Immigrant Rights Clinic
| LW.11134 / LW.10586 Professor Alina Das Professor Sarah Gillman Open to 3L and 2L students Maximum of 10 students |
Year-long course |
Introduction
The Immigrant Rights Clinic (IRC) is a leading institution in both local and national struggles for immigrant rights. Our students engage in direct legal representation of immigrants and community organizations in litigation at the agency, federal court, and where necessary Supreme Court level, and in immigrant rights campaigns at the local, state, and national level. Each student, along with a student partner, will typically have the opportunity to represent both an individual or a set of individuals in litigation (such as a removal proceeding or appeal, detention litigation, or a civil suit) as well as a community organization in a campaign (such an organizing project or legislative campaign). We choose our docket in consultation with our community partners and engage in work that is responsive to community needs. Students have direct responsibility for these cases and the opportunity to build their understanding of legal practice and the field of immigrant rights law and organizing.
Our individual litigation work focuses on three main areas: (1) deportation defense, (2) detention challenges, and (3) affirmative civil rights litigation. Under current immigration law, thousands of noncitizens face exile and permanent separation from their families through deportation and detention policies every day, and the numbers are increasing. This is largely a result of an expanding interconnection between the criminal and immigration systems—where even a misdemeanor conviction may lead to mandatory detention and deportation, even for someone with lawful permanent resident status (a “green card”) and U.S. citizen family members. Moreover, federal agencies have been aggressively targeting individuals who lack status—in their homes, workplaces, and communities, often by turning police officers into immigration agents. As a result of these policies, immigrants have been targeted, racially profiled, criminalized, and subjected to draconian deportation and detention policies. Our individual litigation work, in immigration and federal court, pushes back against unjust interpretations of the current law and pushes forward to create systemic change.
Our community campaign work focuses on three main areas: (1) representing organizations engaged in drafting legislation and legislative campaigns, (2) developing organizations’ community education, reporting, and/or Know Your Rights work, and (3) spearheading amicus briefing or other forms of group-centered litigation on behalf of community organizations. As social justice lawyers in the immigrant rights struggle, we recognize that traditional litigation practices are only one small part of a larger movement. New York and New Jersey in particular are home to scores of amazing organizations that are engaged in immigrant organizing, public education, and legislative campaigns to fix our broken laws. Our clinic supports these efforts by representing these organizations in their work, much of which operates at the intersection of immigrant rights and labor rights, access to justice, criminal law reform, equality, and a number of key social justice issues.
Course Description
Fieldwork
Each student in our clinic, along with a student partner, will represent two clients: an individual (or set of individuals) in individual litigation, and an organization (or set of organizations) in a community campaign. Students serve as the lead attorneys for both their cases and campaign projects.
This means that students have direct responsibility for all aspects of their individual case and community campaign work. In individual cases, this may include client interviews, fact development, legal research, pleadings/complaint drafting, motions practice and briefing, negotiation, discovery, witness preparation, trial, and/or oral argument. In community campaign work, this may include legislative drafting, development of media strategies, planning for meetings with legislative or administrative officials, public education, and/or report documentation. In this way, the clinic gives students the opportunity to have their own cases and experience what it means to be a social justice lawyer.
We finalize our docket of cases/campaigns each summer prior to the start of the new academic year. Students have the opportunity to rank their preferences and we balance everyone’s interests and goals in assigning student teams to each case/project.
To give you a sense of what our docket typically includes, here are examples of past/current individual cases:
- Representing a young man from Haiti who was placed into removal proceedings after his long-pending application for adjustment as an orphan from Haiti was denied. In 2011-2012, students prepared his case for eligibility for relief and will represent him at trial in immigration court in the Spring semester. This case was referred by Brooklyn Defender Services.
- Representing a young woman who arrived as an unaccompanied minor but was not provided with the mandatory protections due to such minors. When we took on the case, it had been remanded by the Board of Immigration Appeals for further proceedings. In 2011-2012, students developed factual and legal arguments for reinstatement of the immigration court’s prior order terminating proceedings. In addition, they are investigating alternative forms of potential relief for our client. This case was referred by The Door.
- Representing an asylee from the Gambia who is facing mandatory detention, termination of his asylum status, and deportation based on misdemeanor drug convictions. In 2011-2012, students filed a habeas petition in federal district court to seek a bond hearing for our client, arguing that he is not lawfully subject to mandatory detention. Students also prepared a motion to terminate and applications for relief from removal, and will be representing him at trial in immigration court in the Spring semester. The case was referred by Bronx Defenders.
- Representing a young man who was provided with United States citizenship documents in 1990 by the State Department based on his father’s United States citizenship. Twenty-one years later, the State Department revoked his passport because of a clerical error made during the original adjudication of citizenship. In 2011-2012, students drafted and filed a complaint in federal district court, and will work on motion papers to preserve our client’s citizenship. This case was referred by the Arab American Family Support Center.
- Representing a disabled lawful permanent resident from Jamaica who is facing deportation based on past drug convictions and charges of unlawful voting. The government claims he is deportable regardless of whether he knew he was ineligible to vote, and that he cannot seek relief from removal despite the availability of such relief when his proceedings began. In 2011-2012, a student argued his case before the U.S. Court Appeals for the Second Circuit. We are also exploring the possibility of prosecutorial discretion in the case. The case was referred by the Erie County Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyers Project.
- Representing a lawful permanent resident from Ecuador who was placed in removal proceedings as a result of traveling to attend her father-in-law’s funeral. The government charged our client as “inadmissible” based on a single larceny conviction from the 1990s. In 2011-2012, students filed a motion to terminate removal proceedings. This case was referred by the Legal Aid Society.
- Representing a transgender woman from Mexico who was placed in removal proceedings after her application for asylum was denied based on the one-year bar (the requirement that applications for asylum must be filed within a year of arrival in the U.S.). In 2011-2012, students are litigating the one-year bar issue and preparing her asylum case for trial in immigration court, which will be held in the Spring semester. The case was referred by Immigration Equality.
- Representing a lawful permanent resident from Haiti who is facing deportation based on two New York misdemeanor convictions, based on the government’s assessment that these convictions are “crimes involving moral turpitude.” In 2011-2012, students are briefing the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In addition, we filed a motion to vacate one of his past convictions in criminal court.
- Representing a long time lawful permanent resident and community activist from Trinidad and Tobago who is facing mandatory deportation and permanent separation from his family due to his one-time fraud conviction. In 2011-2012, following a denial of certiorari from the Supreme Court in his removal case, students successfully sought prosecutorial discretion from the federal government and obtained a one-year stay of removal. Students are also filing a motion to reopen his removal order before the Board of Immigration Appeals, seeking adjustment based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen. This case was referred by Families for Freedom, of which our client is a member and activist.
- Representing an immigrant arrested in a home raid in which Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents violated a host of agency regulations. Our client was asleep in his bed when DHS agents came his home and obtained entry through deceptive tactics. We filed motions to suppress the evidence and terminate proceedings before immigration court. After the court denied our motions, we appealed the order. In 2011-2012, a student argued the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. We are waiting for a decision. This case was referred by Catholic Charities of New Jersey.
Here are examples of past/current organizational campaign case work from our docket:
- Representing Domestic Workers United (DWU) in advocacy to ensure the enforcement of the New York Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, the first state legislation of its kind to protect the rights of domestic workers. In previous years, students worked on DWU’s successful legislative campaigns with the New York State legislature and the New York City Council to get key protections enacted into law.
- Representing Families for Freedom (FFF), a multi-ethnic organization of families fighting detention and deportation policies. In 2011-2012, students represented FFF in litigation under the Freedom of Information Act to seek information about Customs and Border Patrol operations on upstate NY buses and trains. In past years, students have worked on FFF’s national legislative campaigns to restore discretionary relief in immigration court and on their state advocacy campaign supporting the use of gubernatorial pardons as a means of ensuring justice for immigrants facing deportation based on past criminal convictions.
- Representing the Justice for Farmworkers Campaign in their legislative advocacy to end the unjust exclusion of farmworkers from key NY labor protections. In 2011-2012, students prepared research and materials in support of the campaign and worked with various allies to strategize about campaign tactics and goals.
- Representing national immigrant advocacy groups and community organizations in amicus filings before the circuit courts and the Supreme Court on issues related to detention and deportation. In 2011-2012, the student filed amicus briefs before the Supreme Court in a case involving the availability of discretionary relief to individuals facing deportation upon returning to the country after a brief trip abroad. The students are now working on an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in a case challenging SB1070, the Arizona anti-immigrant law.
- Representing the New York State Youth Leadership Council in their campaign to enact the New York Dream Act, to ensure greater access to opportunities for undocumented youth in New York State. In 2011-2012, students drafted legislative proposals and worked closely with the group and their allies on the overall campaign.
- Representing New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees, a coalition of organizations that cares deeply about immigrants detained in the expanding patchwork of immigration jails in the state. In past years, students worked on a groundbreaking report, Locked Up But Not Forgotten, on the importance of community visitation in NJ immigration jails. In 2011-2012, students are working on a report focused on detention expansion, conditions, and immigration prison privatization in NJ.
- Representing the Immigrant Defense Project in its efforts to stop Secure Communities (S-Comm), a fingerprinting program aimed at funneling more immigrants into the deportation and detention system. In 2011-2012, students researched options for local action to push back against S-Comm and are creating a toolkit for groups that want to make their communities safe and free from S-Comm.
The Seminar
The seminar component of the Immigrant Rights Clinic is a practice-oriented examination of advocacy on behalf of immigrants. The seminar meets twice weekly and covers both substantive and skill-based issues that arise in our fieldwork. Students have the opportunity to learn about immigration law and, where it arises in our cases, the intersection of immigration law with criminal, international, civil rights, labor and employment law. Students learn from their fellow students’ cases and campaign work, and have the opportunity to explore what it means to be a social justice lawyer.
Application Procedure
Students should submit the standard application, resume and transcript online via CAMS. Applicants should submit as lengthy a response to Question 4 of the standard application as they feel necessary and may ignore the 300 word limit. Applicants invited to interview will be contacted by email. The clinic accepts 2Ls and 3Ls. If you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact Noelia Rodriguez at 212-998-6459 or by email.
Students who enroll in the Immigrant Rights Clinic as 2Ls may have the opportunity to join the Advanced Immigrant Rights Clinic in their 3L year. There is no formal application process for the Advanced Immigrant Rights Clinic. Those students will be contacted about the application process in the Spring.
Student Contacts
We recommend that students interested in the clinic speak to members of the 2011-2012 Immigrant Rights Clinic and the Advanced Immigrant Rights Clinic.
| 2011-2012 Immigrant Rights Clinic | 2011-2012 Advanced Immigrant Rights Clinic |
| Anthony Enriquez Semuteh Freeman Terra Judge Lauren Major Helen Poitra-Chalmers Shouan Riahi Anna Schoenfelder Natasha Silber Caroline Solis Chris Stanislowski Pierce Suen Kevin Terry Julia Tong Jordan Wells |
Sara Cullinane |
* 14 credits includes 3 clinical credits and 4 academic seminar credits per semester.
** Courses in immigration law, administrative law, federal courts, public benefits law, evidence, and civil litigation may be helpful.
http://www.law.nyu.edu//academics/clinics/year/immigrantrights/index.htm