Clinical and Pro Bono Programs

Providing clinical and pro bono opportunities to Harvard Law School students

Tag: Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (page 2 of 3)

Alumni of the Clinical and Pro Bono Programs receive Public Service Venture Fund “seed grants”

April 3, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Via HLS News

Two recent Harvard Law School graduates, Shannon Erwin ’10 and Alana Greer ’11, have been selected as recipients of grants from the Public Service Venture Fund, a unique program that awards up to $1 million each year to help graduating Harvard Law students and recent graduates obtain their ideal jobs in public service.

…Erwin and Greer were chosen based on their vision for how to approach a public service problem or help a particular community. Erwin will work with the Muslim Justice League to combat policies that marginalize Muslims and Greer will work with Community Justice Project to empower young people of color. Read more…

Clinical and Pro Bono Programs Pave the Way 

While students at Harvard Law School, these two inspiring women participated in the Clinical and Pro Bono Programs. Shannon Erwin worked with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and the Human Rights Program, while Alana Greer worked with Harvard Defenders.

Here is what Shannon had to say about her experience in the Clinical and Pro Bono Programs.

Shannon Erwin, HLS J.D. '10

Shannon Erwin, HLS J.D. ’10

“HLS Clinical Programs exposed me to a range of legal tools to promote human rights and global justice, and they also evidence HLS’s high prioritization of public service by its students and alumni. Without the investments that HLS Clinics and the PSVF represent, I likely would not be able to pursue this project.

The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic exposed me to some of the many rewards of working for people seeking protection of their human rights. For example, an asylum applicant for whom I worked had escaped her country after being pressured to become an informant against university student activists. Being entrusted with her story helped me appreciate what a privilege it is to work with and for political dissidents in need of protection. Similarly, the Muslim Justice League will provide free representation to those at risk of political persecution locally — specifically, individuals approached for FBI interviews who may be at risk of coercion to become informants or of pretextual prosecutions.

In the Human Rights Program, I was fortunate to work with Professor Ahmad Amara on the development of a manual to assist Middle Eastern NGOs to access international channels for human rights accountability. That experience helped me to think more creatively about the range of advocacy tools to combat human rights abuses which are not only available to foreign organizations but also domestically.  MJL will also make use of such tools, and we view protection of Muslims’ civil rights in Greater Boston as inextricably linked with universal struggles for human rights and global justice.”

Clinic Student Advocates for Victims of Domestic Violence

March 24, 2015 / / 0 Comments
Becky

Rebecca Wolozin, J.D. ’15

By Rebecca Wolozin, J.D. ’15

Last semester, I took a legal theory seminar in which we read some of the seminal works by American legal theorists that form the basis for what has evolved into our law today. As I sat in class trying to analyze the article with my classmates, the images and examples that came to mind were not only my own personal experiences, but also my clinical clients’ stories. My clinical education has been and continues to be a central part of my legal learning. Through clinical learning, I have gained a complex understanding of substantive areas of law, both “law in the books” and “law in practice,” and I have real experiences to draw upon to help me see the difference between “ought” and “is.”

In the Family and Domestic Violence Law Clinic, I had the opportunity to advocate for women who are domestic violence survivors. These women make decisions every day, big and small, to avoid abuse. Many of these women decide not to ask for the little the law provides to avoid angering the men they are trying to leave. Other women want (and deserve) more than the law provides. In my biggest case, I worked with a client who is herself the subject of a wrongfully granted restraining order. Her husband has repeatedly used legal avenues to continue his control and abuse despite her having left and filed for divorce.

The wide gap between “is” and “ought” became painfully apparent when I went into court to argue against the extension of the restraining order. Although the standard required the judge to evaluate whether to continue the order by analyzing whether it was necessary to prevent continued abuse against the “victim”, the judge seemed to decide to extend the order “to avoid contention” for the duration of the divorce proceedings. At one point, he asked me whether granting the order to the husband against the wife wouldn’t actually protect both parties. I was, perhaps naively, stunned. But thanks to the urging of my clinical supervisor and my interest in changing the background rules and in educating those who apply them, we decided to appeal his decision. In addition to being legally incorrect, an important reason that we decided to appeal, and that our client supported and encouraged that decision, was to work towards better law that actually protects survivors from abuse.

The Family and Domestic Violence Law Clinic was the second of four different clinics I will work in during my time at HLS. This is strategic. I plan to work with children, and specifically with immigrant children. Working with this population requires knowledge and skills in a number of different “legal fields,” because for these children, family law problems, immigration problems, education problems, and others are all shades of the same color. As part of my strategy, I was a clinical student with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic, the Family and Domestic Violence Law Clinic, the Florence Project in Arizona (an independent clinical placement with unaccompanied child immigrants) and the Child Advocacy Clinic (working in education law) this Spring. The ability to apply what I learn outside of clinics to my own legal practice is central to my own process of becoming the lawyer I hope to be.

I am of the opinion that the most exciting learning happens when my classes speak to each other, when I can play out conversations between professors who may have never spoken in my head, when my semester turns into a web of connections and links and winding paths to be followed to the next insight or deeper understanding of something I thought I understood. My experience as a clinical student has provided not only a different format for learning that promotes making these connections, but an excitement and a grounding purpose as I continue my legal studies. As I finish my final semester at HLS, and after having spent four years at Harvard pursuing a concurrent degree (a Masters in Education), my clinical experiences have been the glue that brings together the vast amount of knowledge I have worked so hard to accumulate. In the end, what is all that learning worth if it isn’t to understand how to live it?

Clinicians Celebrated at International Women’s Day Exhibition

March 4, 2015 / / 0 Comments

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Harvard Law and International Development Society and the Harvard Women’s Law Association are hosting the 2nd Annual Portrait Exhibit, entitled Women Inspiring Change. The exhibit features women in the field of law and policy and recognizes the work they have done to inspire and pave the way for others. The portraits will line the first and second floors of Wasserstein Hall from March 1st-14th.

Students, faculty and staff nominated each woman for being an inspiration to his or her career. Among the portraits of judges, activists, public servants, corporate lawyers and businesswomen from across the globe, two of our clinicians – Andrea Park, Staff Attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and Sabrineh Ardalan ’02, Assistant Director and Lecturer on Law at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program  – were featured for their excellent work and mentorship.

Here is a bit more about these inspiring clinicians via the Women Inspiring Change website.

Andrea Park, Staff Attorney, Harvard Legal Aid Bureau

Andrea Park, Staff Attorney, Harvard Legal Aid Bureau

Andrea Park is a staff attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. She supervises all second-year and third-year law students in the Foreclosure Task Force. She works with several students in the Bureau, and juggles an intensive workload of over 50 cases — a fact that is in and of itself a testimony to her dedication, skill and passion for public interest law. Through her role as a supervisor at the Bureau, and being a skillful litigator and community lawyer, she has come to serve as a valued teacher, mentor and role model for many students.

In the words of the HLS community member who nominated Ms. Park, “She teaches students what it means to take a step back and listen to the members and organizers of a tenant and homeowners’ rights organizations as well as how to marry litigation with organizing to obtain extralegal victories when those in the courts seem impossible.” Additionally, “On a more personal note, at a time when the conversation of whether professional women can have it all is ongoing, Andrea has been frank and the most helpful of any attorney, staff member, or professor in all of HLS in discussing the benefits and pitfalls of public interest careers and having a family.”

Park earned her B.A. at Tufts University, M.A. at the University of Chicago, and J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Sabi Ardalan, Assistant Director and Lecturer on Law, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

Sabi Ardalan, Assistant Director and Lecturer on Law, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

Sabrineh Ardalan is the current Assistant Director of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. She teaches the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic, Immigration and Refugee Advocacy, and Trauma, Refugees and Asylum Law. Prior to her positions at Harvard Law School, she was an Equal Justice American Fellow at The Opportunity Agenda, an organization dedicated to social justice movements that advance solutions for expanding opportunity nationally. Ms. Ardalan also worked as a litigation associate at Dewey Ballantine LLP.

In the words of the HLS community member who nominated her, “She is a brilliant lawyer and a shining example of the kind of person I want to be. I am inspired by her commitment to helping her clients and her passion for training the next generation of lawyers to do the same.” 

Ms. Ardalan earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2002 and her B.A. in History and International Studies in Yale College. After obtaining her J.D., she clerked for the Honorable Michael A. Charages of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the Honorable Raymond J. Dearie, Chief District Judge for the Eastern District of New York.

Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic Wins Asylum Case

November 20, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Sophie Glickstein ’15 (right) and Sussan Lee ’15 (center) enjoy a celebratory breakfast with their client (left) after receiving the good news that he had been granted asylum.

Sophie Glickstein ’15 (right) and Sussan Lee ’15 (center) enjoy a celebratory breakfast with their client (left) after receiving the good news that he had been granted asylum.

Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic 

HIRC students recently landed two exciting victories for asylum clients seeking refuge in the United States following traumatic experiences in their home countries.

Escaping LGBT Persecution in West Africa

Over the course of a year, Sophie Glickstein ’15 and Sussan Lee ’15 worked extensively on the asylum case of a gay West African man, ostracized by his community and physically assaulted for his sexual orientation. The man originally arrived in the United States in 2010, and unsuccessfully applied for asylum without the help of an attorney, before being referred to HIRC by Immigration Equality, an NGO that supports and represents lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) asylum seekers in the United States. Glickstein and Lee began their work on the case in September 2013.

In order to prepare for the case, Glickstein and Lee interviewed the client and conducted country conditions research on the state of LGBT people in his home country, focusing on the threats to the client from his tribe, from his community and from rising conservatism and Islamic extremism in his home country. The danger to the client was quite evident, according to Glickstein. In a series of incidents, the client was attacked under the suspicion that he was gay. “After his true orientation was discovered, he would almost certainly have been killed by tribal, community, or family members if he’d stayed in his home country,” Glickstein said.

The traumatic and sensitive nature of this experience made the story difficult to relive, a process that is necessary for court preparations. Glickstein and Lee worked to earn the trust of the client, so that he could feel safe and comfortable sharing his story. “Through our many and lengthy meetings with the client, we were able to build that baseline of trust and able to thoroughly represent him and prepare him for his direct and cross examinations in court,” Lee said.

The initial immigration court hearing, where the client testified, took place in April, but there was not enough time to present the expert witness testimony so the judge continued the case to September, to allow for testimony by the expert witnesses. Glickstein and Lee had to re-prepare the expert witnesses and closing argument for the September date; however, when their day in court arrived, the judge made her decision without needing to hear the extra testimony. “Even though we knew we had a strong case, we were stunned,” Lee said.

Continue reading the full story here.

Cross-Clinical Collaboration: HIRC visits Charles Darwin University in Australia

October 30, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Sabi Ardalan (left) and Jeswynn Yogaratnam from Charles Darwin University

Sabi Ardalan (left) and Jeswynn Yogaratnam from Charles Darwin University

Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

This past August, HIRC’s Sabi Ardalan traveled to Australia to help Charles Darwin University (CDU) in Australia’s Northern Territory set up their own clinical program.  Jeswynn Yogaratnam, a law lecturer at CDU, initiated the plan for an immigration and refugee law clinic in hopes of training a new generation of humanitarian lawyers while addressing increasing demand for legal services as rising numbers of asylum seekers in the territory face detention and deportation.

Sabi met Jeswynn last November when he came to Boston to meet with clinic staff and students at Harvard and GBLS to learn about the clinic.

During her trip this August, Sabi led a two-day workshop at the Charles Darwin University School of Law with law faculty and community partners to discuss the evolving role of clinical legal education in the US and Australia and set the groundwork for a clinical program at CDU.  During her time there, Sabi also spoke at the Northern Territory’s Law Society about the current challenges of the US asylum system as record numbers of people arrive at the US Border and adjudicators place increasing emphasis on credibility and corroborating evidence.

CDU hopes to officially launch their immigration and refugee clinical program at the beginning of next year.

For more information on HIRC’s collaboration with Charles Darwin University visit ABC News.

Nancy Kelly and John Willshire Carrera win Dean’s Award for Excellence

October 20, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program 

From left: John Willshire Carrera, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, Nancy Kelly, and Lisa Dealy, Assistant Dean for Clinical and Pro Bono Programs

From left: John Willshire Carrera, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, Nancy Kelly, and Lisa Dealy, Assistant Dean for Clinical and Pro Bono Programs

Congratulations to Nancy Kelly and John Willshire Carrera, co-managing directors of HIRC at Greater Boston Legal Services, who recently won the Harvard Law School’s Dean’s Award for Excellence for their exceptional teaching and mentoring of students at Harvard Law School and for their leadership in developing child asylum and gender-based asylum law, as well as indigenous Guatemalan and gang-based asylum claims.

John and Nancy helped found HIRC 30 years ago and have worked tirelessly over the years to help immigrants and to train generations of immigration attorneys. In their nominations letters, John and Nancy’s colleagues described the dedication, compassion and skill they have brought to HIRC over the past 30 years:

“Their commitment to legal service and their dedication and ability to build ties between our law school and the legal services community has helped make us a true social justice clinic.”

excellenceaward

HIRC staff members (from left): Liala Buoniconti, Sabi Ardalan, John Willshire Carrera, Nancy Kelly, Maggie Morgan, Phil Torrey, and Lucy Cummings

“They are the glue that holds the immigration unit of GBLS together… John and Nancy’s expertise in immigration is unrivaled and their dedication to both their clients and students is exceptional among attorneys and mentors.”

“They are tireless advocates for hundreds of noncitizens in the Boston area, supremely gifted supervisors and managing attorneys of HIRC at GBLS, and incredible mentors to many of us at HIRC.”

Congratulations John and Nancy for this extremely well deserved honor!

Classroom to courtroom

October 15, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, which marked its 30th anniversary this year, trains students to represent refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. Julina Guo, HLS '14 (from left), joins John Willshire Carrera, co-managing director of HIRC at Greater Boston Legal Services, HIRC co-director Nancy Kelly, and Deborah Anker, the program's director

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer
The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, which marked its 30th anniversary this year, trains students to represent refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. Julina Guo, HLS ’14 (from left), joins John Willshire Carrera, co-managing director of HIRC at Greater Boston Legal Services, HIRC co-director Nancy Kelly, and Deborah Anker, the program’s director

Via the Harvard Gazette

Law School immigration counseling program helps the powerless while educating students

Harvard Law School students with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC) were working with Greater Boston Legal Services on a case involving a Guatemalan man in the summer of 2013 when they collectively had an “aha” moment.

The pressure was high, and everybody was working on two sets of legal briefs that were due before the court. “We were having a meeting here, and all of a sudden everybody understood what was on the table, and the writing was very powerful,” said John Willshire Carrera, co-director of the HIRC site at Greater Boston Legal Services.

The HIRC program trains students to represent refugees seeking asylum in the United States, as well as other immigrants, said Deborah Anker, the program’s director and a clinical professor of law.

“We represent a lot of women and children, LGBITA [lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, transgender, and asexual] cases, and cases where people face persecution under what people may regard as the classic ground of political opinion,” Anker said. “Recently, we’ve been representing a lot of people who are fleeing the warfare — it’s called gang violence but it’s really warfare — in Central America.”

HIRC students work on all these matters with supervision. They also work on litigation and Circuit Court of Appeals cases, often filing amicus, or “friend of the court,” briefs, working side-by-side with the instructors.

“They have done extraordinary work, especially with women refugees and with children,” Anker said.

Continue reading the full story here.

Joey Michalakes Reflects on Experience at HIRC

September 22, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program 

By Joey Michalakes, JD ’16

This past summer, I had the enormous honor of working as the Cleary Gottlieb Summer Fellow at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC). Over the course of a very busy but thrilling three months, my work at HIRC provided a comprehensive introduction to the world of immigration legal services. Under the supervision of HIRC’s fantastic clinical faculty, including Professor Deborah Anker, Sabi Ardalan, Phil Torrey, Emily Leung, and Maggie Morgan, I represented clients seeking a variety of forms of immigration relief and was able to hone an important array of legal skills at different stages of the litigation process.

I loved coming to work at HIRC because each day was fast-paced and presented new challenges, many of which I will remember for the rest of my life. A mere three weeks into the internship, I was already sitting before an immigration judge in downtown Boston, arguing motions at a pretrial conference for our clients seeking cancellation of removal for certain nonpermanent residents. In that same case, I was asked to draft and then meticulously revise a pretrial brief laying out my client’s claims, knowing that the time I spent crafting legal arguments and telling my client’s story could make all the difference in her case. Another morning, I proceeded directly from leading our weekly case meeting with an asylum seeker fleeing gang violence in Central America to sitting in on an intake interview with a family of Middle Eastern political dissidents and playing with their children. I also got the chance to manage an I-730 relative petition for an East African woman seeking to bring her children to the United States after almost four years apart.

The legal training I got at HIRC this summer was invaluable. Debbie, Sabi, Phil, Emily, and Maggie never hesitated to answer any questions, no matter how trivial, and were quick to provide comprehensive feedback on my written work. More importantly, they were excellent role models—the passion they have for their clients, and for just and humane immigration laws, is evident in their work and how they treat all visitors to the office. Watching them work helped me learn how to effectively, but compassionately, interview clients and witnesses, especially those suffering from the kinds of trauma characteristic of many asylum seekers. My experience as the Cleary Fellow will stay with me for the rest of my legal career. I am extremely grateful to have spent my first law school summer in such a warm, welcoming, and mission-driven place. Thanks very much to the entire HIRC staff for everything!

The high price of freedom

September 10, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Via the Boston Globe

It was the luckiest of breaks, in a life long overdue for one.

Manuel Ordonez-Quino sat in a detention center in El Paso, awaiting deportation to Guatemala. Swept up in the massive raid on a New Bedford factory in 2007, immigration officials said he had agreed to leave the country. 

But some of his fellow detainees told lawyers that was impossible. Ordonez-Quino was deaf, they said. An indigenous Maya, he spoke only Quiché, not English or Spanish. He could not have understood what was happening to him, let alone agreed to it. So John Willshire-Carrera and Nancy Kelly of Greater Boston Legal Services and the Harvard Refugee Program took on his case.

That one stroke of good fortune will change not only Ordonez-Quino’s life, but many others. 

Read the full story here. 

HIRC plays key role in landmark decision recognizing domestic violence as grounds for asylum

August 27, 2014 / / 0 Comments

HLSVia HLS News

The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued a ground-breaking decision yesterday that recognized domestic violence as a basis for asylum. The court’s decision in Matter of A-R-C-G- reflects years of work by the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC) and other advocates around the country who have pushed for the recognition of gender-based asylum claims. HIRC authored a critical amicus curiae brief in the case, on behalf of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the preeminent immigration bar association.

The court’s decision will have a profound impact on future asylum cases involving women fleeing not only violence in the home, but also other types of violence when that harm is related to their gender, said Deborah Anker, Clinical Professor at Harvard Law School and Director of HIRC. “We have won many cases of women fleeing domestic violence at the immigration court and asylum office and changed the institutional culture at that level, but yesterday’s decision from the BIA finally establishes these principles as formal binding precedent,” she said.

According to Anker, yesterday’s decision is critical in recognizing that under U.S. law gender violence and gender-based persecution can form the basis of an asylum claim as the BIA first laid the foundation for 25 years ago; in its seminal case Matter of Acosta the Board held that gender is an immutable characteristic that fits within the “membership in a particular social group” ground of the “refugee” definition in U.S. and international law. Anker emphasized that gender broadly should permeate interpretations of all aspects of the refugee definition.

The landmark case was brought by a Guatemalan woman (represented by Roy Petty, a prominent Chicago-based immigration lawyer) who suffered years of abuse at the hands of her husband, compounded by the failure and unwillingness of the police in her home country to intervene. The Board reversed a lower court’s ruling that the harm endured by the asylum applicant was the result of random criminal acts and therefore unrelated to a required protected ground.

“Domestic violence is a form of gender-based persecution often perpetrated by men on women that they view as their ‘property’” said John Willshire Carrera, HIRC’s Co-directing Attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services.

Yesterday’s decision demonstrates the success of HIRC’s “bottom-up” approach to legal change. Nearly twenty years ago, HIRC co-authored the U.S. Gender Guidelines, which formally recognized gender-based harm in the asylum context and even recognized domestic violence as a basis of asylum, setting the stage for yesterday’s decision. But it was a long road, and many advocates contributed along the way, said Anker.

According to Nancy Kelly, HIRC’s Co-directing Attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, it is advocacy on the ground level that provided the major catalyst for the court’s historic decision. “Through persistent and effective direct representation of asylum-seekers, we and others who do this kind of hands-on litigation and advocacy have been able to change the institutional culture, which made this kind of change in the formal law virtually imperative,” said Kelly.

HIP Students Continue to Push for Massachusetts Trust Act

August 20, 2014 / / 0 Comments

harvard_law_school_shield3Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

Summer is coming to an end, but the fight to pass the Massachusetts Trust Act continues. For most of the past year, the Harvard Immigration Project (HIP) has had the privilege of membership in the coalition of organizations working to end local law enforcement compliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers, or “ICE holds.” Though the campaign did not succeed in persuading the Massachusetts General Court to adopt a statewide solution, it helped achieve tremendous successes at the local level, in the form of new policies adopted by several localities in Massachusetts, including the cities of Somerville and Cambridge and Hampden County, ending or limiting the use of ICE holds.

HIP students made important contributions to the Trust campaign. They conducted legal research and helped draft sign-on letters to policymakers and law enforcement officials on behalf of the Trust coalition; participated in call-in and write-in lobbying campaigns to state legislators and city councilors to encourage the adoption of Trust policies; and sat in on strategy meetings with coalition members and their legislative allies. More importantly, they will continue to play an important role in the campaign as it moves forward. The Boston City Council is currently considering its own Trust Ordinance, and HIP will assist in the coalition’s efforts to ensure that the measure that is ultimately adopted offers the broadest protections possible. And HIP will be there in 2015, when the statewide bill is reintroduced in the next legislative session of the General Court. We look forward to continuing to work with our community partners to keep up the fight against warrantless immigration detention here in Massachusetts!

Alumni Profiles: Jessie J. Rossman ’07

August 12, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Jessie Rossman, J.D. '07

Jessie Rossman, J.D. ’07

Jessie Rossman, HLS J.D. ’07, is a staff attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts. After graduating, she worked as a law clerk to Judge Raymond C. Fisher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to her current position, she worked as a legal fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council and as a staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan.

Since she began working at the ACLU of Massachusetts in June of 2013, Jessie has briefed Commonwealth v. Augustine, a case that successfully challenged the Commonwealth’s claim that citizens have no constitutional protected rights in cell site location. She has also presented oral argument in Commonwealth v. Forlizze, a case challenging the government’s failure to seek judicial approval before collecting an attorney’s bank records. In Michigan, she briefed and argued Gaspar v. Dicks, defeating a motion for summary judgment on a free speech retaliation claim in federal district court and successfully settled a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit in Prater v. Detroit Police Department, resulting in a new policy to ensure that pregnant officers are protected against discrimination on the job.

In a recent State House News article Jessie is quoted saying:  “[Massachusetts] is actually the only state that incarcerates people who are suffering from addiction to drugs and alcohol, who haven’t been convicted of a crime. And imprisoning people because they have a disease is wrong, and it’s also unconstitutional.” In June, 2014, the ACLU of Massachusetts, Prisoners’ Legal Services, the Center for Public Representation, and WilmerHale filed a federal class action suit challenging the practice.

Her passion for public interest work started at Harvard Law School. “Through the clinical program, I figured out what public interest meant,” she said. As a law student, Jessie participated in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic, working at Greater Boston Legal Services and completed a winter term independent clinical at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.

“I would encourage students to take different clinics and explore how legal theory translates into practice. I would also encourage them to take chances and try out what clinics they like and figure out the environment that works best for them,” said Jessie.

Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program attains major First Circuit victory involving persecution in Guatemala

July 31, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Capture4Via HLS News

In a landmark immigration decision involving a claim of eligibility for asylum, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has issued an opinion finding past persecution in the case of a Mayan man, based on the long history of genocide in Guatemala and related racist mistreatment.

The case, Ordonez-Quino v. Holder, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 14004, originated from the New Bedford, Massachusetts factory raid in 2007, when 361 workers were arrested and sent to Texas without being given an opportunity to obtain counsel or go forward with their removal hearings in the venue in which they resided. The client in the case, Manuel Ordonez-Quino, was represented by Harvard Law School Senior Clinical Instructors John Willshire Carrera and Nancy Kelly, co-managing directors of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic at Greater Boston Legal Services.

In its July 23 decision, the First Circuit panel vacated the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision denying asylum to Ordonez-Quino, a Guatemalan indigenous Mayan Quiché, who was persecuted by the Guatemalan military and others on account of his race and ethnicity.

In its decision, the court overruled the Board of Immigration Appeals and the immigration judge, pointing to the extensive evidence in the record demonstrating that Ordonez-Quino and his community were targeted by government forces and others during the war because of their Mayan identity and their resistance to racist attacks. The court ruled that the cumulative harm Ordonez-Quino had experienced since his childhood constituted past persecution based on his race and ethnicity, and remanded the case for further proceedings.

Immigration advocates, scholars, and practitioners across the country have called the court’s decision “groundbreaking.”

Continue reading the full story here.

Read the Testimonials of HIRC Alumni

July 25, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Via Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

For the 30th Anniversary Celebration of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, alumni of the clinic shared Testimonials.  Check them out!

Alumni sit down to talk at HIRC’s 30th Anniversary Conference

Alumni sit down to talk at HIRC’s 30th Anniversary Conference

A Warm Welcome to Maggie Morgan

July 25, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Maggie Morgan, Albert M. Sacks Clinical Teaching & Advocacy Fellow, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

Via Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

Maggie Morgan is the new Albert M. Sacks Clinical Teaching & Advocacy Fellow at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program. She is an alumna of both the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC) and Harvard Law School. Maggie worked most recently as a Clinical Fellow in the Health Law & Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School. As a fellow, she worked on national and state-based health law and policy initiatives to increase access to healthcare for low-income citizens. She also developed several projects focused on improving access to health care for immigrants in the US.  Before that, Maggie clerked for the Honorable Nanette K. Laughrey of the Western District of Missouri.

During law school, Maggie was a clinical student in both the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and the Human Rights Clinic. She has interned at several international organizations including Asylum Access in Tanzania and the Supreme Court of Rwanda. Before law school, she earned an M.A. in International Relations at the University of Chicago, taught in Spain and Korea, and conducted research on the plight of migrant laborers in Jalisco, Mexico. She earned her A.B. from Harvard College, specializing in Government. Maggie loved her time as a student in HIRC and is thrilled to be back:

“I was really glad I did the immigration clinic. It really taught me a lot about how to be an attorney, particularly in terms of working with clients. There is such a breadth in the type of work that you do in the clinic, from honing your interviewing skills to writing legal briefs and memos, to arguing in front of a judge, so that was really helpful for me… I’m really happy to be at the clinic. It’s a really hospitable environment and everyone is so passionate about what they do.”

Welcome, Maggie!

Ninth Circuit judge recounts landmark case at HIRC 30th anniversary

July 23, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Credit: Martha Stewart Deborah Anker LL.M. ’84, founder and director of the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

Credit: Martha Stewart
Deborah Anker LL.M. ’84, founder and director of the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

Via HLS News

On June 17, about 200 Harvard Law School alumni and students gathered to mark the 30th anniversary of the Harvard Immigration & Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC).

It was a celebration of “30 Years of Social Change Lawyering,” and it brought together advocates from around the country and the world. They discussed progress and milestones in immigration lawyering, and they imagined reforms to the immigration system and ways to provide more much-needed legal representation for immigrants and refugees.

Judge John Thomas Noonan Jr. ’54, of the U.S Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, gave the keynote address at the daylong conference.

The clinic’s founder and director, Clinical Professor Deborah Anker LL.M. ’84, introduced Noonan, who spoke via Skype from California. She said that his famous decision in the asylum case of Olimpia Lazo-Majano has inspired all her work. Noonan understood long before others that gender could be a factor in asylum, she said, and that a poor woman from Guatemala who was a sex and domestic slave of an army sergeant was expressing a political opinion by her resistance. “It is a still a wonderful, alive decision,” Anker said.

Continue reading the full story here.

Alumni Interview with Fatma Marouf

July 17, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Fatma Marouf, HLS J.D. '02

Fatma Marouf, HLS J.D. ’02

Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic

Fatma Marouf received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2002. She now teaches immigration law and international human rights law at the William S. Boyd School of Law and is Co-Director of the school’s Immigration Clinic. Marouf attended Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program’s 30th Anniversary Conference in June, and is one of the alumni we interviewed.

Why did you choose to study law and what initially brought you to the clinic?

I chose to study law because of my interest in human rights. I read Debbie Anker’s work on asylum law even before starting law school and was excited by the opportunity to work with her. I couldn’t wait to enroll in the clinic and turned down an offer to join the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau my 2L year because I was determined to do the Immigration and Refugee Clinic. I loved asylum law right away. There was something profound about helping people construct a meaningful narrative out of the painful fragments of their lives.

Can you share a few memories from your time with the clinic?

I still have vivid memories of some of the clients I worked with in clinic. I’ll never forget one client from Sierra Leone who was trying to bring his children to the U.S. through humanitarian parole. We needed to submit passport-size photographs with the application and the ones that he brought to the clinic were full-size. When I started cutting them down, there were pieces of photos with body parts on them scattered all over the table. All I could think of was the horror that his family had experienced in Sierra Leone, when rebel forces began hacking off arms and legs with axes and machetes, and how this pile of scraps seemed to reflect that nightmare.

What do you think the biggest learning experiences were?

What I learned from clinic was to give 110% to my clients. I learned how much effort is involved in preparing an asylum case properly and how to work with people who have experienced unspeakable trauma. Debbie was an incredible mentor. Her passion for the work is what inspired passion in so many students. She taught us how to push the law forward, rather than just accept conventional thinking about the limits of the refugee definition. She also shaped my ideas about viewing asylum law through the lens of international human rights law.

What do you miss?

I miss my friends who were in clinic with me and are still some of my closest friends today. We still see each other but it’s harder now to be together in the same place at the same time. It was wonderful to see some of them at the 30th Anniversary of HIRC. They taught me the joy of working with people I love and the importance of having a sense of humor when doing difficult work.

Did your time at the clinic influence or change your long-term goals?

The clinic was critical to my professional development. My experiences representing low-income individuals in clinic helped me decide to join California Rural Legal Assistance after graduating. I then decided to practice immigration law in Los Angeles and focused on removal defense. Clinic was also a catalyst for my decision to become a law professor. Debbie was a great role model and has been very supportive of my academic career. I joined UNLV in 2010 as an Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Immigration Clinic. The clinic provides representation in removal proceedings, works with survivors of human trafficking, published a report on detention conditions, and has an innovative project with the public defenders’ office that involves providing immigration advice at the front-end of criminal proceedings, before someone is convicted.

In addition, my scholarship is about immigration and asylum law. I have written about gender-related asylum claims, the evolving definition of a “particular social group,” the role of foreign authorities in U.S. asylum law, and the treatment of mentally incompetent individuals in removal proceedings. I am also involved in empirical research with Professors Michael Kagan and Rebecca Gill at UNLV about immigration appeals in the federal appellate courts. A study that we recently published on stays of removal found that the appellate courts deny stays in about half of the cases where the appeals are ultimately granted, leaving many noncitizens vulnerable to errant deportations. We are currently examining gender interactions in immigration appeals, looking at the genders of the petitioner, the attorneys, and the judges and how they may impact the outcome of the cases.

What do you anticipate in the coming years?

Immigration law is always evolving, which makes it fun to litigate in this area but hard to predict the future. I suspect that we will see some major changes in the next decade. I’m excited to help build a cadre of lawyers who will fight for justice for those fleeing from persecution and torture and who will think creatively about how to design an immigration system that respects human dignity.

Calls grow to consider border kids ‘refugees’

July 15, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Co-Managing Attorney of Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic at Greater Boston Legal Services

Co-Managing Attorney of Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic at Greater Boston Legal Services

Via MSNBC

As more evidence emerges that the Central American children arriving at the U.S border are fleeing horrific violence, lawmakers and advocates are starting to call it as they see it. …

To qualify for asylum, a child must prove they have been persecuted in the past, or risk further threats in the future over their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. It is up to a judge to use their discretion in each case to decide whether gang violence qualifies as persecution. The problem is then exacerbated when it’s a child who appears before an immigration court without full legal representation.

“Gang-related violence has been viewed through a lens that characterizes it as common crime,” explained Nancy Kelly …setting a high bar for those who have been persecuted by gangs. “And for a child who’s trying to go forward without an attorney, it’s next to impossible.”

Read the full article.

Post Grad Profiles: Sarah Wheaton

July 11, 2014 / / 0 Comments
sarah-wheaton-photo

Sarah Wheaton, J.D. ’14

Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC) 

Sarah Wheaton is a recent Harvard Law School grad who spent time at HIRC. Next year, she will be traveling to Egypt to work at a refugee resettlement legal aid center! We asked her about her time at the Clinic and how that influenced her plans after law school. Here is what she told us:

What drew you to law school, and to the Harvard Immigration and Refugee clinic in particular?

I chose to study law because I thought it was the tool to address violence that I would be best suited for. I came to HIRC because I wanted to work with victims of violence, especially international clients, and use whatever legal knowledge or skill I had to assist them.

What do you think the biggest learning experiences were?

The biggest learning experience I had was how much of a dialogue the lawyer-client relationship must be in asylum cases. You are true partners in developing the case together, because it’s a real translation process from the client’s memories into a legal theory, but it has to be one in the client’s voice that is authentic when the client speaks it during her interview.

What will you miss?

I’m going to miss working with a phenomenal team of world-class experts, who are available for tips and advice all the time and who are constantly learning from and laughing with each other.

What’s next? Did the clinic influence your post-grad plans?

The clinic will be a great foundation for my career. This is the type of work I want to do, and there are so many techniques I picked up from working with the clinicians that I will put into practice for the rest of my life. Working there convinced me that I want to stay in refugee and human rights work for my career. That’s why I’m going to Egypt next year to work at a refugee resettlement legal aid center. I hope to continue in refugee, human rights, or asylum work in both the U.S. and abroad for the rest of my career.

Thank you Sarah, and good luck in Egypt next year!

Also, a final congrats to the Class of 2014! We wish you all luck with your future plans.

HIRC Alumna cited by the 5th Circuit!

July 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic 

Congratulations to Eva Bitran ’14, HIRC alumna and former co-President of the Harvard Immigration Project (HIP)! Her note for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, “Boumedine at the Border? The Constitution and Foreign Nationals at the U.S.-Mexico Border,” was cited in an important ruling released yesterday from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In Hernandez v. United States, the court allowed the family of a Mexican child shot and killed on the Mexican side of the border to proceed with a Bivens lawsuit against the Customs and Border Patrol agent who shot him from the U.S. side. In arriving at this ruling, the majority opinion, authored by Judge Edward Prado, held that noncitizens interacting with law enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border are entitled to Fifth Amendment due process protections. Bitran’s note was cited to illustrate “the long history of United States involvement beyond the U.S.-Mexico border”—a fact crucial to the majority’s determination that government agents are responsible for respecting the Fifth Amendment rights of foreign nationals occupying areas abroad that are nevertheless under the de facto control of the United States.

Eva will be clerking for Judge Prado next year. Congratulations from HIRC, and best of luck!

Recent Grad Spotlight: Q & A with Marina Basseas

June 30, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Marina Basseas

Marina Basseas, J.D. ’14

Via Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic

Marina Basseas is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School, and she also spent time at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic. In continuing with our recent profiling of this year’s HLS graduates, we asked her a few questions about her time at the clinic. She also shared her plans for next year! Here is what she told us:

Q: What do you think your biggest learning experiences were?

A: I learned a lot from just observing how my supervisors, Sabi and Emily, interacted with their clients. They both genuinely engaged with and took the time to get to know their clients, which allowed them to be effective advocates and compassionate lawyers. During 1L, it is easy to get caught up in legal doctrine and theory. So I was glad that I started off my 2L year as a clinical student at HIRC, where I was reminded that lawyering is ultimately about helping people.

Q: Did the clinic help you to grow professionally and/or personally?

A: HIRC helped me grow personally and professionally in so many ways. I learned how to interact with expert witnesses and psychologists to bolster my cases, the importance of being detail oriented and critical of my work to spot inconsistencies that would hurt my clients’ case, and many strategies for how to properly navigate the lawyer-client relationship when trauma is involved. I also learned how to better control my own emotions when dealing with such sensitive cases.

Q: Did your time at the clinic influence or change your post-grad plans or long-term dreams?

A: My time at HIRC definitely shaped my future career plans. When I came in to law school, I was interested in two fields: immigration and transitional justice. Through my work at HIRC, I realized that I found it satisfying and motivating to meet with my clients on a regular basis and help them achieve a discrete legal objective. Moreover, the clients at HIRC are truly extraordinary people – they have been through so much in their home country yet they remain optimistic about their future. I wasn’t able to experience as much client interaction in my transitional justice work.

Q: What’s next?

A: For next year, I received a fellowship to work at ProBAR Children’s Project in Harlingen, Texas, representing detained unaccompanied minors. There has been a recent surge in the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border. In 2014, it is projected that 60,000 unaccompanied minors will enter the U.S (up from about 7,000 in 2008). Importantly, while 40% of these minors are eligible for some form of legal relief to remain in the country, only 7% of them are represented by a lawyer. With the recent surge, I anticipate that next year will be hectic and overwhelming. But I am looking forward to learning a lot and serving a greatly underserved community.

Thank you Marina- we wish you the best with your work next year in Texas!

Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic Wins Asylum Case for Elderly Couple

June 19, 2014 / / 0 Comments

An elderly couple, who suffered attacks and repeated threats at the hands of radical Muslims, escaped to the United States and sought asylum. With the help of students Ryan Kurtz, J.D. ’14, Christopher Liedl, J.D. ’14, Joelle Milov, J.D. ’12, Lisa Sullivan, J.D. ’13, and the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic arguing their case before the USCIS Asylum Office, the couple was granted asylum in April 2014.

The couple and their children are devout Christians. In their home country, they are well known for their faith and lifetime activism in the church. Striving to help others, the mother went to school for social work and spent her career helping those in need—at risk youths, the elderly, people with disabilities, widows and orphans. Together with her husband, also a devout Christian, they raised their children in the same faith. As a result, the family came under repeated attacks. They were spat at and called “infidels” for wearing the cross; the mother suffered an acid attack, and she and her husband were targeted, beaten, and forced at knifepoint to convert to Islam. In one instance, the couple’s son was kidnapped by radical Muslims, beaten, and left to die in the desert. Fearing for their lives the elderly couple fled to the United States.

Lisa Sullivan, J.D. ’13

Former clinic student and current law clerk in the Southern District of New York, Lisa Sullivan, spent almost the entirety of her time at the clinic working on the case. “Every time we met we would learn more about our clients’ experience growing up and raising their family,” she said. “Because many of the experiences had been traumatic, it was difficult for them to speak openly. But, over time — as we talked about happy aspects of their lives as well as sad ones — they grew to trust us and speak more openly about the terrible events that had driven them from their home,” she said.

The case was argued on the grounds of the couple’s religion and their strong belief in human rights and equal treatment of all people, as well as the authorities’ failure to protect them from harm. Kristen Stilt, who was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, and will be joining the faculty in the fall, served as a country condition expert in the case. The grant of asylum means the couple will be able to apply for their green cards and eventually for citizenship in the United States.

Maryum Jordan ’14 Wins CLEA’s Outstanding Clinical Student Award

June 18, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Maryum Jordan ’14

Maryum Jordan ’14

By Caroline Parker, Intern, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic

Congratulations to Maryum Jordan, J.D. ’14, for winning the Outstanding Clinical Student Award from the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA). The award is presented annually to one student from each law school for his/her outstanding clinical coursework and contributions to the clinical community. Maryum was nominated by Clinical Professor of Law Tyler Giannini, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law Susan Farbstein, Lecturer on Law and Clinic Assistant Director Sabi Ardalan, and Clinical Professor of Law Debbie Anker, for her work with both the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC) and the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC). Over the course of her three years at Harvard Law School, she logged over 1000 pro bono hours in service to the community.

Maryum has distinguished herself in many capacities. At IHRC she collaborated with other students to produce a briefing paper on transitional justice in Burma, where she later traveled to conduct research on human rights violations committed near the Taiwan border. As a 3L, Maryum returned to the clinic to work with a student-led reading group on sex-trafficking in Boston. She also worked diligently to prepare asylum cases for traumatized clients from Honduras and Uganda. Her clinical mentors call her “a skilled and extremely conscientious advocate,” who is “intelligent, humble, personable,” and “sensitive to the ethical dimensions of her work.”

“Working with both the International Human Rights Clinic and the Immigration and Refugee Clinic has been part of my best experiences at Harvard Law School and I am grateful for the mentorship, knowledge, and personal growth I have gained as a clinical student. I am deeply honored to receive this award and be recognized by clinicians whom I hold in great esteem,” Maryum said.

This fall, she will be moving to Lima, Peru to work as a fellow for Earth Rights International. Eventually, she plans to continue her work with international and gender-based human rights and pursue a career in clinical teaching.

Student Reflects on her time with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic

June 17, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Tanika Vigil, J.D. '14

Tanika Vigil, J.D. ’14

Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic

Tanika Vigil chose to attend law school after working as a legal assistant at a small immigration law firm in her hometown of Boulder, Colorado. Once she was at Harvard Law, she spent much time working with the Harvard Immigration Project (HIP).

So, what are Tanika’s future plans? She has accepted a 2-year fellowship with the Immigrant Justice Corps in New York City! We were curious about how her time spent with HIP helped her get to where she is now, so we asked her a few questions:

Q: Do you have any memories you would like to share from your time with HIP?

A: My most salient memories from HIP are those in which a group of students came together in joint advocacy of a client. We had many late nights with members of the Bond Hearing Project mooting arguments and reviewing personal statements. We had many long days waiting to access clients and potential clients at detention facilities. And we had many exciting mornings at immigration court ready to present our client’s bond hearing case in front of Judge Day. In each of these moments the amount of time and energy that students dedicated to their clients and to each other was truly stunning.

Q: What do you think the biggest learning experiences were?

A: What I have learned most from HIP is that students have the potential to be dynamic, influential, and powerful advocates. The very existence of HIP–and its developing from a policy and interest group to a Student Practice Organization with the capacity to represent clients–speaks to the potential for student vision and motivation to have a very real practical impact on the ground for clients in need.

Q: How did your time with HIP help you to grow personally/professionally and what did you like about it?

A: HIP affirmed my commitment to engaging in direct client work post-law school and helped me begin to develop the skills necessary to do so starting with my first semester of law school. As a member of the Bond Hearing Project I was able to work on client interviewing, issue spotting, legal writing, oral advocacy, and legal strategy. I was also able to learn about legal procedure, working with and accessing clients in detention facilities, and collaborating with family and community members in pursuit of a client’s goal. While I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to develop these skills as a student, my favorite part of HIP was having the opportunity to do so alongside and with the help of fellow students and our clinical instructor, Phil Torrey.

Q: Did your time with HIP influence your post-grad plans and what are your post-grad plans?

A: My work with HIP 100% influenced my post-graduation plans. Over the past three years with HIP I have learned more about the injustices and inequalities and inequities that the immigration community faces. I have also learned that a group of committed lawyers, working alongside those communities, has the potential to make positive change. For those reasons I have accepted a two-year fellowship post-graduation with the Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC) in New York City. As a fellow with the IJC I will work as an advocate for the most vulnerable members of the immigrant community–those facing detention and deportation.

Q: What are the long-term goals you anticipate in the coming years?

A: In the long-term I hope to give back to the law school experience that has given so much to me by pursuing work in clinical legal education. We need more HIPs in the world and we need more robust and dynamic opportunities for law students across the country to learn by developing practical skills and engaging with real legal challenges.

Thank you and Congratulations Tanika! We wish you the best of luck in New York City!

UP NEXT: Ryan Kurtz talks to us about his time at HIRC and his post-grad plans!

For three decades, Deborah Anker has encouraged students to pursue a more generous immigration policy

June 16, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Credit: Kathleen Dooher Deborah Anker’s treatise, “Law of Asylum in the United States,” is considered to be a bible in the field of immigration law.

Credit: Kathleen Dooher Deborah Anker’s treatise, “Law of Asylum in the United States,” is considered to be a bible in the field of immigration law.

Via HLS News

The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program was established by Professor Deborah Anker LL.M. ’84 three decades ago. One of the first two immigration law clinics in the country, it is run in partnership with Greater Boston Legal Services. Under Anker’s guidance, hundreds of clinical students have helped more than a thousand people gain entry into the United States or avoid deportation. Anker is one of the most widely known asylum scholars and practitioners in the country; her treatise, “Law of Asylum in the United States,” is considered a bible in the field. She spoke with Katie Bacon in mid-March.

What first drew you to this area of the law?

I was very involved in local civil rights work around desegregation. This was my passion. And then I discovered immigration work, and I realized it was an area I had a direct connection to. My grandparents’ whole family got wiped out in the Holocaust; a lot of my parents’ generation did as well. I thought certainly as a Jew and as a social activist that this was a critical area and something that engaged me deeply.

How has the work of your clinic—and the types of cases that come to you—shifted over the years?

It has both shifted and remained grounded. One of the things that distinguishes our clinic from some others is that we’ve always been grounded in direct representation of clients. But it’s shifted in that we now do a lot of work on LGBT cases, gang cases and gender asylum, which is really an area of law that we created.

Continue reading the full story here.

All Ford Fellows Participated in Clinical Education

June 3, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Last month, three graduating students, Samuel Weiss ’14, Catherine B. Cooper ’14, and David Baake ’14, received Ford Foundation Law School Public Interest Fellowships. The fellowship is designed to identify and help develop new leaders in social justice. All three students participated in the Clinical and Pro Bono Programs. Here is what they had to say about their experiences:

Catherine B. Cooper ’14

Catherine B. Cooper ’14

“My clinical experience at HLS was instrumental in preparing me to be a Ford Fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Through the International Human Rights Clinic, I gained skills in litigation, documentation, and human rights advocacy that are essential for both my fellowship and long-term career.  But I am particularly grateful for the incredible people I have had the opportunity to work with.  Through the International Human Rights Clinic, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic, and Harvard Immigration Project, I found brilliant mentors who were both inspiring and challenging and a community of public interest students who were mutually supportive and extremely dedicated to clinical work.”

Catherine will serve as a legal fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She will be advocating for reproductive freedom both domestically and globally.

David Baake ’14

David Baake ’14

David Baake, who participated in the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic said “My experience… was one of the highlights of my time in law school. I was able to work on a variety of interesting and important projects, including a memorandum for a Massachusetts state representative, a Supreme Court amicus brief, and a white paper on offshore drilling. These experiences allowed me to develop practical skills that were not emphasized in other aspects of the law school curriculum. They also allowed me to develop a relationship with Professor Jacobs, who has been an excellent teacher and mentor.”

David will be working as a legal fellow in the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Climate Center in Washington, D.C. He will be supporting the Obama Administration’s Climate Action Plan through advocacy and litigation.

Samuel Weiss ’14

Samuel Weiss ’14

Samuel participated in the Capital Punishment Clinic and the Crimmigration Clinic. “While the idea of focusing immigration enforcement on folks with criminal convictions has intuitive appeal, in the Crimmigration Clinic we got to see how often good people faced devastating consequences for trivial crimes,” he said. “The statutes most relevant to crimmigration are extremely punitive, especially to people with drug convictions, and often suck discretion out of the system so that immigration judges are left to rubber stamp removal orders. The poor drafting of these statutes makes them confusing but also means that there is room for advocates to be creative in trying to win their clients’ relief. The fact that immigrants facing deportation have no right to counsel creates a huge opportunity for students to help folks navigate an incredibly complex and punitive system. As an experienced practitioner in exactly these types of cases, Phil Torrey was able to closely mentor us as we tried to help folks find some avenue for relief.”

Samuel will work as a legal fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Center for Justice, in Washington, D.C. During his fellowship he will seek to end the use of prolonged solitary confinement through class-action litigation and policy advocacy.

Please read more about the students in the HLS News article Three from HLS named Ford Fellows; Harris is keynote speaker

 

SJC Decision Clarifies Obligations of Criminal Lawyers Representing Immigrant Defendants

June 3, 2014 / / 0 Comments
"You’re going to have to give particularized advice, and that advice is going to depend on who your client is.” - Phil Torrey, Clinical Instructor, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic

“You’re going to have to give particularized advice, and that advice is going to depend on who your client is.” – Phil Torrey, Clinical Instructor, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic

Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic
By Joey Michalakes, 2014 Cleary Gottlieb Summer Fellow

This week, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued a decision that clarifies the type of legal advice that must be given to immigrant defendants in criminal proceedings. Commonwealth v. DeJesus involved a 30-year-old legal permanent resident charged with trafficking cocaine who pled guilty to the lesser charge of possession with intent to distribute in order to avoid jail time—a move he claimed he never would have made had he known it would render him presumptively removable under federal immigration law. DeJesus moved to withdraw his guilty plea and pursue a trial, arguing that the legal advice his attorney provided him—that a guilty plea would make him “eligible” for deportation—was insufficient.

The SJC agreed. Though its ruling did not prescribe the specific language defense attorneys representing clients in similar circumstances to DeJesus must use, it undoubtedly requires defense counsel to provide particularized immigration-related advice. Because the DeJesus decision is one of the first of its kind in a state supreme court, it could play an important role in shaping the national debate over the precise scope of a criminal lawyer’s duty to be aware of pertinent immigration laws.

Check out these stories from WBUR (featuring insight from HIRC Clinical Instructor Phil Torrey) for more information on DeJesus and its implications.

Congratulations to our Colleague Gerald Wall on his Legal Services Award

May 13, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Photo by Philip-Lauren Photography

Gerald Wall, Greater Boston Legal Services Photo by Philip-Lauren Photography

The Massachusetts Bar Association will honor Gerald Wall with an Access to Justice Award, for his exemplary legal skills and service to the community. He is a Clinic Supervisor at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and Senior Attorney at the Greater Boston Legal Services.

Gerald Wall is the most senior attorney in GBLS’ Immigration Unit, with a 40-year career in legal services. According to the Massachusetts Bar Association, he credits his longevity to both the satisfaction he gets from making a direct impact on real clients, and the “hard work and collegial nature” of his like-minded co-workers.

Students from the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic revere him. “He is the best mentor I have ever had. He is supportive, kind, patient, responsive, and encourages me to take more responsibilities. I feel really luck to have Jerry as my mentor, for his guidance and generous support” said Peng Lin, J.D. ’14.

“I can’t thank him enough for his kindness and patience in mentoring me. His commitment and dedication to his work inspired me to continue to work in asylum representation and advocacy after I graduate,” said Morgan Davis, J.D. ’15, another student.

The Massachusetts Bar Association describes Wall as more invested in his work than any other attorney in the Commonwealth. The first immigration cases he handled with GBLS involved El Salvadoran refugees seeking asylum in the United States from violence and death squads during their home country’s civil war. “Not only did Wall advocate for many of these individuals, he and his wife pursued adoption, ultimately bringing in to their family a 3-year-old son and 21-month-old daughter.”

“We are so proud of Gerry. He’s been a superb model and teacher for our students for so many years; his gentleness, experience, and sense of commitment will be carried forward by the students and clients whose lives he has changed,” said Deborah Anker,Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic.

The 2014 Annual Dinner Awards will be held at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel on Thursday, May 15.

In Photos: Death in the Desert – The Humanitarian Crisis on the U.S./Mexico Border

April 22, 2014 / / 0 Comments

During spring break, Harvard Law students and clinicians worked with No More Deaths, an organization that provides humanitarian aid to migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Photos depict their journey into the Arizona Desert. Please read more about their experience in the Harvard Law Record article ‘Confronting Unjust Immigration and Border Policies in the Arizona Desert’ here.

HIRC at GBLS Defends Rights of Local Immigrants

April 7, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Via The Harvard Immigration & Refugee Clinic Blog

John Willshire-Carrera and Nancy Kelly, Co-Managing Directors of HIRC at GBLS, with their students and colleagues, continue their work on behalf of asylees and immigrants. Rooted in Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), the largest legal services program in New England, the Clinic works “from the bottom up,” representing individuals and communities, as well as advocating for law reform on a broader scale. Over the years, the Clinic has responded to numerous important events, including backlash against immigrant communities in the aftermath of 9/11, TPS registrations, the 2007 New Bedford factory raid, and the DACA registration initiative started in 2012. Through this work, HIRC at GBLS strives to teach students how to provide high-quality legal services to individual clients while seeking to change the climate in which cases are adjudicated and targeting issues for broader law reform efforts.

HIRC at GBLS has represented clients in asylum, withholding and CAT cases, and cases involving other forms of relief at all levels – the Asylum Office, the Immigration Courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Circuit Courts. These cases have often raised cutting-edge issues in asylum protection, including domestic violence and other gender-based harm, and harm inflicted based on sexual orientation or gender identity, as a basis for asylum, and the appropriate standard to be applied in evaluating asylum claims brought by children, including unaccompanied minors. Most recently, the Clinic is representing a number of children fleeing gang-related violence in Central America and indigenous individuals whose claims arise from the genocidal civil war in Guatemala.

Continue reading about the cases presented by HIRC at GBLS here.

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