The Refugee and Human Rights Clinic (RHRC), in addition to providing extended legal representation to immigrants and asylum seekers, gives students the opportunity to conduct advocacy and outreach projects. Through these projects, RHRC student attorneys are able to address systemic injustices, grow community services, and provide limited legal assistance for hundreds of individuals and families seeking asylum and immigration protections each year.

As part of the RHRC’s advocacy work, student attorneys have engaged in impact litigation on a range of issues within U.S. federal courts. They have also had the opportunity to contribute to legal scholarship on inequities in asylum and immigration systems by conducting critical research and authoring reports. 

The RHRC’s outreach projects have included trips to the southern border and Mexico to work with asylum seekers in detention centers and en route to the United States, collaborations with community organizations in Maine to expand local services, and “Know Your Rights” trainings to give self-represented individuals and families the tools they need to effectively navigate the asylum and immigration systems. 

As the need for immigration legal services grows and policies rapidly evolve, the RHRC is committed to working closely with community partners to assess the areas of greatest need and adapt its advocacy and outreach initiatives to better defend the rights of asylum seekers and immigrants from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: Maine Law’s Refugee and Human Rights Clinic is not accepting new clients at this time. If you live in Maine and are seeking legal representation for an immigration or asylum matter, please contact the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project at 207.780.1593.

Outreach and Advocacy Projects

Impact litigation, the practice of bringing lawsuits in order to address societal injustices, enables student attorneys in the RHRC to uncover root causes of issues within the U.S. asylum and immigration legal processes and advocate for systemic change. 

In collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maine and the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP), RHRC student attorneys have participated in impact litigation involving Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and lawsuits against the Boston Asylum Office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to compel them to release information related to how their actions impact vulnerable communities and those seeking asylum.

RHRC student attorneys have had the opportunity to support impact litigation through the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Partnering with the ACLU of New Hampshire, RHRC student attorneys have acted as co-counsel on a Convention Against Torture case, in which student attorneys authored the initial brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. RHRC student attorneys have also drafted amicus curiae briefs that were filed with the First Circuit, working in collaboration with immigration law professors from across the country.

To help meet the increasing need for legal aid services for those seeking asylum en route to the United States, and to address widespread misinformation about U.S. immigration laws, the RHRC has created opportunities for student attorneys to provide families and individuals on the southern border with limited legal assistance and information about asylum and immigration law. 

In 2017, RHRC student attorneys started traveling to Laredo, Texas to volunteer in week-long increments with the Laredo Project, a collaboration with Jones Day and Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid. While in Laredo, students have worked as volunteers to assist asylum seekers in detention centers and shelters on both sides of the border. The students’ work has involved conducting intakes with detained immigrants and assessing their eligibility for relief from deportation.

Read more about the Laredo Project in Maine Law News and the Portland Press Herald, and the watch RHRC’s presentation about the project at the 2018 Student Impact Summit.

The RHRC’s outreach and advocacy projects seek to build partnerships with service providers and other legal aid organizations to strengthen the services available to asylum seekers and immigrants in Maine in the short and long-term future. 

In its work to expand immigration legal services, the RHRC has worked extensively with Maine’s Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) on many of its training sessions and brief assistance workshops for individuals and communities seeking immigration and asylum relief. 

RHRC student attorneys have also collaborated with other legal professionals and organizations to produce numerous educational materials on immigration and asylum law, including a comprehensive self-help guide for asylum seekers published in 2020 and written in partnership with ILAP, the Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Penn State Law, and Thrive International Programs. 

In its impact litigation projects, RHRC student attorneys have had the opportunity to collaborate with attorneys from ILAP, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maine and New Hampshire, and other legal professionals from across the United States. Through its project in Mexico, RHRC student attorneys have had the opportunity to work with social service providers and law students in Mexico to provide legal information about U.S. immigration laws to asylum seekers en route to the United States. 

Student attorneys also collaborate with non-lawyer community partners who work regularly with asylum seekers in order to spread awareness and understanding of the asylum process and create partnerships to improve services for asylum seekers in Maine. The RHRC’s non-lawyer partners include local nonprofit professionals, high school educators, social workers, therapists, housing specialists, and physicians. These partnerships have enabled RHRC student attorneys to conduct “Know Your Rights” training sessions in local schools and shelters that serve communities of asylum seekers and immigrants in Maine. 

In one of its partnerships, the RHRC has worked with medical students in the Maine Track Program at Tufts Medical School to provide training sessions for physicians and other medical professionals interested in conducting pro bono forensic evaluations for asylum cases. This collaboration has resulted in a sustained commitment from local medical professionals to provide essential services to individuals seeking asylum in Maine. The medical students with whom the RHRC has collaborated have also created the Tufts Human Rights and Asylum Clinic, an essential resource for RHRC student attorneys and other immigration practitioners who need to secure forensic evaluations for their clients. 

In 2023, the RHRC launched an initiative to give student attorneys the opportunity to travel to Mexico to equip asylum seekers en route to the United States with accurate information about both Mexican and U.S. immigration policies and procedures. 

In a cross-clinic collaboration with several other law schools, including the University of Texas at Austin, Washington & Lee University and the Universidad Iberoamericana, RHRC student attorneys work with other law students to compile educational materials to distribute to refugees at shelters in Mexico and beyond. 

Once in Mexico, U.S. and Mexican law students conduct “Know Your Rights” presentations and provide individual consults at refugee shelters, with RHRC students focusing on U.S. law and the Mexican law students focusing on Mexican law. 

As part of Maine Law’s Student Impact Summit in April 2024, former RHRC student attorneys held a presentation about their recent work in Mexico.

Faculty and student attorneys within the RHRC have produced acclaimed legal scholarship about pressing issues in immigration and asylum law in the United States. Supported by research conducted by student attorneys, RHRC faculty members have authored articles recently published in the Harvard Human Rights Journal, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, and Maine Law Review.

In 2022, the RHRC released a report written by Maine Law students in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maine, the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP), and Dr. Basileus Zeno on how the Boston Asylum Office uses practices to process asylum claims which violate international and domestic law. As part of their investigation, RHRC students painstakingly reviewed thousands of pages of documents obtained through their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, and they interviewed asylees, asylum seekers, immigration attorneys, and former asylum officers. The report garnered national attention and has been used as a model in pursuing similar investigations into other asylum offices. The RHRC earned the national Clinical Legal Education Association’s Excellence in a Public Interest Case or Project award for this project.

In response to the growing need for legal assistance among asylum seekers in Maine, the RHRC has launched several initiatives in partnership with the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) to offer limited assistance and educational resources to asylum seekers and service providers about the asylum application process. 

RHRC student attorneys have helped self-represented individuals prepare and file their asylum applications in partnership with ILAP through the Asylum Assistance and Legal Orientation Project (AALOP). During Pro Se Workshops hosted by Maine Law and other community organizations, student attorneys orient newly-arrived asylum seekers to the asylum process and help them properly file their asylum applications themselves, giving individuals accurate information and a solid path to seek asylum and secure work permits. 

Student attorneys have also assisted ILAP attorneys by conducting asylum assessments to assist in identifying cases that are appropriate for placement with pro bono attorneys. Student attorneys interview asylum seekers to assess the merits of their asylum claims, conduct high-level legal and country condition research, and provide insights to ILAP as to whether the asylum seekers meet the requirements for asylum.

At the Portland Exposition Center, which has served as a temporary, emergency shelter for asylum seekers, RHRC student attorneys have conducted “Know Your Rights” presentations to provide asylum seekers with information about obtaining asylum in the United States–offering them with a vital first step on what to expect and how best to comply with U.S. immigration law. 

To help individuals who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), RHRC student attorneys have traveled to facilities detaining immigrants in New Hampshire and beyond to provide information and legal assistance to individuals previously living in Maine before they were detained. 

RHRC student attorneys have also held presentations at local high schools in Portland, Maine, providing students and educators with information about two types of immigration relief most commonly available to eligible immigrant youth, including asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, as well as the differences between Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) issued to non-citizens eligible to work by the U.S. government and work permits issued to people under age 16 by the State of Maine. 

When working with members of the community who are either seeking asylum themselves or assisting community members going through the process, in addition to giving presentations, RHRC student attorneys create and disseminate guides and informational pamphlets, translated in multiple languages, to help promote broader understanding of asylum and immigration law among members of vulnerable communities.