Crossed A Line (In a Good Way)

As our bus ride from Tapachula to Tuxtla entered its third hour, I turned to Yudi and jokingly confessed, "I want to cry." After a long week of chasing documents across several provinces in southern Mexico for some of our asylum clients, we shared a lighthearted but sincere appreciation of some of the indiginities our clients face on a regular basis.

As an attorney, it's all too easy to fancy myself too prestigious to oversee a routine procedure. Some of my colleagues consider do so crossing a line. However, these supposed routines often go awry for those of you who are neither wealthy, white, nor male. Whether its a government bureaucrat invoking a nonexistent regulation to reject the only form of identification to which an asylum seeker has access or a customer service representative's indignation in refusing services mandated by law to a member of the transgender community, we understand how barriers that shouldn't exist too often prevent you from completing these routine procedures (which then, coincidently, negatively impacts the legal remedy we are helping you seek).

Though we can't be everywhere, when we see you may need a little assistance in getting routine procedures to go, well, as routine, Hannibal Legal will accompany you to your appointment with a government agency, call a service provider on your behalf, or send a letter to a place of commerce regulated by federal law, pointing them to corners of the regulation. In the absence of our physical presence, we will arm you with the information needed to avoid the unpleasantness of subconscious prejudice. If that type of personal touch intrigues you, contact us for your immigration, entertainment law, small business formation, or government benefits needs.