subbah-el-kheir, mingalarba, hola, bonjour, Guten Tag, buon giorno--
Or from me, Sarah, its just 'Hello!'
I am working with Molly in the detention section of the Center. Yesterday was an exciting day for me as I was able to file a motion I had helped to prepare in the Immigration Court. I even had to sign my name on a portion...I am on an official court document! Yes, it was merely signing that I was serving the motion, but why bother with the details. It still counts. Our exciting day turned a little scary as I nearly lead Molly and I to a slow death in the stairwells of the immigration court building. Far from a big city gal, I didn't really understand the concept of certain elevators only assigned to certain floors. When I could not find the elevator that went to the floor I wanted to be on, Molly and I got on an elevator that would take us one floor above the one we wanted, thinking we could just take the stairs down a flight. We headed towards th shining "Exit" and "Stairs" signs as we stepped off the elevator, me thinking all the while that it was an ingenious plan. We head into the stairwell and start down to the next floor. We grab the handle to get out on the floor of the Immigration Court. It was locked. We head back up to the floor we came in on...but no surprise, that door was locked as well. Not yet in a state of panic, we start down the 20 flights of stairs we need to go down to get to the main floor to start our journy over again. All was going well until we hit the 12th floor and came face to face with a door which screamed in a big red sign "Emergency Exit Only. Do not open or alarm will sound." Oh. My. Goodness. We were going to be forever trapped in a stairwell. And with only a 1/2 semester of law school left. Molly suggested going through the red door, but all I could picture was alarms blaring, fire sprinklers going off, and 30+ stories worth of people evacuating....and me unable to take the bar because I have some sort of strange felony charge for setting the whole thing off. Nope, I wasn't going to risk that. I was content with spending the rest of my life in the stairwell. We tried pounding on the outside door for a while to no avail. Just as we we about to head back up to try another door, the maintenance man came to our rescue. Only at first I was a little nervous that we were in some scary movie where you get stuck in a stairwell with no phones and no way out....and you think someone is coming to your rescue only to take you to some hidden room to be their prisoner forever. But, maybe I watch too many movies. He simply asked why the heck we were in the stairwell and then let us out and told us not to go in there again. Point well taken, sir.
After he saved our lives, we headed to the immigration court to file the motion, then down to DHS to official serve them their copy. As I am sure they get many, many filings each day, I am going to guess that the clerks were slightly weirded out by my excitement at my FIRST official immigration filing with the court. I felt like streamers should fall, balloons should drop and I should get a ribbon. They did not give me a ribbon, but I was still excited. My attorney mentioned that a decision may come in on the motion before the end of the week!
On a more serious note, our work here has been fantastic. We are being exposed to the facinating, but heartbreaking, wonderful, but broken world of immigration law. We are surrounded by attorneys and staff that are passionate and fantastic at what they do. They care for the people the help and they help so many. Our work has been so hands-on, which translates to an incredible, meaningful, education experience. The outreach from the alumni (who have provided fantastic dining experiences) has been overwhelming. It is a comforting fact to know that the Wash U Law "family" is so prevelant and so willing to embrace their students. And although I am sure trying, I am not sure I can fit enough adjectives into what the experience has been....
For those of you who helped make it possible...THANKS! (or maybe danke, gracias, grazie, 谢谢, Sukran.....)
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