An Interview with Gala Awardee Kyle Dandelet
1.) What inspired you to pursue your line of work?
My first pro bono client. When I was a first-year litigation associate at Cleary, I volunteered to represent a young woman in her removal proceedings. She had recently fled to New York City after her abusive father and brothers had threatened her with forced marriage and an honor killing. As we awaited my client’s individual hearing, her father and brothers found her in New York City, abducted her, brought back to her home country, and did exactly as they had threatened: they sedated her, locked her in a room, regularly beat her, and finalized her forced marriage. While my client was being held captive, a sympathetic cleaning lady lent her a cell phone so she could call me. Through a series of small miracles, we were able to coordinate the client’s escape and get her paroled back into the U.S. We secured asylum for her, and she naturalized as a U.S. citizen last year.
My client singlehandedly changed the trajectory of my career and inspired me to become an immigration attorney. She taught me that the protections of U.S. immigration law are needed and real. She also showed me how critically important legal representation is. Simply put, if Cleary and the organization that referred us the case, Sanctuary for Families, hadn’t come into the client’s life, she wouldn’t have had anyone to call when the cleaning lady gave her a phone. In 2015, I left Cleary to join Sanctuary for Families, where I provided immigration representation to survivors of gender violence in the Bronx. I loved my clients and was proud to be their attorney. In 2017, I returned to Cleary to manage the firm’s pro bono immigration practice. In my current position, I try to inspire Cleary attorneys to do immigration work and to seek out the same transformative experiences that my first pro bono case was for me.
2.) Describe an impactful situation that has occurred since you’ve been in your current position.
Since I’ve been in my current position at Cleary, one of the most impactful moments happened while I was driving through a small town at the U.S./Canadian border as part of a “lawyers caravan” organized by Immigrant ARC. In May of 2019, a small group of us provided legal screenings and Know Your Rights presentations to dairy farm workers in remote communities across upstate New York. The first person I met was a Guatemalan woman with a four-year-old child. As I was talking to her, I remember being struck by how completely isolated she was. Because CBP was so active in her community, she left the farm only when it was absolutely necessary and – like many others in her community – she was afraid to drive at risk of being pulled over and referred to ICE. If she ever needed to buy groceries or medicine, she was forced to pay exploitative drivers a full day’s wages to take her two miles down the road to Walmart. The woman’s child had severe health problems and learning disabilities – but in over three years, the woman had never been able to communicate with the child’s doctor. She had also never spoken to an attorney and was starved for the most basic information.
At the end of the day, as I was driving through the woman’s town, I realized that there was absolutely no sign that a large, Central American population lived there. Not only were the farm workers isolated, but they were also completely invisible. Over the past few years, I had spent a lot of time and energy trying to find ways for Cleary attorneys to meaningfully contribute to work around the Zero Tolerance Policy, the DACA rescission, the Remain in Mexico Policy, and the other headline-making events of that era. But after meeting the Guatemalan woman, I was more cognizant of the fact that legal assistance is just as sorely needed in the places where no one is looking – including in our own communities.
3.) What is the most rewarding part of your job? Why?
Aside from the case work I do, the most rewarding part of my job is when I’m able to serve as a bridge between the law firms and legal services providers and marshal resources toward a common cause. Last summer, DHS and the DOJ published a proposed rule that rewrote the asylum regulations, making them so stringent that few people would ever again qualify for this protection. Despite the fact that the proposed regulations touched upon all aspects of asylum law, DHS and the DOJ provided a public comment period of only 30 days – in the midst of a global pandemic. There were a number of Immigrant ARC member organizations that wanted to comment on the proposed regulations but didn’t have the capacity to do. During that time, Camille Mackler and I worked hard to match every single one of them with a law firm to help draft a comment. Together, we helped ensure that 19 legal services providers were able to tell the U.S. government how the proposed regulations would harm their clients and the delivery of legal services. My ability to serve as a liaison in these situations is unique – and I’m very grateful to be in that position.
4.) What changes would you like to see regarding immigration in the near future?
If I had a magic wand, the first change I would make to the immigration system would be to provide universal representation to individuals in removal proceedings.Every time I go to Immigration Court – and I mean every single time – I think about how terrifying and unfair it is that people are forced to navigate that system alone.The second change I would make would be to remove the Immigration Courts from the DOJ and make them independent, Article I courts.If there was ever any doubt as to why this is necessary, the prior administration showed us.
