PARTICIPANTS
Patrick Shen
In 2003, Patrick was working for Sen. Orrin Hatch as Chief Immigration Counsel on the Judiciary Committee, his primary focus at that point was the DREAM Act. He shared the same office suite with Joe Jaquot and Camila McLean from Sen. Chambliss‘ office-- their bosses didn‘t always see eye to eye on the DREAM Act, and although they were friendly office mates they were sometimes working at odds, right next door to each other.
Patrick was “on detail” from the Department of Justice, that‘s a little bit like an inter-governmental sabbatical and a situation we found intriguing. He had such a strong interest in the personal side of immigration policies, he really got into the job as a staffer. We loved how conscious he was of the privilege of working in the Senate, he never took the job for granted. Being a staffer can mean a lot of sacrifice-- financially and personally since the hours are so long, but Patrick still says he would love to go back, he misses that heady sense of working where things are really happening.
In 2004 Patrick moved on to work at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice before joining the Private sector in 2008.
He lives in Maryland with his wife and two children and is a certified emergency medical technician with his local volunteer fire company.
