Women in Immigration Detention Assistance Project with Texas Law Immigration Clinic

Students will interview women asylum seekers detained at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas who have completed their initial credible fear interviews (CFIs) and received a negative CFI finding from immigration officers. Students will help prepare these asylum seekers for the review of their negative CFI findings before an immigration judge. CFI is the first step in the asylum process. Immigrant women detained at the Hutto facility are forced through a rapid CFI procedure, which involves disclosing to a government officer the reasons they are seeking protection in the United States, often without advice or assistance from counsel and without a full understanding of the U.S. asylum process. If the immigration judge does not reverse the negative CFI finding, these women can be deported very quickly to face dangerous conditions in their home country. If the negative CFI finding is reversed, the women are entitled to remain in the U.S. pending full asylum proceedings.

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 Hutto Credible Fear Appeal Project is being conducted in partnership with American Gateways and the Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program.

Project Details

Project Start Date

September 2018

Approximate hours of work requested
5.5-11 hours, plus training; students must be available from 12:30pm-6pm on at least one of the following dates: Saturday, September 29; Friday, October 12; Saturday, October 27; or Friday, November 16
Training
Monday, September 17, 6pm-8pm, in TNH 2.139
Skills used
Client interviewing/intake; community education/outreach
Project location
T. Don Hutto Immigration Detention Center, Taylor, TX; Mithoff Program will arrange carpools from the law school
Number of student volunteers requested
24
Class year preference
1L, 2L, 3L, LLM
Required skills
Languages: Spanish and/or other foreign language skills helpful but not necessary
To Apply
Submit an email stating (1) any language skills, (2) all project dates you are available, (3) the number of dates you are willing to travel, and (4) whether you are able to drive a carpool to Sarah Sedgwick at ssedgwick@law.utexas.edu; applicants who speak Spanish will receive priority consideration for some volunteer openings