Law students spend their spring break helping undocumented Haitians

MIAMI – A Broward County detention center isn’t every student’s ideal spring break getaway. But for more than three dozen law students from across the country, that’s just where they want to be this year.  

The students are participating in an alternative spring break experience organized by the law schools at Florida International University and the University of Miami to help Haitians in South Florida apply for temporary protected status (TPS) and other immigration relief.

Law students from Yale, Fordham, University of Minnesota and City University of New York will volunteer this week to help as many undocumented Haitians as possible fill out the proper paperwork that would allow them to legally live and work in the United States on a temporary basis. They will also be assisting Haitians who arrived after the Jan. 12 earthquake – and who are now detained at a detention center in Broward – seek temporary legal status based on humanitarian concerns. 

After an advanced training on the intricacies of TPS and its multiple forms, students will be paired with Creole-speaking interpreter drawn from a database created by FIU and assigned to help several TPS drives across the region, including staffing clinics organized by Florida Immigration Advocacy Center and Catholic Legal Services and visiting inmates at Broward Transitional Center, a temporary detention center for individuals who are waiting for their immigration status to be determined.

FIU law students, who have staffed TPS clinics since Haitians were first granted the status, are providing ongoing technical expertise and support. In addition, the FIU law clinic is providing logistics support for the visiting students, including translator training and coordination.

“After the earthquake in Haiti, we began receiving calls from law students all over the country who wanted to come to Miami to help with the Haitian community here,” said Troy Elder, an FIU law professor who runs the university’s Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic.  “Our colleagues at UM were getting similar requests, so we paired with them and our partners in the community to match the students with the need.” 

Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the Department of Homeland Security allowed undocumented Haitians to file for TPS. Applicants must have been living in the United States prior to the earthquake. Homeland Security officials have estimated that between 100,000 to 200,000 Haitians will seek TPS, the majority living in South Florida. The window for applying for this legal status ends on June 21.

“Personally, immigration is something I feel strongly about,” said 27-year-old Jonathan Smith, a Miami Beach native who is in his second year of law school at Yale University. “I figured I’d take advantage to help out. The community really needs it now. It’ll be great to get my head out of the textbook and actually do something meaningful.”

Anyone interested in volunteering for future events can send an e-mail to clinicalprograms@fiu.edu. For a video of the College of Law’s efforts, click here.

 Media Contact:  Jean-Paul Renaud  at 305-348-2716. 

-FIU- 

About FIU College of Law:
The Florida International University College of Law meets an important need in the community by providing a quality, affordable legal education for South Florida residents. The student body, while principally from South Florida, is diverse in racial, ethnic, and professional background.  FIU College of Law graduates have passed the Florida Bar Exam at rates exceeding the statewide pass rate. 

About FIU:
Florida International University was founded in 1965 and is Miami’s only public research university. With a student body of more than 38,000, its 12 colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. More than 100,000 FIU alumni live and work in South Florida. FIU has been classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a “High Research Activity University”. In August 2009, FIU welcomed the inaugural class of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu.