Immigrant Justice Clinic
Representing immigrants at the intersection of federal immigration and state law.
The Rutgers Immigrant Justice Clinic represents low-income South Jersey residents in immigration matters, focusing primarily on removal defense and representation of victims of crime. The clinic does not handle family-based or employment-based immigration matters. Legal assistance is provided by law students acting under the supervision of a licensed attorney. This clinic is at our Camden location. If you need legal services, call the clinic at (856) 225-6568
Many of the clinic’s cases last for years, so the clinic has very limited capacity to take new cases each year. When new cases are accepted, it is typically in mid-August and mid-December, before the start of each semester.
If you are interested in finding out if the Immigrant Justice Clinic might be able to help you in your immigration matter, please call (856) 225-6568. If someone is not available when you call please leave a message. Our staff speaks English, Spanish, and French, and interpreters are available in a wide range of other languages. Your call will be returned during the hours of 9 am and 4 pm, usually within 2 business days of your phone call. Please include in your message whether it is ok to leave a message at your phone number.
Additional Legal Assistance
As New Jersey's public law school, our locations in Camden and Newark allow us to provide legal assistance to individuals, companies, and communities in need through our public law library, clinics, pro bono offerings, and legal services programs.
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The Rutgers Immigrant Community Assistance Project (RICAP) at Rutgers Law School was created as part of the University’s ongoing commitment to serve all of its students. RICAP strives to foster a safe environment on campus and to remove barriers to student success by providing immigration legal services. RICAP is available to provide informational “Immigration” and “Know Your Rights” presentations on every Rutgers campus.
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The Rutgers Law Library supports the research needs of our students and faculty, as well as those of the public—who count on Rutgers for our U.S. government and New Jersey documents repository.
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Rutgers Law School takes a leadership role in educating the public about legal rights, including rights in relation to law enforcement and immigration officials.
- Frequently Asked Questions about Power of Attorney Document (Bilingual)
- Power of Attorney Document Spanish/English (Bilingual)
- Sample SIJS Predicate Order
- Additionally, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has outstanding materials relating to these topics:
- ICE at your home (English)
- ICE en tu casa (Español):
- If questioned about your immigration status (English)
- Que hacer si le preguntan acerca de su estatus migratorio (Español)
- If stopped by the police, immigration agents, or FBI (English)
- Que debe hacer si la policia, agentees de immigracion o el FBI lo detienen (Español)
- See more information about your rights on the ACLU website
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Our clinics provide important legal services for New Jerseyans and address pressing matters of public policy that begin or are reflected in our local communities. A broad range of issues are advanced and individual cases are litigated through more than a dozen live-client clinics that represent child and family advocacy, constitutional rights, domestic violence, immigrant justice, and reentry support.
View contact information and more details about specific clinics.
- Contact Rutgers Law Clinics in Camden at (856) 225-6568
- Contact Rutgers Law Clinics in Newark at (973) 353-5576
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Rutgers Law Associates (RLA) is a one-year postdoctoral fellowship program that trains new law school graduates, who provide legal services to New Jersey residents at a significantly reduced rate. To see if RLA legal services can help you, contact RLA in Camden at (856) 225-6088 or in Newark at (973) 353-2564.
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The Rutgers Law Library compiled non-partisan information and resources for voters in New Jersey. Know your voting rights and view the full guide.
Meet the Faculty
Joanne Gottesman, Clinic Director
Joanne Gottesman directs the Immigrant Justice Clinic, a student-led law office that represents clients in immigration matters. She practiced housing and immigration law at the Legal Aid Society in New York and her areas of expertise include child migration, U.S. Immigration policy and poverty law. Since 2019, Professor Joanne Gottesman has served as Director of Clinical Programs in the Camden location. She co-directed the Rutgers Civil Practice Clinic for a decade before founding the Immigrant Justice Clinic in 2012. Her clinical practice and scholarship focus on the intersection between immigration law and state law.
Information for Students
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The Immigrant Justice Clinic (“IJC”) based in Camden is both a law school course and a student staffed law office that represents members of the New Jersey immigrant community in humanitarian immigration matters. Clinic students may also engage in outreach and advocacy aimed at increasing understanding and awareness of immigrant issues in the criminal justice, child welfare, and domestic violence systems in New Jersey.
IJC students will experience what it is like to be an attorney by taking primary responsibility for all aspects of their clients’ cases, including interviewing and counseling clients, legal research and writing, strategic and ethical decision making, and any court appearances. This is all done in a setting with a small student-faculty ratio under the close supervision of an experienced clinical professor.
In addition to weekly supervision meetings, the IJC also involves a twice-weekly seminar focusing on substantive immigration law and lawyering skills.
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Students must have successfully completed all of their first-year required courses. Students must also have completed or be concurrently enrolled in Professional Responsibility. Immigration & Citizenship Law is not required, but is recommended.
Because immigration proceedings are federal administrative proceedings and are not governed by the New Jersey Student Practice Rule, 2L students may fully engage in all aspects of their cases including any appearances before United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) or the Executive Office for Immigration Review (“EOIR”).
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All students are welcome in the Immigrant Justice Clinic. Some students are committed to careers in immigration law, but many others enroll to gain practical experience, to better understand their family’s immigration history, or to learn in a hands-on way about the laws and policies at the center of current political debates around immigration.