Immigration Clinic Celebrates First Five Years
On Friday, August 23, the William & Mary and greater Hampton Roads community came together to celebrate the Immigration Clinic’s Fifth Year Anniversary since its founding. Held at the Williamsburg Community Building, more than seventy attendees traveled from across the country to come to the event, including Clinic alumni, leaders in local government, leaders of national immigration nonprofits, and retired Immigration Judge Paul Wickham Schmidt.
Founded in 2019 by Professor and Clinic Director Stacy Kern-Scheerer, the Immigration Clinic focuses on aiding immigrant victims of crime, domestic violence, and human trafficking, as well as immigrants seeking asylum and individuals applying for naturalization, all while training the next generation of trauma-informed advocates.
In the last five years, the Clinic has made an incredible impact on immigrants across Hampton Roads. Clinic students have helped children separated from their mother for over a decade, advocated for survivors of gang violence before the Department of Justice, and assisted our Afghan Allies in finding safety and security in the United States. Over the last five years, Clinic students have also participated in community outreach events and written blog posts to educate the public on immigration law and policy. In total, the Immigration Clinic staff and students have provided $4.2 million of pro bono legal services.
But none of that success was apparent with Professor Kern-Scheerer first opened the Clinic. “When I first opened the doors and turned on the phone in the Immigration Clinic in August 2019, I was not sure what was going to happen next,” she shared with the attendees. “I had reached out to as many organizations as I could before opening the Clinic, introducing myself and introducing the Clinic as a new resource for pro bono immigration representation in our community. I cold-called everywhere I could think of. We built it from the ground up. At that time, ‘we’ was me, student and Spanish interpreter Michael B. Jordan, and eight law students. Immediately, the phone started ringing.”
Professor Kern-Scheerer then walked attendees through the next five years of the Clinic’s work: the challenges the Clinic faced advocating for clients during the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of Immigrant Justice Corps’ partnership to bring Professor Nicole Medved on staff, and the Clinic’s leadership in providing legal services to Afghans evacuated after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. But, she said, there was one theme that united everyone at the event across those five years.
“This is what pulls us all together—the Clinic faculty, you: our community partners, and our students—we are each interlocking pieces of a puzzle, dedicated to the principles of justice and putting one foot in front of the other every day, no matter how slow or small the step, to work toward safety, security, and prosperity for everyone in our community who comes here.”
Several of the Clinic’s key community partners also spoke about the impact of the Clinic, including Christa Stewart, Chief Operating Officer of Immigrant Justice Corps; Radlyn Mendoza, Co-Founder of Gardner & Mendoza, PC; Peter Ganser, Retired Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State; and Jasmine Lagos, Coordinator and Case Manager at the Care Connection for Children, Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.
“I absolutely love serving as a volunteer legal advisor to the dedicated students who have made the Immigration Clinic the enormous success it has been,” said Peter Ganser. “I truly believe it is immigrants who set America apart from other nations. These are people who risk everything to come to America to pursue a better life for themselves and their families. This is why I believe it’s so important to celebrate today the enormous success of the Clinic on its fifth anniversary. Whether they are making it possible or an Afghan family who supported the US operation in Afghanistan to immigrate to the United States, or helping victims of human trafficking secure a safe home here, the Clinic is having a direct and positive impact on the lives of many people.”
“The Immigration Clinic is a win-win for all of us,” said Radlyn Mendoza. “The clients win: their cases are approved, and even more importantly, they are given peace of mind. The students win: they get to experience compassion and the tenacity that it takes to become an immigration lawyer. Gardner & Mendoza and other immigration law firms win, because we have the confidence to send clients who are not able to afford our services to the Clinic and know they are going to get excellent representation.”
You can learn more about the Immigration Clinic’s work in the last five years by reading the newly published Five Year Impact Report.
Special thanks to the following business and organizations for their support of the event:
- Sponsors
- Business Supporters
The work of the Immigration Clinic over the last five years would not be possible without the generous support of our donors. Support the Clinic’s mission today, tomorrow, and for the next five years by donating to the Clinic.
This story first appeared in the Immigration Clinic's blog.