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• Pages: 67-67

there’s also plenty of immigration

law work.

“We could use four or five more

attorneys, fra nkly,” she says. “[There

are] not enough people for the peo-

ple who need pro bono help, so we

do a substantial amount of pro bono

work .”

In fact, Stock h as recently ended a

stint of doing nothing but pro bono

work. In 2013, she was a recipient

of a “genius grant” when she was

announced as a Mac Arthur fellow

for her work on immigration and

national securit y. That came with

five years of funding, wh ich enabled

her to take meritorious ca ses with-

out worrying about her legal fee s.

She also spoke

around the c oun-

try about her belief

that immigrants

are a boon, not a

threat, to nationa l

security.

The grant ended

this past fal l, but

Stock still wa nts to

get that message

out. She believes

this is a dishon-

orable period in

American his-

tory, like the World

War II-era discrimination ag ainst

Japanese-Americans . As then, she

says, she thinks it’s fueled by fea r.

“I think that’s what’s going on at

the Pentagon right now, they are ter-

rified of foreigners, and so they ’re

doing things that actu ally hurt our

nation’s military,” she says. “And I

think we’ll overcome t hat eventu-

ally. We’ll have to. If we don’t, we’re

not going to be a superpower any-

more.” Q

have a weaker militar y because we

are refusing to re cruit people who

are talented immigrants.”

NORTH TO THE FUTURE

More than two years a fter that

2016 memo, Stock is still getting

messages daily.

As a result, she’s become a kind of

a hub for MAVNIs seeking legal rep-

resentation. She can’t do it all her-

self—her oce has six attorneys,

and she could use more—so she’s

been recruiting law yers all over the

country to help. There are at leas t

five pending class act ions related to

MAVNI, she says, mostly backed by

large law firms. If she ca n’t fit call-

ers into one of

those, or find

them another

lawyer, she

takes it herself.

One case she

convince d her

husband—an

experienced civ il

litigator but not

an immigration

lawyer—to take

it on.

It’s all self-

directed,

Ver dugo not es.

“I think that’s pretty i ncredible

that she has taken it upon herself,

and it really is largely her self, to get

their careers back on t rack or get

their clearances or help wit h these

lawsuits,” she says.

Stock’s husband, Neil O’Donnell, is

one reason she’s still in Ala ska. They

met mountain climbing—in a snow-

storm—and she says they still enjoy

the outdoors, which the state pro -

vides in abundance. St ock notes that

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nonviable.”

That moment came with the

memo, issued just before the 2016

election. Stock quickly s ent out an

email.

“The memo has created complete

chaos within t he Army,” she wrote.

“Many will be ‘pa inting rocks’ on

various bases ar ound the U.S. for the

next six mont hs or longer.”

Indeed, the ba ckground checks

were so slow that the militar y even-

tually canceled s ome enlistments for

failure to pass a ba ckground check.

Other people had their contrac ts

canceled for no clear reas on, or they

were told they failed for spurious

reasons. One told Stock he’d failed

his check because he wa s working

with her, which the militar y said

was a sign that he had no al legiance

to the United States.

This had c onsequences beyond

colorful rocks . Some MAVNIs’ visa s

expired while they wa ited, giving

them a choice between livi ng in the

United States without lega l permis-

sion and leaving the country. But

because swear ing allegiance to the

United States—as joining the mili-

tary requi res—is a death sentence

in some countr ies, everyone could n’t

simply go home. Stock knows of 20

or 30 who fled to Canada, w hich

favors young immigrants w ith fluent

English and college degree s.

That’s exactly the ki nd of person

the U.S. militar y should want, Stock

says. The Army is alre ady bending

standards bec ause it can’t meet its

recruiting goals .

“The net result of the Pentagon

imposing these anti-immig rant

rules is that they ’re going to have to

recruit more unqualified U.S. c iti-

zens,” she says. “So we are going to

ABA Notices

2019 BOARD OF GOVERNORS

ELECTION

At the 2019 Midyear M eeting, the

Nominating Committee will announce nomi-

nations for district and at-large positions on

the ABA Board of Governo rs for three-year

terms beginning a t the conclusion of the

2019 Annual Meet ing. A list of the distr ict

and at-large positions conducting elections,

and the electio n rules and procedures , can

be found at ambar.org/2019BOGElection.

Mary L. Smith, ABA Secretar y

NOTICE BY THE SECRETARY:

NOMINATING COMMITTEE MEETING

AT 2019 MIDYEAR MEETING

The Nominating C ommittee will meet in

conjunction wi th the 2019 Midyear Me eting

in Las Vegas, Nevada, on S unday, Jan. 27,

beginning with the business session at 9 a.m.

Immediately following the business session,

the Nominating C ommittee will hear fro m

candidates seek ing nomination at th e 2020

Midyear Meeting . This portion of th e meeting

is open to Association members.

AMENDMENTS TO THE ABA

CONSTITUTION AND BYLAWS

The Constitution a nd Bylaws may be

amended only at th e ABA Annual Meeting

upon action of the H ouse of Delegates. Th e

next meeting is Aug . 12-13 in San Francisco,

California. T he deadline for any ABA

member to submit prop osals is March 8.

Proposals will be published in the July/August

ABA Journal. For details, go to am bar.org/

AmendmentsNotice.

Mary L. Smith, ABA Secretar y

For more ocial ABA Notices, vi sit ABAJournal.com on Feb. 1.