Heaven Help Immigration Attorneys

Nuns in religious communities help immigrants find housing, education, and employment. But nuns also have law degrees. They serve as immigration attorneys who work to prevent undocumented minors and adults from being returned to countries where they could be killed. Advocating for Central Americas seeking asylum is an especially difficult challenge, since threats which justified asylum in the past, such as gang violence, no longer do.

In San Diego, California, every unaccompanied, detained child has received free legal representation by the Casa Cornelia Law Center, a nonprofit organization founded by two nuns from the Society of the Holy Child congregation. In 2017, Casa Cornelia served a total of 2,441 adults and children.

Nuns with law degrees also put their teaching backgrounds to work delivering presentations to help groups overcome their fear of immigrants and to understand complex laws affecting immigration: visas, removal defense, amnesty, asylum, temporary status designations, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Sister Attracta Kelley sees similarities between current attitudes toward immigrants and the attitudes toward racial integration she experienced when she was principal of a Catholic school in Montgomery, Alabama, in the early 1970s.

Sister Kelley points out she can take risks advocating for unpopular positions, because she knows she won't be fired. Sister Bernadine Karge, an attorney in the Dominican Order of Sinsinawa in Wisconsin, bravely speaks out as someone "in the crazy girls category of life." As Nobel Prize-winning physiologist, Rita Levi-Montalcini said before she died at age 103 in 2012, "The last period of my life, perhaps is the best."

Foreign Experiences Teach Students Hard Lessons

Otto Warmbier's plight is a sad reminder that international travel subjects students to the laws of foreign countries. In North Korea, Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for, what the local government considered, illegally removing a propaganda poster. He was returned to the United States in a coma and died.

     No matter how sympathetic students are with the causes that bring protesters to the streets in Moscow, Cairo, or Beijing, they need to remember that by joining a march they risk testing the limited power of diplomacy to release them from arrest or detention. When local governments have strict drug laws and penalties for photographing military guards and installations, ignorance is no defense from local prosecution. The time to write an article, give a speech, or take any other action about international injustices and harsh penalties is when a student is safely home.

     Without offering international opportunities, colleges and universities realize they would fail to prepare students for their future careers. In response to increased study abroad, the U.S. State Department has a one-stop information destination: studentsabroad.state.gov. One of the most important programs offered is STEP, the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. By enrolling with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate in the country a student plans to visit, the Embassy/Consulate knows where to issue a warning to leave the country if a coup or civil war is imminent and where to send news of a family emergency.

     At the State Department's general site for international travel, travel.state.gov, students will find information about:

• passports and visas,
• worldwide alerts and travel warnings for particular countries
• what to do in all sorts of emergencies, including lost passports, arrests & detentions, medical problems, and natural disasters.

Parents and students alike are well advised to go to travel.state.gov to learn ahead of time: The State Department's Role in a Crisis.