Today we’d like to introduce you to Wallie Mason.
Wallie has spent her career working with those who often are unable to fight for their rights – from a young woman fleeing genital mutilation to work with Chicago’s Dr. Paul Yamauchi (Ph.D.) to help countless families escape the abuse of Indigenous people in Guatemala.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the practice, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have been an Immigration Attorney and international human rights activist for 30 years. In the early 1990s, I was part of a team that created a human rights organization with offices in Washington, DC, and Guatemala. I ran the DC office and made frequent trips to Guatemala, where my colleague, Anna Marie Gallagher, ran the office there. In 1995, I left the NGO sector and went into private Immigration Law practice. After working in mid-sized law firms in Washington, DC, and California, I started my own small firm, Mason Immigration Law Office for the past decade in Los Angeles.
Over the decades, I have represented clients from many countries, seeking the right to live in the United States, based on a variety of Immigration laws. While some of the clients have been Business and Family-based cases seeking a better life here, many have been refugees and displaced people running for their lives.
This year, I have decided to return to the Public Advocacy sector, and have founded the Transnational Immigration Alliance. As a non-profit organization, TIA will be able to seek grants and crowdsource funding, which will take the burden off of the clients themselves to have to pay for their legal representation. Over the years, I have helped many people by subsidizing them with my free labor and accepting fees from them which were far below the true basic cost of their services. US Immigration Law is one of the most complex areas of Law and requires an excessive amount of human labor hours to properly practice it. My firm has always prided itself on the fact that we provide high-quality representation to all our clients, whether they are paying or subsidized cases.
In representing Guatemalan clients, I have called upon an old colleague and friend who I met during my work in Guatemala. He is Dr. Paul Yamauchi (Ph.D.) of Chicago. He has served as an expert witness in cases involving the abuse of Indigenous people in Guatemala. He is the Chicago connection to this story.
Paul and his wife Gloria, run the Nagata-Yamauchi Educational Fund, which sends resources to Guatemala. The Fund is serving as the sponsor (pass-through) for TIA as we seek out final 501(c)(3) approval from IRS. We are also collaborating with the Fund on joint educational campaigns in the US and abroad.
TIA will be providing direct legal representation to immigrants AND doing educational and public policy campaigns around immigration issues. The educational part of our mission correspondents with the Fund’s mission, which includes ‘educating the public on the reasons why people leave their countries’ and become immigrants.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have to balance my role in my private firm, with the time needed to complete the many tasks necessary to set up the NGO. Right now, I am burning the candle at both ends.
Transnational Immigration Alliance (TIA) – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
TIA is different than other small NGO’s providing legal representation to people along the US-Mexico border as we will also be disseminating information and issuing public policy advocacy statements.
With the current dystopian situation in the US, where the highest office in the land is purposely disseminating lies and propaganda, it is important that there are sources of information that are accurate. TIA will be a source that takes info directly from immigration attorneys working at the border, and sends it to outlets in social media, traditional mass media, and presents it also to policymakers in DC.
TIA has offices in Los Angeles and DC. I work from both.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Seeing a client who was fleeing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Kenya win Asylum here. I felt like I could at that moment see the true crystallization of the hours of labor I had put into her case. I had worked with her for many hours–I knew the sense of tension and stress she carried in her body. When we read the decision together that her Asylum had been granted, I saw that stress leave her body. She immediately stood up straighter and grew taller before my eyes.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4032 Wilshire Boulevard
Suite 403
Los Angeles, CA 90010 - Phone: 3232978440
- Email: wmason@masonimmigration.com
- Instagram: Transnational Immigration Alliance
- Facebook: MASON IMMIGRATION LAW OFFICE
- Other: masonimmigration.com
Image Credit:
Luis Efrain Serrano, Sandy Torrez Chavez, Hector Hernandez
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