Loyola Law Magazine 2025 - A student-fueled movement
Above: Katherine Kaufka Walts, director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children, led students on the law school’s first immersive border trip in 2019 to Louisiana. Top right: Patricia Martin Robles (center) and Samantha Schatko (far right) helped organize, crowdfund, and recruit other law students for that first trip. Right: In 2025, students traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border at Nogales, Arizona.
A student-fueled movement
Students planted the seeds for the School of Law’s now blossoming immigration program, supported by faculty and administrators who, in a strong Loyola Law tradition, encouraged students to follow their interests and use their skills for social justice. With Director of Public Service Programs Mary Bird (JD ’87) as faculty advisor, Rocío Castaneda (JD ’14), Cynthia “Cy” Herrera (JD ’13), Margaret O’Donoghue (JD ’13), and Justin McDevitt (JD ’12) founded the school’s first immigration law–focused student group in 2012.
“I went to law school to become an immigration rights attorney, but there wasn’t much space for it then at Loyola,” says Castañeda, former advocacy attorney at Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Program in Tucson. “It was the time of the Dreamers, individuals who were brought to the United States when they were young. Some of us were really interested in having conversations about what was happening and connecting students to volunteer opportunities, so we founded the Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.”
After its founding group graduated, the Immigrants’ Rights Coalition went on hiatus. A few years later, third-year student Maggie Meza (JD ’19), with Bird’s encouragement, revived it. Around the same time, students Samantha Schatko (JD ’20) and Patricia Martin Robles (JD ’20) expressed an interest in organizing a student trip for hands-on volunteering at the southern border. With Katherine Kaufka Walts, director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children, as faculty supervisor, Robles and Schatko organized, crowdfunded, and recruited participants for the first trip to protect the due process and human rights of detained migrants in Jena, Louisiana.
A year later, the school offered the trip again, this time to Tucson. Robles was pregnant and couldn’t join the travelers—but she was so invested in the trip’s success that she called Schake every day for updates. These days, the border trip, which now includes both students and alumni, is an annual offering in Texas and Arizona—and it’s taking on an even greater interdisciplinary focus under Loyola’s new Holistic Immigration Hub.
The experience of planning the border trips, as well as the many public interest courses she took at Loyola, “influenced me greatly to do service work,” says Schatko, who practiced immigration law and is now a senior staff attorney advocating for victims of violence in domestic relations and civil protection order matters at Bread for the City in Washington, DC. “Loyola always allowed us to explore and supported us making our own paths as students. It was empowering.”
“We need to come together and think differently and creatively about how to protect immigrant rights.”
As detention, family separation, and forced deportation increased, student and alumni requests to learn more about this complex and rapidly changing area of law provided the impetus for development of the Immigration Practicum in 2019. “Fast-forward, and now we have a new Holistic Immigration Hub, doubling our curricular and experiential offerings to meet the interest of students,” Kaufka Walts says.
“When Katherine texted me to tell me about the Hub, I felt emotional,” says Robles, who worked in immigration law before joining BAM Family Law in Denver as an associate attorney. “From having one class in immigration law, Loyola has come a long way. I’m proud that I played a role and happy that the interest and support continue. It speaks volumes about Loyola.”
Castañeda, remembering how training in areas like psychology, child welfare, and trauma-informed interviewing could have strengthened her effectiveness in her first days as a lawyer representing unaccompanied immigrant children, adds, “Given Chicago’s rich history of welcoming immigrants, it gives me great joy that Loyola has chosen to invest in such an important sphere. Especially right now, we need to come together and think differently and creatively about how to protect immigrant rights.” –Gail Mansfield (August 2025)
Students planted the seeds for the School of Law’s now blossoming immigration program, supported by faculty and administrators who, in a strong Loyola Law tradition, encouraged students to follow their interests and use their skills for social justice. With Director of Public Service Programs Mary Bird (JD ’87) as faculty advisor, Rocío Castaneda (JD ’14), Cynthia “Cy” Herrera (JD ’13), Margaret O’Donoghue (JD ’13), and Justin McDevitt (JD ’12) founded the school’s first immigration law–focused student group in 2012.
“I went to law school to become an immigration rights attorney, but there wasn’t much space for it then at Loyola,” says Castañeda, former advocacy attorney at Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Program in Tucson. “It was the time of the Dreamers, individuals who were brought to the United States when they were young. Some of us were really interested in having conversations about what was happening and connecting students to volunteer opportunities, so we founded the Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.”
After its founding group graduated, the Immigrants’ Rights Coalition went on hiatus. A few years later, third-year student Maggie Meza (JD ’19), with Bird’s encouragement, revived it. Around the same time, students Samantha Schatko (JD ’20) and Patricia Martin Robles (JD ’20) expressed an interest in organizing a student trip for hands-on volunteering at the southern border. With Katherine Kaufka Walts, director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children, as faculty supervisor, Robles and Schatko organized, crowdfunded, and recruited participants for the first trip to protect the due process and human rights of detained migrants in Jena, Louisiana.
A year later, the school offered the trip again, this time to Tucson. Robles was pregnant and couldn’t join the travelers—but she was so invested in the trip’s success that she called Schake every day for updates. These days, the border trip, which now includes both students and alumni, is an annual offering in Texas and Arizona—and it’s taking on an even greater interdisciplinary focus under Loyola’s new Holistic Immigration Hub.
The experience of planning the border trips, as well as the many public interest courses she took at Loyola, “influenced me greatly to do service work,” says Schatko, who practiced immigration law and is now a senior staff attorney advocating for victims of violence in domestic relations and civil protection order matters at Bread for the City in Washington, DC. “Loyola always allowed us to explore and supported us making our own paths as students. It was empowering.”
As detention, family separation, and forced deportation increased, student and alumni requests to learn more about this complex and rapidly changing area of law provided the impetus for development of the Immigration Practicum in 2019. “Fast-forward, and now we have a new Holistic Immigration Hub, doubling our curricular and experiential offerings to meet the interest of students,” Kaufka Walts says.
“When Katherine texted me to tell me about the Hub, I felt emotional,” says Robles, who worked in immigration law before joining BAM Family Law in Denver as an associate attorney. “From having one class in immigration law, Loyola has come a long way. I’m proud that I played a role and happy that the interest and support continue. It speaks volumes about Loyola.”
Castañeda, remembering how training in areas like psychology, child welfare, and trauma-informed interviewing could have strengthened her effectiveness in her first days as a lawyer representing unaccompanied immigrant children, adds, “Given Chicago’s rich history of welcoming immigrants, it gives me great joy that Loyola has chosen to invest in such an important sphere. Especially right now, we need to come together and think differently and creatively about how to protect immigrant rights.” –Gail Mansfield (August 2025)