"I want to be a lawyer, so I can help the children."

A personal note from Immigration Clinic Director Michael Kagan:

Over the last few months, our clinic said goodbye to Alissa Cooley and Katelyn Leese, two brilliant clinic alums and AmeriCorps fellows who built our unaccompanied children project. With little support, they took on the defense of more than 100 children who fled violence in Central America, and who otherwise would face deportation proceedings alone. 

As a tribute to them, I want to repeat a story Katelyn told me recently. At an asylum interview, the asylum officer asked Katelyn's 13-year-old client "what do you want to be when you grow up?" The girl answered: "I want to be a lawyer, so I can help the children."

We will keep their work going.