Reunification
For up-to-date information regarding the reunification of Penn State's two law schools, please click here.
Cases and Projects -- Academic Year 2014-2015
University of Pittsburgh Immigration Clinic Collaboration
The Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic collaborates with the University of Pittsburgh’s Immigration Law Clinic (“Pitt Law Immigration Clinic”) to facilitate legal support for noncitizens scheduled for removal proceedings in Pittsburgh. In this capacity, students at the Center will screen select individuals and refer them to Pitt Law Immigration Clinic as necessary. Students will also provide legal research and support for select individuals.
Pitt Law Immigration Clinic assists individuals who appear pro se Master at Calendar Hearings in Pittsburgh. They also represent individuals requesting asylum, facing removal from the United States and seeking special protection under the Violence Against Women Act. Clients may include refugees, immigrant women and children survivors of domestic violence applying to change their status, persons with criminal convictions who seek relief from removal from the United States, and other immigrant populations.
Learning Goals
Collaboration, client interviewing, and legal research and analysis.
Community Outreach & Education: The Center Collaborates with the University Mennonite Church
The Center for Immigrants' Rights Clinic is collaborating with the University Mennonite Church to educate the community on how immigration enforcement impacts communities and families. In this capacity, students at the Center will present on the recent developments affecting immigration enforcement, the State College Raid and how immigration laws and policies impact our community. The University Mennonite Church is a local congregation, with a commitment to community education and a concern for social justice.
Center’s Response to President Obama’s Executive Action on Immigration
On November 20th, 2014, President Obama announced a series of executive actions that will have a tremendous impact on immigration enforcement and on families who present equities, such as long term residence in the United States.
Center’s Response
The Center for Immigrants' Rights will develop a community outreach plan in response to the executive actions of November 20th. The Center will conduct informational sessions for those who may qualify for temporary relief under the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability program. The first informational session was held on Thursday, December 11, 2014 at 5:00 pm. As practicable, the Center will continue to conduct community based presentations; screen those potentially eligible for relief under the new executive actions; refer individuals to pro bono attorneys; and represent individual clients.
Office of the Mayor
The Center for Immigrants' Rights is collaborating with the office of the Mayor of State College to educate the community on President Obama's executive action programs. In this capacity, students at the center will present a discussion of select programs (DAPA and DACA) to the community at a Borough Council meeting and facilitate legal analysis or advocacy in connection with litigation to support these programs.
Learning Goals
Legal research and analysis, multidimensional lawyering, public speaking, empathy, professional judgment, problem solving, attorney-client relationship building, leadership, collaboration.
Government Resources
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Executive Action on Immigration
The White House Fact Sheet: Immigration Accountability Executive Action
Department of Justice Legal Opinion; November 19, 2014
Community Resources
Administrative Relief Resource Center
National Immigration Resource Center
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Center’s Response to the Immigration Raid in State College
On June 12, 2014, agents from Homeland Security Investigation (HSI*) and other law enforcement agencies conducted an immigration raid of several Asian restaurants in State College. Subsequently, more than a dozen people were apprehended and detained. During the 2014-15 academic year, the Center will be involved in responding to the aftermath of the raid through community outreach and education and individual representation.
The Center of Immigrants' Rights, on behalf of the Interdisciplinary Roundtable on Immigration, held a panel discussion on the raid on Nov. 18 in the State College Municipal Building: "Why State College?" A Panel Discussion on the Immigration Raid in Our Community.
Takeaway Materials from the Panel Discussion about the Immigration Raid in State College
Media coverage of the event:
C-Net: Recording of the Event
Centre Daily Times: Panelists Address Immigration Raid Conducted in State College
WPSU-FM: Community Event Discusses Immigration in Response to Enforcement Raids in State College
WTAJ-TV: Why Raid State College?
For more information on the raid:
Lori Falce, Three Remain in Federal Custody Months After Restaurant Raids, Centre Daily Times, Sept. 16, 2014
Jennifer Miller, Feds Continue Investigation Related to Restaurant Raids in State College, September 16, 2014
Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Their View | Raids, rights and the rule of law, Centre Daily Times, June 24, 2014
Interdisciplinary Rountable on Immigration
The Interdisciplinary Roundtable on Immigration (Roundtable) aims to build connections among research and service organizations that work with or conduct research about immigrants and immigration and to raise awareness of resources available among the local community of scholars and service providers in the Centre county region.
On behalf of the Roundtable, the Center for Immigrants' Rights (Center) will develop a community education plan to inform community members about immigration law and policy with a focus on the aftermath of the immigration raid that took place in State College in June 2014. To reach this end, the Center will review and research legal standards and treatises; interview community stakeholders affected or concerned about immigration enforcement; plan and organize a public event at which community members can be educated about immigration rules and rights; and create related fact sheets and takeaway materials.
Learning Goals
Legal research and analysis, interviewing, public speaking, multi-dimensional lawyering, empathy, professional judgment, problem solving, leadership, and collaboration, and how to use legal knowledge to empower people and communities.
Group Rights Presentations at Clinton County Correctional Facility
In 2013, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) removed more than 430,000 people from the United States and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) detained more than 400,000 non-citizens.** Many detained non-citizens are deported without access to a lawyer or basic information about the requirements for applying for relief from removal or seeking release from detention. Without court-appointed counsel or sufficient resources to provide education, immigration detainees are often forced to navigate their cases alone.
Under the detention standards put forth by ICE, immigration detainees have a right to group legal presentations on U.S. immigration law and procedure. Penn State Law’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights has been approved by ICE to conduct these presentations at Clinton County Correctional Facility (“CCJ”). CCJ, a county jail located approximately 45 minutes away in McElhattan, PA, is used as a holding facility by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE-ERO).
Under the supervision Professor Wadhia, students at the Center will conduct group legal presentations to immigration detainees held at CCJ to inform them about the deportation process and possible immigration remedies. To reach this end, students will research primary sources related to deportation procedure and relief from removal, practice oral communication by using a script developed for these presentations and collaborate with interpreters, CCJ staff and ICE as needed.
Learning Goals
Multi-dimensional lawyering, cross-cultural communication, oral advocacy, legal research and analysis, empathy.
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*HSI is a department within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). HSI is responsible for investigating a wide range of domestic and international activities arising from the illegal movement of people and goods into, within and out of the United States. More information available at: http://www.ice.gov/about/offices/homeland-security-investigations/.
**John F. Simanski, Immigration Enforcement Actions: 2013, Department of Homeland Security, September 2014, available at http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/ois_enforcement_ar_2013.pdf
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