John Travis (’15) Receives Immigrant Justice Corps Fellowship
Travis will work with Catholic Charities on asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, removal defense, and U-visa cases.
BU Law student John Travis (’15) has been awarded a two-year fellowship from the Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC), a prestigious program placing recent law graduates with leading nonprofit immigration legal services organizations in New York.
Launched in 2014, IJC annually awards fellowships to a small group of graduating students with a demonstrated commitment to advocating for immigrants fighting deportation and seeking citizenship. Fellows participate in a comprehensive training program at the start of their two years, and meet biweekly thereafter for professional development activities and skills trainings. At the end of the fellowship, IJC Fellows are extraordinarily well trained, deeply networked in the immigrant rights community, and committed to developing creative strategies to fight poverty and ensure access to justice.
“To me, this fellowship means that I’ll get the chance to be a part of a new generation of lawyers that helps expand access to counsel for individuals in immigration proceedings,” says Travis.
Travis will work with Catholic Charities out of Manhattan, primarily on asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, removal defense, and U-visa cases. He will also travel several days a week to the Lower Hudson Valley offices to help expand Catholic Charities’ legal services north of the city, where there are fewer resources for indigent clients with immigration needs.
Growing up in Mexico, Travis is fluent in Spanish, which has greatly aided his ability to assist the immigrant community. He says he first became aware the scarcity of legal services available to this population while working as a legal assistant for a solo practitioner in San Francisco after graduating from UC Berkeley.
“Because there is no right to court-appointed counsel in immigration court, those who can’t afford a lawyer are forced to represent themselves in a complicated system against a government lawyer prosecuting their case and seeking to deport them,” explains Travis. “Whenever I went to Immigration Court, I witnessed individuals who had lived in the US for many years accept defeat and agree to be deported because they did not have the means to hire a lawyer to fight their case. The system struck me as incredibly unfair.”
After working on voting rights issues at the Brennan Center for Justice, Travis came to BU Law, where he began to focus on immigration law. One of his most inspiring experiences, he says, has been volunteering with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), which provides legal services to unaccompanied refugee and immigrant children in the US.
“The children I’ve worked with have all fled violence, poverty, or domestic violence in their home countries and risked their lives to come to the United States. KIND helps these children by securing a pro bono attorney to advocate on their behalf so that they don’t have to navigate the system on their own. For me, volunteering with KIND highlighted the importance of providing free legal services to indigent clients.“
Travis also participated in a BU Law spring break pro bono trip, led by Lecturer David McHaffey to Texas, where students volunteered with the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR).
“We spent a week working with an organization that represents immigrants detained by ICE near the border,” Travis says. “Mr. McHaffey is incredibly knowledgeable in immigration law and helped guide us through our assignments to make sure our work could make an impact in the short period of time we were there.”
Travis also spent a summer interning with Greater Boston Legal Services in the Immigration Unit. “Jane Rocamora, my supervisor, was an incredible mentor and really encouraged me throughout the past year to pursue a career in immigration law,” he says.
After reading an article in the New York Times about the newly launched IJC last year, Travis knew he wanted to apply. “The fellowship sounded like an incredible opportunity for recent graduates to gain experience in immigration law and provide legal services for immigrants who would otherwise not be able to afford a lawyer. I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of it.”
Travis says he is looking forward to his time with Catholic Charities and the IJC, after which he plans to continue pursuing a public interest career in immigration law. “The fellowship will provide me with excellent training and mentorship,” he says. “I think it’s a really exciting time to begin a career in immigration law, and I’m thrilled to have received the Immigrant Justice Corps Fellowship.”