“Hola, como esta?” says JuanCamilo Parrado, shortly after 8:30 a.m. on a recent Tuesday, standing before about 30 people — mostly couples, a few parents with young children — in a spartan government waiting room outside immigration court on the 15th floor of 55 E. Monroe. “Español? Si?”
Having said hello, asked how everybody is doing — struggling to navigate a labyrinthine legal system in a new country in a language most only barely comprehend, thank you very much — and whether they speak Spanish, Parrado, a managing attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center, uses that language to get down to business: informing them of their rights, as immigrants. To a hearing, to a lawyer at no expense to themselves, the chance to cross examination witnesses. To file an appeal.
