Megan Kludt
Curran & Berger Immigration Attorney
“There's myriad statuses that people are looking for.”
What made you choose immigration work, specifically the family and humanitarian aspects you specialize in at your company?
My plan was to go into International law. I really liked languages and linguistics and I spoke Spanish and Portuguese and that was what I thought I would do. I had been teaching English in Cambodia and I thought I'd be going to different places around the world to do international law. But, I realized while in law school- I mean a couple of things: I was dating an immigrant who didn't have status and so I became very close to the Brazilian community through that. And I found that so many of them needed help and that there were ways that I could help. And it was nice [that] you could be involved in multiple communities in the United States, whereas if you travel around or you're doing international law in other places you’re really only going to have the one place where you end up. Whereas with immigration, everybody comes to you. I could speak Spanish to somebody from Guatemala in the morning. I could speak Portuguese to somebody else in the afternoon, and then I could have an immigration interview with somebody from Cambodia. So it was actually more international to me to be in immigration.
But, I also went to Cambodia to do work in international law and actually found I didn't like it because it was too narrow. When you're doing law here in the United States, you are affecting somebody's life immediately. You are advocating for them, you have a case in front of you, you fight for them. And then you win and you look them in the eye and it means something to them. And it's enjoyable. You form a lot of personal connections. Whereas with international law, the role more often is that you're working on one small piece of something much much bigger than you. So there may be a hundred people working on revising a new land law for an indigenous community somewhere and that's great work and it's very powerful work that affects many people, but it didn't have that individual component that I found mattered to me.
In your role do you help people to become citizens of the United States, and if so could you tell us a little about that process?
The way the question is phrased is a little simplistic for what immigration law entails. There are many different kinds of statuses: there's temporary status, there's permanent status, there's citizenship. Basically you have citizens, you have green card holders- they can stay here permanently, you can have visa holders- that's a lawful status that can be as short as a month or as long as 10 years, and then there are other programs like DACA** that are basic parole programs or temporary humanitarian programs to protect people, such as Temporary Protected Status; if there's a natural disaster in a country a lot of times the U.S. will designate that country for protection for a while. So I feel like when people say, ‘Oh you help people get citizenship,’ that's only a tiny fraction of what it's about when you think of immigration law. There are myriad statuses that people are looking for.*
My plan was to go into International law. I really liked languages and linguistics and I spoke Spanish and Portuguese and that was what I thought I would do. I had been teaching English in Cambodia and I thought I'd be going to different places around the world to do international law. But, I realized while in law school- I mean a couple of things: I was dating an immigrant who didn't have status and so I became very close to the Brazilian community through that. And I found that so many of them needed help and that there were ways that I could help. And it was nice [that] you could be involved in multiple communities in the United States, whereas if you travel around or you're doing international law in other places you’re really only going to have the one place where you end up. Whereas with immigration, everybody comes to you. I could speak Spanish to somebody from Guatemala in the morning. I could speak Portuguese to somebody else in the afternoon, and then I could have an immigration interview with somebody from Cambodia. So it was actually more international to me to be in immigration.
But, I also went to Cambodia to do work in international law and actually found I didn't like it because it was too narrow. When you're doing law here in the United States, you are affecting somebody's life immediately. You are advocating for them, you have a case in front of you, you fight for them. And then you win and you look them in the eye and it means something to them. And it's enjoyable. You form a lot of personal connections. Whereas with international law, the role more often is that you're working on one small piece of something much much bigger than you. So there may be a hundred people working on revising a new land law for an indigenous community somewhere and that's great work and it's very powerful work that affects many people, but it didn't have that individual component that I found mattered to me.
In your role do you help people to become citizens of the United States, and if so could you tell us a little about that process?
The way the question is phrased is a little simplistic for what immigration law entails. There are many different kinds of statuses: there's temporary status, there's permanent status, there's citizenship. Basically you have citizens, you have green card holders- they can stay here permanently, you can have visa holders- that's a lawful status that can be as short as a month or as long as 10 years, and then there are other programs like DACA** that are basic parole programs or temporary humanitarian programs to protect people, such as Temporary Protected Status; if there's a natural disaster in a country a lot of times the U.S. will designate that country for protection for a while. So I feel like when people say, ‘Oh you help people get citizenship,’ that's only a tiny fraction of what it's about when you think of immigration law. There are myriad statuses that people are looking for.*
Could you tell us about any stand-out stories that you've had in your work?
Usually the stories that are most satisfying to me are when somebody's case is very difficult or complicated and then we manage to win it anyway. We had somebody who was from Pakistan whose case had been going on for about 12 years- actually I guess more like 20 years- and no matter what he did- he went through a string of really bad lawyers- and no matter what he did it seemed that immigration was just determined to find some way to deny his case. They basically told him he needed a waiver for fraud. He didn't commit any fraud but then he submitted the waiver because they told him to, and then they told him that, ‘Oh see… you submitted a waiver; you conceded fraud then.’ And so it was just a very involved process where, he had this tiny little child that was really dependent on him, and his wife who just loved him dearly, and he was an Imam at a mosque and it just seemed like no matter what, immigration would always find some way to deny his case. And then we finally got the case in front of a judge- a good judge- and we had a very big day in court where he was finally heard out; the judge talked to his wife and saw his little girl. His little girl- we couldn't get her out of the courtroom because she wouldn't let go of his leg and she just kept running up to her daddy. And it was incredibly satisfying because the judge granted the case and after so many years of being denied over and over at every turn… oh man, what an amazing day. It was a little weird because earlier in the week both of them- because I knew the case was going to be really hard- they kept telling me they were having these dreams all week of the courtroom and in one moment the wife said, ‘I just had this dream that I'm sitting outside the courtroom and at one point you stick your head out and you say: ‘We won the case.’’ And it ended up being- the way she described the courtroom- was exactly the way the courtroom was, and the whole thing just played out exactly as they had been dreaming. So it was kind of one of those surreal moments where you have to wonder a little bit. So that was probably my most memorable recent case.
Humanitarian Work
And now I'm pretty involved in starting a volunteer group here in the valley that does things like try to get people out on bond when they've been detained. We're seeing a lot of people getting detained now just walking home from bringing their kids to school… just people showing up for court hearings, criminal court, civil court and getting picked up by ICE outside and we're looking for volunteers.
In Northampton, this happens?
Not here in Northampton, but in Springfield, Holyoke... don't forget they’re part of the same community as Northampton. They need us more than Northampton does. Sometimes Northampton residents can forget that they are nearby and that they’re not another country; they are adjacent to us and part of our community. And it’s a mess. It's really really troubling stuff. Most of the actual immigrants are not here; they're in those communities. It can be a little frustrating because there is an overwhelming interest in Northampton to help immigrants who are in Northampton but there are so many people who have so much need right over in Springfield.
We’ve been talking about those advocacy efforts in Northampton and wondering, ‘How much of it is effective and how much is feel-good work for advocates?’.Humanitarian Work
And now I'm pretty involved in starting a volunteer group here in the valley that does things like try to get people out on bond when they've been detained. We're seeing a lot of people getting detained now just walking home from bringing their kids to school… just people showing up for court hearings, criminal court, civil court and getting picked up by ICE outside and we're looking for volunteers.
In Northampton, this happens?
Not here in Northampton, but in Springfield, Holyoke... don't forget they’re part of the same community as Northampton. They need us more than Northampton does. Sometimes Northampton residents can forget that they are nearby and that they’re not another country; they are adjacent to us and part of our community. And it’s a mess. It's really really troubling stuff. Most of the actual immigrants are not here; they're in those communities. It can be a little frustrating because there is an overwhelming interest in Northampton to help immigrants who are in Northampton but there are so many people who have so much need right over in Springfield.
I think that everybody should be asking that question a lot because there's a lot of feel-good advocacy stuff going on and not always enough of the actual ‘How can we make an impact?’ Which is why [we needed] the organization we've come up with now, the Immigrant Protection Project of Western Mass, which has been live for about 3 weeks now. We have a call center for immigrants to call in so we can try to refer people to appropriate services in the valley and pretty much anywhere in Western Mass, but we also have a few direct service teams we've set up. We set up a group of volunteer family based attorneys who are going to be doing family law in the immigration context. And then I'm running the bond team. So this is lawyers and helpers- once people get picked up we are actually taking on the case to represent them pro bono to get them out of custody on bond. So that we've been doing a lot. We are already on our fifteenth case since we started. And then, we're setting up a third team which will be more involved in bigger picture impact litigation for cases as we start to see more and more that people are getting picked up in odd places. They're getting picked up at courthouses; they are getting picked up near schools, just wherever ICE can find them and they're being held for a week before ICE even processes their paperwork. So we're looking at habeas actions and bigger picture litigation coordinating with the rest of the country. So for me it’s good because my frustration is with a lot of the, ‘Oh let's advocate,’ but nobody does anything. So with this group we we are trying to get to that point. So that's why whenever people are, especially college kids, are saying, “What do I do?” …well, join our team! We’ll put you on the volunteer rotation and then when you're up you can actually do stuff- you know, go home and write stuff for an actual client and help make a difference.
But, there's so much going on right now that it's exciting times, you know? Everybody's got to figure out where they're going to stand.
And what they’re going to focus on.
"Yeah, I mean, nobody can do everything, you know? So everybody's just got to be like, ‘What can I do? What am I good at?’ or ‘Where can I make my stand?’ and let that be enough."
*Please see our other page, "Supporting Documents" for a list of U.S. statuses and information on DACA.