These law students are donating their time to help immigrants seeking asylum in this country. The people are all facing deportation and are not entitled to legal aid. DP
By CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer
Newsday.com: ITHACA, N.Y. -- She needed a dictionary to understand what she was reading, but when she did, Viravyne Chhim put down the case file and cried.
The words were crude. Infibulation: The sewing of skin to close off a female's genital area. Defibulation: The cutting open of those scars.
Chhim was a law student at Cornell University. Her African client was in detention in Arizona, hoping for asylum. Tying them together was a unique program that gives a small number of immigrants legal aid when they face deportation.
The Washington-based Pro Bono Appeals Project is the only one of its kind, matching immigrants at the appeals level with hundreds of volunteer lawyers. Some of its most enthusiastic members are the students at nine law schools, from Mississippi to Massachusetts, who often are working with a real client for the first time.
One of the first things students learn about an immigration case is that, unlike others detained in the United States, immigrants facing deportation are largely on their own. The government doesn't provide legal help and they don't have a right to appointed counsel.
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