Southwestern Pro Bono Removal Defense Program
The Southwestern Law School Pro Bono Removal Defense Program and the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic (LIJC) have teamed up to create the Removal Defense Corps. We are funded by the Los Angeles Justice Fund (LAJF) and work collaboratively to support the work of LAJF-funded organizations in representing individuals who are at risk of deportation.
The mission of the Removal Defense Corps (RDC) is to empower attorneys and the communities they serve to fight for justice in removal (deportation) proceedings. We will expand the capacity of the Los Angeles legal community to provide quality, free legal services to individuals at risk of deportation.
Our approach is three-pronged:
- Provision of robust legal training for law students and volunteer attorneys to support fellow LAJF grantees;
- Recruitment and training of pro bono attorneys—both expert and novice—as well as a one-to-one mentorship program; and
- Dissemination of up-to-date and easily accessible removal defense resource materials to support aggressive and cutting-edge removal defense.
The RDC was developed in direct response to an attack on immigrants. As academic institutions with deep commitments to social justice, we have unified to rise to the challenge of combating this attack through harnessing our collective resources in the pursuit of justice for immigrants.