St. Thomas Law Hosts Emergency Clinic to Assist Central American Teenagers Seeking Asylum

 In late July, even before classes started, Professor Lauren Gilbert received an urgent email from Kristie Padron, a supervisor at Catholic Legal Services, asking that St. Thomas Law host another pro se clinic on behalf of Central American asylum seekers from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The email text read:

         

I am reaching out, because unfortunately, we have received information from many sources that DHS will soon re-designate Unaccompanied Minors who reach their 18th birthday, as adults. If that happens many girls and boys will lose their chance to present their asylum cases at the asylum office, in a non-adversarial setting. If re-designated as adults, they would have to present defensive asylum claims in Immigration Court, without an attorney.

We are helping many teenagers fill out their I-589 forms in order to send them to the Nebraska service center, and preserve their right to go to the asylum office first. Unfortunately, the need for services is higher than our capacity to provide them.

I would like to ask for your help with coordinating an emergency asylum workshop at STU. These are exceptional times and CCLS attorneys will volunteer to supervise if we can organize this event. Carolina Acosta Fox, STU law student has been a great contribution to CCLS over the summer as an intern, and she is willing to help if you think we can coordinate the emergency workshop.

I am sorry for such short notice, but I am reaching out to you because the prior workshops organized at STU, with your invaluable help, have been very effective. The quality of the applications has been outstanding, and many pro-se asylum seekers have been granted asylum.

Professor Gilbert agreed, and, with the support of the St. Thomas Law administration and a team of students, kicked into gear. Diego Sanchez and Andrea Valencia, President and Secretary respectively, of the St.Thomasm Law Student Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA),  played critical roles in recruiting students to participate,  and in organizing and overseeing the event. Carolina Acosta-Fox, who had been interning at Catholic Legal Services over the summer, helped pull together files for those teenagers in most urgent need of services.

The Clinic took place on October 30, with overwhelming participation by law students, who received pro bono credit, and several alumni. The Clinic was scheduled for September, but had to be reset due to Hurricane Irma, since many of the teenagers scheduled to attend were from the Naples/Immokalee area which had been hardest hit. 

 When several Central American kids did not make it to their appointment, Diego Sanchez, President of AILA’s student chapter, showed great leadership in quickly reconfiguring the teams so that every student participated in a meaningful way. After a crash course in preparing I-589 applications by Catholic Legal Services attorneys, the students divided into teams. Most of the teams worked with the teenagers in drafting their asylum petitions. Other teams worked with family members in preparing supporting affidavits. Another team worked on translations of birth certificates and motions to administratively close proceedings before the Immigration Judges. 

"Command Central" -  Law student volunteers

 It was a rewarding experience for all and reconfirmed that St. Thomas Law has some of the best and the brightest, true leaders for life. Special thanks to the law library staff for allowing students to use the law library study rooms as offices and the updated computer classroom as Command Central.