Immigration Clinic
The mission of the St. Thomas Law School Immigration Clinic is to inspire in law students a life-long commitment to serve uprooted persons at the margins of society, to enable students to challenge and address those human structures and institutions that divide communities and foster discrimination against newcomers, and to give students the legal, ethical, and moral tools they need to provide high quality immigration legal services to families and individuals in need so that they may participate fully in society.
Third-year law students will represent asylum seekers, battered spouses and children, and other non-citizens seeking immigration relief in Immigration Court, before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and before the Department of Homeland Security (formerly the INS). Each week, students are required to spend two hours in class, one hour in case review with a minimum of eight office hours in the Clinic, in addition to whatever time is necessary to properly prepare for your cases. Students will learn substantive immigration law as well as trial practice and advocacy skills.
Prerequisites: Evidence, Immigration Law, Professional Responsibility, Trial Advocacy Practice
Course Credit: 12 Credits (6 credits per semester; this is a full-year clinic.)
Grading: This is a graded clinic.
Faculty: Michael Vastine