Legal and Emotional Support

Attorney Victoria Argumedo, a first-generation Peruvian American, has represented thousands of clients over the past seven years and focuses on cases involving deportation defense and asylum practices. Her parents immigrated from Peru to Alabama in the 1970s, where she didn’t have much of a Latinx community. She decided to pursue immigration law when she realized she wanted to use her education to directly benefit the Latinx immigrant community.

For Argumedo, DACA acts as a “semi-bandaid” to America’s broken immigration system and provides a temporary remedy to help young people who had no input in their legal residency. While she believes comprehensive immigration reform is needed to solve these problems, she also understands that America’s immigration system is extremely complex. As a daughter and wife of an immigrant, Argumedo is directly affected by the intricacies and nuances of American immigration.

“So I think this whole idea … about how this current administration is saying that they don’t want chain migration is really, really hard to listen to because this country was founded on immigrants,” Argumedo said. “That is what makes America, America. It’s a melting pot. We have the Statue of Liberty that has the saying: ‘Give me your tired, your poor …’ but somehow from this administration that’s no longer something we believe in. I don’t see why there would be a need to rescind DACA; these are all young people that have made a pledge to study, they have no crimes. There’s absolutely no negative that comes out of DACA, from my personal and professional opinion.”

Argumedo’s job involves presenting options to families to help them remain in the U.S. legally and to prevent children being separated from their parents.

“I explain to them what their rights are,” Argumedo said. “My job is not to choose a path for my clients. It’s to make sure that they understand the immigration consequences of the decisions that are available to them, for them to feel empowered to pick the best choice that fits best with their family.”

Although Argumedo has been handling immigration cases for 20 years now — she is in no way accustomed to watching families ripped apart or children losing their homes.

“Those are all the people coming up through the border,” Argumedo said.  “That’s a large chunk of what we do. There is absolutely no way that I’m robotic enough to just leave at the end of the day.  I can’t just leave those horror stories that I hear.”

Similar to Argumedo, Zabinski felt compelled to help undocumented students navigate the complexities of their situations. She is part of a small community of staff members at FHS working to support the school’s undocumented student population. As a highschooler, Zabinski was the first undocumented student her guidance counselor had encountered. She hopes that by sharing her story, she can help students feel less alone.

“I thought that if I share [how DACA being rescinded is] really affecting me, then at least there’s one person that you can put a face to the issue with,” Zabinski said. “I’ve been more comfortable being really open with my students about my experience and framing it as a big challenge but definitely not one that should stop you from being able to pursue your goals, especially in terms of being able to pursue higher education.”