NEW YORK, June 12, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC), the country’s first fellowship program wholly dedicated to meeting immigrants’ need for high-quality legal assistance, announced today its 2019 Community Fellowship class. This select group of talented and promising recent college graduates will provide individualized legal screening and representation in immigration benefits applications to underserved immigrant communities, serving as first responders to the IJC program.
Fourteen graduates from colleges across the country were chosen for the prestigious Fellowship at IJC, which was conceived of by Robert A. Katzmann, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and incubated by The Robin Hood Foundation in 2013.
“This cohort of IJC community fellows is exceptional and, with the training that IJC provides, will contribute greatly to ensuring access to justice for immigrants and their families,” said Judge Robert Katzmann.
Since 2014, IJC Community Fellows have filed more than 4,880 fee waiver applications and saved low-income clients nearly $3.2 million dollars in fees, winning 95% of cases closed. The Class of 2019 is the largest cohort of Community Fellows ever accepted into the Fellowship.
The 2019 Fellows offer extensive and broad backgrounds in immigration-related internships, jobs, and volunteerism. All the new Community Fellows are bilingual – 71% of the class are native Spanish speakers. In addition, members of the new class speak Arabic, Mandarin, French, Mandingo, and Korean.
Community Fellows become Department of Justice Accredited Representatives, which allows them to represent clients before USCIS. The Fellows will serve for two years embedded within immigrant communities mostly in and around New York City.
IJC is excited to announce that this year we are sending Community Fellows to two new locations. One Fellow will be placed at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) in Dilly, Texas and another to Building One Community in Stamford, Connecticut.
Immigrant Justice Corps’ Executive Director Jojo Annobil said, “I am excited to welcome the diverse and accomplished 2019 Class of Community Fellows. I am confident that this class will bring their impressive talents and passion for social justice to the underserved communities and immigrants they will be serving and, in so doing, make a positive change in the trajectories of immigrants' lives.”
This new class will join the 2018 class of 10 Community Fellows already in the field. Immigrant Justice Corps also employs Justice Fellows, recent law graduates who represent immigrants fighting deportation and seeking lawful status and citizenship. IJC announced the Class of 2019 Justice Fellows earlier this year.
The full list of 2019 Community Fellows is as follows:
| Fellow Name | University | 2019 IJC Fellowship Host Organization |
| Abu Bakr Toure | Lehman College | Sauti Yetu |
| Ana Beatriz Yanes Martinez | Carleton College | Brooklyn Public Library |
| Brian Elizalde | Brown University | Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) |
| Carlos David Aviles Castro | University of California Irvine | Building One Community |
| Cindy Zhunio | University of New Haven | New York Public Library |
| Eduardo Garcia Castañeda | John Jay College of Criminal Justice | The Long Island Project (IJC) |
| Elisa Nunez Gutierrez | City University of New York, Brooklyn College | The Long Island Project (IJC) |
| Jacqueline Campos | Wellesley College | Unlocal |
| Jeffrey Vides-Urrutia | Columbia University | Part of the Solution (POTS) |
| Micaela Rodriguez Tovar | University of California, Santa Barbara | Queens Public Library |
| Patricia Wong | Williams College | Chinese-American Planning Council |
| Rocío Mondragón Reyes | Georgetown University | Project Hospitality |
| Sam Karnes | University of Texas at Austin | Arab American Association of New York |
| ShoYoung Shin | Amherst College | MinKwon Center for Community Action |
About Immigrant Justice Corps
Immigrant Justice Corps is the country’s first fellowship program dedicated to meeting the unprecedented need for high-quality legal assistance for immigrants. Since 2014, IJC has trained 175 Justice Fellows and Community Fellows to provide exceptional legal services to more than 49,500 immigrants and their families.
Contact
Holly Cooper
Communications Manager
Immigrant Justice Corps
646-690-0472
hcooper@justicecorps.org
www.justicecorps.org
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cdf72f98-d6ac-48ac-85d5-c8352be294f3