Eagleionline

By Jesse Stellato, March 28, 2008 

What does it mean to fight the good fight? Ask Debbie Satyal ‘08. Since first coming to law school in 2005, Satyal has dedicated herself to immigrant advocacy. In so doing, she has aspired to help some of the most underrepresented individuals in American society navigate their way through a complicated, and often confusing, legal system.

Now, in her third and last year at Boston College Law School, Satyal has published a chapter on immigration in a new anthology, Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today.

Edited by David C. Brotherton and Philip Kretsedemas, Keeping Out the Other was published this earlier month by Columbia University Press in New York.

Satyal’s chapter, which she wrote with detention expert Malik Ndaula, is called “Rafiu’s Story: An American Immigrant Nightmare.” As gripping at it is true, and as true as it is tragic, Satyal’s story follows Rafiu, an African deportee who becomes a jailhouse lawyer.

By weaving together the story of Rafiu and presenting it in narrative fashion, Satyal and Ndaula explain some of the complexities of immigration law while introducing the reader to the realities of immigration enforcement.

Satyal and Ndaula’s goal, said Satyal, was “to bring some understanding to the treatment of immigration detainees through the lens of someone who is going through it.”

Asked about the experience of writing the chapter with Ndaula, Satyal admitted that though she had visited detention centers before, she was not prepared for some of the treatment she learned about this time.

“The experience of Rafiu unfortunately is not altogether uncommon, but it was still so different than anything I have ever been through,” she said.

“Bringing the human aspect to something that is so often discussed in abstract ideas and statistics was a grounding experience for me,” she continued.

Satyal’s work appears alongside the work of some of the most respected lawyers, social scientists, policy analysts, community organizers, and journalists in the field of immigration law. The work of attorney Ira J. Kurzban, for example, is included in Keeping Out the Other. Kurzban is the author of the most widely used one-volume immigration source in the United States.

Satyal thanked the editors at Columbia University Press for their help with the drafting process. She also credited Boston College Law School:

BCLS’ great immigration resources, including the Clinical program, Boston College Immigration and Asylum Project, the Post-deportation Human Rights Program, and the Immigration Spring Break Trips, all of which I have participated in, definitely provided me with the background and contacts I needed to become involved with this book.

Keeping Out the Other, now widely available throughout the United States, is also coming to a library near you. Boston College Law School’s Quest catalogue lists the book as “On Order” for Law Library’s general collection.

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