Proudly Salvadoran and immigrant, Yesenia Polanco-Galdamez, is a recognized and successful immigration lawyer based in the Durham area, who today divides her life between law and public service as a member of the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority Board.
Polanco arrived in North Carolina 30 years ago, and since she was a child she has worked tirelessly to achieve her dreams, proving that with determination and perseverance, anything is possible.
As an attorney specializing in the immigration field, she fights with all the tools allowed by law to prevent the deportation of undocumented immigrants and help successfully complete the immigration processes of hundreds of immigrants.
With his commitment to this profession that he considers his passion, today he has his own law firm, which employs 17 people.
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First Latina on Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority Board
Her presence as the first Latina on the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority Board represents not only a personal achievement, but also an important step toward diversity and inclusion.
Yesenia Polanco arrived in the United States with her family at the age of four, and completed all of her school and university studies in North Carolina.
He attended his first four years of higher education at UNC-Chapel Hill, and then prepared for another four years in law at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington DC.
She holds her home country of El Salvador dear to her heart, but considers the Tarhell State her home, where she also met her husband, Ben, with whom she has been married for 12 years.
Why did she want to be a lawyer?
But where did the idea of studying law come from? Before thinking about becoming a lawyer, Yesenia Polanco was working with El Centro Hispano, in community youth organization.
“I have always had a passion for the term ‘human rights advocacy,’ and it was very clear to me that getting my law degree and getting my license to practice law was going to be a way to do that job better,” Polanco told Enlace Latino NC.
But there is something deeper that led Polanco to choose her profession: “My passion is law, and the United States Constitution is the reason. The reason why many immigrants are in this country is because we like the rights we have here, and because we can advocate for more and better rights.”
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The challenge of mass deportations
Once she graduated as a lawyer, Polanco began practicing criminal and immigration law, at a time when the immigrant community was going through a difficult time due to the wave of deportations caused by the 287g program, which began operating in North Carolina prisons.
“Most of my clients were detained and had a criminal case and consequently an immigration case. So we started working to get them out on bail, to defend them in deportation proceedings for approximately seven years,” he said.
Consequently, acting as lawyer Immigration became a great challenge for many of these professionals, and according to Polanco, it led some to leave the profession or avoid these types of cases.
“I like to work as a team, and I was fortunate to work with excellent lawyers who shared the same passion and community spirit, and together we got through those times. But I honestly don’t think we could get to that point again,” he said.
He opens his own firm
Yesenia Polanco worked for different law firms, and when she made the decision to start her own firm, she did so with the support of her sisters who are also entrepreneurs.
She also saw the opportunity to work independently as a way to work as a team with her employees, decide the vision, mission and goals of the business, and above all, think about how the law would be exercised under her leadership.
“Now we are 17 people, we work as a team between lawyers, paralegals, legal assistants. I always tell the people on my team that no one is more important than another and that we are all replaceable,” he emphasized.
But in this profession some cases are won and others are lost when the Court issues an adverse decision.
“I work very hard to help my client develop an appeal strategy, and we think about whether it was a correct decision by the government or not. But if it was incorrect, we have to keep fighting and keep advocating until we get the correct decision,” she said.
His work in public service
As a Latina immigrant and entrepreneur, Polanco believes in the “American dream” and that everything is possible “by setting a clear goal and walking step by step until you reach it.”
Today, 30 years after arriving in North Carolina and after practicing law for 17 years, being a member of the Airport Board of Directors is another goal achieved for her.
Polanco remembers how as a child she would go to the airport with her family to greet her grandmother, an aunt or someone's mother, and they saw the growth of this place that she considers to be a connection for family, business and tourism.
She says her role as the first Latina on the board, which she has served on for nearly four years and is now in her second term, is not to advocate for a specific group, but to make decisions that affect all airport users.
“It is a very diverse Board, there are lawyers, others have experience in construction, for example, if we have to remodel an airstrip for airplanes, think about what is the best way to protect the environment while we build it, and also see what the budget is, there are many issues. We all bring our specialty to the table,” Polanco said.
How he became part of the Board
In order for a person to become a member of the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority Board, he or she must be appointed by the mayor, the city council, or the Board of Commissioners.
“The mayor of Durham called me and said, Yesenia, I would like to appoint you to the position. You are a business person, you are a woman, and you have legal capacity. I think you would like it very much. He told me that this was a voluntary job, meaning that I was not paid, and that I was going to have a lot of fun with all the things I was going to learn and what I could contribute, and that was the most important thing for me,” she said.
But for Polanco, this volunteer work has also been an opportunity to get away from her daily routine in the courts and deal with her immigration and criminal cases.
“And I'm here to do something really interesting, which will contribute greatly to our community and the entire state. We have many large airports, but this one is very special, it contributes incredibly economically, and it also attracts many businesses that offer many opportunities to our community,” he said.
Polanco was appointed to her second term by the Durham Board of Commissioners, and she says she will reapply in December, and it will be up to officials to either appoint her to the position or name someone else from the community.
Politics on the horizon
Polanco confesses that there are many things that interest her, one of them being politics, and she would very much like to be able to represent the Latino community in that field, perhaps on the City Council, on the Board of Commissioners, or as a judge.
“But I have to think about that very seriously. Because we must understand that these positions are a job, but also a public responsibility. So I focus on thinking about what I like to do and what will make me happy, if it will fulfill me as a person and as a professional and if I will do a good job for the community that elects or appoints me,” he said.
Among other things, she says that she also loves writing and teaching, but the most important thing for her is to maintain the curiosity to learn and contribute, and to be able to share what she knows, teaching others.
What it means to be Latina
For Yesenia Polanco, being Latina “is the culture, but the language is a very important part of it,” and in this regard she says she is very grateful to her parents for instilling in her the ability to speak two languages.
“But it's also the way we are. I'm warm, I like to share with my people, celebrate together, and I like to learn from people who come from other countries. I'm proud to be Latina and an immigrant and all the difficulties that come with being one in this country, but I wouldn't change it for anything, because it's super fun too,” said Yesenia Polanco.
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