By Sarah Imgrund
After having completed a summer internship with Jubilee Campaign and Just Law International, I am filled with immense thankfulness—and amazement—as I stop to write and reflect on all that I learned and experienced over the six weeks of my internship. In fact, I doubt I can fit everything I learned and experienced in one blog post. For that reason, I have prayerfully pondered what have been my main takeaways from my internship.
Before sharing some of those takeaways, let me provide some context. Jubilee Campaign is a non-profit organization that specializes in international religious freedom advocacy while Just Law International is an immigration law firm. Both were founded by a Regent Law alumna whose tireless dedication to her clients and work I witnessed daily. During my internship, I had the privilege of working on a humanitarian parole application for a client at Just Law International as well as two Jubilee Campaign projects—a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
In working on the client’s case, not only did I get to grapple with some of the challenges of immigration law, but I also got to experience some of the fulfillment that comes from helping a client walk through a labyrinth of legal rules and procedures. Indeed, one of the main takeaways from my internship is that effective representation requires effective client communication. Although a basic truth, this truth is especially critical in the field of immigration law where cultural differences can become as much a barrier for attorneys to help their clients overcome as the legal hurdles their clients face. Because I regularly communicated with the client on whose case I was working, I grew in my ability to navigate cultural differences.
I also learned more about setting realistic client expectations. Because a person’s life in many ways, if not literally, is often at stake in immigration cases, I found the desire to overpromise to be a real temptation. However, after having been able to shadow and observe the attorneys at Just Law International in client meetings and immigration court hearings, I was able to resist that temptation by realizing that it is in a client’s best interest to provide realistic updates on their case while showing compassion through diligent work and inquiry. In other words, I was able to practice the honesty and empathy I saw being exemplified in the office and at court.
While I was able to become more informed about what is happening in other countries through my research for the client’s humanitarian parole case, the two Jubilee Campaign projects I worked on required me to look beyond the U.S. legal system to the laws of other countries. It was quite sobering and shocking to learn how many countries actively enforce “blasphemy” laws that criminalize peaceful statements of religious belief.
For example, the petition I was working on to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was for a Pakistani man who has been on death row for more than 20 years because he wrote an allegedly blasphemous letter to a Muslim scholar who had asked him about Christianity. Likewise, the amicus brief I worked on to Nigerian Supreme Court was for a case in which a Sufi Muslim was sentenced to death after private audio messages of him praising a certain religious figure over the Prophet Muhammed were made public.
Certainly, even though I expected to be exposed to tragic human rights violations occurring around the world, I was surprised to find out just how common it is for such violations to be perpetrated under the guise of law. It honestly remains perplexing to me how governments that have officially bound themselves to international human rights law so blatantly disavow their international obligations by allowing blasphemy laws to remain in effect.
On the other hand, I was greatly encouraged by the opportunity to meet many individuals dedicated to defending the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities. One of the biggest takeaways from my internship was getting to see the real impact a small, yet devoted, organization like Jubilee Campaign can have in advocating for those persecuted and imprisoned on account of their faith. In getting to attend congressional meetings on Capitol Hill and engage in congressional “drops-in,” l got an insightful glimpse into the vital role Jubilee Campaign has in producing and providing reliable research and information to our government officials who overall remain receptive to standing up for individuals who have been deprived of their fundamental freedoms.
Like the immigration lawyers at Just Law International who serve their clients by enabling their stories to be more effectively heard through the deafening noise of an overburdened and, in many ways, broken system, Jubilee Campaign truly serves as a voice for the voiceless by raising awareness and advocating for those who would otherwise suffer in silence. Because of the hands-on work I was able to engage in through my internship, I am inspired as well as more equipped to do the same.
This post was written by a student at Regent University School of Law. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice.