Immigration Clinic Reunites Client with Family in the United States

UC Davis School of Law Immigration Law Clinic students, working under the direction of Staff Attorney Holly S. Cooper, helped a client return to the United States 17 years after his wrongful deportation to Haiti.

Cooper met the client while working as part of a humanitarian mission to Haiti following the earthquake that devastated the island nation in 2010 and agreed to look into his removal order, which dated from 1997 in Oakdale, Louisiana. She found that the man had been misinformed of his rights and his lawyer had made a legal error in his assessment of the relief that was available, and she sought to reopen his case.  Numerous students helped with this effort over the years, including Jennifer Wickens '12, Michael Wu '12, Jared Wigginton '13, and Margaret Moody '13.

After the Board of Immigration Appeals agreed to reopen the case, the client was allowed to return to the United States and was reunited with his daughter after 17 years of separation. Sarah Chi '15, Zainab Shakoor '15, Nora Pasin '16, and Carmel Imani '16 worked to provide a waiver application, prepare testimony, exhibits, briefings, and closing arguments.  On November 7, the legal team succeeded in securing a waiver of deportability, allowing their client to maintain his lawful permanent resident status in the United States.

"I am so proud of all the students who worked on this case and the community that supported us in this Homerian odyssey to reunite our client with his daughter in the U.S.A.," said Cooper.