TRLA has many opportunities for students interested in gaining valuable professional experience while providing needed assistance in their community. If you are interested in spending your law school breaks learning about poverty law, are a 3L looking to join TRLA, or are an undergrad wanting more information about our internship options, use the buttons below OR email recruitment@trla.org.

What have other students thought about their time at TRLA?

 My summer at TRLA was wonderful. I came into law school knowing that I wanted to do work in child welfare, and I was surprised to find it wasn’t a more popular focus area.  Similarly, I struggled to find organizations in Austin that did the specific type of representation that I was interested in. However, when I found TRLA’s Family Defense Project, I immediately knew that’s where I wanted to spend my summer. 

The Family Defense Project provides representation and advice to parents involved with Child Protective Services (CPS) when they otherwise would not be entitled to an attorney from the court. This particular type of representation is very new to Texas, and TRLA is only one of a small handful of organizations doing this work in our state. I was drawn to this project by my belief that unnecessary child removals are both unjust and traumatic for the entire family unit, especially the child. 

I learned so much this summer. I saw that the problem was worse than I thought, learning that racial disproportionality runs rampant in Texas’s child welfare system. In Travis County, Black children account for 7% of the child population but 27% of removals, according to DFPS’s own data. While 3% of White children that are reported to DFPS are eventually removed, the proportion doubles for Black children, even in what some would think of as Texas’s most “woke” county.   

White parents aren’t better parents than Black parents. Something must be wrong with the child welfare system. Awareness of this systemic issue both informed and motivated my work. CPS isn’t always right. They should be pushed back against. Every person deserves due process in every case. 

I loved how this work was equal parts difficult analytical problems and difficult human problems. All our clients were undergoing one of the most terrifying and shameful experiences of their lives—the taboo surrounding CPS involvement can cause many parents to not seek legal help that they should be entitled to.   

I watched one colleague encourage a parent about her ability to care for her teenage kid.  I saw each of my colleagues provide clients with empathy and dignity when the court didn't. It reminded me of why I went into this line of work in the first place: to be with people in their mess. One attorney I worked closely with voiced to me that this was her solace in the work - even if she loses every case, at least she showed the client that they were worth being listened to and fought for. 

I grew to greatly admire these attorneys’ commitment to this work and to their clients. They give every client the same zealous representation regardless of how a client treats them. They recognize that the most stressful period of a client’s life is when their child could be taken from them. So, they drive hours to attend meetings they don’t “have” to, just because it makes their client's case stronger. This is a true commitment to the belief that every person deserves justice.  

I could not have been happier with the attorneys on my team. They were not afraid to give me substantive work, like interviewing clients and prepping a witness for trial, and they gave me frequent, thorough feedback. I’m so grateful for all the time they spent teaching me, even if it had nothing to do with an assignment they gave me. It was obvious that they genuinely cared about me and wanted me to succeed in and improve child welfare. Their candor about the state of child welfare in Texas and career advice has left me much more prepared to enter this industry. 
 

I am confident that my summer at TRLA made me a more competent and compassionate attorney. I am so grateful! 

Coming to work at the El Paso TRLA office for the summer as an undergraduate intern, I had no idea what to expect from Legal Aid. Having heard of TRLA’s work throughout the years within my community, I knew this would be a great place to start looking for a legal career. El Paso is the kind of place that is self-taught in how to defend itself because of our unique socio-political situating. As a community that is fundamentally misunderstood on the national level, El Paso has built a community of aid designed by us and ran by ourselves. The result of this kind of community care is exemplified with the El Paso Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Office- a place that has centered itself on the care of our community and problem solves unique legal questions that many of our community members find themselves with. The El Paso Office has set an example on the national scale on how unique communities require complicated solutions, and that was the draw to work in this office.  

This was my first time navigating an internship during my undergraduate years and I was a little intimidated by the thought. After being pushed by professors at Berkeley, I knew it was time to come home for a little bit and learn about the day-to-day legal work being done here.  Little did I know, I would meet some of the most intelligent problem solvers to exist. TRLA showed me that public interest law requires a type of problem solving that few people -- such as those who work here -- have the ability to do.  

The most memorable day that “sealed the deal” on law school and a legal career for me was when I was walking through onion fields at 5am out in Las Cruces, New Mexico. This was after a week of farmworker outreach in Pecos, Texas- finishing with some work on the other side of El Paso that is also deeply intertwined with our community- New Mexico. Starting at 2:30AM to catch farmworkers at the Santa Fe entry point in El Paso, before they took vans out to the fields, we continued to Las Cruces and Hatch to inform H2A Visa and other status farmworkers on their wage rights.  

Awkwardly galloping through fields, I tried to inform farmworkers of their rights while running behind other staff. It was then that I realized the balance needed in this field (pun intended). That fine balance being the need to know the community of people you are serving, and knowing how to solve their problems on behalf of a group of people denied the opportunity of their rights. It requires a deep connection to the people and knowing the type of labor- and labor violations- being experienced daily. 

 Thinking about my family and our beginnings as farmworkers, I could not have been more proud knowing that this is the type of work my family comes from- the type that is back-breaking and requires skills that I couldn’t fathom. With family in my heart and community in my mind, this day cemented for me the want to work in public interest. To use the skills I’ll learn and give them back to the backbones of our society is something I’ll strive for until it happens.   

From outreach in West Texas to client intakes on behalf of our Medical Legal Partnership (MLP), TRLA influenced my perspective on the power of public interest law by showcasing the unique skills required to work in such a space. Not only does it take legal skills but it requires a deep knowledge of the area you serve. It also takes a certain love and passion for your community to be able to provide the best services possible. All of these things are more than present at TRLA.  

The special thing about working in the El Paso office with my fantastic supervisors, Bernie and Eden, was being given the opportunity to find my own projects and help out in areas of law that I have never thought of before. Walking around the office asking for tasks gave me the chance to prepare Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests on behalf of clients, calculate farmworker backpay, and ultimately grow my interest in law. Before working here I wasn’t entirely sure if I wanted to go to law school, or if I could handle working within a dysfunctional legal system- but this place showed me exactly how legal work can be done with community, love, and rigorous analysis.  

I will forever be grateful for this experience from Texas RioGrande Legal Aid- I could not have asked for a more perfect summer. Not only did this experience meet my expectations, but it has set all expectations going forward as I find my way into public interest law. This is the type of place you find the most intelligent, fantastic, and friendly people. That may be my bias as an El Paso native, but this place tends to produce pretty incredible people- and a lot of them are at the El Paso TRLA office. Once again, I am forever grateful to everyone who had patience, gave me tasks, brought me places, and showed me their passion through their work that helped me find mine. I have been given something to look forward to as I navigate through law school and into public interest law.  

I walked into my summer thinking I would take my experiences as a law student and a high school teacher and work solely with the Economic and Social Justice Group on education, juvenile justice, and re-entry matters. Instead, when I arrived in Laredo, the team sat me down and presented an array of matters, and I was able to pick among them. And so, I found myself drawn to unexpected areas of law, where I began to see the breadth of vital public interest lawyering coming out of that small, quiet office in South Texas. 

During my first week as an intern, I attended a community meeting hosted by TRLA for residents of nearby colonias to discuss water quality. Colonias are small, unincorporated communities near the border, often lacking basic services like water, sewage, and paved roads. Despite fighting for—and mostly gaining—access to water, many residents in nearby colonias still faced issues with the heavy chlorination and general bad taste. During the question-and-answer period, however, a resident brought up another issue: solar panel loans. Salespeople had been going house to house in the colonias with an aggressive sales pitch: free electricity from the government if you just sign here. Signing “here”—for many—ended up having lifechanging consequences, like only finding out months after the fact that you signed for a $50,000 loan. 

This type of flagrant injustice was new to me – so was the idea that I could fight it. 

By the end of a mere month, I had worked with a number of groups and mentors. With the Employment Group, I learned how minimum wage laws can be abused and even drafted a complaint to the Department of Labor. I challenged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, where I learned how employers imagine themselves to be above the law—and how to win relief for a disabled client. With the Family Law Group, I attended a divorce and visitation hearing, watched TRLA win at that hearing, then took a first swing at drafting a proposed divorce decree. Learning from zealous advocates like Caitlin Fish, Dylan Bakert, Agustin Ferreira, and Israel Reyna showed me what community lawyering and advocacy means in practice.  

Despite the final week of summer approaching, I could not get the solar fraud cases out of my head – hearing community members that first week of my clerkship continued to impact me. It sickened me that fast-talking salespeople could scam vulnerable people in this way—and that billion-dollar lenders could make a fortune off their suffering.  Could I find a way to work on any of these cases? I approached my supervisor to see if there was anything I could do. Within hours, I was talking to a TRLA consumer protection lawyer in Austin who introduced me to the practice and assigned me substantive work. 

In that moment, I realized that TRLA thrives off the passion of individuals who have both moral commitments and particular practice interests. My interest in consumer issues wasn’t an obstacle, but it was an opportunity for TRLA to better support the community.  

Through this work I also saw how TRLA’s focus on advocating for individuals connects specific harms to systemic problems. What is so exciting about TRLA for me is that the organization doesn’t stop at fighting for the individual. Rather, TRLA understands that individual injustices are part of broader systems of injustice, and fights at that level as well. For instance, my consumer protection assignments were about researching theories of liability in solar fraud cases. They were quite literally about figuring out how to map responsibility for a financial harm within a complex system.  How then could this case become a model for protecting marginalized consumers across South Texas broadly? 

I am so thankful for this opportunity because TRLA gave me the opportunity to better understand my interests, focus my values, and reimagine my path forward as a lawyer and community member. In my final year of law school, I plan to take consumer protection courses and write as much as I can about consumer finance before I go into practice, where I hope to continue the work that I began this summer. 

My first introduction to asylum law took place in a sun-filled classroom in San Antonio’s Westside. My classmates and I, all undergraduates, were attending a presentation on asylum law. Although most of us were new to the subject, nearly all of us had an immigrant background and deep connection to the South Texas borderlands. 

“Some judges have 99%, 99.99%, denial rates. Your judge is the factor that most affects your chances, and you can’t change that. But the second-largest factor is whether you have a lawyer.” 

This part of the presentation remained ingrained in my memory. At the time I heard it, I hadn’t yet realized my interest in pursuing a legal career. I hadn’t yet visited the for-profit detention center located less than an hour away, past the fields of flowering cacti. 

Five years later, I was placed with TRLA’s Asylum Defense Project (ADP). The ADP team represents immigrant clients undergoing removal proceedings brought by the Department of Homeland Security. When I joined the team, I thought back to this moment and to this striking statistic. I knew asylum law was an uphill battle, but I wanted to learn how it was fought. How does one support clients in a system that sets them up to lose their cases?  

One clerkship later, I now know it’s worth the fight. The ADP team greeted me with a culture of warmth, tenacity, and most of all, compassion. In contrast to the stereotypical law firm hierarchy, our team felt collaborative and involved. Every contribution had weight. 

Before long, I had learned to communicate with clients virtually and in person. Some detainees are pro se, meaning they are representing themselves in court—oftentimes in a language that is not their first. In addition to Spanish speakers, some clients speak rare languages for which the justice system has even fewer resources. Our team worked to find solutions to these challenges—but, I quickly learned, we could never do so if we didn’t communicate with our clients.  

That is what I grew to appreciate about asylum defense: We offer our substantive legal expertise, but our clients know their own experiences best. We work to meet their priorities. For some, that means getting out of detention; for others, it means appealing the court’s denial of asylum. And in some cases, our goals extend beyond the courtroom—for example, we may file a complaint with DHS’ Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) office if we believe a client’s civil rights have been violated in detention. Helping people through their asylum cases brings difficult memories to the surface, so we also must integrate empathy and listening skills.  

Country conditions (CC) research is also vital to an asylum case. Many clients seek protection from persecution in their home countries based on their minority status, political opinion, or gender. By conducting CC research, I learned a great deal about the countries our clients fled. It is essential to understand the region an asylum client comes from; it helps us understand our clients’ culture, their identity, and the events that drove them from their home to seek a new life in the United States. Clients relive their trauma at multiple points in the asylum process. When they cross the border, they may be interviewed to establish credible fear of returning to their home country; and in court proceedings, they may testify about the conditions which led them to flee into the United States. The process is retraumatizing, particularly when the judge lacks knowledge of the client’s home country. TRLA helps both by conducting research and by working with CC experts.

Asylum defense is challenging, but our team’s camaraderie kept spirits high. From the sweetest cat and dog pictures sprinkled throughout our workweek to a full-on collaborative meme slideshow for one of our attorneys, we found plenty of times to laugh and bond.  

¡Adelante, TRLA! As a San Antonian living in Chicago, working at TRLA’s San Antonio office helped me become further connected to my roots. I hope more Texans choose to learn about our immigration system. Legal knowledge allows us to move forward and uplift our entire community. 

While Laredo’s El Metro has bus routes, car-based travel is still the most efficient and reliable. This, combined with scorching summer temperatures that make traveling by foot or bicycle difficult, emphasizes the necessity of driver's licenses for clients to work and provide for their households. 

Driver’s licenses are also key forms of identification for employment, public benefits, and housing. Over-policing in border communities can mean that an expired or suspended driver's license can increase the risk of further legal issues. 

Cathryn Ibarra explains, "By immersing themselves in hands-on experiences in our rural and border offices, future lawyers emerge not only with enhanced legal skills but also with a profound appreciation for the diverse needs of low-income client communities.”  

There are several avenues available for students wanting to dip their toes into public interest work during spring break. For example, through the Texas Access to Justice Commission (TAJC), law students can elect to do a one-week intensive session of clerking duties with legal aid organizations (either in person or virtually) during their spring break.  

Many students go on PBSB as individuals. However, several law schools also coordinate PBSB opportunities. As mentioned above, TRLA had the chance to host cohorts of Stanford Law students in 2023 and 2024 for a special group PBSB at our Laredo Office. These trips have been made possible by our Pro Bono & Private Attorney Involvement (PAI) team, our Laredo branch staff, the Director of Pro Bono at Stanford Law, Michael Winn, and students like Denni Arnold, who originally conceived of the partnership when they clerked at the Laredo office in the summer of 2022. 

Check out our conversation with former TRLA law clerk and spring breaker, Denni Arnold, to learn more about the Pro Bono Spring Break initiative! 

What did your PBSB work consist of? 

• DA: “You're writing up an entire petition, getting that reviewed, prepping your clients for the hearing, and then you have the hearing. All from Monday to Thursday. The TRLA staff are incredibly generous with their time and their expertise – they made folks feel welcome. They made sure we were caffeinated and had snacks. It feels like a very welcoming space, which helps us both be productive and also get to know a little bit of Laredo when we're there for such a short time.”  

What is driver's license recovery, and why is it important?  

• DA: “Pro bono driver's license recovery falls within the post-conviction and re-entry realm. This work helps low-income folks in the community with their traffic fines that are either preventing them from getting a license in the first place or get a renewed license. There is such a big need in the community. Legal issues for low-income folks are so intersectional – immigration and criminal legal issues can overlap, for example, as well as housing and child custody legal issues. With license recovery, it is an area where you can do something discrete that helps across the board in their lives, meaning we can address this one issue within a shorter timeframe.” 

What did you love about being in Laredo? 

• DA: “The food in Laredo is amazing. Some of the paralegals were kind enough to suggest things to explore and help us form a more complete view of what their city is about, what TRLA is about – more than we would have learned if it was solely a 9 – 5 program. People are very generous with their time. Being able to go to Lake Casablanca or go to Golondrina, the food truck park, was a lot of fun, and going to the Rio Grande and seeing Mexico 30 feet away.” 

Why do you think this experience is important for a soon-to-be attorney?  

• DA: “As a budding attorney, it's really impactful to get out of the bubble of legal academia. Mr. Israel Reyna [Laredo Branch Manager] and Courtney Schusheim [Team Manager for Juvenile Justice] emphasized that although the Municipal Court is one of the lowest courts of the land, the stakes are very high in terms of people's actual lives and the material impact the law can have. Being there, doing the work, and learning from the people who do that work every day is very valuable for students to see. We get to use some of our time [at law school] – where we have the privilege of focusing on our own learning – to have more of a positive impact on low-income communities. This opportunity gives people who would not otherwise have the chance – like folks going into the corporate realm or those with different geographical necessities like partners or families elsewhere – get the sense of what movement and community lawyering looks like, in a way that they might not be able to take an entire summer to do. The law can have some really material consequences, both for good and ill. Being able to partner with the Laredo community and remain adaptable to the needs you're seeing means you can help folks get the justice they deserve but have not been able to access.”