WASHINGTON – The George Washington University Law School’s Immigration Clinic has won freedom for a man wrongfully detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).  

“This case was unusual in several ways,” said Alberto Benítez, professor of clinical law and director of the Immigration Clinic. “It highlighted the harsher aspects of the Immigration and Nationality Act and took much longer to resolve because the circumstances were so unique.” 

Born in Austria in 1956 of an Austrian mother and an U.S. serviceman, the client (whose name, for reasons of privacy, was not released) was relinquished to an orphanage in Salzburg in 1957.  In 1962 a couple from Washington, D.C., adopted the boy through an organization specializing in the placement of war-time babies.  At the age of six he was admitted to the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident.  

“Soon after he arrived, however, the couple placed him in foster care as they were unable to care for him,” explained Benítez.  “He was then bounced from family to family during the remainder of his youth and was never naturalized to U.S. citizenship.” 

The client joined the U.S. Army in 1974 at the age of 18 and was honorably discharged in 1979.   In 1993 he was convicted of attempted robbery without a weapon and sentenced to18 months in prison.  He was later convicted of robbery and attempted robbery in 1995 and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. The INS initiated removal proceedings in 1997 based on these convictions with plans to return him to Austria and immediately detained him upon his parole in 2001.

The clinic began work on the case in October of 1998, along two tracks. One, to persuade the Austrian government that the client was no longer a citizen there.  And second, to get the client released from INS detention. In 2001 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision requiring the INS to remove aliens with final removal orders or to release them if removal could not be carried out.

“Through the work of many clinical students we were able to prove that our client had relinquished his Austrian citizenship by volunteering for the U.S. Army,” said Benítez. “This prevented the INS from sending him to Austria and from detaining him any longer.”     

On October 4, 2002, four years after the Clinic became involved, the client was released from INS custody. “Such a positive outcome would have been impossible without the skill, dedication, and talent of our clinical students Akin Alcitepe ('99), Candy Caballero ('00), Sharan Nirmul ('01), and Jennifer Chung ('98),” said Benítez.  “They handled all of the complicated lawyering tasks – research, writing, court appearances and more. Their lawyering is a model for law students and lawyers everywhere.”

GW’s Immigration Clinic has provided legal representation to aliens in the D.C. metropolitan area since 1979.   All of the programs in GW’s Community Legal Clinics share a common goal — to provide members of the community with critically needed legal services while giving motivated law students the opportunity to experience the practical application of law and to develop skills as negotiators, advocates, and litigators within an exciting and supportive educational environment.

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