1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic

Law students participate in the groundbreaking Path2Papers project, which seeks to identify long-term immigration options for those currently holding DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status. Students provide direct legal services for DACA clients, developing their client interviewing and counseling skills and preparing and filing cases such as advance parole. Students work in teams and/or with experienced immigration attorneys to build their knowledge of employment-based options for DACA recipients and to effectively identify and analyze avenues for relief for individual clients.

The clinic litigates cases on behalf of asylum seekers, both detained and non-detained. Through partnerships with national organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and local agencies such as Journey’s End Refugee Services, the clinic provides Know Your Rights presentations in detention centers and represents individual clients in their applications for asylum, release from detention, and other humanitarian pathways.

Students engage in legal research, client interviewing, evidence gathering, and drafting written work product such as predictive memos and persuasive memoranda. Students may also have the opportunity to represent their clients in immigration court or before administrative agencies.

As a public service clinic, part of our mission is to conduct outreach in the community — on campus, locally, and at the state and national levels.

As part of this commitment, students engage in community advocacy through Know Your Rights and Immigrant Allyship presentations on campus and in the community. Students keep abreast of developments in immigration law and create fact sheet documents and/or presentations.

Audiences for students’ public-facing work may include impacted immigrants; immigration attorneys; lawmakers; Cornell students, faculty and staff; and members of the general public. Each semester provides distinct opportunities for such advocacy projects and outreach.

Advocacy Projects

• Travel to local farms to deliver Know Your Rights presentations and conduct intake screenings in collaboration with the Cornell Farmworker Program and the New York Immigration Coalition
• Best practices for working with undocumented students training for campus departments such as the Cornell University Police Department, Cornell Health, Residential Life, and Career Services
• Presentations on the state of immigration law for local community groups such as the Ithaca Sanctuary Alliance and Tompkins County Office of Human Rights
• Know Your Rights presentations for Cornell students and Ithaca community members
• Creation of pro-se materials for Black asylum seekers in collaboration with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration and for detained asylum seekers with the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative

Students at work in the clinic space.

First-year law students are eligible to apply for the 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic as an elective during their spring semester. The course is designed to complement the existing rigorous first-year doctrinal and skills courses while adding a real-world lawyering experience to the first year. 1L students may apply to enroll in the course during the 1L elective registration process, which usually occurs in November. Please note that the clinic encourages all 1L students to apply, regardless of language skills, immigration experience, gender, 1L section, or any other identity marker. The clinic is committed to including a diverse group of students each semester.

To apply, students must submit a resume and a brief statement of interest during the online application process. In your personal statement, consider answering one or more of the following questions:

• Why do you want to take the clinic, particularly in your first year?
• How have your personal and/or professional experiences prepared you for the clinic?
• What are your career goals?

Please also note your first-year section and any non-English language you speak, with level of language proficiency.

More information regarding timing and method of submission is available close to registration in the fall.

In deciding whether to enroll in the course, students should note that, like all first-year electives, the clinic is graded on a curve.

Contact the faculty with any questions about this course.

Students spend class time discussing strategy for their clients. Students draw on the classic rhetorical techniques of ethos, logos, and pathos to develop persuasive case theories.

1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic is a three-credit course divided between a seminar (approximately two credits) and casework (approximately one credit, or 40-60 hours during the semester).

Advanced students in their 2L and/or 3L years may enroll in Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic II or III with permission of the instructor, usually for 1-3 credits depending on the casework or projects they take on.

Students may travel for casework. Travel is not required or guaranteed.

Clinic students can expect to gain proficiency in the following areas:

• Client interviewing
• Community-based lawyering
• Oral presentations
• Case management
• Intercultural competency
• Legal reasoning and issue spotting
• Legal writing in various genres
• Facility with relevant immigration law.

Casework and advocacy projects provide opportunity for students to develop these skills. Further, the seminar covers relevant substantive law tailored to the semester’s casework and offers regular discussion of current events in immigration. Students will participate in simulations and case rounds. There may also be cross-clinic sessions and guest lectures throughout the semester.