Students and Professors Fight for Families at Karnes Detention Center
Photo courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Two weeks ago, six law students from the University of Houston Law Center’s Immigration Clinic visited Karnes Detention Center. The students were Kate Chapman (3L), Ivonne Escobar (2L), Hellieth Pedroza Guzman (2L), Nekka Morah (2L), Medjine Desrosiers-Douyon (LLM), Mathilda El Hachem (LLM). Supervising the students were the immigration clinic professors, Geoffrey A. Hoffman, clinical associate professor and director of the clinic, and Janet Beck, visiting clinical assistant professor. In addition, Professor Ann Webb from the Graduate School of Social Work at UH assisted the group, as well as her students. Over the course of three days, the students saw more than 35 families, helping them with a range of issues, including credible fear interview (CFI) preparation, immigration judge (IJ) reviews, and in some cases helping with declarations to support possible requests for reconsideration (RFRs) after negative CFIs and/or an IJ review. The visit was organized by Janet Beck and set up by RAICES, one of the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project partners based in San Antonio, and the law firm of Akin Gump, who have done great work coordinating efforts to meet the legal needs of these women.
A reflection on the AILA Leadership Blog from one of the students, Kate Chapman (3L), who shares her experiences helping women and children at the detention center, can be found here. Her conclusion:
“None of us who were there will ever forget what we saw, felt, and experienced. None of us should. We urge every single person to work toward ending the inhumanity of family detention and do their part to end the fear in the eyes of children, to end the worry in the hearts of mothers, and to end the unnecessary trauma inflicted on these families. #EndFamilyDetention.”
KJ