2019 NLG #Law4thePeople Convention

Since Spring 2018, NLG members have been in Tijuana, Mexico volunteering legal support, training, and observation in coordination with organizations such as Al Otro Lado. In March, NLG International Committee members and National Office staff participated in a delegation to Tijuana where we observed conditions at Ports of Entry and shelters and met with governmental and civil society groups to further understand the contributing factors of the migration “crisis” at the border. Panelists will discuss ongoing barriers to the legal right to asylum, efforts of migrants organizing in resistance and survival and state-sponsored criminalization and surveillance of human rights defenders. This panel speaks directly to the Guild’s anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist principles, and will shine a light on the human cost of the US and Mexican governments’ anti-immigrant policies. Attendees will leave with a greater understanding of current legal support efforts at the border and how they can get involved.

Gabriela Zamudio Campos LLM is a Mexican international human rights attorney who has worked for 17 years at the national and international levels. She is the founder and general director of Alma Migrante, A.C, an impact litigation organization based in Tijuana dedicated to human rights defenders and their work. Zamudio studied law in Mexico City and public international law in Nottingham, UK. She served as a visiting professional at the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court. She was a federal court clerk for almost a decade before working at the National Commission of Human Rights for about six years. She arrived at Tijuana for the first time as the representative of this federal institute in Baja California in 2015.

Atenas Burrola is the Director and Co-Founder of Frontera Tech (previously Mi Maletín), an organization that builds technology to give advocates and organizations more people power, more time, and more data integrity. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Atenas grew up in Santa Fe, NM, where she was deeply involved with the Latinx and other underserved communities from a young age. The injustices she witnessed in her community led her to pursue a career in law. Atenas has done Know Your Rights work with the migrant caravans in Mexico, and has volunteered at the family detention center in Dilley, TX and the Charlotte Center of Excellence, part of a national movement dedicated to winning every meritorious asylum case, every time.

Nicole Ramos directs the Border Rights Project of Al Otro Lado, working with asylum seekers and their families in Tijuana, Mexico, to provide direct legal services and engage in broader legislative, media, and legal advocacy efforts to challenge systemic human rights violations committed by state actors. Nicole also provides on-the-ground technical assistance, country conditions research, and expert declarations to U.S. attorneys with case needs in Mexico. Prior to joining Al Otro Lado, Nicole worked for six years as an assistant federal public defender in Montgomery, AL, where she represented clients charged with federal felony offenses and death row inmates challenging their convictions and death sentences in federal habeas proceedings. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law.

Michael Galvan received his JD from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2017 and is the co-chair of the NLG Queer Caucus. After passing the CA Bar exam in November 2017, Michael relocated to Tijuana, B.C., where he worked with Al Otro Lado connecting LGBTQ+ asylum seekers to legal services and humanitarian aid. As the recipient of the 2019 NLG Weinglass Fellowship, Michael is working on parole and sponsorship for LGBTQ+ migrants. With the support of the NLG International Committee, he has relocated to Santa Fe, NM to work with the Santa Fe Dreamer’s Project to provide post prison release support for transgender women seeking asylum and their sponsors.