HB20: Danicole Ramos, UH William S. Richardson School of Law Refugee and Immigration Law Clinic

A single moment with an elderly Filipino client changed everything, setting Danicole Ramos on a path to help over 125 community members pursue citizenship.

Danicole Ramos, a Honolulu attorney who specializes in immigration law, never had a burning desire to be a lawyer. His easy-going personality didn’t fit with his image of lawyers as argumentative or confrontational, he didn’t read or write well and he wasn’t the best student in school, he recalls.

But several experiences steered him toward the role he now says “was meant for me” – staff attorney at the William S. Richardson School of Law Refugee and Immigration Law Clinic. In that role, he guides UH law students through real immigration cases, including preparing affidavits and immigration applications. He has assisted more than 125 community members in taking steps toward citizenship.

One turning point came while he was helping another lawyer process an immigration application for a Filipino woman’s daughter. The woman, in her 70s, was with three aunties who reminded Ramos of his own mother and grandmother, themselves immigrants from the Philippines.

When informed they qualified for a fee waiver, the client cried with joy and showered Ramos and the other lawyer with thanks. For attorneys, it was a small matter. For the family, it was huge.

“It was the first moment in my life where I was thinking this immigration stuff might be meaningful to me, because it’s helping people that remind me of my own family,” he says.

Ramos decided to go to law school, and since graduating he has become enmeshed in what he calls the “complex and archaic” immigration system in the U.S. Many days, the work is discouraging.

“It’s just like there is ever-changing stuff that frustrates you. What motivates me is you get these small moments, like that grandmother – the procedures are not a big deal to me, but to some people it means the world to them,” Ramos says. “That’s what reminds me that the small things you do, people don’t forget it, and it makes a huge impact on their life.”

Ramos also worked on the high-profile case of Hawaiʻi Purple Heart Veteran Sae Joon Park, who self-deported last year under threat of being forcibly removed by I.C.E. agents. Park, who arrived in the U.S. when he was 7 and spent nearly 50 years in the U.S. legally, was featured in an article in Hawaii Business Magazine. (https://www.hawaiibusiness.com/from-purpleheart-to-persona-non-grata/)

Looking ahead, Ramos says he wants to create a legislative advocacy course for law students “so they know how to navigate the legislative process and draft testimony.”

He also wants to help change immigration policy. “I’d love to shift what I do to being able to speak on systemic changes. By practicing on the ground on a daily basis, that kind of springboards me to having credibility for speaking about it and pushing new policies and laws in the future.”

Might that include public office? “It’s a possibility,” he notes, “but not something that’s immediately on my mind.”