SAFE Immigration Legal Intern
Dallas
- Organization: IRC - International Rescue Committee
- Location: Dallas
- Grade: Internship - Internship
-
Occupational Groups:
- Legal - Broad
- Migration
- Closing Date: Closed
BACKGROUND: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Founded in 1933, the IRC is at work today in more than 40 countries and in 24 U.S. cities. The IRC’s Resettlement, Asylum, and Integration (RAI) department creates opportunities for refugees and other vulnerable migrants to survive and thrive in the United States. RAI serves more than 40,000 individuals each year, including thousands of newly arrived refugees, through a diverse portfolio of programs aimed at achieving outcomes in five impact areas: Health, Safety, Economic Wellbeing, Education, and Power.
The IRC in Dallas has provided immigration
legal services to the Dallas community since 1975. In the past three years
alone, IRC in Dallas has represented close to 3,000 clients before US
Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) in adjustment of status,
naturalization, and other family reunification cases (consular processing and
derivative refugee/asylee applications), DACA renewals, TPS renewals, and
advance parole applications.
IRC IN DALLAS & SAFE NETWORK: IRC-Dallas is newly part of the SAFE (Safety
& Fairness for Everyone) Network—a group of diverse local jurisdictions
across the U.S. dedicated to the goal of providing publicly-funded universal
immigration representation for people facing deportation. The SAFE Network
keeps immigrant families together and helps noncitizens exercise their rights
in immigration court proceedings. Through a universal representation model, the
IRC provides removal defense to City of Dallas residents, with a focus on
noncitizens who are detained by ICE, irrespective of the merits of their cases.
SCOPE
OF INTERN WORK: With
oversight from the SAFE Staff Attorney, the Immigration Legal Intern or Extern
will be part of the Dallas SAFE team and provide legal support on direct client
cases in immigration court proceedings.
COMMITMENT: Spring
semester 2021; part-time work hours TBD
RESPONSIBILITIES: Research and prepare
legal memos on general questions of immigration law. Past intern
assignments have included:
Relief from removal under the Cuban Adjustment Act
(CAA);
Whether USCIS has jurisdiction to
adjudicate application(s) for relief during an open removal proceeding;
Whether parole from ICE detention will
enable a Cuban noncitizen who entered the U.S. without inspection can to
adjust under CAA.
Compiling annotated case logs of binding
and persuasive authority that may assist in shaping otherwise unfavorable
5th circuit asylum case law.
Perform in-depth legal
research on immigration law questions as they relate to specific IRC
client cases, including, for example:
Whether certain state or
federal criminal convictions disqualify a client from relief from removal
and/or subject them to mandatory ICE detention;
Research, read, synthesize, and draw
conclusions on Board of Immigration Appeal (BIA) decisions and how they
support or harm our clients’ cases on appeal before the BIA;
Investigate
and compile supportive document evidence such as country conditions.
Observe
Immigration Court hearings and client intakes.
We welcome collaborative
ideas for research assignments that would be of particular interest to the
legal intern/extern and mutually beneficial for IRC clients across the
U.S. network.
Other duties as assigned.
LEARNING
OBJECTIVES:
The intern will gain professional experience providing legal representation to noncitizens in detained and non-detained removal proceedings.
The intern will deepen their understanding of immigration law and policy, particularly as it pertains to the ICE detention and immigration court systems.
The intern will gain practical experience working in a fast-paced environment for a large NGO in a challenging policy environment for refugees and immigrants.
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