H. Marissa Montes considers every encounter with a client to be sacred ground.
An immigrant herself, Montes knew from a young age that she wanted to be an attorney. She co-founded the Loyola Law School Immigrant Justice Clinic in her 20s, and for the last decade she has been consistently recognized as a powerful advocate for the immigrant community in Los Angeles and beyond — with a recently established presence in Guadalajara, Mexico taking her work international. She has mentored many young attorneys, empowering them to root their work, as she has, in love:
“My basis for this work has always been love. Serving the immigrant community isn't because I feel a sense of responsibility as an immigrant myself, but it's really a way for me to love and honor, not just my ancestors, not just the immigrants that came before me and who paved the way, but just an act of love for my community. Because this is my community.”
Marissa and I met over a decade ago when I was working at Homeboy Industries. She had recently launched a branch of her clinic there to serve formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated folks. Her effervescent yet powerfully grounded spirit captured my attention: this was a woman totally at home in herself, certain that her purpose in the world was to be a force for love.
This conversation makes it apparent that Marissa’s sense of self-assurance and clarity of vocation have only deepened since her early days as an attorney. These are gifts she is generously sharing with her clients, with a rising generation of justice-minded attorneys, and, in this episode, with us.
Attentive listeners will notice that this episode was recorded before the recent US elections. While the incoming administration’s immigration policy poses a massive threat to immigrant communities, Marissa was clear in our conversation that what was true for her before the election would remain so in its aftermath:
I take comfort in knowing I am where I meant to be at this moment, and I'm having these opportunities to help and support my community. I'm going to do it regardless of the situation. God, the Universe, Higher Powers that be, have allowed me and my colleagues and my students to be in this place for a reason.
This conversation could not be more timely, and I cannot wait for you to catch courage from this extraordinary Soulful Revolutionary.
More about Marissa:
H. Marissa Montes is the Professor and Director Loyola Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic (“LIJC”), a community based clinic that provides free immigration legal services to the Eastside of Los Angeles in partnership with Dolores Mission Parish and Homeboy Industries. In addition to the clinic, Marissa teaches courses in regards to US Immigration law, Cross-Cultural Competency and Trauma-Informed Lawyering, as well as spearheaded Loyola Binational Migrant Advocacy Project that provides services to both migrants in transit and deportees residing in Tijuana and Guadalajara, Mexico. Marissa serves as a visiting professor at the ITESO in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she teaches U.S. asylum law and serves migrant shelters. Marissa was recently recognized as a Leonard I. Beerman Social Justice fellow, and has been recognized as a Top Young Lawyer by the ABA (2017) and HNBA (2019). She serves on the California Department of Justice, Calgang Database Technical Advisory Committee and was appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti to serve on the inaugural Los Angeles Commission on Civil and Human Rights. She received her B.A. in International Relations and Spanish from the University of Southern California and her J.D. from Loyola in 2012.
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