Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic

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USF School of Law / Professional Skills / Law Clinics / Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic

The Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic was established in 2015 to represent unaccompanied immigrant children and women with children who have arrived at the southern border and are transferred to Northern California and the Central Valley.

Under the supervision of the director and supervising attorney, students represent clients in all phases of immigration proceedings, at the asylum office, the immigration courts, and adjudication offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Students also represent minors in state probate and family law courts to seek guardianships where appropriate to qualify for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. While the principal focus of the clinic is on unaccompanied immigrant children and related cases, other removal defense cases will likely be added to the caseload over time.

The clinic takes on about 60 cases a year. One client is a teenager from El Salvador who was forced to flee after refusing to join a gang; instead of getting protection from the local police, he was beaten by them because they thought he was associated with the gang. Another is a young woman from Mexico who was fleeing domestic violence and organized crime in Michoacan; the criminal group came to her house threatening to kill the whole family because they wanted her brothers to work for them.

Students work under the supervision of the director, Professor Bill Ong Hing, an expert on immigration policy and community lawyering, and Supervising Attorney Jacqueline Brown Scott ’05, an immigration attorney who specializes in asylum and special immigrant juvenile status cases. The clinic partners with Catholic Charities of San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin County, and is funded by the City and County of San Francisco and the California Department of Social Services. The clinic also works closely with the Bar Association of San Francisco and Centro Legal De La Raza in Oakland.

USF School of Law has a long history of supporting immigrant and immigration reform, and new programs continue to be established. USF partners with Jesuit Refugee Service/USA and 11 other Jesuit law schools in a new initiative to identify and address the challenges presented by the recent influx of Central American child migrants and migrant families.

Tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors and some parents with minors fled horrendous violence in Central America over the past year, and Bay Area community-based organizations are unable to handle all their deportation defense needs. With its resources and student interest, USF School of Law can make a difference in the lives of dozens of individuals seeking asylum or other special protection. Every analysis has shown that quality legal representation drastically increases the chances of success for these clients compared to those who go unrepresented.”

Prof. Bill Hing

Immigration Clinic Faculty


Full-Time Faculty

Jacqueline Scott

Full-Time Faculty
(415) 422-3330

Jacqueline Brown Scott is an immigration attorney with experience solving a wide array of immigration issues pertaining to asylum, deportation...

Education:

JD, University of San Francisco | MA, San Francisco State University | BS, Saint Lawrence University

Courses:

Writing Requirement, Immigration Law Clinic, Externship - International