Immigrant Defense Externship

Introduction

This course will be offered to up to 12 students in the Spring semester as a semester-long, 5-credit course. This clinic focuses on the intersection between immigration law and criminal law and is separate from the year-long Immigrant Rights Clinic.

Course Description

The Immigrant Defense Externship provides students with real-life lawyering experiences. Students collaborate with experienced attorneys in the representation of detained and non-detained indigent non-citizens, facing removal from the United States because of criminal convictions and other immigration law violations. Under current immigration law, non-citizens with old or minor criminal offenses are subject to removal from the United States no matter how long they have resided in this country or how strong their family or community ties in the United States. Although deportation practically constitutes banishment, non-citizens in removal proceedings have no right to an attorney at government expense. Clients are screened through various projects including the Immigration Court Help Desk at the New York Immigration Court located at 26 Federal Plaza, the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project at an immigration detention facility located in Goshen, Orange County, New York, and through referrals from community based organizations.

Fieldwork

Students in the externship will have the opportunity to work one on one with staff attorneys at The Legal Aid Society's Immigration Law Unit, the Immigrant Justice Corps and the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN). The students will work remotely and in hybrid models in our offices located in Lower Manhattan and Hempstead, Long Island. Students are required to complete 14 hours of fieldwork per week. Students will work on every facet of litigation including conducting client interviews, investigating facts, developing case strategy, preparing applications for relief from removal, preparing supporting document packets for submission to Immigration Court, assisting with preparation of witnesses for evidentiary merits hearings, legal research, writing briefs and memoranda of law. Students attend master calendar and individual merits hearings. In addition, 3Ls will have an opportunity to provide direct representation to indigent clients in Immigration Court, under the supervision of their fieldwork attorney.

Seminar

The seminar component of the externship meets once a week for two hours and complements students' fieldwork. The seminar introduces students to immigration institutions and procedures. We explore the history of deportation and the impact of some of the recent immigration laws: the Antiterrorism, and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and USA PATRIOT Act. The seminar discusses grounds of deportability and inadmissibility, relief from removal, the intersection between immigration and criminal law and mandatory detention provisions and developing case law. Following a discussion on interviewing and how to develop a theory of the case, students engage in simulated interviewing exercises. The seminar also explores ethical issues unique to the practice of immigration law. During the course of the semester, other stakeholders in the removal process including an immigration court judge, an attorney from the Office of Chief Counsel, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a criminal defense attorney are invited to share their perspective and roles in the removal process. Guest appearances by a clinical psychologist/social worker and a non-citizen who has been through the immigration removal process help students delve into the human impact of removal. Weekly seminars end with case rounds during which students discuss their ongoing cases.

Application Procedure

Students should submit the standard application, resume and unofficial transcript using CAMS, the online application system. There will be no interview.

Student Contacts

The following students were or are currently in the Immigrant Defense Clinic:

* 5 credits include 3 clinical credits and 2 academic seminar credits.