I wanted to work in the field of social justice when I started law school at the University of Texas. I knew I would be able to help in the Immigration Clinic because I speak Spanish, so I decided to enroll. As a student at the Clinic, my first assignment was to visit the Hutto immigrant detention center. There, I met with a detained family of asylum seekers who had a five-month-old baby girl.

She was wearing a onesie issued by the prison. Her mom asked me if I would hold her during our meeting because I smelled like the outside world, and when I got up to leave our meeting, she asked me if I could sneak her baby out with me and take care of her until her parents could get out. Although I couldn’t do that, I did represent the family in their successful asylum case. The elation I felt at helping obtain that family’s release and secure their future coupled with the horror I felt at seeing children in jail, made my choice easy: I will spend my career fighting for justice and dignity for immigrants.