New Externship at Washington & Lee Law to Focus on Immigrants' Rights
Last week’s Public Interest News Bulletin covered an opinion piece from the Pro Bono Institute’s Esther Lardent which had run in the National Law Journal. Lardent argues that, now more than ever, law firm pro bono contributions are necessary to protect immigrants’ rights until larger-scale policy reform improves the system.
We are at a crossroads where immigration is the point of intersection for civil liberties law, racial discrimination and poverty law. This presents challenges, certainly, but it also offers an opportunity for collaboration in ways that haven’t been the norm. What we need to see, in the absence of sweeping policy reform, are lawyers coming together to preserve the rights of immigrants and to promote concrete change to immigration laws.
It would seem that the Washington & Lee University School of Law is thinking along the same lines. The school announced last week that it is launching the Citizenship & Immigration Program, a component of its externship program which will allow students to represent those facing deportation, as well as individuals seeking asylum and refugee status. The school’s announcement notes that, in light of stepped-up immigration enforcement efforts:
…[T]here is a fast-growing need for legal services for people facing immigration problems, especially in areas not accustomed to large immigrant communities like the Shenandoah Valley. However, due to restrictions put on legal aid offices in exchange for receiving federal funding, such providers do not assist with immigration cases. Now, Washington and Lee law students will get a chance to help fill this void through a new program launching this fall at the School of Law.The Citizenship and Immigration program will focus on resolving legal disputes related to immigration and naturalization. Students working in the program, which is part of the School’s general externship program and third-year curriculum, will represent individuals before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice in order to obtain immigration benefits such as permanent residence, citizenship, asylum, and relief from deportation.