New legal fellow hopes to help area immigrants

Watching her parents not get the help they needed when they arrived in South Florida after fleeing Cuba in 1994 lit a fire in Reina Saco.

That passion has led Saco, 26, to pursue a career in law fighting for those less fortunate. She graduated from the University of Florida College Levin of Law in May, took the Florida Bar exam in Tallahassee July 25-26 and received a 2017 Equal Justice Works Florida Community Economic Development Fellowship this month.

The mission of Equal Justice Works is to create a just society by mobilizing the next generation of lawyers.

The fellowship, from September until August 2019, will allow Saco to help migrant and seasonal farm workers in Florida gain access to affordable, safe and sanitary housing.  

“The fellowship is going to allow me to do ‘know your rights' clinics and educate people about their rights,” said Saco, who has volunteered extensively in the Gainesville legal community and surrounding counties during her three years of law school.

Saco was 4 years old when her parents fled Santiago de Cuba Province in southeast Cuba to settle in South Florida. She witnessed her parents not get much help as they navigated life in a new country, and made a vow then to herself to someday help others.

Her work the first six months of the fellowship will include reaching out to organizations to identify where farm worker housing sites are located and their issues, collecting information about programs and resources targeting immigrant communities and investigating issues that contribute to immigrant housing insecurity and inadequacy.

According to the Equal Justice Works’ website, Saco was one of four people chosen for the fellowship in Florida because she is an immigrant who can use her experiences to connect with others facing situations she has encountered and she's led projects with underserved communities.

The fellowship requires Saco to use education, outreach, community lawyering, legislative advocacy and litigation to help farm workers with housing issues.

Equal Justice Works estimates there are up to 200,000 migrant and seasonal farm workers in Florida, many of them undocumented immigrants. Their status keeps them from living in labor camps or federally subsidized housing, which forces some of them to live in substandard housing. Also, many are reluctant to report landlord abuses because of recent increased enforcement of immigration laws.

Saco’s work as a certified legal intern with the Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Clinic at UF in the fall of 2016, and as a volunteer with the UF Law and Justice Conference held during the spring and the Ask a Lawyer program has allowed her to learn a lot about underserved communities in North Central Florida.

“I want to find out more about the issues that people are facing, their needs and then figure out what I can do to help them,” said Saco, who graduated with bachelor degrees in English literature and Russian studies from the University of South Florida in Tampa in 2012 and a master’s degree in Russian studies from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2014.

Sept. 18 is when she will find out her bar exam results, and though she doesn’t yet know where she'll land a job, Saco said she's excited about starting her career through the fellowship.

“While working with Three Rivers Legal Services I realized there are a lot of farm workers in the surrounding counties,” Saco said.

Many farm workers she met told Saco they didn’t have time to meet with her to voice their concerns because of their schedules and other barriers, like the fear of losing jobs.

“The undocumented farm workers are fearful because they know they can be fired for no reason,” she said.

Saco said she's seen how even a small amount of help can lift people to better lives.

“My spirit to help others comes from what I saw my parents go through,” Saco said. “Sometimes just a small amount of help can make a world of difference in someone’s life.”