Week 8:
Immigration Law Keeps You on Your Toes

August 2, 2020

This week has been great for staying in to read a book with my time off. This is because we have gotten a lot of rain in Austin the past week due to the hurricane that hit Texas last week and then the tropical storm in Florida now. The rain is definitely needed since it hasn’t rained here for almost a month I think. The rain was so heavy on Friday afternoon I was in a local grocery store and the lights went out, and then the generator kicked in and we had light again, but it was quite an experience. 

Besides it raining a lot in Austin my internship has been going well. This week I started translating documents and it has been a lot of fun. I get to translate documents from Spanish to English such as passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, and more. I have mostly been translating government documents from Spanish to English. It is mostly simple phrases that I know but I really like translating the documents because I get to know more about the clients we are working with. 

Something else that has happened this week is an update with DACA and the USCIS changing their fees for how much asylum seekers/ immigrants have to pay for applying to be a citizen. DACA has changed now in that it is only good for a year and each case will be granted on a case-to-case basis and all first time DACA requests will be denied. As for USCIS, which stands for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has made it so people applying for asylum and other applications must pay for applications that have previously been free or of lower cost. The USCIS charging higher fees affects many law firms such as the one I am working at that are pro-bono. I have learned from working at an immigration law firm that things change really quickly and you have to keep up with it. I do not like that things change so quickly but I do like that as an immigration attorney you have to keep up to date with things and be knowledgeable about current events. 

I only have two more weeks left in Austin and I cannot believe how quickly this summer has gone by. I will miss my morning jogs and my movie nights on Friday with my roommate. It has been a great summer but also a weird summer with COVID-19 and such. Definitely one I won’t forget.