To enroll in the clinic, a student must obtain a State Bar practice card. The Immigration Clinic involves students in the representation of indigent foreign nationals in a variety of immigration and citizenship cases. Students advocate on behalf of clients before immigration and federal courts, representing refugees applying for asylum, defending claims to U.S. citizenship, seeking permanent resident status for undocumented individuals with strong ties to the U.S., and applying for waivers of removal for immigrants with lengthy U.S. residence. Students are assigned several deportation cases and appear on a regular basis on the detained calendar of the immigration court to counsel detained immigrants and to argue for undocumented women and children seeking legal residence pursuant to the Violence Against Women Act. Each semester clinical students travel to the border to provide immigration and naturalization services to residents of impoverished colonias .
Students work individually and in teams in all aspects of their clients' cases.
Students in the human rights concentration represent refugees applying for asylum, battered immigrants, and victims of law enforcement abuse. In addition, they conduct interviews and other on-site fieldwork to document violations of international and domestic human rights law, prepare reports which include factual and legal analysis to demonstrate why the law requires particular actions, create strategies to ameliorate abuses, advocate with government officials, and develop cases for litigation in domestic and international fora. A student may enroll in the Clinic for two semesters, and will be awarded four credit-hours for each semester.