The Immigration Clinic is a course in which fourteen students per year are permitted to enroll. Students interested in the Immigration Clinic must apply and go through the Clinic selection process that takes place in the spring of each year. The maximum enrollment in the Immigration Clinic is fourteen students each academic year. However, because of ongoing client needs, two of those fourteen students will be selected to participate in the Immigration Clinic for an entire calendar year – from May following their second year to May of their third year. Those two students will receive commensurate academic credit for participating for an entire year. Students enrolling in the Immigration Clinic, under close faculty supervision, represent low-income clients with immigration problems. Most of the work is in the areas of deportation defense, family-based immigrant visas, asylum applications, applicants for immigration benefits based on being a victim of crime or domestic violence, Special Immigrant Juvenile petitions, and post-conviction claims based on ineffective assistance of counsel due to failure to advise of immigration consequences of criminal proceedings, although other types of immigration matters may be assigned to students from time to time at the discretion of the supervising faculty member. Students in Immigration Clinic can expect to engage in the following types of activities: factual development and analysis, frequent client interviewing and counseling, preparation of immigration applications and supporting documentation, attendance with clients at immigration interviews, appearing in Immigration Court on behalf of clients, state and federal court appearances (as dictated by clients’ legal needs), legal analysis and planning, frequent creation of written work product (including but not limited to legal memoranda, briefs, letters, and so forth), analysis and resolution of professional ethics issues, and other skills necessary to function effectively as lead counsel on a variety of immigration cases.
Expectations
Students interested in the Immigration Clinic will be selected by an application process held during the pre-registration period in the spring. The application deadline is announced in various formats ahead of the application deadline. To apply, students complete an application form and other required documents online. At the time the application deadline is announced, forms will be made available to students so they can complete them. Students selected for the Immigration Clinic will be notified in writing.
Students may only take one Clinic in any one semester; however, students wishing to be considered for more than one Clinic during the course of a year should sign up to be considered for multiple Clinics (in which case, students must rank their Clinic preferences). The preference given is taken account of to the extent possible.