Legal Internship, Immigration Impact LAB

Amica Center for Immigrant Rights (Amica Center) • Washington, DC

3d • Remote

About The Position

The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights fights for the rights, safety, and unity of immigrant communities, standing with those trapped in our nation’s fundamentally flawed immigration system. We engage in unwavering legal defense and strategic litigation for immigrant children and adults facing detention and deportation in the Capital Region and beyond, because everyone has the right to be free, safe, and supported. We are seeking a 2L or 3L law student with a passion for immigrants’ rights, litigation, and public interest law for a Fall internship with our Immigration Impact Lab. The Immigration Impact Lab is Amica Center’s appellate and federal litigation project. Through the Lab, Amica Center responds to attacks on immigrants’ rights by bringing appeals and federal district court actions with the potential to improve laws applicable to the wider immigrant community. The Legal Intern will assist our staff with representing immigrants in appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and the U.S. Courts of Appeal. The Legal Intern will also assist our staff with class action cases, amicus briefs, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) complaints, and habeas petitions in federal district courts and U.S. Courts of Appeal.

Requirements

• A second or third-year law student at a U.S. ABA-accredited law school. Evening students are also welcome to apply
• Ability to commit a minimum of 15 hours a week
• Strong legal research, communication, and writing skills
• Strong organizational and time-management skills and willingness to work quickly and effectively with a team
• Experience and interest in working in immigration law, immigrants’ rights, or related fields like social justice and advocacy
• Competency and comfort in working with adults and children from low socio-economic backgrounds, with histories of trauma and previous interactions with the criminal justice system
• A laptop or computer
• Reliable internet
• A phone

Nice To Haves

• Background in community organizing/political lobbying is a plus but not required
• Spanish fluency is preferred but not required. Fluency in other languages, such as French, Portuguese, or Arabic, is welcome

Responsibilities

• Assist with all aspects of ongoing appeals at the BIA and federal circuit courts related to asylum/Convention Against Torture, the intersection of criminal and immigration law (“crimmigration”), and immigration detention, including assessing new referrals, conducting legal research, writing memoranda, and contributing to amicus and merits briefing.
• Assist with drafting habeas petitions to secure the release of immigrant adults from detention, as well as preparing habeas cases for placement with pro bono partners. This assistance may include legal research, phone interviews with clients in detention, evidence collection, drafting of petitions, and collaboration with community advocacy groups.
• Assist with new and ongoing litigation under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This assistance may include drafting FOIA requests and complaints, researching applicability of FOIA exemptions, and tracking/analyzing FOIA production.
• Help the Lab develop its website resources, conduct trainings, and draft practice advisories to support and educate attorneys who work with immigrants in detention. This may include working on crimmigration case analyses to assist criminal defense attorneys in Virginia and Maryland and developing our public resources that are available on our website and by request.

Benefits

• Internships are unpaid; however, Amica Center can assist students seeking internship credit.
• A limited number of small scholarship stipends are available by separate application.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Intern