Nothing law related. I worked in restaurants mostly.
Why did you decide to study immigration law?
I actually didn’t study immigration law while in school. I studied income inequality and poverty, so initially, I did law and organizing with homeless families in San Francisco. I then worked for the BAR Association of San Francisco with their homeless advocacy project, working specifically with homeless people in San Francisco.
I shifted to immigration law after coming back from Honduras for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I understood what it was like being an immigrant in another country and then coming back here, it opened my eyes to what people experienced, to a certain degree. Obviously, I had more freedom and options than most people who come here. Secondly, there wasn’t anyone practicing immigration law in the area.
Do you think being an immigrant in Honduras had any similarities to what it’s like for immigrants coming to the United States?
Well, I had options. I could return to the United States any time I wanted, and that’s not an option for a lot of people here. I could always legally enter and exit Honduras, whereas most people when they come here, don’t have the option of returning home. However, there were some similarities. Being away from your culture, being away from your people, being away from your family, your language, your food, your music. So that was somewhat similar.
How would you describe the majority of your clients?
Most of my clients are Spanish-speaking, since I speak Spanish. If I spoke another language, I may have more clients from other counties. My client base has definitely shifted over the past couple of years. When I first started, most of my clients were from Northern Mexico who had mostly lived in the United States for ten years or more.
Now, a majority of my clients are from Central America and are families with children or unaccompanied minors (people who come to the United States who are under the age of 18 without a parent).
Most of my clients are also in deportation proceedings. I do a lot of deportation defense now than I did when I started.
Are most of your clients documented or undocumented?
Both. The important thing about my undocumented clients is that they often come from mixed documented families, meaning that they may have a child who is a US citizen or a spouse that is a legal permanent resident. My clients often include the whole family. I may be representing, for example, a woman who is undocumented, but has children that were born in the United States.
Does their relationship with a documented family member change the law in any way?
No. The law makes it very difficult to legalize your status, so people need to understand, as we debate immigration policy, that when we say people need to ‘get in line’, there’s no line to get in. The lines that do exist here very, very long. For example, if you are a US citizen who is trying to get your adult child documented, the wait is about 25 years. And even so, most people don’t have that kind of family relationship that would allow them to get in that line. Even if you meet someone undocumented and you want to marry them, they are required to go back to their country of origin for at least 10 years before coming back to the United States.
The laws don’t permit most people to gain or fix immigration status. It’s a broken system. We have millions of people here who are living in mixed-status families who are unable to fix their status. And these are people who are paying to send their kids to school and going to parent-teacher conferences and coaching the soccer team.
So it’s not like that movie “The Proposal” where you get married and become a citizen immediately?
No, it doesn’t work like that. There are a lot of myths out there about how easy it is. For example, anchor babies, where you have a child here and you get a green card. Not true. You get married and get a green card. Not true. People don’t want to wait in line so that’s why they cross the border. Not true. People don’t want to spend the money. Not true. My clients would spend any amount of money to fix their status and become legal residents.
Leaving your country is a huge decision and no one takes that decision lightly. They are leaving behind everything that they know, so it’s a desperate move. And then, once they get here, they can’t go back.
What other challenges do people face when they first arrive here?
Unfortunately, especially in the last couple of years, there’s a lot more discrimination and hate and fear. I have a friend that doesn’t want to drop their kid off at school or take them to Wal-Mart to go shopping after the El Paso shooting. There’s always been a sense of fear and exclusion, but it’s definitely heightened right now.
We need to look at the message we are sending as a community and a country. I don’t think that’s who we are as a country and I think people should feel that they are hated and unwanted. I have friends who have been accused of stealing at stores and turns out they weren’t or being accused of trying to look at other peoples credit cards while waiting in line. It goes on and on.
What can people do to understand the immigrant community and help them on their journey?
We have to get away from the de-humanizing rhetoric. We can’t talk about people coming from shithole countries and that people who are coming here are gang members, rapists, and whatever else, because it’s not true. We need to get our values and morals back.
As far as the law goes, we need some good immigration reform. We need to ahem a system that helps people who have been here for a long time to legalize their status. We can’t tear 12 million people out of our society and not have a gaping hole. Especially when you’re talking about people who have been here for 10, 15, or 20 years.
Even if a business owner wants to hire someone from another country to come work here, there’s no visa for that. We need a way to have people come here temporarily or permanently in order to work or be with their family.
What do you say to the people who claim that immigrants take away our jobs and our welfare benefits?
People really need to do their research. First of all, immigrants can’t get public benefits, even if they are a legal resident, unless they have been living here lawfully for at least five years. That means any federal public benefit. Undocumented people cannot access any benefits, period. When people say they’re getting Medicaid and food stamps, they aren’t. It’s simply not true.
As far as jobs, our economy is strong because we have immigrant labor. For example, in 2006, there was a nation-wide immigration raid at the Swift meat-packing plant, one of which was in Greeley. We deported 350 Mexicans and Guatemalans who worked at the plant, but no one in Northern Colorado wanted to fill those positions afterward. So, Swift had to bring in 350 refugees from Somalia because no one in Northern Colorado wants to work in meatpacking. I know my kids don’t want to work in meatpacking. Most kids who are looking for a job would rather work at a call center than slice up raw meat in a freezing building.
Immigrants also account of a lot of small-business owners and jobs like construction, so they’re not just sitting at home taking welfare.
What do immigrants think when they hear all the anti-immigration rhetoric?
It’s really hard. You think about how much a young immigrant is going through, say, graduating high school, trying to go to college, and more big transitions, so there’s already a lot of pressure. On top of that, they could be sent back to a country that they may or may not know at any time. I can’t imagine the emotional stress and trauma of that.
And, because the current administration took away programs like DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), these people have to wake up every morning and watch the news to see if they are they are going to be deported or not. And that is their reality every single day. That’s a horrible place to be in.
What do you think people misunderstand about immigration or immigration lawyers?
Well, immigration lawyers have become a target of the federal government recently because we’ve been accused of submitting fake applications and other untrue things. For immigration, I think people don’t understand that I am responsible for giving them legal advice, but then I also have to provide them resources such as psychological therapists for metal evaluations after trauma or forensic specialists to look scars from being cut by a machete or sexual assault, and at the same time trying to prepare a legal case.
Another misconception is that gang members are coming to the border, and that is not true. I want to be very clear about that. Gang members have it really good in their own countries and they basically control those countries. The people who are coming to our border and the ones who are fleeing those groups. They are mostly women and children who are fleeing those horrific situations.
Unfortunately, one of the things that the government did, starting at the beginning of January of 2017, is that anyone who comes to Colorado, along with nine other locations, who has a child is put in an expedited deportation process, so their cases will be finished within 12 months after they enter the country. That makes my job hard because I have to do all of this within six months and fight the case. We have to figure out how to prepare this really complex case, along with all the psychological and medical evaluations within those six months.
What is the most rewarding part of your job and the most challenging?
Those most rewarding part is my clients. They’re great people. I am helping them realize their dreams, helping them save their lives, and helping them get together with family. In that sense, it’s very rewarding.
The most challenging part is that we are subject to political change, so practicing immigration law under two different presidents can change the job completely. The government is constantly cutting off communication, so we are practicing law in the dark right now.
What can college students do to change the perception on campus, more specifically Colorado State University, where I attend?
You can be supportive of the immigrant groups on campus and be aware of their challenges. I know recently there was a job fair on campus and the Border Patrol was invited to have a booth. That made the DACA students and the undocumented students terrified and ended up not going to the job fair. Students should stand behind these groups and ask their university to not invite groups, like the Border Patrol, on to campus because we want our friends and our fellow students to be able to attend events like job fairs.
Also bringing speakers onto the campus to share experiences and create awareness can make us better as a nation. So, supporting groups on campus that talk about immigration and international issues and refugee issues can be really helpful.
I’d like to thank Kimberly Medina for providing the time and space for this interview. If you, or someone you know, needs an immigration lawyer in the Northern Colorado area, I highly recommend Kim Medina and support the work she is doing. Her contact information is provided below:
Immigration Law Office of Kimberly Baker Medina
308 Cherry St, Fort Collins, CO 80521
(970) 388–3332
http://immigrationlawfortcollins.com
