Posted by 
By: Sydney Olshak ‘25
Before beginning my internship with Journey’s End Refugee Services, I would have described myself as simply “pro-immigrant rights”. While not an area of law in which I was particularly passionate, my belief that everyone deserves to live a life safely and free from persecution has always extended to those who were not born in the United States. Now, a month into this position, I can safely say that I am passionate about immigration law and the rights of immigrants.
Within this post, I could talk about how it has been well established that poverty can lead to crime, as those living in poverty are often unable to obtain many of the resources that they need to survive, and how immigrants are more likely than U.S.-born people to face poverty. I could discuss that, despite these two facts, both documented and undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born people. I could show that they tend to be extremely hard workers who take on jobs that the rest of us are often unwilling to do, or that they have a positive impact on the economy. I could even relate it back home, as immigrants boost the population of areas that have a negative growth rate, such as right here in Buffalo.
I do not want to focus on us, though. While it is indisputably true that immigration benefits our society at large, the discussion of immigration should not be about how it impacts us. So often we forget that immigrants are human beings, and how re-traumatizing the process of becoming an immigrant or asylee is.
As a joint JD/MSW (masters of social work) student, it has been easy for me to spot areas of the law where victims of persecution may be re-traumatized through their proceedings. Some of this is, unfortunately, inevitable, as we need victims to testify as to what happened to them. However, a lot of this retraumatization, especially within immigration law, is entirely avoidable, and it starts with the way that we treat victims of persecution.
The United States has a very important concept: that people are innocent until proven guilty. It seems that no matter where you land on the political spectrum, you can agree: everyone deserves the right for their side to be heard in a court of law before it is determined whether they are guilty of a crime. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s the best there is. And yet, within immigration law, that concept does not exist. Immigrants, and not the plaintiffs attempting to have them removed, hold the burden of proof to show that they deserve to stay in the United States.
It is already so re-traumatizing for victims to need to tell their stories of persecution repeatedly when it’s assumed that they are telling the truth. It must be even more re-traumatizing for immigrants and asylees fleeing persecution to not be believed in the first place, especially when it can be so difficult to get the evidence you need to prove your case. Obtaining evidence of persecution is far harder than it sounds. Oftentimes, victims of persecution are not able to gather much evidence before they are forced to flee their homes. Some clients escape their home countries only hours after being subjected to torture, while others are unable to access important documents because they have been barred from their own homes due to characteristics that they cannot change.
I understand the desire to ensure that people who enter our country are safe to be around and contribute to our society at large. In no way am I advocating for immigration practices to be entirely abolished, but I am advocating for immigrants to share the same rights as the rest of us, even before they are citizens. I believe that everyone, regardless of their nationality, has the right to live in a place where they are free from persecution. I believe that everyone has the right to be innocent until proven guilty. And I believe that everyone has the right to be subject to as little re-traumatization as possible. As I stated, it is impossible to entirely eliminate it. However, there are steps that can and must be taken to assuage some of the damage.
I would like to give my thanks to Journey’s End Refugee Services for taking me as an intern. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Adela Smehlik, who has been an incredible mentor with wonderful feedback. I would like to thank the Summer Public Interest Funding & Fellowship Program for their support, as well as Neil A. Pawlowski for his generous fellowship that allowed me to do such incredible work this summer.
Name: Sydney Olshak ‘25
Fellowship: 2023 Neil A. Pawlowski ’10 Fellowship
Placement: Journey’s End Refugee Services
Location: Buffalo, NY
One important lesson I have learned from this fellowship: “While it is indisputably true that immigration benefits our society at large, the discussion of immigration should not be about how it impacts us. So often we forget that immigrants are human beings, and how retraumatizing the process of becoming an immigrant or asylee is. “
UB School of Law Responds 