Nell Hahn served as the director of systems advocacy and litigation at the Advocacy Center (now Disability Rights Louisiana), Louisiana’s protection and advocacy agency for individuals with disabilities, from 1997 to her retirement in 2016. She handled individual and class action litigation enforcing the rights of people with disabilities to be free from discrimination in health care, education, other government programs, housing, and public accommodations.
Before her employment with the Advocacy Center, Hahn was in private practice in the employment and civil rights firm of Hahn, Levy, and East in Austin, Texas. She is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. She lives in Lafayette with her spouse, Susie Garcia.
Hahn has since retired and now passionately volunteers with Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention, an all-volunteer state-wide organization that assists immigrants in the eight Louisiana detention centers and one Mississippi detention center in Natchez.
What is LA-AID?
Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention provides transportation, meals, and overnight housing for released immigrants as they travel to their families or sponsor. We have a temporary shelter in Shreveport for those released to stay before traveling to a family or sponsor or for a family to pick up the released person.
We also visit and write letters to people in detention, advocate for humane treatment and medical care within detention through ICE, monitor the population in detention centers, and communicate with detained immigrant families to provide resource materials for them to navigate the DHS/ICE process.
We just want to be welcoming to the stranger in our midst — as the Bible says. We try to do what we can to make it a little easier on them.
How did you get involved with helping immigrants?
While in Austin, Texas, I was involved with the Political Asylum Project of Austin, which included lawyers who were trying to help people who were fleeing the civil war in Central America.
It’s been an interest of mine for many years, and I’ve tried to do some pro bono work when I could to help out. Now that I have retired from practicing law, I'm trying to help in other ways.
People move. People migrate. Most people don’t want to leave their homes and go to a strange country where they don't know anyone and the language is different, but they do it because they have to.
It really felt like we needed to be more welcoming to people like that. I know there's a lot of politics involved in it, and I don’t really know the answer, but I do know that everyone I’ve met doing this work is just a lovely human being and brave.
Where does the issue currently stand in Louisiana?
We have eight detention centers that are almost all private, contracted centers, making a profit from housing these immigrants. They have a certain number of beds that they’re guaranteed to get paid for.
The people who are coming here are not a threat to anyone, and they don’t need to be in a prison setting.
Almost all of these people have applied for asylum, but the system is backed up, and they don’t have appointed lawyers. After someone applies for asylum, he or she can get permission to work to find a lawyer to help. However, if someone is detained, there’s not much they can do. There’s a handful of lawyers for thousands of detained immigrants here in Louisiana. It’s very difficult to get a lawyer and it’s very difficult to win a case — even if someone has a lawyer.
What are some other organizations in the state helping immigrants?
Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy works to defend the rights of our immigrant communities. The attorneys visit with detained immigrants at the nine ICE Processing Centers in Louisiana and Mississippi on a weekly basis to provide pro bono representation, along with other work.
Home is Here NOLA connects immigrants with individual community members and local assistance groups in the state to support immigrants. They have three areas of focus: relationships of mutual aid for community resettlement, housing and legal aid.
Voces Unidas: Louisiana Immigrants Rights Coalition provides post-release help for asylum seekers in Louisiana, as well as mutual aid for undocumented community members advocating for human rights and social justice.
How can community members help?
The public could donate to Louisiana AID, ISLA and/or Home is Here NOLA.
I’m interested in a couple of new projects, one of which would be to set up some sponsorships for immigrants and refugees. That would involve more of a 1:1 relationship with someone in the community — helping to find housing, employment, getting their kids in school and finding professionals for health care.
There are so many opportunities to help.
What is the impact on the people who are involved and coming here for freedom?
They are so grateful. They’re so happy when they see a friendly face. They see us and realize we’re not officials or paid to do this.
At first, they may feel a little like, “Who are you, and what are you doing?” but almost immediately, they’re just so grateful. They all say, “May God bless you,” and it’s really been very wonderful. It’s a very rewarding thing to do.
Some of these people have never been on an airplane before. Some people have suitcases, but for most of them, we give them a small nylon backpack that they can put their papers in, but they have nothing.
When hurricane evacuees come to the state and stay in places like the Cajun Dome, they sometimes have a garbage bag of their things. These people don’t even have something as big as a garbage bag.
We’re just providing someone who says, "You’re welcome here, and we want to help you rather than hinder you."