Suffolk Law student makes history with immigration work

Andrea Marcano, a 3L student at Suffolk University Law School, made history by becoming one of the first legal advocates in the country to assist Venezuelan refugees flown to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

At the time, Marcano was interning for Susan Church, a renowned immigration attorney who was feeling unwell and feared she might have contracted COVID-19. Despite being an intern, Church trusted Marcano to step in at a crucial moment, given her fluency in Spanish and extensive experience in immigration law.

Marcano, whose parents are Venezuelan immigrants, had already worked for nearly two years on intense immigration law cases through Suffolk’s Immigration Clinic and various immigration law firms.

Marcano has experience in drafting appellate briefs, conducting client intake interviews with immigrant trauma victims, handling family separation cases, and processing complex applications related to asylum, temporary protection, and special immigrant juvenile status.

Her passion and experience are what prepared her to assist the refugees being housed in a Martha’s Vineyard church and at Joint Base Cape Cod. Marcano worked tirelessly to create a database of the migrants’ documents and helped them fill out forms necessary for attorneys to gather information about their cases from government officials.

Tracking the migrants’ documents was crucial, Marcano said, because they contained court appointments and ICE check-in dates. She also facilitated connections with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to extend the date of her clients’ ICE check-ins.

Several of the refugees had been threatened or injured by gang members in Venezuela and feared for their lives if they were sent back, according to Marcano.

Her grandfather, a native Venezuelan, recently earned his U.S. citizenship, but she also has aunts, uncles and cousins living in Venezuela who cannot travel to the U.S. because of the slow visa process. She says she cannot visit them due to the country’s crime and civil unrest.

“You don’t want to get so caught up in the legal details and processes that your interaction with a client becomes purely transactional,” Marcano said. “The clients need someone to listen. Often, they are desperate for what seem like simple things: a chance to work and provide the basics for their families, a place where their kids can go to school and where they don’t live in fear.”

Marcano has since continued to work pro bono on five of the refugees’ cases from Martha’s Vineyard, as well as other cases for the Suffolk Clinic and Church’s firm, Demissie & Church.

Editors Note: Michael Fisch, Director of Communications at Suffolk Law, was the primary source for this story.