LAS student honored for her work with the immigrant community

Every text from Jazmin Olivas’ parents end with the words “Echale ganas,” which, translated from Spanish to English, mean “keep giving it your all” and serve as a constant reminder of both her support system and her future. Now, after receiving an award for her work with immigrants, Olivas is beginning to find her own way.

Olivas, a senior studying sociology with minors in political science and criminology, law, and society has spent the last half of her undergraduate career working for The Immigration Project. The work she has done since being a volunteer and now as a full-time staff member has been recognized as she recently received the C-U Immigration Forum student leadership award.

The C-U Immigration Forum celebrates community members like Olivas who use their time and efforts to improve the lives of the local immigrant community and better the Champaign-Urbana area. The award recognized the commitment Olivas has made to The Immigration Project and the entire community.

“The award feels so much bigger than me,” Olivas explained. “Even the (Forum awards to other people), they are all a celebration of people who are tirelessly working for immigrants in the immigrant community. It was a reassurance that what I was doing was making a difference in people’s lives and I felt really honored.”

Since 2023, Olivas has worked at The Immigration Project, an organization dedicated to providing accessible and affordable legal services to immigrant communities in downstate Illinois. Originally working as a volunteer, Olivas progressed from translating documents to becoming a full-time, paid team member on the social services team.

Over this past summer, Olivas took on more responsibilities and gained new experience such as screening potential clients to see if the project can offer them services, showing clients around the office, and taking care of legal details in different cases.

One of Olivas’ favorite tasks is being the point person on new client cases, helping them adjust to the Illinois legal processes and systems. For example, Olivas can help clients get in contact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, change their legal addresses, and switch their cases to the Illinois court system.

“For example, if someone is coming from Texas, their courts are automatically located in Texas,” Olivas explained. “So, I would file a motion to change the venue and move it Chicago.”

While much of her work is technical and based on legalities, Olivas has found that the root of her skillsets is her empathy.

“Sometimes you must talk about hard things or talk about things like their reason for seeking asylum. Being able to sit there and listen and know how to comfort someone and be a friend to support them is one of the biggest necessary skillsets,” Olivas said. “Having an open mind, not judging, and having the ability create a safe space is so important.”

Her parent’s experiences as immigrants taught Olivas lessons of struggle, determination, and resilience. Through them, Olivas feels the importance of the work she has done and continues to do on a very personal level.

“Originally, I thought I wouldn’t make a good immigration lawyer because it felt too personal,” she said. “But I realized that it being personal is better somehow.”

While she plans to move to a big city after college to pursue immigration law, Olivas said that she will always fondly remember Champaign-Urbana and the University of Illinois as the start of her career. 

“The Immigration Project and Champaign-Urbana as a whole has been life changing for me in so many ways,” Olivas explained. “Whether that be through The Immigration Project or the University of Illinois or even finding my friends here, so much has happened. Champaign-Urbana holds a really special place in my heart, this is where it all started for me.”