I came across Allegra Love in the Dartmouth College alumni magazine. How can you not be curious about somebody named "Love"?
Talk to her for a few minutes and you hear she is all about love: for her clients, for the other righteous lawyers with whom she works/volunteers, for her family.
Allegra is the founder of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, offering legal assistance to immigrant youth (“Dreamers”) and their families. She began her career at the Santa Fe Public Schools in 2005 as a bilingual elementary school teacher and followed her passion for working with immigrants to law school.
After graduating from the University of New Mexico School of Law, she came to work for the Adelante program of Santa Fe Public Schools, where she founded the Santa Fe Dreamers Project.
Then there is Allegra’s work with Central American refugees on our border in the southwest. I had read about the groundbreaking work by volunteer lawyers in Artesia NM – how they had flown down there on their own dime to provide women and their children legal counsel so that, for the first time, they could earn refugee status. As victims of violence.
These women and children weren’t here looking for a job. They were here to save their lives. She feels this government - and previous administrations - criminalizes these refugees.
And Allegra helps them. And countless others. She volunteers extensively, both in her community and elsewhere, for organizations like the Santa Fe Youth Commission, No More Deaths, and New Mexico Dreamers in Action (NM-DIA). She has a BA from Dartmouth College, a JD from the University of New Mexico School of Law, and is a licensed teacher in the state of New Mexico.
This kind of work – the enormity of the task, the hours, the low pay - could get you down. But Allegra still finds lots of reasons for hope.
First of all, there are her clients.
Then there are the amazing lawyers from the CARA project. Yes, even you will think they are amazing :)
And last but not least: family. Namely, her nephews. Love of children binds us all - and has the power to keep us safe.
Please consider helping these worthy organizations - it could end up helping not just other families, but your own.
(speaking of family, here are her cutie nephews)
