Meet Katherine Kim, a New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) attorney in our Immigration Law Unit. She recently won protection in the United States for her client, Mr. R. When Mr. R, over a year ago, received a letter from the government telling him that he needed to show up to Varick Street, he complied, only to be arrested and jailed by ICE.

My passion is working with people who are impacted by the injustices of the deportation machine and the criminal justice system.

Katherine successfully got Mr. R out of immigration jail on bond in September, and then, once he was out, won protection for him here in the United States. It was a grueling case which required Mr. R to describe deeply personal and traumatic experiences, some of which he had never shared with his closest family members, to an Immigration Judge and DHS attorney. Although re-living and describing those experiences was challenging and painful, Mr. R endured and was granted withholding of removal this summer.

There’s a pressure to move cases quickly. But the right to due process means you need time to treat every case fairly.

Mr. R was one of the first clients that Katherine met as a NYIFUP lawyer at Legal Aid and she described feeling incredibly lucky to have been able to fight with and for him throughout his immigration case. Congrats to Katherine and the whole team who helped secure this heartfelt victory for Mr. R!