New Immigration Law Clinic makes its case

Everyone knows lawyers don’t come cheap. Immigrants who are unable to work because they are undocumented or on a visa that does not allow them to work find it even more difficult to shell out the cash for a service that can cost thousands of dollars. Fortunately for them, there is a solution in the form of the new Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Arkansas School Of Law.  

One of the reasons the clinic opened was to fill the gap in legal representation for an ever-increasing immigrant population in Arkansas. Anyone in the community in need of legal representation, student or not, can receive help at the new law clinic free of charge. Clients are only required to pay the fees for applications or legal documents required by the government.

“There are just so many people that need help here, and a lot of them also…can’t afford legal representation,” said Elizabeth Young, assistant professor of law and director of the new clinic.

There are several prominent immigration lawyers in the area, but they can’t fill the need for representation. “I don’t think any of them are hurting for clients,” Young said.

The foreign-born share of Arkansas’ population has grown from 1.1 percent in 1990 to 4.2 percent in 2007, according to a report by the Immigration Policy Center.  Arkansas had the fastest-growing Latino population and the fourth-fastest growing immigrant population of any state in the nation between 2000 and 2005, according to the report.

“NW Arkansas has a large and rapidly growing immigrant population,” said Cynthia Nance, the dean of the UA School of Law. Part of their charge as the law school of a land grant institution is to serve their community, Nance said. “The Immigration Clinic meets a glaring need in our state and community.”

The clinic has a mix of clients; some are students who are foreign nationals or married to foreign nationals, but the majority of cases are related to deportation, Young said.

“I would say about 70 percent of our cases are people who are in immigration proceedings, which means they are in deportation proceedings,” Young said.

Ester and José Gonzalez are clients of the Immigration Law Clinic. Their names have been changed to protect their confidentiality. Both are undocumented; Ester was brought to the U.S. by her sister when she was 14 and José came to find work and send money back to his family in Mexico, they said.

The Gonzalezes have stayed in the U.S. to gain access to better schools and a better life for their children, they said. They work in landscaping to help support their family.

“My kids are citizens and I would not want to disrupt their education by taking them to Mexico,” Ester said. She wants to see them to graduate from college and go on to achieve a better life, she said.

Ester found out about the Immigration Law Clinic from a friend’s husband, who recommended the clinic to her. The clinic helped prevent Ester and her family from being immediately deported and is working toward getting the Gonzalezes' work permits so they can continue to stay in the U.S. The couple are awaiting court in June.

“We have lots of confidence in them and that they will be able to do a lot for us,” Ester said. “We would like to become citizens. I have been here for 21 years and our family wouldn't want to start a new life in Mexico. I have faith in God and in and the lawyers of the clinic that everything will turn out fine.”

The clinic began taking its first cases last January, receiving most of those from local immigration law offices that do pro bono work. Law students act as the representatives and are supervised by Young. The clinic has about 30 clients right now, but immigration cases often last for over 5 years, and often cases will lie dormant for several months during processing, Young said.

“I would like to see cases in all stages at the clinic, which can only come with time,” she said. “I am hoping that the caseload will stabilize [as] the community becomes aware of the program.”  

Young is the first director of the Immigration Law Clinic, and has a strong background in immigration law. She directed the clinic at George Washington University Law School for a period until she found out about the opportunity to return to Arkansas and direct the clinic here. It was a dream of Young’s to return to her home state, she said.

 “Professor Young has been very involved and has gained a strong reputation in [immigrant] communities since joining us,” Nance said.

The clinic does have two large obstacles. Young said the biggest is geographical, because the immigration court is in Memphis, though Young is trying to set up a program for televideo hearings instead of having to travel there for every case.

“That has definitely dampened how many cases I will take that are in immigration court, because we just can’t drive to Memphis all the time to go to hearings,” she said.

The second biggest limitation is language, because the university does not pay for interpreters. Right now the clinic has a bilingual student in work study that is being trained to interpret, but since she is not certified they get most of their help from Anne Yancy, a local court certified interpreter who has donated hundreds of hours of free interpreting services to the clinic, Young said.

The law students are not required to speak another language and Young thinks it’s good for them to get used to working with interpreters, she said.

“You are always going to have somebody that you don’t speak their language,” she said.

The clinic administration has hopes that the clinic will continue to grow, both in clients and in services. Young said once they get the clinic settled and some of the smaller issues handled, the clinic can initiate more auxiliary programs, perhaps providing legal rights education to the community or help with naturalization forms. In the meantime, the clinic staff will continue to reach out to people in need of immigration legal assistance, such as the Gonzalez family.