International Human Rights-Immigration Litigation Clinic (4 credits)
Neil Afran, Adjunct Professor of Law
The International Human Rights-Immigration Litigation Clinic provides students with experience representing clients who have applied for political and other forms of asylum in the United States. Students interview applicants and witnesses, engage expert witnesses, prepare asylum applications, and represent clients before courts and the United States Department of Justice in both hearings and appeals.
Students counsel clients seeking protection from imprisonment, torture, summary execution, and abuse by oppressive governments. Most recently, a majority of the clinic's clients have been refugees from Tibet, where the Chinese occupation and systematic destruction of the Tibetan religion, language, and culture have created a growing number of monks, nuns, political protestors, and ordinary citizens seeking asylum in the United States. Participation in the clinic teaches students to be both competent technicians in this demanding field and compassionate counselors to clients who have endured great torment.
This clinic pioneered the development of programs designed to meet the needs of evening students. The clinic is designed so that almost all work-including interviewing clients and witnesses, gathering evidence, and meeting with faculty supervisors-can be performed during the evening hours and on weekends. Litigation or administrative representation takes place during normal working hours; however, students usually spend no more than one day each semester at judicial or administrative proceedings.
Students work a minimum of ten (10) hours per week on clients' cases, and attend a weekly seminar, discussing progress, problems, issues, ethical concerns, and strategy in on-going cases. Seminar meetings also provide instruction and simulated practice in the advocacy techniques essential to asylum litigation.
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