Launching and Expanding Projects
Launched in May 2023, the Mentorship Project enables CLINIC to support Affiliates across the country through one-on-one guidance for specific cases.
“We teach and instruct in a variety of areas of immigration law, which could include family-based immigration or people seeking asylum or other forms of humanitarian relief,” says Rebekah Niblock, supervising senior attorney for the Mentorship Project. “And most importantly, we offer mentorship to Affiliates representing clients who are in removal proceedings. We want folks throughout the country to feel more comfortable and empowered representing immigrants who are in immigration proceedings, because that’s where there is a dire need for representation, of people facing removal.”
The mentorships are based on a specific case and last between two and four months, to enable CLINIC staff to support as many Affiliates as possible. Niblock works alongside senior paralegal Maddie Birky to advise mentees, which include attorneys and both fully accredited and partially accredited Department of Justice representatives at Affiliates in 15 states and Washington, DC.
"We want folks throughout the country to feel more comfortable and empowered representing immigrants who are in immigration proceedings, because that’s where there is a dire need for representation, of people facing removal.”
Each mentorship partnership is conducted fully remotely with the CLINIC staff, using emails, video meetings, and shared document reviews. When the case involves an asylum hearing, the mentorship includes a mock hearing, enabling each mentee to rehearse for the best possible outcome in court.
Niblock joined the team at CLINIC to create the Mentorship Project. She structured it with the goal of enabling attorneys and representatives at affiliates to translate the skills and knowledge to future cases — and to hopefully pass on what they learn to others at their organization.
That was the experience for Jody Lantz, a fully accredited representative with Thrive International Programs, Inc., in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, who participated in the Mentorship Project in 2023.
“This is the first court case our office has represented in removal proceedings. The Mentorship Project significantly improved the chances of success for the client's case, my own confidence and skills as a practitioner, and our office's capacity to consider other court cases,” Lantz says. “The advice and feedback from the mentorship team was invaluable. The Mentorship Project helped me feel more confident and equipped for this case and ready — maybe even a bit excited — to say yes to the next case.”
Lantz decided to become a fully accredited representative because of a lack of immigration attorneys in her area, and is the only accredited representative at her organization, which provides English as a Second Language classes and immigration legal services. The client that she represented is still waiting for the results of her proceedings, but without Lantz, the client would have gone unrepresented.
“When I was still in the process of obtaining my full accreditation, we had given this particular client a referral list and encouraged her to seek help from another organization. And she called through all of them and wasn’t able to get representation,” Lantz says. “And she came back to us again, and by then I had my full accreditation approved.”
Our Mentorship Programs is active in 16 states and Growing.
So far, the Mentorship Project has served 31 mentees at CLINIC Affiliates, and Niblock looks forward to expanding that number.
“I feel like a lot of mentees come to us and feel really overwhelmed. And we try to back up and just make things simple again, so that they have a foundation to build on, so they can grow,” Niblock says. “That’s one of our main goals, that they feel more empowered to do this work on their own. And that’s why we do the mentorship model and not the co-counsel model, because I want them to feel empowered. That’s something for them to be proud of.”
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