PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Immigrants have complicated relationships with law and government in the United States. Immigration, both legal and undocumented, has been one of the foundations of economic and cultural development throughout U.S. history. However, it is also true that immigrants are targeted as scapegoats by law-makers during times of real and illusory threat to U.S. national and economic security. Law becomes the instrument by which immigrants are deported and exploited, families are split, and communities of color, particularly, are subject to subordination. The Immigrant and Refugee Rights Clinic (IRRC) represents individual and groups of immigrants asserting their right to exist in the U.S. without fear, exploitation and subordination. Through the representation of immigrants, we train law students to be excellent public interest lawyers.

IRRC was one of the first immigration law clinics in the nation and has a distinguished record of litigation and policy advocacy. Prior incarnations of the clinic have focused on protecting immigrants’ access to public benefits and expansion of the legal category of asylum claims on the basis of gender oppression. Current faculty have practice backgrounds and scholarly interests in the following areas: defense of asylum-seekers in deportation proceedings, defense against deportation of legal permanent residents with criminal convictions, immigrant workers’ rights, and litigation under the Violence Against Women Act. The clinic is agile because we attempt to meet evolving community need and because we wish to model a practice of law that is flexible rather than fixed.

TYPICAL STUDENT PRACTICE

IRRC represents individuals in federal and immigration court proceedings at the trial and appellate levels. We endeavor to undertake individual cases referred to us by community organizations and in advancement of campaigns for social and economic justice. We represent community organizations by providing legislative and policy counsel on a variety of matters and undertake community education programs in the neighborhoods of New York. Finally, we advocate for individuals with applications for immigration benefits before federal agencies. Overall, we train students to advance social and economic justice through a reflective practice on behalf of individual immigrants and activist groups.

Examples of our work include:

• Litigating in Federal District Court on behalf of immigrant kitchen workers deprived of overtime and straight-time pay against a high-end chain of Manhattan restaurants
• Litigating in Federal District Court on behalf of a domestic worker subject to exploitative work conditions, including an hourly wage below $2 per hour
• Litigating in U.S. Immigration Court on behalf of a 45-year old legal permanent resident in deportation proceedings because of a misdemeanor conviction from 1986
• Litigating in U.S. Immigration Court on behalf of a woman in deportation proceedings who is seeking immigration status independent of the physically and emotionally abusive husband from whom she has escaped
• Litigating in U.S. Immigration Court on behalf of a 23-year old man seeking refugee status because his home was bulldozed and father was killed by the government in his home country due to his involvement in opposition politics
• Creating education programs for community organizations, pro bono practitioners, and applicants for naturalization
• Participating in a city-wide call-in program for immigration law inquiries
• Serving as legislative counsel for a community organization mounting a campaign for pro-immigrant worker legislation in the New York City Council

DISTINCTIVE SKILLS FOCUS

In addition to the set of legal skills which are taught in all of our clinical programs, IRRC emphasizes the following distinctive elements of public interest practice in our fieldwork and classroom instruction:

• Policy Advocacy: We believe strongly that excellent public interest lawyers must have basic policy advocacy skills, such as knowledge of legislative drafting, framing techniques, grassroots lobbying methodologies, and media advocacy, to complement litigation expertise.
• Participatory Litigation: Because we litigate with the goal of furthering the mobilization of our clients for social and economic justice, we contextualize traditional legal skills in a participatory framework and expect our students to work with clients as collaboratively as possible.
• Know Your Rights and Community Education: As part of a law school that is firmly rooted in New York City’s neighborhoods, we think it is essential to train students to engage in know-your-rights and community education programs, especially ones that can be constructed to be sustained by our community-based collaborators.
• Lawyers and Client Mobilization: We teach student lawyers to work with community-based organizers because we believe that lawyering alone will not advance social and economic justice. Through these collaborations, we explore the strategic and ethical challenges posed by a mode of practice that aims to mobilize clients, in addition to asserting legal rights and defenses on their behalf.
• Strategies for Social and Economic Justice: Because the clinic immerses students in multiple modes of legal practice, we closely examine the strategic choices facing public interest lawyers engaged in larger struggles for justice.

CLASSROOM COMPONENT

In addition to fieldwork supervision meetings with faculty, student lawyers participate in seminars approximately 5 hours per week. Currently, IRRC emphasizes substantive law instruction at the beginning of the academic year, followed by intense focus on specific lawyering skills, such as theory of the case, interviewing and counseling. Because one or more of our student teams have full hearings in immigration court each year, we also focus on trial skills, such as direct and cross examination and trial planning. To the greatest extent possible, we use the actual cases on which students work to teach legal skills and stimulate grounded discussions on legal ethics and advocacy strategy.

CLINIC GRADUATES

Many IRRC graduates work in solo or small firm practices in the region with the support of the Community Legal Resource Network. In addition, graduates currently work in the following capacities:

• Associate, Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss, LLP (labor), New York, NY
• Public Defender, Legal Aid Society, New York, NY
• Director of Outreach and Strategic Partnerships, American Rights at Work, Washington, D.C.
• Director, Immigrant Women and Children Program, City Bar Fund, New York, NY
• Immigration Attorney, Catholic Charities of Central Texas, Austin, TX
• Law Clerk, National Labor Relations Board, Washington, D.C.
• Senior Counsel and Director, Community Services Team, Holland & Knight LLP, Washington, D.C.
• Staff Attorney, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, PA