After several weeks of advocacy by students and faculty in the 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic, a client was released on parole from the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana—a detention facility for immigrants under the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This was the first such win for the clinic.
“S,” a gay, HIV-positive man from West Africa, fled to the United States in August 2023 due to persecution. His initial asylum hearing faced repeated delays due to the lack of a Wolof translator, which worsened his health as he required constant medical care.
Clinic students Mimi Goldberg ’24 and Sofia Cuevas Dorador ’26 argued that S should be released on parole due to his strong asylum claim and humanitarian reasons, emphasizing that his continued detention was not in the public interest. They filed the parole request in March 2024, citing S’s medical needs and low flight risk. The students’ efforts, supported by adjunct professor Alisa Whitfield, were successful, and S was
released in April.
“The law students worked diligently and creatively to build a connection with S and research arguments to support his release,” says Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, clinical professor of law. “Mimi, an advanced student, and Sofia, a first-year student, had the rare opportunity to collaborate across class years. This unique combination of skills, energy, and different perspectives helped make this case successful.”
