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 About the CenterOur VolunteersDorsey & WhitneyFirm locations: Anchorage, Denver, Des Moines, Fargo, Great Falls, Hong Kong, Irvine, London, Minneapolis, Missoula, New York, Palo Alto, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, DC. Website: http://www.Dorsey.com About Dorsey & WhitneyShannon McMinimee and Marta DeLeon Through Dorsey & Whitney’s work with the Center and Pro Bar, Seattle associates Shannon McMinimee and Marta DeLeon began representing two young teenage girls: “E” and “L”. Both girls lost their mothers at a very young age, and were raised by abusive stepmothers and fathers who did not adequately care for and protect them. They left home as teenagers to escape mounting abuse. But instead of safety they encountered increased persecution and violence. They finally fled to the United States. The Story of “E”Bright and engaging, E is a seventeen-year-old Brazilian girl. In her country she faced persecution on account of her dark skin, her Mestizo heritage, and her gender. After the death of E’s biological mother, her stepmother chased and attacked her with firewood, branches, sticks and knives or any other heavy object. One time, her stepmother stabbed her, inflicting a wound that required hospital treatment. She felt alone, and neither the authorities nor her father would intervene to protect her. Eventually, she left home and her small community and went to live with her sister. After E left home a gang member at school assaulted her and tried to rape her. She then received a death threat warning her not to seek help from the police. The school and the police took no action to protect her from further attacks by her assailant. Despite the abuse and violence, E was able to complete the 10th grade. Since arriving in the United States, E continues to seek out educational opportunities. She has spent her months in detention learning both Spanish an English. With the representation of her Dorsey & Whitney team she presented her asylum claim to the immigration court and as of February 2006 was awaiting the results. The Story of “L”
At seven, L and her siblings witnessed their mother’s murder by a prominent local man who shot her for refusing to marry him. It was not until the next day that L could bring herself to step over her mother’s body in order to get help. The man who murdered her mother was never arrested and continued to harass and threaten other members of her family. Eventually L’s older brother was forced to flee out of fear of this man. After the death of her mother, she and her siblings were sent to live with their father who was divorced from her mother. Not long after his children came to live with him, he remarried. L’s stepmother physically abused the children, forced them to work long hours, verbally abused them and eventually refused to provide for them. When her older sister could take the abuse no longer she left, resulting in L having to quit school so she could work to support her other siblings. In Honduras, L was unable to earn enough money to survive so she fled to Guatemala. Once there she was able to earn enough to return for her sister. Together they traveled back to Guatemala to work as domestic servants. Her sister was only twelve. When her sister was unable to do her work L would try to work for both of them. Still, she found that she could not support herself, her sister and her younger brothers who remained in Honduras. It was then that she left for the United States promising to send money back to help her sister and brothers. Even now, she remembers her siblings and feels guilty that she is enjoying the food, safety, and shelter she has in the detention facility. Though she is living in a detention facility she knows that she still has more than her struggling sister in Guatemala or her younger brothers living with their abusive and neglectful stepmother. With the help of her Dorsey & Whitney team L’s is in the process of applying for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), which protects abused and neglected children and enables them to apply for permanent resident status, and a greencard. While Shannon and Marta are saddened to know that these young girls had to endure so much, the attorneys feel it is remarkable that their hearts remain in tact. With so many reasons to be bitter and give up, their client’s strength has pushed them forward and enabled them to survive. Since working with L & E Shannon and Marta have sought out more opportunities to help children in detention.
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