LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The UNLV Immigration Clinic, run by Boyd Law School, could soon get more funding from state lawmakers to help support
Assembly Bill 328 would provide $1 million that would be spread out over the next two years.
The off-campus community advocacy center is located in the Arts District in downtown Las Vegas and it opened in March 2022. The clinic provides law services and representation to people who need help with immigration proceedings.
According to Michael Kagan, a law professor at UNLV and the director of the clinic, most of those cases involve children.
"In 2022, we represented 204 people facing deportation and also assisted 67 people renewing their DACA permits," Kagan said. "For those facing deportation, three-quarters of them were children. The youngest client we served last year was three years old. The children we represent enter the United States alone and almost all of them have had terrifying encounters and threats, usually from gangs in Central America. Many have also been abused, neglected, or abandoned by at least one parent."
Nevada speaker Steve Yeager asked how the clinic helps these children and why they need representation. Kagan said it's because the court system is complicated.
"Our role is to make sure that several courts and government agencies understand the circumstances the child came here and why they can't go back. Different reasons for leaving, in our system, for better or for worse, have to be raised with different proceedings," Kagan said. "Some can be raised directly with immigration court but, in fact, immigration court's jurisdiction is limited. If they're going to apply for asylum, if they're being persecuted, that usually has to be filed for a child with U.S. citizenship and immigration services and you have to ask the immigration court for those proceedings to be paused. If the child has been abused, neglected, or abandoned, state law comes in. Then we would need to go to a Nevada family court for guardianship proceedings."
The state legislature gave the clinic $500,000 in funding during the last legislative session in 2021.
Several people spoke out against the proposed legislation saying taxpayers shouldn't foot the bill for people who are coming into the U.S. illegally.
"I don't think we need to keep giving incentives to keep supporting illegals given the current crisis at the border. You only incentivize their problems becoming our problems," said Casey Rogers, who is against the bill. "These people are running from their countries and I know why these people are coming here but you cannot fix their problems. We cannot fix everyone's problems."
"These are dozens on bills in this legislature which are aimed at helping non-citizens and illegal aliens. There are almost none aimed at helping the failing middle class," said Jeanine Hansen, the state president for Nevada Families For Freedom. "The only way to help the middle class is to lower taxes, to cut regulations, and to allow them to keep some of their hard-earned money instead of giving it to others."
Kagan said he realizes how much money the clinic is asking for but they're also focused on being as cost-effective as possible.
"We are happy with our location in the Arts District. The reason why we are there is because the office is donated by a former member of this body, Ozzie Fumo. It's essential because otherwise, we would have to be paying for rent," Kagan said. "We also have a partnership, we received an equal amount of funding from Clark County. We also have a partnership with a private organization based in New York called Immigration Justice Forum who sends us lawyers to help us staff our office."
Kagan added that due to those partnerships, they're able to handle the most complex types of immigration cases for less than $2,500 per case.
However, he said they need more help especially as lawyers are seeing the demand go up.
"We currently don't have a permanent receptionist to answer phone calls so we're depending on law school volunteers to do that," Kagan said. "Now that people are more aware that our service exists, the need is overwhelming. Just since January 1, we have received 114 calls from detention centers from immigrants in Southern Nevada. At the end of last year, we also had 90 children on a wait list."
According to state records, no additional hearings have been scheduled as of Friday night.
