Yurie Blons '23
Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic
Yurie Blons '23 was born in Japan and raised in San Diego. As an immigrant, she was undocumented for more than 20 years.
Now finishing her first year at Loyola Law School, Blons has represented five clients as a student in the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic: two clients renewing DACA, two unaccompanied minors, and a domestic violence survivor seeking a visa under the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA), for whom she filed in February and is still awaiting the results. "Learning about trauma-informed lawyering and how to address survivors of violence has been transformative," she says.
For her second semester at LIJC, Blons developed an advocacy project around Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Through this project, Blons and her partner Thalia Acosta '22 participated in substantial legislative work by partnering with the Western Center on Law and Poverty to draft language for Assembly Bill 2004. AB 2004 would create loan forgiveness programs for Dreamers attending CA public universities.