Immigrant Children’s Justice Clinic

The Immigrant Children’s Justice Clinic is a one-semester 6 graded credit clinic. Students will be representing immigrant children and youth who arrive in this country without parents.  Most of our work will be in dependency court but we will be representing some in immigration court as well. Many of our clients are abused, abandoned or neglected and some may be survivors of human trafficking.  Our goal is to provide a stable home living situation and lawful immigrant status. Many are detained at one of the detention facilities for unaccompanied immigrant juveniles in Miami.

Students develop core lawyering skills by being directly responsible for all facets of their clients’ legal cases. Cases are selected to expose students to all stages of client representation, including interviewing and counseling, factual investigation, legal research and writing, case theory development, and oral advocacy and witness handling in court. Students gain experience litigating in both state dependency court and federal immigration proceedings. Many Clinic clients are declared dependent in state court as having been abused, abandoned, or neglected and are later able to legalized their immigrant status.

A weekly seminar provides students with a background in the relevant state and federal law and procedure and develops skills through active learning exercises, self-reflection, and feedback from other students and the Clinic supervisor. Weekly case rounds allow students to learn from one another’s cases and brainstorm with colleagues, thus recreating a firm atmosphere. Students also receive weekly supervision meetings with the Clinic supervisor to receive individualized feedback with their cases.