By: Emily Konouchi | 2021 Board Member

In October, we welcomed Allen King to the Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors staff. Allen is a Vanderbilt Law School graduate and George Barrett Social Justice Fellow. I met with Allen on a crisp November morning to hear more about his first month at TNJFON and his plans for his year-long fellowship.

We started by talking about how Allen got connected with immigration law and TNJFON in the first place.

“My family moved to the U.S. from China in 2001 and we didn’t get our green cards until the mid-2010s, so the immigration process has been embedded in my life,” said Allen. “The process is very long and can be a nightmare if English isn’t your first language.”

This experience drew Allen toward immigration work. He attended the University of Florida for undergrad and then law school at Vanderbilt. As a 3L, Allen learned about the George Barrett Fellowship.

The George Barrett Social Justice Fellowship provides funding for Allen to carry out a one-year public interest project at TNJFON.

Allen’s project idea came from observations he made while working as a volunteer at TNJFON’s Woodbine Immigration Intake Clinic with fellow law students.

“For many immigrants, talking on the phone or in person about their immigration journey can be stressful. For those who don’t speak it as their first language, there’s the challenge of understanding and speaking English when an interpreter isn’t available, and for some, the information needed to define eligibility for specific types of protection can be quite sensitive. For example, in order to get U Visa protection, you need to be the victim of a crime, so clients may be asked to recount potentially traumatic events.”

The other observation Allen made was about the way the eligibility system is set up. “In many cases, there are binary questions we ask of our clients, and the answers indicate whether a person is eligible or ineligible for certain protections. For example, in order to get DACA status, you need to have come to the U.S. before June 15, 2007, and you’re not eligible if you were past a certain age when you arrived.”

Allen spotted an opportunity for TNJFON to make the intake process more efficient and accessible for clients by proposing a self-service online form. “Instead of having a client make an appointment to speak to someone and share their personal history over the phone or in person, they can do an anonymous preliminary screening from the comfort of their own home and at their own pace,” said Allen. “Based on what clients put in the form, we can provide them with appropriate next steps, like connecting with an attorney.”

Allen studied computer science as an undergrad, so he’ll be able to put his coding experience to work in setting up the online intake experience. He plans to enlist the help of TNJFON staff and volunteers to provide translated versions of the form to clients so they’ll be even more accessible to potential clients.

It’s inspiring to think of a future where an upstream process change allows us to empower more immigrant neighbors to discover protections available to them, and to serve more people who will achieve their goals of safety and security through immigration relief.

Allen feels drawn to the mission of Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors and loves helping DACA recipients directly, many of whom are carrying a heavy load to support their families. It’s early days, but Allen has already made a significant impact at TNJFON in his first month by working directly with about 20 DACA clients on their renewals.

He’s also already turned our PDF intake form into an internal webform to make the existing intake process significantly more efficient, to the tune of saving an estimated 200 hours annually that gets spent transferring intake details to our case management website.

We’re so glad Allen is here, and we look forward to the ways he’ll scale the work of TNJFON in the months to come!