Emerson legal fellow Caroline works at East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, an organization with a 35-year history of offering legal services to those escaping war, terror, political persecution, intolerance, exploitation, and other expressions of violence.

Caroline helps mostly young undocumented immigrants make their case for asylum in the United States. The surge in unaccompanied minors crossing the border has put enormous pressure on the immigration courts. To speed adjudication of their cases, the administration has put these unaccompanied children on so-called “rocket dockets." This fast tracking of their cases has made it harder to secure legal counsel and increased their chances of being deported to great harm or even death.

We caught up with Caroline recently to learn more about what she does on a day-to-day basis.