The Migrant Trap

03/17/25 • 53 min

Summary:

In this episode of [F]law School, hosts Molly Enloe and Gauri Sood dig into the hidden realities of the H-2A visa program with guest Izza Drury. They explore how this legal framework—marketed as a pathway for temporary agricultural work—is, in practice, a system that traps migrant farmworkers in cycles of abuse, wage theft, and corporate exploitation, with little to no legal recourse.

Editors:

Special thanks to Shyun Moon for audio editing assistance, Giovana de Oliveira and Nelson Reed for production assistance, and to Mirei Saneyoshi for technical assistance and show notes.

Guest Bio:

Izza Drury is graduate of Harvard Law School, Class of 2024. Izza graduated from Brown University in 2017 and prior to law school worked to advance migrants’ rights in France, Greece, and the United States. Izza is from Vinalhaven, Maine.

Izza is currently a Public Service Venture Fellow working as a trainee at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. While at HLS, Izza served as a Project Leader for Advocates for Human Rights, was an Assistant Managing Editor at the Harvard Human Rights Journal and participated in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic.

Music:

Our theme music is "I Been Waiting" by Crystal Squad, and you'll also hear segments of "Palms Down" by Blue Dot Sessions.

Learn more about this episode in the shownotes on the episode homepage.

Summary:

Editors:

Guest Bio:

Music:

Our theme music is "I Been Waiting" by Crystal Squad, and you'll also hear segments of "Palms Down" by Blue Dot Sessions.

Learn more about this episode in the shownotes on the episode homepage.

Previous Episode

The Body (S)camera

Summary:

In this episode of [F]law School, hosts Shyun Moon and Sam Perri take a hard look at the rise of police body cameras with third-year law student Priya Pookkulam—and what they uncover is anything but accountability.

Priya traces the origins of body cameras as a so-called reform, revealing how companies like Axon have profited off public outrage while deepening police power. She explains how departments manipulate footage—blurring, muting, and editing key moments—to justify violent encounters. And she breaks down how the body cam industry isn’t fixing the problem of police brutality—it’s fueling the surveillance state.

Editors:

Special thanks to Nolan Mascarenhas for audio editing assistance, Nelson Reed for production assistance, and to Nandini Kalani for assistance with show notes and transcript.

Guest Bio:

Priya Pookkulam is a member of Harvard Law School’s Class of 2025. Before law school, she worked as a paralegal for an anti-human trafficking organization in New Delhi, India and an environmental law firm in New York, NY. She loves to hike and travel and hopes to visit all of the national parks in the U.S.

Music:

Our theme music is "I Been Waiting" by Crystal Squad, and you'll also hear segments of "Palms Down" by Blue Dot Sessions.

Learn more about this episode in the shownotes on the episode homepage.

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Next Episode

Banking on Discrimination

Summary:

In this episode of [F]law School, hosts Giovana de Oliveira and Thy Luong speak with third-year law student Talish Babaian about how, in 2023, Citibank quietly denied credit and closed accounts for Armenian Americans in Glendale, California—and how that pattern fits into a long history of discrimination, corporate power, and legal systems that protect institutions over people.

Editors:

Special thanks to Nandini Kalani for audio editing assistance, Giovana de Oliveira and Nelson Reed for production assistance.

Guest Bio:

Talish Babaian is a third-year law student at Harvard Law School. She is also a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to attending law school, she worked in local politics in the city of Glendale, California, where she was born and raised.

Music:

Our theme music is "I Been Waiting" by Crystal Squad, and you'll also hear segments of "Palms Down" by Blue Dot Sessions.

Learn more about this episode in the shownotes on the episode homepage.