King Hall Students, Alumni Aid Immigrants at Citizenship Fair
King Hall students, alumni, and faculty helped approximately 290 immigrants begin the path to United States citizenship at the Citizenship Fair held November 7 in Sacramento. Attendees received free legal help in completing and filing naturalization applications, attended classes on the naturalization examination, and participated in mock interviews, aided by close to 50 King Hall students as well as Professor Amagda Pérez and several Law School alumni.
Alumni providing services at the event included King Hall's Associate Director of Career Services and Public Interest Career Planning Kirsten Hill '04, Mary Waltermire '95, Santiago Avila-Gomez '02, Fernando Aceves '04, Griselda Trujillo '99, Shalyn Fluharty '09, Erin Hernandez '08, and Donny Le '09.
Professor Pérez said that she was impressed by the turnout of students, who helped complete naturalization applications and aided American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) attorneys as they conducted final reviews of the applications.
"The quality of the students' work was exceptional," said Professor Pérez. "The applications were completed with accuracy, the students exercised excellent judgment is identifying potential red flags, and assisted applicants with professionalism and cultural competency."
Pérez said thanks were due to CRLAF outreach advocates Juanita Ontiveros and Sergio Perez for their support work, technical assistance, and attention to applicants' needs; to CRLAF Sutro Fellow Grisel Ruiz for responding to student inquiries and completing applications; and to Kirsten Hill for providing naturalization training and fielding questions from students and applicants at the workshop. Pérez offered special thanks to Blake Nordahl '02, currently the supervising attorney of the McGeorge School of Law Immigration Clinic, for his hard work in helping to coordinate the event.
"It was a great collaborative effort, through which close to 300 immigrants of diverse nationalities were assisted," said Pérez.
The event was co-sponsored by U.S. Congresswoman Doris Matsui, King Hall alumnus Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg '84, Assemblymember Dave Jones, AILA, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (CRLA), El Concilio, Univision, the UC Davis School of Law Immigration Law Clinic and La Raza Law Students, as well as the University of Pacific's Provost Office for Diversity, Asian/Pacific American Law Student Association, Black Law Student Association, Latina/o Law Student Association, and Middle Eastern/South Asian Association, and Latino Pre-Law Club.