CASA de Maryland, Inc. Fellowship Interest Overview – July 2009
CASA de Maryland, the state’s largest immigrant organizing and services organization is seeking to sponsor talented law students and lawyers for one or two year post-graduate fellowships, most to begin in September 2010. The legal program at CASA is currently four attorneys and two legal assistants working inside a dynamic 80-person organization on issues of interest to low-income immigrants, especially Latino immigrants in Maryland. The issues include: combating unfair and excessive immigration enforcement, fighting for comprehensive immigration reform, promoting naturalization, ending wage theft and workplace exploitation, promoting affordable housing, and positive community development. CASA invites applications by Friday, August 7 and after on a rolling basis.
Available Fellowships & Criteria
Equal Justice Works
Deadline: September 15
Interests: combination of direct services, advocacy and education.
Ideal candidates: People who have direct experience with target population. Work in the area more important than academic achievement.
Skadden
Deadline: October 5
Interests: High academic achievement at top law schools (would be hired at Skadden)
Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowships
Deadline: October 14
Interest: Criminal. Has funded many crimmigration projects in the past.
Soros Baltimore Fellowship
Deadline: 2010
New Voices
Not applicable – no competition in 2009, but check back
Liman
Deadline: January 2010?
Candidates: Must be Yale graduates
Washington College of Law
For September 2009
Due: August 3 to 17.
Fellowships CASA is interested in Sponsoring
The list of subject matters below is by no means intended to be exhaustive. Suggestions for additional areas of focus are welcome.
1.Public Information Work to Combat Unfair Immigration Enforcement
We envision this as continuing the efforts of a previous fellow, including FOIA work, planning and attending public hearings, and engaging in limited litigation. Principally, this fellow will focus her work in Frederick, Anne Arundel, and other counties of interest in Maryland.
2.Public Information / Public Accountability
This fellowship would connect the work currently being conducted by CASA attorneys by focusing on a local health care initiative campaign, ongoing work on transit-oriented sector plan development in Prince George’s County, and/or assisting with civil rights/immigration efforts. Additionally, this fellowship could potentially engage in “opposition research” and assist with Comprehensive Immigration Reform efforts by bringing greater attention to the professional and personal lives of critical legislative figures. A fellow engaging in this work could work with the CASA community organizing team to plan and execute public hearings, accountability sessions, press releases, and public information requests.
3.Immigration Enforcement
Work in this area would be primarily focused on fighting the “Secure Communities” initiative, opposing local 287(g) agreements, and promoting “community policing” and positive police practices. More specifically, this fellowship could focus on legal issues connected to the search and seizure of biological information with regards to immigration enforcement. Much of this subject matter could also fit within the unfair immigration enforcement fellowship and the public accountability fellowship described above. This will fit in as a strategic component part of our existing immigration-related civil rights work.
4.Innovative Legal Empowerment - Membership-Related Efforts
Fellowships in this area could focus on the implementation of innovative legal empowerment. These efforts would lend themselves naturally to the legal education work currently being undertaken by all current attorneys. Building from existing research on community empowerment models and proceeding from a principled understanding of CASA’s reasons for becoming a membership organization, this fellowship could help CASA establish an innovative set of practices for direct community legal empowerment and group legal decision- making. These efforts would be premised on heavy interaction with the CASA’s community organizing and health programs, particularly the tenant organizers and the health promotores.
5.Comprehensive Immigration Reform
This fellow would be a primary resource for Legal Permanent Residents in the naturalization process. By the time this fellowship is expected to commence, there will be 7-10 sites around the Maryland offering citizenship support as part of the AmeriCorps program/New Americans Initiative. This fellow would be the primary legal counsel for these efforts, and would also assist CASA with other compressive immigration-reform efforts, both legislative and community-based.
6.Community Development - Prince George’s Affordable Housing Campaigns
In addition to the aforementioned sector plan work in Prince George’s County, there is also movement as to the construction of a Red Line in Baltimore City. Many of the same affordable housing and small business protection issues involved in development in Prince George’s County are also implicated in Baltimore’s efforts for transit-oriented development. A local Montgomery County Councilmember has also spoken at length about developing an expanded bus rapid transit system throughout the County. CASA is already working with a network of smart growth advocates, and is currently seeking additional funding for sustained smart growth efforts. This fellowship could focus on transit- oriented development, or else these efforts could be folded into one of the fellowships detailed above.
7.Additional Baltimore-Focused Work
A fellowship could also focus more specifically on the needs of the immigrant community in and around Baltimore City, including a possible Anne Arundel campaign related to local police enforcement.
.
How to See if there is a Match with CASA
Send us your resume and a maximum three page statement of a proposed fellowship project which addresses:
- Problem to be Addressed
- Method to Address it
- Your specific connection
Send to Guy Johnson at by Friday, August 7.
1