Maya’s roadmap for VAAP
This week, Maya Tsukazaki, Esq. concluded her storied 2022-24 immigration-focused Vermont Poverty Law Fellowship. VAAP expresses endless gratitude for the profound impact Maya has made on Vermont’s immigration services and advocacy network, and the gift of parting wisdom in her final fellowship report to the Vermont Bar Foundation. Download and read the report here.
For background, the two-year Vermont Poverty Law Fellowship program sponsors a young attorney to improve access to justice for marginalized Vermonters, with a particular focus selected each fellowship cycle by the Vermont Judiciary’s Access to Justice Coalition.
Following advocacy by the Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Center for Justice Reform Clinic, the Coalition charged Maya with undertaking a longitudinal, holistic, and collaborative approach to studying, litigating, and advocating for the rights of noncitizen Vermonters.
In sum, following two years of rigorous research and legal work and meticulous reporting, she published her final recommendations last week that Vermont:
Joins the national movement toward universal representation.
Streamlines immigration intake for coordinated service prioritization.
Allocates state-funded services to support volunteer networks.
Legislates state-level legal reforms.
Unites the fight for justice for all.
Maya supports these recommendations with well-documented quantitative and qualitative analysis. Since 2022, working with the Community Justice Reform Clinic at Vermont Law School, Maya has directly represented clients on over 100 immigration matters; organized extensive outreach to noncitizen communities and their supporters; presented on humanitarian immigration law to countless social and legal organizations; and collaborated with community partners to advocate for critical changes to the immigration justice system on the state and national level.
She’s also partnered with VAAP in several of our legal and advocacy efforts, playing an instrumental role in organizing this June’s record-breaking Welcoming New Americans Symposium, coordinating Vermont’s showing at the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s National Day of Action 2024, co-counseling on humanitarian immigration legal cases and legal help clinics, sharing expert testimony with the Vermont Legislature, and more.
Thank you, Maya, for your tremendous contributions. We look forward to building on your work and findings to improve equitable support for the thousands of noncitizen Vermonters who enrich our communities daily.
For more information on the Vermont Poverty Law Fellowship and Maya’s work, visit the Vermont Bar Foundation’s website: https://vtbarfoundation.org/programs/poverty-law-fellowship/.
