Immigration Lawyer Speaks at UndocuWeek Event

MacWright helps Students find their Superpowers.

Carolina Rubio MacWright, the keynote speaker for Saint Louis University’s UndocuWeek, a week dedicated to bringing awareness to obstacles undocumented people face, talked to the students on Thursday, February, 21st about becoming a lawyer and how they can get involved in any form of activism.

Around 20 people came to listen to MacWright speak at the second annual UndocuWeek event at Saint Louis University. MacWright was born in Columbia and often witnessed the death and torture that many people faced. When she was a law student in Columbia, she began doing activism for the rights of the people. She would soon have to leave the country in fear for her safety and come to the United States. She eventually ended up in Oklahoma City where she attended law school. She took a job at a public defender's office where she met a prisoner, who spoke Spanish, this allowed her to finally feel like herself. She said, “Speaking with Carlos allowed me for the first time to embrace my own humanity and connect on a human level.”

During her time in law school, MacWright took an internship that led her to work at the Mexican border. This work inspired her to want to specialize in immigration and humanitarian rights. In doing this work she said, she found her “superpowers” or the qualities she possessed that could make the world around her a better place. She used her “superpower” of having access to social media to raise $10,000 so she and a group of women could go down to the border for a week and volunteer. She used this story to urge students to think about their own “superpowers” and how they could leverage them for good. She said, “In the end, we are all humans and that is one way we can use our “superpowers” and bring change.”

MacWright’s life has changed since the United States passed the zero-tolerance policy which criminally prosecuted people crossing the border illegally. MacWright began working tirelessly to reunite families at the border. Her first case took four months to reunite a mother with her children. Even though the law is very limited for change MacWright is trying to make life the best she can for the people in the detention centers. She sends down care packages to mothers and children.

MacWright brought a new perspective of activism for students at Saint Louis University to explore and also to encourage more activism among young people. MacWright wrapped up the UndocuWeek presentation by making students realize why events like this are important. Freshman student Andy Banda said, “ Going to events for Undocuweek will allow students to see through someone else’s skin and be able to put humanity back into the media and peoples’ lives.” MacWright was also recently featured on the Today show for her work with immigrant women in the United States, Women form diverse sisterhood brought together by pottery.