Help Richard Barahona pay for the CO Bar Exam!

Hello everyone!

Thanks for visiting the Go Fund Me to assist Richard Barahona with his bar exam preparation and CO Bar Exam costs. Recognizing the need to empower young professionals from the Aurora community and the need for more community focused representation in the legal field, I am proud to support Richard in this next chapter and beyond.  I hope you will join me.

In solidarity,

Kristin

********Biography below from Richard:

I was born to two Guatemalan immigrants in a poor neighborhood in Inglewood, California. As a child, I saw many of my family members migrate to the United States and express fear of not only returning, but of being caught "without papers" here. My parents, who struggled with rent and the depressed conditions of our neighborhood, moved my family to Aurora, Colorado when I was 10 years old. Here, I attended Laredo Middle School and Smoky High School. I was the first in my immediate family to enroll and graduate from high school.

Following high school, I briefly attended Boston University and soon after transferred to CU Boulder. As an undergraduate, I worked as a coordinator for our Alternative Breaks program, which sent over one hundred students each spring break to various parts of the country to work with various social justice focused organizations. I helped train the volunteer leaders throughout the school year and recruited participants for the program. Additionally, my co-leader and I began and led the first trip focused on reproductive justice.

During my time in college, I interned with Intercambio, a Boulder-based organization that assists immigrants with English acquisition. I conducted hundreds of interviews with immigrant families to assess how the program improved their lives. I was also the Chair of Activism for the Latinx student group UMAS y MEChA, where I worked with student leaders to teach activism and movement politics to fellow students, and ensure we had adequate representation in our school.

While in college, a close family member of mine was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after they applied for asylum. I will always remember the emotional pain of traveling hundreds of miles to visit this person and witness them locked up while I spoke to them through a small, glass screen. It was harrowing, and I realized then that I wanted to learn the skills necessary to ensure others do not face such difficult experiences. It was then I decided to attend law school.

I began at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law after I graduated from CU Boulder in 2018 with a B.A. in International Affairs and Neuroscience and a Certificate in Public Health. Through law school, I maintained my commitment to immigrant defense. I worked for the Meyer Law Office, where I wrote briefs and motions to help our clients bond out of the GEO Detention Center in Aurora. I also met with clients and prepared them for their testimony. Additionally, I participated in the Immigration Law & Policy Clinic, where I represented low-income people at their removal hearings at the Aurora Immigration Court in the GEO Detention Center.

My goal is to work toward dismantling systems of power that oppress marginalized people. I have seen first-hand how our legal system's use of incarceration and separation devastates communities, many of whom are already marginalized. I will sure they have a capable and compassionate ally once I am a barred attorney.