In the context of a rapidly changing, often anti-immigrant political landscape, Berkeley Immigration Group’s (BIG) mission is to support the legal rights of immigrants through pro bono legal services, advocacy, and partnerships with organizations working to dismantle the carceral immigration system. Students will have the opportunity to work alongside attorneys and other BIG members to provide free direct legal services to immigrants and contribute to critical research and advocacy to end immigration detention. Please note that these opportunities may change or shift over the course of the year in order to best respond to the rapidly changing political landscape. There are several projects available to students this year:
BIG X California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ) Overview:
Students may work with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice to conduct client intake interviews and prepare declarations for immigration proceedings. Where applicable, students can support community organizing efforts to advocate for immigrant clients. In the past, students on the CCIJ project worked in small groups to prepare stay of removal requests for clients at risk of immediate deportation.
BIG X ACILEP Overview:
Students may work with the Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership (ACILEP) to support local rapid response networks through actions including but not limited to: conducting intake interviews and assisting with asylum applications, working on habeas declarations, conducting research on detained clients’ detention center locations, and accompanying immigrant community members to ICE check-ins.
BIG X Law Lab Overview:
Students may work with Innovation Law Lab’s Legal Organizing team to support with translation services, assisting family members in reaching their loved ones in detention, or actively supporting coalition efforts to shut down ICE detention in New Mexico and/or Oregon. As the Law Lab team connects to see where the highest needs are, students will plug in on those service options where they see fit.
BIG X National Lawyers Guild: Overview:
Students will work with National Lawyers Guild to support Know Your Rights (KYR) and Court Watch efforts from the organization. Namely, students will have the opportunity to create KYR materials for “legal deserts,” or large immigrant communities in California where there are scant resources and help present those materials or provide other pro bono legal services to folks in those communities (emphasis on Shasta County). For Court Watch, students will also have the opportunity to help assist at the Concord Immigration Court Room, where law school students can fill a need to push for expanded courtroom access with more detention cases being re-routed to Concord. In that push for courtroom access, law students can seek to provide court watch or other pro bono services.
Supervision: Students in BIG provide legal services under the supervision of attorneys at California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, the Innovation Law Lab, and Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership.
Time Commitment: Time commitment is based on project needs/tasks, but around 15-20 hours a semester for each project is the goal. However, members should expect to attend at least one hour-long project-specific training session in the fall semester, one two-hour collective SLP training session in the fall semester, and a few project meetings per semester (approximately once per month). If members express a desire to work together or to socialize with members of other projects, BIG co-leaders can organize optional events as well. We can ensure 25 hours before the end of the school year for students that will apply for the Edley Grant. One option for hours was working across projects for individual tasks that we’ve spoken to the attorneys about, and another option was we have also spoken with Malvina at SF Bar and will send out information about asylum assistance and translation services they are looking for as we approach the semester.
For more information, please contact the student leaders at berkeleyimmigrationgroup@berkeley.edu.