“I’m going to be trapped in here forever.” Quotes like this one weren’t said occasionally nor found to be few and far between. Rather, they were regular occurrences and statements that people in my office often heard. As I took phone calls for old and new clients, I was stupefied, sorrowful, and downright appalled at what my clients had gone through. However, this is all in a day’s work as a practitioner of Immigration Law. Through the Laidlaw Foundation’s Undergraduate Leadership and Research Program, I exercised my second year as a scholar by conducting my Leadership in Action (LiA) summer in the U.K. As a Legal Intern and Caseworker Volunteer, I purposefully chose to work alongside Bail for Immigration Detainees (BiD), a nonprofit dedicated to earning bail for detained individuals, as this organization is renowned for its extraordinary work and ideal location in the heart of London.

It’s one thing to be an ally; it’s another to sympathize with the mass influx of immigrants that come into this nation, but it’s an entirely different thing to be able to work within this field and actively be a conduit for others to rely on for their freedom. This lesson and many others were scenarios that humbled me, forcing me to leave my comfort zone. Dealing with real cases is no joke. It isn’t for the faint of heart and is emotionally tolling. I cannot lie and say this experience was a walk in the park. It was strenuous, stressful, and inadvertently intimidating. However, the reward of seeing my clients reach a state of euphoric peace and calmness was worth every bit of the hard work I put into my six weeks at BiD. Initially, my Legal Directors and Legal Managers asked me to run the informational hotline with the rest of my colleagues. Little did I know that this would only be the start of my job as my bosses would eventually put on a series of additional projects that defined my tenure in Europe.

From conducting client satisfaction and general condition surveys to writing Parliamentary reports to even being assigned my list of 20 clients, my dedication to giving 100% effort and constantly churning out the best work was displayed consistently. So much so that I eventually took the lead (alongside a third-party attorney that our firm hired) to work on the infamous “Rwanda Project” for the final four weeks of my job. Established by the previously ruling Torrey Party, this right-wing project was enacted a few years prior but brought back again in June to detain as many illegal immigrants as possible and either place them in Immigration Removal Centres (IRC) or prison. After a month of federal raids, the Home Office (the equivalent to ICE in America) took 50 individuals into custody and ordered that they have an imminent deportation to Rwanda by July 1st. Having arrived at BiD two weeks before the announcement, I knew that time was not on our side.

To alleviate some of our concerns, BiD partnered with England’s top’ Magic Circle Firms’ to see if their Pro-Bono teams could take on some of these cases. Early in the project, though, we realized that a willingness to help doesn’t necessarily equate to a desire to show diligence or carefulness in the work handed back to us. Regardless of these big-name firms’ prestige, it was insufficient to behave in this manner and impertinent to the client. Because of this, my partner and I took on the rest of the cases ourselves. Throughout the time spent on this project, I made the initial phone call, scavenged for documents, filled out the necessary paperwork (e.g., a B1 bail application, bail or asylum grounds, and prepared a bundle of the collected personal documents), attended court, and also provided the client §905 accommodation (if needed) and or financial support. By my final day at BiD, my team successfully freed all 50 individuals from detention, ultimately beating their deportation orders and allowing them to stay in the U.K. lawfully. On my final day, I had one case left to go and won my client bail as he told me something I will never forget. He said, “You gave me another chance at life,” and this is something that I will always want to bring to those in my communities at home and abroad. This case signaled the end of my time in London and the end of this project entirely, as a few days later, the U.K. held its general elections, and the Labour Party came out on top, declaring an end to any extreme immigration measures.

This joint feat was nothing short of amazing, and I am very fortunate to be a part of such a great cause and impact the lives of so many worthy people. At the end of the day, everyone is human, and they shouldn’t be confined to a state of disarray or excluded from having a dream of a fair shot at a proper life. Coming from America, I was naïve, held captive in my own nationalized Eco-chamber, to what the European political system was. In actuality, there are so many similarities between the U.S. and the U.K. with how many degrading, abusive, and callous immigration policies are put in place. If our elected officials led with complete social and cultural awareness, had the intelligence to empathize with EVERYONE, and built purposeful coalitions, we would have a much different world today. This doesn’t mean that society must always be this way, though. There will ALWAYS be alternative options, and there is a bright future that we can all work towards. As stated in the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, we can reduce inequalities and have more robust, peaceful, and just intuitions. We just need to self-reflect and cite all the flaws we have first.

I owe immense gratitude and appreciation to the Laidlaw Foundation, Georgetown University, and my colleagues at BiD for allowing me to be ambitious, brave, curious, and determined throughout my six-week journey. My eyes were opened in more ways than I could ever imagine. I learned every single day on the job and will take my newfound knowledge with me throughout the rest of my professional and academic endeavors.