In a heartbreaking loss that demonstrates the immense challenges facing asylum seekers, a young woman represented by the Immigration Clinic was ordered deported to her country of origin. The client had survived being kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and tortured at the hands of armed criminal groups with ties to her country’s government, as well as severe domestic abuse by her former partner.
The court found that she was ineligible for asylum and withholding removal because of her sole criminal conviction, and then found that she did not meet the high burden to obtain protection under the Convention Against Torture. After spending months in detention, during which she experienced medical neglect, the client decided she could not wait in detention long enough to pursue an appeal and has since been deported.
Second-year clinic students Angelo Gomez, Ashley Nuñez, and Diego Rodriguez spent hundreds of hours preparing their client for her hearing, including traveling to Baker County Detention Center outside of Jacksonville, Florida on numerous occasions.
“It was one of the hardest moments of my life, but coming into this I knew I was working with a system that works in theory, not in practice,” said Nuñez when she learned about the outcome of the case. “It’s a system that has a long way to go to reflect the realistic needs of immigrants.”
While the outcome of the hearing was unfavorable, the students spoke passionately about what it meant to them to be able to represent their client and tell her story. “The stories our client us told of what she went through will stick with me forever, and it forced me to put my life in perspective,” said Rodriguez.
"Working on our client's case was one of the most challenging experiences of my entire life,” said Gomez. “It has been the highlight of my law school experience and has given me an incredible amount of insight into the immigration system and pursuit of justice. Every step of the case brought its own unique set of challenges where I had to learn and develop new lawyering skills. This experience has made me a better student and a better human."
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