Students will interview asylum seekers detained with their children in Karnes City, Texas and help them prepare for their initial credible fear interviews (CFIs), the first step in the asylum process. Immigrant parents and children detained at the Karnes facility are forced through a rapid CFI process, having to disclose the reasons they are seeking protection in the United States to a government officer, often without advice or assistance from counsel and without a full understanding of the U.S. asylum process. If their CFI results in a negative finding, they can be deported very quickly to face dangerous conditions in their home countries. If it results in a favorable finding, the families are entitled to remain in the U.S. pending full asylum proceedings. Experience has shown that parents and children who are able to meet with legal service providers before their CFIs are better able to convey the reasons they fear return to their home countries.
Organization
Texas Law Immigration Clinic
The Immigration Clinic represents vulnerable low-income immigrants from all over the world before the immigration and federal courts and the Department of Homeland Security. The Immigrant Family Detention Legal Assistance Project is being conducted in partnership with the Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program.
Project Details
- Project Start Date
September 2018
- Approximate hours of work requested
- 12-24 hours, plus training; students must be available from 7am to 7pm on at least one of the following dates: Friday, October 5; Friday, October 19; Saturday, November 3; Saturday, November 17
- Training
- Monday, September 17, 6pm-8pm, in TNH 2.139
- Skills used
- Client interviewing/intake; community education/outreach
- Project location
- Karnes Family Detention Facility, Karnes City, Texas; transportation from the law school to Karnes will be provided
- Number of student volunteers requested
- 18
- Class year preference
- 1L, 2L, 3L, LLM
- Required skills
- Languages: Spanish helpful but not necessary
- To Apply
- Submit an email stating (1) any language skills, (2) all project dates you are available, and (3) the number of dates you are willing to travel to Sarah Sedgwick at ssedgwick@law.utexas.edu; applicants who speak Spanish will receive priority consideration for some volunteer openings