Immigration Law Clinic Wins Ninth Circuit Case

The UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic scored an impressive victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on behalf of a detained immigrant client.  The case, Sinsaeng v. Lynch, was batched with another case with identical issues, Valenzuela-Gallardo v. Lynch, which resulted in a published decision on March 31 finding that the Board of Immigration Appeals' definition of obstruction of justice was unconstitutionally vague. 

Having successfully challenged the obstruction of justice component of the client's removal order, clinic students and staff will now begin briefing the remaining issues on his deportation case, which has been remanded to the Board of Immigration Appeals. 

The client came to the attention of the Immigration Clinic by Tally Kingsnorth '07 of the Florence Project nonprofit legal services organization in 2013. The case was initially supervised by then-Staff Attorney Raha Jorjani, who is now with the Alameda County Public Defender's Office.  Working with Jorjani were Anna Yi '14 and Vanessa Lim '15.  The three of them met with the client at the immigration detention center in Eloy, Arizona and represented him at his bond hearing, then filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit when bond was denied. 

The Ninth Circuit case and bond appeal have been supervised by Holly S. Cooper, Associate Director of the Immigration Law Clinic. The case was briefed by Jorjani, Yi, Lim, and Dawei Chi '15, with supplemental briefing by Cooper, Katherine Lo '15, and Sue Chang '16. In addition to preparing the supplemental briefing, Lo and Chang presented oral argument at the Ninth Circuit.