2019 Gumbo final - Book - Page 48
Great Strides
Working Towards A Better Future
he Paul M. Hebert Law Center Immigration Law Clinic
has helped gain asylum for 23 immigrants facing
danger in their home countries.
The clinic also helps clients with naturalization, green card
applications and visas for abused, abandoned or neglected
juveniles, but the vast majority of cases involve asylum.
Clinic director Lauren Aronson said these cases also tend to be
tricky and challenging for the law students to tackle.
“Because asylum is so complicated and because it’s what we do
the most of, I devote three entire weeks of class to it,” Aronson
said.
Aronson is responsible for picking which cases the clinic accepts,
supervising the law students’ work on the cases and teaching
immigration law, all while challenging her students by picking
cases that are not easy to win.
“Basically, what I’m looking for, is if [the case] would be an
interesting issue for a student to work on,” Aronson said. “I don’t
pick a case because I know for sure it’s going to win. It just has to
be viable.”
One case involved a woman from Baton Rouge who entered
the country illegally in 1999 when she was 15 years old. She
was granted temporary protected status two years later. Then in
2018, she was under threat of losing her legal status in the U.S.
To complicate things even further, she had lost all of her and her
husband’s paperwork in the 2016 floods that documented her legal
residence. The Immigration Law Clinic had to hunt through any and
all remaining forms their client had to prove her lawful presence.
Many cases were also emotional for the students. For example,
one case involved a woman fleeing to the U.S. to escape horrifying
domestic abuse in Honduras.
Director of the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center Imigration Clinic
Lauren Aronson during the LSU Law Immigration Clinic on
Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in the LSU Law Center.
Annie Lanier, the student responsible for her case, said the woman
had been forced into marriage at gunpoint when she was only 12
years old. During her time in Honduras, her husband repeatedly
beat her in public and once cut her with a machete.
The woman has been in the U.S. for about 15 years and has four
children living here legally. The Law Clinic has already helped her
two daughers get asylum and they have completely prepared her
asylum application, but she still has not decided whether she will
risk applying for asylum because if her application is rejected, she
will be put into deportation proceedings, Lanier said.
Volunteer Victoria Heyer scans documents for immigrants attending the clinic during the LSU Law
Immigration Clinic on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in
the LSU Law Center.
“It was really nerve-racking and frustrating,” Lanier said. “If she
goes back, I think [her ex-husband] will find her [and kill her] ... I
don’t know if I would have been able to make it. I don’t know how
she’s still alive.”
These cases are becoming more difficult since U.S. Attorney
General Jeff Sessions narrowed the scope of asylum cases over
the summer, removing gang violence and domestic abuse from the
list of qualifiers.
Scott Bassett (Right) helps two immigrants with obtaining proper
documentation for the United States during the LSU Law Immigration
Clinic on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in the LSU Law Center.
Even though the Immigration Law Clinic continues to take on
difficult cases, it has a perfect record for the all the asylum cases it
has submitted.
“We’ve had a couple cases where I thought there’s just no way
where I think a person should qualify,” Aronson said. “But I doubt
the government will agree, but miraculously, it did.”
“There were a lot of variables,” said Chris Chesne, the student
responsible for her case. “I did not expect it to be as intense of a
process as it was.”
Story // Benjamin Holden
Photo // Caleb Bourque
Design // Briley Slaton
The LSU Law Center stands tall at its location on East Campus Drive on
Tuesday, March 20, 2018, on University's campus.
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