In the article below, Jill Scott, Associate General Counsel at the Allen Institute, shares her firsthand experience as a volunteer attorney with WIDEN’s pilot program.
Jill explains the motivation behind her involvement in immigration defense, her personal experience defending asylum seekers held in detention, and the way that WIDEN’s program enabled her, a busy career woman and mother of two, to proactively defend immigrants’ rights in Washington state.
WIDEN was envisioned and co-founded by Tahmina as a result of her experience running Watson Immigration Law and as a mother of two concerned about the defense of human rights at the border. The nonprofit provides a model to raise low-bono funds for immigration attorneys, specialists who are then paired with volunteer non-immigration attorneys in order to defend immigrants facing life-or-death decisions in court.
Jill’s involvement in WIDEN ‘s first cases has proved invaluable and we are pleased to share her article on the blog. Please access the article at the link here.