Engels Tejeda, an attorney in Holland & Hart’s Salt Lake City office, is one of three Utah attorneys whose experiences helping asylum seekers are highlighted in the Deseret News March 3, 2019 article entitled, “How these three Utah attorneys are advocating for asylum seekers.” The article shares how Tejeda, Steven Burt and Austin Baird (both in-house counsel at Vivint Solar), recently volunteered with the Dilley Pro Bono Project, a local partner in the Immigration Justice Campaign that recruits and organizes groups of lawyers to travel to the south Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas for a week at a time to help the detention center’s pro bono legal team on asylum cases. The work - and emotional Facebook posts - by Tejeda and Burt during the week between Christmas and New Year’s inspired Baird to volunteer himself in February.
“It’s a crisis situation where you need folks to come and step up,” said Tejada. “People forget that behind all the headlines, all the discussions, certainly behind all the politics, that these are real human beings here."
To read the full Deseret News March 3 article, click here: How these three Utah attorneys are advocating for asylum-seekers