Our brilliant staff attorney, Rubina Mustafa, sat down with 888 Creative as part of a video inviting the general public to get to know DJC. Rubina has been instrumental in organizing the Road to Restoration Clinics across Michigan with our partners. Rubina’s interview traces her path to becoming a movement lawyer, and she delves into her work with Road to Restoration. Get to know her through this video, and if you or a loved one in Michigan have a suspended driver’s license, check your eligibility and join us at a clinic near you.
Video Transcript Generated by 888 Creative
[00:00:00] I grew up in Chicago, uh, the daughter of two. Um, Indian immigrants who originated from Hyderabad. My father ended up spending most of his, uh, childhood years in Pakistan and Karachi. Um, but he got a, my dad’s story is really interesting. He, his father died when he was very young, so he actually, his started work when he was six, so he’s like really built himself up from his bootstraps.
In, um, you know, graduating high school early, graduating college early, and then getting an opportunity to go to Oklahoma University, uh, which is really strange in the early sixties for like an Indian man to be out there. But he, um, you know, he was able to get his master’s degree in engineering. Um, that was a class of like 25, I believe, or less.
Um, Pakistani students that were in Oklahoma and, um, he was arranged with my mother to get married. My mother had finished her medical schooling, [00:01:00] classic doctor, engineer, couple, um, out of India. And, uh, they had my older sister first and then me, uh, less than a year later. So we’re like Irish twins, the Indian version, and, um.
And I think we grew up with my parents in America ’cause they were still pretty new. My mom had immigrated, I think, you know, 64 and I am, I was born in 66. So like we kind of grew up with ’em in this country and learning about what it means to. Be part of two worlds to be part of the old country and part of the new world.
And what does that mean? Like, what is fairness? Like, you know, was I being seen for the human being I am. Or was I being seen as the child of an immigrant? You know? And so my identity was very much tied up with justice and one thing that really stood out, um. It really impacted me, um, as like a 12-year-old kid was the Iran hostage crisis.
Um, and you [00:02:00] know how that impacted, uh, politics and government, and I can’t say I knew a whole lot then, but I was very interested and there was a, we had like these fierce debates and elementary school about like, you know, well what is a Muslim? And you know, what kind of cult is that? And. And I had never really had to defend my religion.
I mean, people knew I had this unique religious background that, you know, I couldn’t eat pork and some other restrictions, but they weren’t really concerned about it until then. And then it became like the stigma. And I wasn’t ashamed of my identity. I wasn’t ashamed that my parents were Indian or Muslim.
I mean, I was, I was definitely bullied for being different, but I wasn’t like. I’m not who I am, like I am who I am and you guys have it all wrong. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Like I was a debater back then, and so sort of fighting for. A just, um, you know, narrative has been a, [00:03:00] really a part of my growing up.
So, um, and then oddly enough, I went to Catholic High school, um, you know, making myself even more of a outcast, but, um. But I wanted to be, um, in, uh, I actually wanted to be in an all girls school. That was a personal choice of mine. So, you know, I kind of chose the, the audience I was dealing with. But it was actually very good.
It was really, I’m glad I had a religious education because there was a whole lot about the non-Indian culture that I didn’t know. And so going to a Christian school really helped me learn about that and really, you know, learn another perspective and. Do, you know, be an analytical thinker, which was incredibly important.
Um, and I also was like a, I was kind of a communist then because I was really interested in the Nicaraguan, some Thetas and their resistance. Um, and. So I was very, very interested in their struggle for, you know, [00:04:00] democracy and sovereignty and just, you know, being their own person. People would hear me talk about the sun and they would be like, who are you talking about?
Like, what country is this? Like where is it? Um, and yeah, I was in, I understood how. Global politics could impact everyday life, like people’s perspective on things. And I just couldn’t understand like how we could just sit by and let injustice be. So it was always top of mind, but I was looking at it as, uh, as a young adult from a psychological perspective.
So my initial, uh, interest was in psychology. Um, you know, but not. Not in your classic sense of how does the justice system ignore psychology? I was just very interested in it, in behavioral sciences. Um, and so in college that was kind of my focus, but also education. And I thought, well, maybe, you know, because I think people should be more analytical thinking I’d be in education.
But after I graduated, um, I [00:05:00] actually worked in social work and there’s a huge advocacy component to being a social worker, and I just saw that so many people did not have. Their voices were just completely ignored. Like they just didn’t matter. Government systems were created to basically make them give up on life and not give them a chance to thrive.
And I was just like, who’s fighting for these people? Like, does anybody care? Especially kids, you know? So I, I definitely had a passion for families and advocating for children. So, um, I was like, let’s try law school. You know, not really understanding what that would mean, but like. I, I also, I mean, I loved school, so it wasn’t, you know, I’m, I am your classic nerd.
Um, so, you know, being a law geek really fit my bill and I really enjoyed law school, but the justice angle was still really important to me. But it was also interesting to me. Just also what you see when you study law is that dichotomy that two [00:06:00] Americas, you know how justice is very much preserved for the ruling class and the privileged and not preserved for those who are under-resourced and underprivileged.
And I had a wonderful criminal justice professor or criminal law professor, Harold Norris, who may he rest in peace, um, who really talked about. The Constitution, both the United States Constitution and the Michigan Constitution, and how it was important to know exactly what it said and exactly what your rights were, because that was, that was literally fought for with blood, blood, sweat, and tears of.
Uh, generations before us. And if we don’t preserve it, if we don’t protect it, um, for ourselves and others, then nobody has those freedoms. So he was a real inspiration for me and always talked about the Bill of Rights, the Bill of Rights, and so I. That mantra kind of stayed with me, although I did, um, try going to a corporate firm at first, [00:07:00] um, outta law school.
’cause, you know, I had this great job offer, you know, why would you turn it down? Um, and I learned a lot. I mean, it was a good, uh, learning experience, but it also learned that I wasn’t in the right place. Like it was the wrong fit for me. I did a. Get a chance to clerk, um, in the court of appeals. And that was also a learning experience.
But one thing that it really pointed me to was the injustice in the criminal justice system, and especially on the appellate level because so many appeals, um, I. Highlighted what was wrong with what was going on for people on the criminal trial level and how people just didn’t have a chance. So I was lucky enough to become an appellate defender at the state Appellate Defender office after that, and worked there like seven and a half years.
Um. Doing appeal after appeal. Definitely even seeing the impact of the juvenile justice system on individuals and how the lack of real advocacy at that level and really people getting the help they needed. There were so many of my [00:08:00] clients as adults who had been in the juvenile justice system and did not get the help they needed or even the home life that they needed, um, which.
They were supposed to be protected. Um, so I was lucky enough after that to get the opportunity to work in the juvenile court in Wayne County. And that was eye-opening. I mean, it was always frustrating. You would think that everybody would agree on justice for children, but that’s not the case.
Um, you know, it’s. It’s, uh, I, I’m not just blaming that court. It’s very obvious in the court system that the, you know, the system is the enemy and it would rather blame citizens rather than help citizens. And I was, you know, so I fought like the, especially the coworkers of mine at Michigan Children’s Law Center, we were a collective that really fought for programs.
In the court and outside of the court, that really helped people, like you have to think about giving these kids a future and not just punishing them for the circumstances they [00:09:00] had no choice over if they were abused or neglected, if they were poor, you know, if they had to live, um, with, uh, you know, substance, uh.
Diseased caregivers. Like those were circumstances they did not choose. So stop blaming them, you know, and we were able to create a lot of wonderful programs. Um, and so also I worked, um, with U of M Law Schools Center for Family Advocacy was, which is another project, um, in juvenile justice. And so that was, um, you would think like, why am I not still in child welfare?
And I would be, except that, um. This opportunity to be in the Detroit Justice Center came about and it was really amazing. I knew Amanda, she had, um, uh, been a, a fellow at the Detroit, uh, center for Family Advocacy, um, and really had this mission about addressing the effects of mass incarceration and really had a passion for it.
So I knew any organization she was a part of I wanted to be a part of, because I knew these things weren’t being [00:10:00] addressed, particularly when it came to. Just giving citizens a fair shot. And so that was my focus when I came here, um, to really focus on what are we doing that is crushing people’s, like, who are just everyday people struggling to just get day by day and how, why aren’t they getting the chance to, um, f.
Fight a fair fight to just deal with their pro, you know, issues and go on. But what we saw and what can be seen in our highway robbery report is the system targets them. It targets them as a way means of fundraising. And so one of our biggest, um, arguments with highway robbery is that really what is happening parti disproportionately to people of color and African Americans in particular, is that they’re being taxed for being black.
Essentially, and not only by the city of Detroit, but all the sundown towns around the city of [00:11:00] Detroit. Like this is how these cities make their money, and it’s only about money. It has nothing to do with whether they’re doing anything wrong, but they’re cast as criminals both as. You know, in the charges that they’re given, but also in how that is recorded for their driving record as well as, oh, you didn’t pay, so we’re gonna issue a warrant for your arrest.
It’s just the cycle of criminalization of people who are already struggling financially and just the wealth that they’re extracting from people really gives them no leg up. And so one of our, uh, biggest opportunities for advocacy was the task pretrial and jails task force of 2020. 2019 and 2020 that led to the criminal justice reforms that got passed in 20 10 20 and became effective in 2021.
So that’s kind of like, you know how we segued into like my passion that led to DJC. But what I liked about being at Detroit Justice Center is we weren’t [00:12:00] dependent on the approval of our messaging or our mission from a state or. A, uh, elected official, we could set the messaging based on the movement.
And so, you know, um, I kind of wanna talk about movement lawyering because the movement defines, um, what is the most critical, the community defines what is getting in the way of their freedom dreams and what is fundamentally important to their liberty, and who is standing in the way of that. And so not only DJC, but our partners Michigan Liberation and.
Of other organizations stood up and said, look, we’re not here for you community. And the community responded. And collectively we brought our voices to elected leaders to tell them, you need to change how you’re doing things ’cause you’re, you’re being fundamentally unfair for no good reason other than.
To give these people a disadvantage for your own benefit. And so we [00:13:00] exposed, um, the ugliness of that, not only in the highway robbery report, but with also with the pretrial and jail task force. And we had some amazing government leaders that really supported us. So my, uh, next mission on that, in that particular area, although I’ve worked in other areas of law at DJC, but my focus.
Especially when those reform laws were passed, even the ex um, expansion of the Clean slate laws that allowed people to get, have public records deleted about their criminal history. I wanted it to be implemented. I want there to be fairness because any reforms that had happened in the past, at least my experience was that.
About 6% of the people eligible got to get the benefit of that. And other people had just, you know, said, I heard the law changed and would’ve given no guidance on as to how to be helped with that. And there was no feedback of how, whether the law was effective, whether the government was effectively implementing those reforms and.
[00:14:00] I just didn’t want it to go to waste. We had this major legislative change in 2020. We needed to make sure, I felt it was our duty to make sure, um, as fighters, for people, as movement lawyers, to make sure that those reforms got implemented fairly and. Frequently, like to as many people as we could reach.
And so that’s when I started conversations, um, thankfully with an amazing leader, Khyla Crane at the Department of State, which is Secretary of State’s office. Um, she at the time was the deputy legal director. Now she’s the legal director of the full Chief. Um, but she also had that same passion, you know.
That people, the residents of Michigan needed to know what their rights were and what their steps were and that there were steps and that we are rooting for them. And that even though lawyers and the government and you know, uh, corporations or whatever are not people you can trust for that, we came together in this, what we call our merry band of Misfits coalition, um, [00:15:00] to really create.
A team of people very dedicated to residents. So I’m very proud of a couple of elements of the Road to Restoration clinics in that it’s a safe space. It’s a, it’s a dedicated one-on-one consultation for an individual about their circumstances and how they can change their circumstances for the better, along with a positive message like we are here to help you if you have questions.
Um. Not only do they get that consultation with somebody from the Department of State staff, a Secretary of State staff member, but also a volunteer attorney if they have legal questions, and to really, literally, we will write out their action plan for them at that clinic in a private. Confidential consultation so that they know what to do next.
Now, some of it isn’t good news. Some of it is a lot of steps for a lot of people. One of the biggest, uh, detriments to individuals was, again, a lot of these laws, one being the, uh, repeal of driver’s education funding in 2004. So [00:16:00] a number of people. I just started driving without any driver’s education. So they don’t know the laws, they don’t know what they’re breaking, so they get moving violations and those build up on their record and so on and so forth.
And their license gets suspended and revoked and so on and so forth. Um, and they have no idea what’s on their driving record or how it’s holding them back. Second of all, you have the driver’s responsibility fee, which was. Onerous and ridiculous for a very long time until 2018 when it was finally repealed retroactively.
But for a lot of people there, it was just, it was a bigger, uh, hole that was dug for them. So every single legal battle that we fought was about digging them out of these holes. And one of the things that I feel the Road to Restoration Clinic does very well is also highlight what those holes are. And one of the latest celebrations we had was.
Even though it was a long time coming, ’cause this law has been of, in effect for a long time, there was what they call the appeal denial app Denial law, where a person who [00:17:00] had three moving violations within the last two, uh, or two moving violations within the last three years. Sorry, I was mixing those numbers.
Um. Basically they would have to wait three years to apply because they never had a license before. And so individuals were just stuck. Um, and I had many clients who were stuck in that situation where they just, like any ticket, just pushed out their eligibility another three years. So what we. Fought for as a, as a team was, you know, this is affecting people and there’s no good reason for it.
You could get a re, you could get a revocation of if you had a license and you got a revocation of your license and you killed somebody in a car, you would get a one year revocation. If you never had a license and had two moving violations, you have a. Three year ban on getting a license and there’s an appeal process for a revoked license, but there was no appeal process for a denial license, so it didn’t make sense.
It just made sense. No sense from a public policy perspective, it made no sense from a [00:18:00] public safety perspective. And thankfully we had a wonderful rep in Donovan McKinney and a lot of other. Um, reps, uh, like Stephanie Young, who really supported that effort, um, in the legislature to bring it, um, forward.
And Judge Derek Meinecke of the 44th District Court through his Operation Drive program has been fighting this issue for a lot longer than DJC has been around. So we have a huge collaboration all, you know, statewide with a lot of stakeholders who really were trying to bring attention to this and really do care about, we do, I have to say.
At least in this area, it’s not about, uh, Republicans or Democrats, it’s about people versus the system. And we, the people power is there. And when we speak up and we point out the injustice and just the stupidity, if I can be frank, um, then we, uh, we can get some results And we’re seeing. You know, so many benefits.
This is our fourth year of having [00:19:00] clinics. It’ll be the most clinics we’ve ever had. Um, we had 17 and 18, um, in the first two years. Last year was 27. This year will be 37. So the idea is. We wanna reach as many people as possible, um, and not feel like we are, you know, that there’s no stone unturned and that people know that when they come, ’cause at least somebody’s listening to ’em.
There are so many people that can relate to the fact that when you go to a government office and you ask questions and they don’t have the answers or they don’t have a path forward for you, you would get really frustrated and you don’t know what to do and you get frustrated and you give up. And.
Thankfully some of those people have come to the clinics, they’ve said, I’ve given up and I’m not doing this anymore. Um, but they’ve come to the clinics and we’ve shown them a path and they finally have some hope, and they’re so grateful that somebody actually listened to what they had to say, investigated the issue and found them a solution.
So. We [00:20:00] are just moving forward and we’re very excited. Um, one thing we wanted to definitely expand to as the DJC Legal Services program is really expand it to the clean slate. We, I had worked on a lot of expungement fair with our partners at Safe and just Michigan, but we had an opportunity to expand that service to actually represent people getting their expungement.
So we’re really excited about that and starting some clinics in that area too. For me. The outreach is the most important. I want to empower people to know that you have rights that you can take advantage of. You have the right to ask for that help. You have the right to be listened to. You have the right to have somebody advocate for you.
And hopefully, um, because I am a movement lawyer, I’m also bringing more people into the movement to, you know, be the power of the people, because that is what a true democracy is. It’s the power of the people.