The UT Law Pro Bono Program has teamed with the Law School’s Immigration Clinic to organize weekend clinics throughout the fall to assist pro se youth to petition for relief under the recently launched Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
At the clinics, law students and volunteer attorneys will interview pro se high-school DACA petitioners (aka “DREAMers”) and assist them to complete forms and compile documents to file with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Similar clinics are being held throughout the country to assist the nearly 2 million undocumented students brought to the U.S. at a young age who qualify for deferred action under the new federal immigration program. The Pro Bono Program hopes to recruit 25-50 law students per clinic and also welcomes faculty, staff, and alumni participation as well as other volunteers.
The first volunteer training will take place on Thursday, September 6, 2012, from 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m. in TNH 2.124. A second training may be held in October. The clinics will he held on September 8 and 23, October 6 and 21, November 3 and 11, and December 1, 2012, at various locations in Austin. Each clinic will last four hours. At the training, volunteers will be able to sign up for the clinics with which they would like to assist.
Law students, faculty, staff, and alumni who are interested in participating may email Elena Yujuico, the Pro Bono Program administrator, at eyujuico@law.utexas.edu. Volunteers are asked to include information about their Spanish-language proficiency in the email. Spanish is a plus but is not required.
Contact: Tina Fernandez, Director, Pro Bono Program, William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law, 512-232-6170, tfernandez@law.utexas.edu
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