Supervising Attorney-Immigration for SWP and FYP

The Supervising Attorney is part of the Sex Workers Project (SWP) and Free to Be Youth (FYP)

Project Legal team. The Supervising Attorney works with the Directors and legal staff of both projects in

order to ensure high quality immigration legal services for SWP and FYP clients. The Supervising

Attorney strives to foster a trauma informed culture and service provision model rooted in harm

reduction, anti-oppression, and human rights.

SWP and FYP are independent projects that are part of the Urban Justice Center. SWP provides free

immigration legal services to people involved in the sex trades and survivors of human trafficking,

including those with complex and criminal legal issues. SWP analyzes cases using the intersection of

criminal law and immigration law to ensure legal strategies that minimize the risk of deportation,

detention, or inadmissibility. The majority of our clients are Spanish speaking LGBTQIA migrants from

Latin America and the Caribbean. FYP is a legal services, systemic advocacy, and community education

project that focuses on the legal needs of homeless and street-involved lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ+) young people (up to age 24) in New York City. FYP advocates for LGBTQ+

young people living in poverty on a wide range of issues, including safe and affirming access to shelter,

benefits, accurate identification documents, employment, and legal immigration status.

Role Within Legal Team

• Supervises staff attorneys, DOJ accredited representatives, legal volunteers and legal interns, and helps with professional development, including identifying and sharing about appropriate trainings and CLEs.
• Manages a case load of clients seeking immigration relief: including T/U nonimmigrant status, asylum/withholding/CAT, adjustment of status, naturalization, and other applications depending on client needs.
• Represents clients in removal proceedings and interviews before U.S, Citizenship and Immigration Services., Conducts in-depth interviews with clients to assess potential immigration relief as well as other legal needs, including eligibility for T-visas, U-visas, asylum, and other forms of relief.
• Accompanies clients to interviews with law enforcement agents and provides other criminal justice advocacy as needed.
• Keeps up to date with immigration policy changes, including Board of Immigration Appeal case law decisions, Circuit Court, and Supreme Court precedent decisions, and keeps SWP staff informed of relevant developments.
• Actively participates in SWP and FYP staff and legal team meetings and interdisciplinary meetings.
• Provides training and outreach to local communities, stakeholders, and law schools.
• Based on interest and capacity, represent SWP and FYP at initiatives and actively participate in coalitions, panels, and task forces.
• Additional duties as allowed by capacity and dictated by project and client needs, in consultation with supervisor.
• Ability to translate documents from Spanish to English and vice versa.

Required Skills

• 5-8 years of experience handling immigration cases with a focus on humanitarian applications (T visas, U visas, VAWA, SIJS, asylum) and defensive immigration work
• Admitted to practice law in New York State (preferred)
• Experience working with survivors of crime and a commitment to trauma-informed lawyering and client-centered practices.
• Experience supervising attorneys, fellows, accredited representatives, or interns
• Ability to analyze the immigration consequences of criminal convictions, write Padilla letters and provide plea recommendations to criminal defense attorneys and clients.
• Knowledge of dynamics of domestic violence, LGBTQ+ issues, and human trafficking
• Organizational skills to track and report required data about the work in a timely and accurate manner.
• Strong oral and written advocacy skills; ability to work as part of a team; organizational ability is required to juggle many cases efficiently.

Skills – Preferred:

• Fluency in Spanish
• Demonstrated commitment to representing low-income immigrants
• Knowledge of social service and victim service agencies in the NYC area