IMMIGRATION LAW & HUMAN RIGHTS CLINIC (CLIN7154, 7155)
4 credits clinical component, 1 credit classroom component.
Prerequisites: Minimum Cumulative 2.60 GPA, Evidence, Professional Responsibility.

The Immigration Law/Human Rights Clinic provides students the opportunity to represent people from all over the world who have fled persecution and seek political asylum in the United States. Students enrolled in the clinic represent indigent clients before the INS, immigration judges, the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Third Circuit. Students will be actively involved in all stages of representation including: researching human rights conditions in diverse countries; interviewing and counseling clients; drafting affidavits; researching and writing briefs; preparing witnesses for trial and examining witnesses (including experts) in court. In addition, because so many of the clinic's clients have just arrived in the United States and are being held at the nearby INS detention center, students gain exposure to the conditions of INS detention. In addition to working on political asylum cases, students may also represent clients pursuing other forms of relief from removal or family-based immigration matters (including battered spouse self-petitions). The classroom component combines trial skills with substantive immigration law. The law clinic is open to day and evening students who are the equivalent of a third year day student.

The course is letter-graded for both the clinical and classroom components.

NOTE: The clinic fulfills the Trial Requirement if the student is eligible to appear in court under New Jersey Court Rules.  Students cannot participate in an externship in the same semester in which they are enrolled in a clinic.