Students in this clinic will work in teams to represent individual clients in a
range of types of cases affecting their status and entitlements in the United States.
Many cases will involve applications for asylum. Some cases will involve the immigration
status of victims of domestic violence. Others will require students to pursue remedies
in Immigration Court or in state and federal court on behalf of deportable lawful
permanent residents. Students will conduct a factual investigation concerning their
clients' time in the United States and also will conduct in-depth research into the
historical, cultural, and political backgrounds of the countries of origin of their
clients. Students will interview and counsel clients, prepare all of the applications or
petitions required by the administrative process of the INS, present the claim before an
asylum officer or immigration judge, make administrative appeals, and, when possible,
seek judicial review in federal court. In the weekly seminar, students will be given
specific substantive and procedural law, and the lawyering skills related to advocacy on
behalf of immigrants, and will discuss the difficult ethical issues that often arise in
these cases.