Speaking Truth to Power: Andrea Meza ’15

She’s a fourth-generation Texan, and a tough-as-nails litigator with a passion for telling the stories—and protecting the rights—of her clients. After launching her career as an immigration lawyer with RAICES, where she oversaw more than two dozen attorneys and legal staff representing clients in detention facilities across the state, Andrea Meza ’15 came to see that those who work in those facilities had stories of their own, stories needing to be told for the greater good. Today, Meza is a director with the nonprofit, nonpartisan Government Accountability Project, a national organization that gives her a platform to represent whistleblowers on the frontlines of defending the rule of law and seeking justice in America.

For those who don’t know, what exactly is the Government Accountability Project?

We defend and protect whistleblowers. We’re dedicated to promoting corporate and government accountability. I provide legal representation for those with a story to tell, and I practice advocacy to try to make a difference with their disclosures.

You’ve been at the center of a high-profile case this year.

Yes, I’ve been representing Erez Reuveni, a Justice Department lawyer for 15 years who worked across administrations, advocating for each administration’s immigration policies. He defended the Muslim Ban of the first Trump administration. In early April, he appeared before a federal judge in the case of Kilmar Ábrego Garcia, a man who was removed to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act. Reuveni had to admit to the court that Ábrego Garcia’s removal was a mistake, a fact that was in the government’s own record, and a fact that was ignored by certain superiors in the Justice Department. For telling this truth, Reuveni was fired. He’s not a partisan; he’s just someone who believes deeply in the rule of law. It can’t be okay that if you don’t like a judge’s order, you ignore it. Our system says, when you don’t like an order, you appeal.

I provide legal representation for those with a story to tell, and I practice advocacy to try to make a difference with their disclosures.

Is representing whistleblowers more than litigation?

Yes. When we file a legal complaint and seek legal remedies, we will concurrently submit our client’s disclosures to Congress or another oversight entity and also release reports to the media. We call that “disclosure day.” Working on a case, we’re in a sprint to get the disclosure day. It then becomes a marathon, reacting to legal maneuvers, congressional hearings, and the evolving media landscape. The work is strategic, intense, and persistent.

How did you come to this work?

My background is in immigration law. Previously, I was the director of the Family Detention Services Program for RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education, managing a team of 25 attorneys and legal workers working in detention facilities throughout Texas. As an attorney with clients in detention facilities, you develop relationships with the people who work there. The employees often bring issues to your attention and, believe it or not, try to advocate in their own way for the people held in custody. I always wondered, “how can we work with them, too?”

At that time, I became aware of Dawn Wooten, a nurse working in a Georgia detention facility, who spoke out about gynecological abuses against detained women there. That’s when the Government Accountability Project came on my radar.

How did you get interested in immigration law?

I’m a fourth-generation Texan—or four-and-a-half, depending on how you count and which side of the family. My great, great grandparents on one branch came when they were children in the 1860s into Texas. On another branch of my family, my grandmother was born in Wichita, Kansas. Her family was encouraged to leave the country in the 1930s in the great repatriation when families of Mexican descent were being removed from the U.S. and sent back to Mexico. My grandmother, an American citizen, was sent to Mexico and then the border was closed and she was trapped there. That changed the trajectory of her life and my family’s history, too.

My work and my interest in immigration law stem from my roots in Texas going back 150 years and this complicated family history. Also, when I was in college in Arizona, I had friends there who were undocumented. This was during the era of Sherrif Joe Arpaio and it really hit me then that I enjoyed the privilege of my citizenship because my family just happened to come here before theirs.

There’s something about our Texan spirit where, when it comes down to it, we’re going to be there for each other.

You’re obviously driven by a strong sense of purpose.

I like helping people tell their stories. In immigration work, you help people facing immigration enforcement try to mitigate those harms by having their stories heard. For better for worse, our asylum system requires people to retell their trauma to gain access to legal protection in this country. But that storytelling is the most gratifying thing I do, and it’s what I do now with whistleblowers. When my clients tell me, “You helped me put into writing into words what I’ve been struggling to say,” that’s my mission.

Alongside your full-time job, you’re back in school.

I’m getting a master’s in social work here at UT. I’ll finish soon!

Social work is, of course, another way of helping people tell their story.

Absolutely, and it’s a very different storytelling framework. The legal standards for ethics tell you to center your client and zealously advocate for them, but they don’t necessarily give you the depth to understand what that means for your client as a person. Social work helps you think about your larger environment and life, and how your representation might affect that. What does zealous advocacy mean when there’s much more to the person than their legal case? This will make me a better lawyer.

You mentioned being a fourth generation (or more!) Texan. What does being Texan mean to you?

I love being a Texan. There are so many ways to be a Texan. There’s so much richness and diversity and culture and so many good things about Texas. We’ve got such a variety, even just in geography and climate and people. And even when our views are so disparate, even when it can feel like people can be driven by hate, when you see something like the flooding this summer and you see how people can come together. There’s something about our Texan spirit where, when it comes down to it, we’re going to be there for each other. We’re going to help our neighbor. And I really hope that that connectivity and that community is something that we continue to build on. That’s something that I want to keep building on through my career and my life.