Neha Gupta ’14 and Mia Crager ’14 (pictured below) worked in the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic a year ago to draft an important motion for their client in a case with challenging issues. The judge recently ruled on the motion.  Please read below for Neha and Mia’s account of the experience.

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On March 6, 2014, after nearly a year riddled with extensions and continuations on a client’s deportation case, the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic won a challenging motion to terminate removal proceedings.  Our client is ecstatic to return her attention to her family, her career, and her every day life, free from the threat of deportation.

Our client’s case involved several interrelated charges of both inadmissibility and removability that made drafting the motion to terminate a complex task.  We focused our energy during our spring 2013 quarter in the clinic strategizing with our client, examining how various criminal and immigration laws intersect, and negotiating with the ICE trial attorney assigned to our client’s case.  But after learning that ICE intended to move forward with the case and completing a draft of our brief, all we and our client could do was wait for our client’s hearing, set for the fall of 2013.  After receiving our briefs, the judge granted our motion to terminate removal proceedings and canceled the hearing.

Throughout the representation, we were humbled by our client’s resilience and positivity, and could not be happier about the result.