Academics Experiential Learning Clinical Program

1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic

Explore this section

The 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy clinic is designed to provide first-year law students with the experience of counseling clients on immigration cases, performing research and writing for real cases, and engaging in community advocacy on emerging immigration issues.

About the Clinic

The Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic focuses on innovative work on behalf of undocumented and DACA communities through the Path2Papers Project and on advocacy for detained immigrants and asylum seekers.

In the spring semester, first-year students enroll in the clinic, which is one of only two 1L-focused clinical courses in the nation. Advanced students may enroll in their 2L and/or 3L year with permission of the instructor.

Work in the clinic focuses on three areas:

Law students participate in the groundbreaking Path2Papers project, which seeks to identify long-term immigration options for those currently holding DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status. Students provide direct legal services for DACA clients, developing their client interviewing and counseling skills and preparing and filing cases such as advance parole. Students work in teams and/or with experienced immigration attorneys to build their knowledge of employment-based options for DACA recipients and to effectively identify and analyze avenues for relief for individual clients.
The clinic litigates cases on behalf of asylum seekers, both detained and non-detained. Through partnerships with national organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and local agencies such as Journey’s End Refugee Services, the clinic provides Know Your Rights presentations in detention centers and represents individual clients in their applications for asylum, release from detention, and other humanitarian pathways.

Students engage in legal research, client interviewing, evidence gathering, and drafting written work product such as predictive memos and persuasive memoranda. Students may also have the opportunity to represent their clients in immigration court or before administrative agencies.
As a public service clinic, part of our mission is to conduct outreach in the community — on campus, locally, and at the state and national levels.

As part of this commitment, students engage in community advocacy through Know Your Rights and Immigrant Allyship presentations on campus and in the community. Students keep abreast of developments in immigration law and create fact sheet documents and/or presentations.

Audiences for students’ public-facing work may include impacted immigrants; immigration attorneys; lawmakers; Cornell students, faculty and staff; and members of the general public. Each semester provides distinct opportunities for such advocacy projects and outreach.

Advocacy Projects
- Travel to local farms to deliver Know Your Rights presentations and conduct intake screenings in collaboration with the Cornell Farmworker Program and the New York Immigration Coalition
- Best practices for working with undocumented students training for campus departments such as the Cornell University Police Department, Cornell Health, Residential Life, and Career Services
- Presentations on the state of immigration law for local community groups such as the Ithaca Sanctuary Alliance and Tompkins County Office of Human Rights
- Know Your Rights presentations for Cornell students and Ithaca community members
- Creation of pro-se materials for Black asylum seekers in collaboration with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration and for detained asylum seekers with the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative

“Working in the clinic was an invaluable opportunity to have so early in my legal career. Having hands on experience with clients on a variety of immigration related issues and the hurdles they face helped me solidify the type of legal work I wanted to do." ~Siunik Moradian '22

Part of the legal team that worked on cases for a family of siblings living in upstate New York. The 1L clinic students worked tirelessly to file individual asylum applications for these clients in spring 2023, who then had their interviews in April. Several months later we got the good news that they were granted asylum! Pictured from left: Katie Rahmlow ’23, client, client, Don Izekor ’23, Prof Alisa Whitfield, interpreter (Cornell CIS ’26), Prof. Kelley-Widmer, client, Amy Godshall ’23.
Clinic client in the Galapagos Islands after the clinic won her advance parole (travel permission).
Aaliyah Channer ’25 and Oscar Ruiz ’25 delivered a presentation on immigration law to a local community group with Professor Kelley-Widmer.
A clinic client visited her hometown and extended family thanks to the travel permission the clinic helped her apply for.
Clinic student George Palau ’24 presents “Know Your Rights” to the students of Open Doors English, an Ithaca language instruction school.
From left: Professor Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer and copresenter Amadou Fofana give an Undocu-Ally training to Cornell staff.
Clinic client and Cornell grad student with the naturalization certificate he obtained through help from the clinic.

"The clinic's focus on providing students the full opportunity and support to take up immigration and community-based lawyering projects gave me the tools to make administrative advocacy and litigation a meaningful part of my practice after graduation." ~Amanda Wong '19

Clinic News

Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer and Steve Yale-Loehr outside the Law School

Groundbreaking Path2Papers Initiative Receives $1.5 Million Grant

Professors Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer and Stephen Yale-Loehr have secured a $1.5 million grant from Crankstart for their groundbreaking initiative, the Path2Papers project.

Immigration Clinic Visits Batavia Detention Center

In March 2024, the clinic traveled to the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, New York. Located about two hours from Ithaca, the Buffalo facility holds around 500 immigrants at various stages of removal proceedings.

two students and a faculty member talking in an office

1L Immigration Clinic Helps Secure Parole for Rare Language Speaker

After several weeks of advocacy by students and faculty in the 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic, a client has been released on parole from the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana.

group of students in front of a colorful mural that says Alexandria Louisiana

1L Students Counsel Hundreds in Detention Centers During Spring Break “Reality” Experience

Through a partnership with the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the clinic visited two detention centers in Louisiana and assisted 800 detained people in four days.

Partners

The clinic partners with a wide range of local and national organizations. Collaborating with legal aid attorneys, community organizers, and other advocates allows the clinic to take on a wider variety of matters and contribute to the critical work of our partners.

The clinic takes on various cases and projects for the upstate New York immigrant community, often with local immigration providers including:

Catholic Charities of Tompkins/Tioga Counties
Journey’s End Legal Services
New York Immigration Coalition
Prisoner’s Legal Services
The clinic partners with in-house clinics at Cornell on legal cases, including the Farmworker Legal Assistance Clinic, the Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic, the Afghanistan Assistance Clinic, and the Gender Justice Clinic.

The clinic dedicates part of its docket to advocacy for detained immigrants. We work alongside legal service providers and organizers to amplify access to counsel and legal information by both representing individual clients and providing Know Your Rights presentations in detention centers.

Students at work in the clinic space.

First-year law students are eligible to apply for the 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic as an elective during their spring semester. The course is designed to complement the existing rigorous first-year doctrinal and skills courses while adding a real-world lawyering experience to the first year. 1L students may apply to enroll in the course during the 1L elective registration process, which usually occurs in November. Please note that the clinic encourages all 1L students to apply, regardless of language skills, immigration experience, gender, 1L section, or any other identity marker. The clinic is committed to including a diverse group of students each semester.

To apply, students must submit a resume and a brief statement of interest during the online application process. In your personal statement, consider answering one or more of the following questions:
- Why do you want to take the clinic, particularly in your first year?
- How have your personal and/or professional experiences prepared you for the clinic?
- What are your career goals?
Please also note your first-year section and any non-English language you speak, with level of language proficiency.

More information regarding timing and method of submission is available close to registration in the fall.

In deciding whether to enroll in the course, students should note that, like all first-year electives, the clinic is graded on a curve.

Contact the faculty with any questions about this course.
Students spend class time discussing strategy for their clients. Students draw on the classic rhetorical techniques of ethos, logos, and pathos to develop persuasive case theories.

1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic is a three-credit course divided between a seminar (approximately two credits) and casework (approximately one credit, or 40-60 hours during the semester).

Advanced students in their 2L and/or 3L years may enroll in Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic II or III with permission of the instructor, usually for 1-3 credits depending on the casework or projects they take on.

Students may travel for casework. Travel is not required or guaranteed.
Clinic students can expect to gain proficiency in the following areas:
- Client interviewing
- Community-based lawyering
- Oral presentations
- Case management
- Intercultural competency
- Legal reasoning and issue spotting
- Legal writing in various genres
- Facility with relevant immigration law.
Casework and advocacy projects provide opportunity for students to develop these skills. Further, the seminar covers relevant substantive law tailored to the semester’s casework and offers regular discussion of current events in immigration. Students will participate in simulations and case rounds. There may also be cross-clinic sessions and guest lectures throughout the semester.

Clinic Travel

Some casework may take place offsite, including at local nonprofits, in detention centers, or in immigration court. Travel is not required or guaranteed.

Students in the 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic traveled to Louisiana in fall 2023 to assist detained immigrants with attorneys from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the ACLU of Louisiana. They had the opportunity to meet with dozens of individuals from all over the world to assess their immigration cases.
In 2023, the clinic started a project with the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI) of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Clinic students and faculty spent a week in and around Alexandria, Louisiana, providing legal orientation presentations and consultations for detained immigrants. See the student VLOG from the trip.

The initial trip was part of a longer-term collaboration with SIFI involving follow-up trips and ongoing legal work for detained clients. This work is supported by funding from a Just Futures Team Research Grant from Mellon Foundation Just Futures Initiative and Global Cornell.
Clinic students and Professor Kelley-Widmer with a client and her daughter outside the Buffalo Immigration Court.
In partnership with the Dilley Pro Bono Project, students spent their 2019 winter break providing legal services to mothers and children detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. The trip was covered extensively on local radio and in a student vlog about the trip. Other news stories include “I’ll Never Forget”: Cornell Law Students On Border, Heading To Tijuana and Cornell Law Students Saw Signs Of Trauma Among Children At US-Mexico Border.

Fall 2023 Trip to Louisiana

Student Feedback

“This course was the most amazing experience I’ve had at Cornell Law School. I’m not sure I will ever have an experience as formative as this one again, but I am eternally grateful for the effort both faculty put into guiding us through this clinic and giving us the opportunities to engage with real legal substance by doing genuine work. This clinic reminded me of the reasons why I elected to attend law school in the first place — namely, the fact that I wanted to utilize my resources and my opportunities to fight for those who’ve gone unheard and undefended for far too long. This clinic was a bright spot in my first year — one that has likely altered the trajectory of my legal career in a radical way.”

~Nathaniel Squires ’25

“I am incredibly grateful for my experience in the clinic. I’ve learned so many new skills and perspectives that have forever changed my understanding of what it means to be a good advocate.”

~Lucy Oh ’25

“Having the opportunity to work with clients and present to community members about immigration policy changes transformed my first year … and prepared me for the summer job search in a way no other first-year experience could have.”

~Camilah Hamideh ’22

“Working on the ground in Dilley, Texas, gave me invaluable experience beyond the classroom setting. It made me a better advocate and taught me an incredible amount about the intricacies of asylum law.”

~Emily Szopinski ’20

“Working with asylum seekers was the most rewarding experience I have had in law school. Because asylum seekers don’t have a right to a lawyer at government expense, I know that the work we did was an incredibly important part of the process to help asylum seekers find safety in the U.S. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity while still in school to put my law degree to good use.”

~Hillary Rich ’19

Contact

Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer

Clinical Professor of Law (Lawyering)

Email:

jak533@cornell.edu

Phone:

(607) 255-9898

Type:

Permanent

Address:

Cornell Law School
256B Hughes Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-4901

The clinic does not work on F1 or J1 visa matters and only works on employment-based matters for DACA recipients. Please contact Global Cornell at international@cornell.edu for international student issues and immigration@cornell.edu for immigration needs for scholars.