Students and faculty from the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic stepped in to help newly arrived migrants who were bused to New York City from Texas at a local high school in midtown Manhattan on November 18.

Visiting Professor Mauricio Noroña connected with a non-profit service organization, Project Rousseau, which served approximately 100 of the newly arrived families, but had no lawyers on staff. Nine clinic students worked under the supervision of Noroña, Co-Director of the Immigration Justice Clinic Lindsay Nash and Clinical Teaching Fellow Elsi Wu.

“To best leverage clinic resources, we conducted a group workshop providing these families with essential information about the deportation process,” Noroña said.

Together, they worked in two teams; Noroña and several of the clinic’s bilingual students worked on a “Know Your Rights” legal workshop for approximately 20 families. A second group worked with translators and met one-on-one with the families under faculty supervision to advise and help screen them for pro bono representation. 

“The families were confused about what they needed to do to fight their immigration cases, get work authorization and comply with obligations to report to ICE,” Nash said. “If they missed their reporting requirements to ICE or missed obligations in immigration court, they were at risk of being detained, becoming ineligible for asylum due to missing their filing deadline and being ordered deported in absentia.”

Wu said that the program was impactful for the families, as well as empowering for the students working with the clinic.

“This experience was very humbling and reminded me of why I was so excited to work for the Immigration Justice Clinic,” Keisy Germosen, a 2L student, said. “In the span of three hours we got to inform dozens of families about their rights and were able to orient them so that they are better able to advocate for themselves throughout their immigration journeys here in the United States. The experience reminded me that the work we do can feel small but can have significant impacts and it motivates me to continue doing this work.” 

The clinic is working on setting up additional sessions in 2023 to offer further assistance. 

“Migrant families are not political pawns; they deserve dignity and respect,” Noroña said. “And that day, for a few hours, Cardozo students had the privilege of hearing their stories and sharing their appreciation and support. They also got a chance to clarify critical deadlines and duties these families must meet to move forward with their immigration cases and, hopefully, take one more step in making this country—and particularly this city—their new home.”