Professor Amy Halbrook will guide a group of Chase College of Law students in a project this spring to help fathers and sons at an immigration detention center understand legal issues they face and for the students to develop skills for working with social workers, interpreters and health-care professionals in legal matters.
The group will work with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services to help individuals at a detention camp southeast of San Antonio, Texas, prepare for interviews and court hearings that will determine whether they remain in detention and, ultimately, whether they remain in the United States or are deported.
Professor Halbrook, who is director of the Children’s Law Center Clinic, received partial funding for the project from a Northern Kentucky University Institute for Health Innovation Branch Award. Professor Halbrook and other participants – four students and a Chase professor or graduate – must raise money to cover the remainder of the expenses for their trip. “Literally, all the money raised for this project will be for travel, lodging and food for the people involved. The rest is completely pro bono,” she says.
The “rest” that is pro bono will involve an anticipated forty to forty-eight hours of work during four days to prepare individuals for interviews and hearings, and a fifth day of being on-call for more work. After students return to Chase, they will participate in panels and seminars on their experiences.
