On March 7, 2020, eight law students, accompanied by Professors Lynette Parker and Evangeline Abriel, spent their spring break week volunteering at the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Arizona. These inspiring students were S. Coleman, Chloe Czabaranek, Osvaldo Hidalgo Otamendi, Rigoberto Lua, Vasti Montiel, Ruby Palomares, Deisy Salas, and Victor Valdez Gonzalez. During the week, they worked with detained, pro se asylum seekers to complete asylum applications, researched country conditions to support the applications, researched a number of intricate legal issues, made phone calls to arrange placements for minor immigrants, met with the dedicated Florence Project attorneys and staff, and observed court proceedings. The students recorded their experiences in the following blogs.
March 14, 2020
And we’re done!!!
The day started out with everyone checking out of their hotel rooms and piling everything back into the cars. On our way to Phoenix, we stopped by a breakfast/brunch place that was basically a farm to table establishment on the actual farm. Everyone had a great time getting to enjoy one last meal as a group and getting to discuss our plans moving forward amid the changes with school attendance. Afterwards, we headed to the airport where our flight had been delayed about an hour. Before we knew it we were off and back to California!
