The Immigrants' Rights Clinic at University of California, College of Law, San Francisco (UC Law SF) is preparing students for practice as it really is today, one habeas petition at a time.
This quarter, CLEA is highlighting clinics that prepare students to practice law in the world we live in. Few clinics show that more clearly than the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at UC Law SF.
The clinic's main work is securing the release of non-citizens wrongfully held in immigration detention. Where appropriate, it also moves to suppress evidence or terminate removal proceedings based on Fourth Amendment violations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The clinic has won nearly all of its habeas cases and secured the release of 21 clients from custody.
A clinic that followed the need
The clinic launched its in-house practice in fall 2025 with a different plan. Students would litigate suppression motions in immigration court, challenging arrests that violated the Fourth Amendment. The plan combined Professor Jonathan Abel's background in criminal defense with Professor Richard Boswell's in immigration law.
Then ICE detention intensified. The clinic kept meeting clients who should have been eligible for bond but were denied it. So, it turned to habeas corpus, asking federal courts to order their release.
"We quickly realized the need for habeas representation was nearly endless," says Abel. Habeas has been the clinic's focus ever since.
What students do
Students in the clinic:
visit and call in to ICE detention centers and interview clients
support clients and their families through detention
observe court proceedings
represent clients in removal defense and in federal habeas litigation
"Students see firsthand what detention actually means for a person and a family, which no casebook can convey," Abel says.
The work asks a lot of the students. They learn to earn a client's trust under enormous pressure. They gather facts from people who are frightened and isolated. Then they turn those facts into arguments a federal judge will act on.
The results can come quickly. "Because habeas moves fast, they also experience what it feels like to get someone out, sometimes within days of filing," Abel says. "That is a formative thing to carry into a career."
Skills for the world students are entering
As the Department of Homeland Security has sought to criminalize immigration, removal defense has had to draw on the doctrines and the ethos of criminal defense. The clinic's work sits right at that meeting point.
Abel believes the training carries over wherever students go, whether to immigration practice, criminal law, or something else entirely. Students learn to:
litigate in federal court against a well-resourced government
move quickly when someone's liberty is at stake
protect a client's dignity in a system that often disregards it
"The work resonates with students because it is of this moment," Abel says, "but the skills are durable."
The Habeas Institute
The clinic is affiliated with UC Law SF's newly formed Habeas Institute. The institute grew out of the clinic's role in the Bay Area Habeas Network. Through the network, students and faculty file same-day habeas petitions for people unlawfully arrested by ICE anywhere in the Bay Area.
Speed is the point. Filing the same day lets lawyers step in before the government can transfer someone out of their home district. A transfer can take a person far from their family, their community, and their lawyers.
This fall, UC Law SF hired Jeremiah Johnson as the institute's director. Johnson has spent years in immigration law, first as an advocate, then as an asylum officer and immigration judge. He was removed from his judgeship by the Trump administration. Since then, he has been a leading voice for the independence of immigration judges and the rule of law in immigration proceedings.
Why it matters for clinical education
The Immigrants' Rights Clinic shows what clinical teaching can do when it responds to the moment. Its students are not just learning about the legal system as it was. They are learning to practice in it as it is, and to get results for the people it affects most.
Do you know of a clinic preparing students to practice law in the world we live in? Tell us at cleanewseditor@gmail.com.