Northeastern Law’s Immigrant Justice Clinic Sends Student Team to Southern Border
[Left to right: Zoe Bowman ’21, Rebecca Sparks ’24, Nora Doherty ‘24, Noelle Gulick ‘24, Blessing Eyee ’23, Jennifer Gonzales ‘24 and Ali Chaudhary ‘23 spent a week volunteering for the El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in April 2023]
07.01.23 — Generally speaking, just under 10,000 people fleeing persecution and poverty are trapped inside detention centers in Texas these days. Every one of them needs a lawyer. To help meet that need, Northeastern Law’s Immigrant Justice Clinic, through the generosity of donors, sent six students and a graduate leader to the southern border in April to assist Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization based in El Paso, Texas, that provides free and low-cost legal services to immigrants and refugees in West Texas and New Mexico. Las Americas has served more 40,000 people from more 77 countries since its inception in 1987.
“It’s one thing to have an intellectual understanding of our nation’s immigration laws and policies, but quite another to see them playing out with real people in real time at the southern border,” said Ilana Greenstein ’98, who led the student group. The students were fortunate to have such a seasoned leader — Greenstein is senior managing attorney at the American Immigration Council, where she is a national resource for attorneys and mentors engaged in pro bono detained removal defense including, release from detention, substantive relief, motions to reopen and related federal court litigation. This is the second time Greenstein has taken a group of Northeastern Law students to the southern border.
The students were trained by members of Las Americas, and focused on preparing detainees for credible and reasonable fear interviews, researching country conditions, and analyzing the factual and legal research. “I learned so much on this trip. I feel more prepared and driven to be an immigration attorney through what I learned and witnessed: how migrants in detention are treated like inmates, with orange jumpsuits and in no-contact rooms, and how the right to an attorney means extraordinarily little when there are no available attorneys,” said Nora Doherty ’24. “I also gained confidence in my Spanish skills and worked on my ability to listen with compassion and ask the right questions to build a strong asylum claim. I learned about the unique culture of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, one city split into two by an arbitrary border line. Overall, it is hard to capture in words all that I learned through this experience, but it will be a trip that I continuously reflect on and keep learning from throughout my career. I will not forget the stories nor the faces of the migrants I met.”
Students also worked emergency projects, including preparing pro se materials for an LGBTQ+ Colombian asylum seeker and an Afghanistan refugee seeking release on bond. Students further conducted various client interviews and legal intakes, both in person and remotely, as well as preparing detailed affidavits in support of cases.
“This trip helped me apply theoretical knowledge of immigration law in the real world. It helped expand my transferable skills, from verbal communication to problem solving. More so, it built my confidence, because I was exposed to many people, settings and situations. I thank those that donated towards this program, and I earnestly pray that their sources will never run dry,” said Blessing Eyee ’23.
“We really appreciated the students’ willingness to jump in and provide on-the-ground support for people detained in the El Paso area. Their work was critical for providing legal services to asylum seekers who otherwise would not have had assistance in preparing their cases,” said Zoe Bowman ’21, who served as the Northeastern team’s contact to Las Americas, where she serves as a supervising attorney in the organization’s Detained Deportation Defense Tea. As a law student, Bowman participated in the Immigrant Justice Clinic.
Students also conducted legal visits to detention centers and observed immigration court hearings. “This trip is a fantastic complement to Northeastern Law’s coursework and clinics, and a wonderful opportunity for students,” said Greenstein.
Professor Hemanth Gundavaram, director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic and associate dean for experiential education, echoed Greenstein’s enthusiasm for the trip. “The impact that our students make on the lives of immigrants in the clinic, on their co-ops, and in trips like this, reinforces the significance of our mission. By sending these aspiring lawyers to the border, we are cultivating a new generation of advocates who will champion immigrant rights and shape the future of immigration law.”