Immigrant Rights Clinic
The Immigrant Rights Clinic represents individuals facing deportation and partners with local, state, and national organizations to promote access to resources, education, and justice for non-citizens.
The clinic engages students in efforts to advance the rights of non-citizens through litigation, education and outreach, and policy advocacy. Student-attorneys defend immigrants against deportation in administrative and federal courts; they partner with national advocacy groups in impact litigation; and they work with legal service providers and grassroots organizations to disseminate resources for immigrant communities and to promote inclusive public policies.
Integrating their knowledge of constitutional, administrative, criminal, and immigration law, students develop comprehensive advocacy and communication strategies on behalf of individuals and coalitions. Through this work, they build the skills necessary for a flexible law practice, including evidence gathering, written and oral advocacy, client interviewing and counseling, as well as policy analysis and reporting.
Within the span of eight to 10 weeks, I was pushed to juggle a number of concurrent tasks and to adapt to changing circumstances in a way that I’ve never experienced firsthand in a legal case.
A team of three student attorneys from the Duke Law Immigrant Rights Clinic presented their client’s asylum claim in a federal immigration court hearing on March 13.
The four-hour hearing before an immigration judge in Charlotte — a few days before that court’s closure by the U.S. Department of Justice due to the Covid-19 pandemic — was the first “removal” hearing handled by the clinic, which welcomed its inaugural class of students in January.
In the News
Clinic Faculty
Matthew Boles
Stewart Detention Center Clinical Fellow, Immigrant Rights Clinic
