Dilley Volunteers
In 2018, with immigration and asylum issues making headlines on a daily basis, about a dozen Chicago-Kent students from the Immigration Law Society spent their spring break providing pro bono legal services, supervised by alumna Samantha Lloyd ’13, at the South Texas Family Residential Detention Center in Dilley, Texas. The Dilley facility, located 80 miles from San Antonio, is the nation’s largest immigrant detention center and has the capacity to hold 2,600 migrant women and children seeking asylum in the United States.
Winter 2019 Trip
Given the success of the 2018 trip and the amount of work students did, before, during, and after their time in Dilley, Chicago-Kent is offering the experience again in January 2019, this time as a formal two-credit class that will count towards the law school’s Praxis Certificate.
Another group of students (about half of whom are making the trip for the first time) will travel to Dilley with Ms. Lloyd from January 12 to 19:
Rebecca Spira
Class of 2019
Dilley Statement: I am a 3L at Chicago-Kent and last year’s Immigration Law Society president. I’ve had the privilege of putting this trip together with Joanna Martin. I began my…
Joanna Martin
Class of 2019
Dilley Statement: I am a 3L student at Chicago-Kent College of law, a Los Angeles native, and proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. I am very involved at school and have…
Diana Gomez
Class of 2020
Dilley Statement: I am interested in going to Dilley to help the women and children who are detained, while learning more about asylum law. I believe that the influx of…
Melissa Ortega
Class of 2019
Dilley Statement: I am once again participating in this trip because it was such an impactful, albeit gut-wrenching, and rewarding experience. The asylum-seeking women and children that we were able…
Sam Dixon
Class of 2019
Dilley Statement: As someone working in indigent defense, I routinely navigate unequal power structures that prey on vulnerable people by weaponizing stereotypes, shortcuts, and fear. Our current immigration system is…
