Growing up as a Mexican immigrant, Professor and Director of the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic (LIJC) H. Marissa Montes saw classmates openly make discriminatory remarks about her community, her family, and herself.
Those experiences inspired her to join the “Day Without an Immigrant” boycott as a teenager, despite her parents' disapproval. The massive walkouts from schools and workplaces, a play on the 2004 film “A Day Without a Mexican,” was a grassroots movement in the Chicano community in response to a Congressional bill that promised to crack down on undocumented people and offer stricter criminal sentences.
“I saw firsthand how discrimination and racism impacted my community and my family,” she said. “The ‘Day Without an Immigrant’ boycott opened my eyes to the power we have as a community to stand up and make our voices heard, and that’s the drive and passion I bring to LIJC every day.”
The boycott cemented her desire to become an attorney, and she followed her passion for justice studying International Relations at the University of Southern California, then went on to LMU Loyola Law School (LLS) to turn her dreams into reality.
When Montes first enrolled at Loyola, the school had immigration law courses, but didn’t have an immigration rights clinic to put those teachings into practice. In 2012, her final year before graduating, she co-founded the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic in response to an unmet need for free immigration legal services on the Eastside of Los Angeles.
“The clinic started from a simple goal: to provide quality legal services to those who couldn’t afford it and to involve students directly in this mission,” she said.
What makes this clinic especially unique is the fact that it’s the first community-based clinic to be housed at a law school. “The work that we do is not actually dictated by us, [the faculty and staff of the clinic]; it’s driven by what we see are the needs of the community,” said Montes.
LIJC provides free consultations and legal services and education to the immigrant community of Los Angeles at Homeboy Industries and Dolores Mission Church, as well as real-world experience in immigration law to students. This year, Montes was instrumental in establishing the Binational Migrant Advocacy Project (BMAP) at LLS, a first-in-the-nation binational clinic to serve our clients, students, and the broader migrant community at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In addition to the clinic, Montes teaches courses related to cross-cultural competency and trauma-informed lawyering, as well as serves as a visiting professor at the ITESO in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she teaches U.S. asylum law and serves migrant shelters.
Montes has been recognized as a top young lawyer by the American Bar Association and Hispanic National Bar Association. She serves on the California Department of Justice and Calgang Database Technical Advisory Committee. She was also appointed by former Mayor Eric Garcetti to serve on the inaugural Los Angeles Commission on Civil and Human Rights. In 2020, she was selected to join the immigration committee of the transition team for Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, where she drafted policy recommendations on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions and the issuances of U and T visa certifications. She has testified before the California State Assembly, and her work has been highlighted on many media outlets including, CNN, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, and others.