Human Traf­fick­ing Clin­ic + Lab

Human traf­fick­ing encom­pass­es all forms of com­pelled labor or ser­vices and it occurs through­out the Unit­ed States. Human traf­fick­ing is the recruit­ment, trans­porta­tion, har­bor­ing, or receipt of peo­ple for the pur­pos­es of a com­mer­cial sex act, invol­un­tary servi­tude, or debt bondage. It cur­rent­ly exists in every state of the Unit­ed States and across the world. It can be found in many indus­tries: agri­cul­ture, ser­vice, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, and domes­tic ser­vice, as well as in the com­mer­cial sex indus­try. In 2000, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, respond­ing to the inad­e­qua­cy of the cur­rent laws and to the scale and grav­i­ty of the prob­lem, enact­ed the first com­pre­hen­sive human traf­fick­ing law in the Unit­ed States: the Traf­fick­ing Vic­tims Pro­tec­tion Act. The Act defines human traf­fick­ing and estab­lish­es penal­ties for human traf­fick­ers. Some states and local­i­ties have fol­lowed the lead of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and have enact­ed their own laws.

The vast major­i­ty of our work is in the field of immi­gra­tion. Stu­dents devel­op and sub­mit many dif­fer­ent types of appli­ca­tions to the Unit­ed States Cit­i­zen­ship and Immi­gra­tion Ser­vices includ­ing T Visas, U Visas, Vio­lence Against Women Act peti­tions, Spe­cial Immi­grant Juve­nile Sta­tus, Adjust­ment of Sta­tus (Green Cards), and Cit­i­zen­ship. Stu­dents some­times also rep­re­sent clients in removal pro­ceed­ings. Michi­gan law stu­dents inter­est­ed in pur­su­ing immi­gra­tion law should absolute­ly con­sid­er the Human Traf­fick­ing Clin­ic because, although we serve a par­tic­u­lar sub-pop­u­la­­tion, the dai­ly work of the clin­ic is high­ly reflec­tive of the work of an immi­gra­tion prac­ti­tion­er or pro bono attor­ney rep­re­sent­ing any crime vic­tim. The sec­ond most com­mon legal rem­e­dy stu­dents work on is the removal of con­vic­tions from a survivor’s crim­i­nal record. Under Michi­gan law, vic­tims of human traf­fick­ing can request removal of spe­cif­ic con­vic­tions if they can show they were vic­tims of human traf­fick­ing at the time of the alleged crime. Removal of con­vic­tions requires sub­mis­sion of a brief and oral advo­ca­cy in a court hearing.

We do not pros­e­cute cas­es against crim­i­nals or inves­ti­gate crim­i­nal mat­ters. We can assist a sur­vivor in report­ing to and work­ing with law enforce­ment and pros­e­cu­tors. We are not able to assist sur­vivors with non-legal mat­ters but will do our best to refer to appro­pri­ate services.

Cur­rent Michi­gan Law School stu­dents who are inter­est­ed in being a part of the clin­ic can do so in two ways: either by enrolling in the clin­ic for cred­it dur­ing the aca­d­e­m­ic year, or by apply­ing to be an intern in the sum­mer. For infor­ma­tion in how to enroll in the aca­d­e­m­ic year please refer to the cur­rent Clin­ic Enroll­ment Guide. Details on how to apply for sum­mer intern­ships will be entered into the Sim­plic­i­ty sys­tem dur­ing the Win­ter semes­ter each year.

Non-Michi­­gan law stu­dents are not able to enroll dur­ing the aca­d­e­m­ic year. In very lim­it­ed cir­cum­stances, indi­vid­u­als cur­rent­ly enrolled in a JD pro­gram can apply for a sum­mer intern­ship with the Human Traf­fick­ing Clin­ic. If you are inter­est­ed in apply­ing for a sum­mer intern­ship with the clin­ic please sub­mit a cov­er let­ter and resume to humantrafficking@​umich.​edu by Jan­u­ary 30^th of the year. Please write ​“Sum­mer Employ­ment Appli­ca­tion” in the sub­ject line of the email.

Stu­dents must enroll in the 4 cred­it Clin­ic + Lab and the 3 cred­it sem­i­nar, tak­en concurrently.

No! This is a wor­ri­some myth about the clin­ic. It is some­times the case that appli­cants will not be select­ed the first semes­ter they apply. How­ev­er, it is almost always the case that appli­cants who sub­mit com­plete clin­ic appli­ca­tions for mul­ti­ple semes­ters are admit­ted at some point dur­ing their Law School career.

We receive refer­rals from a vari­ety of com­mu­ni­ty part­ners includ­ing the Nation­al Human Traf­fick­ing Hot­line; social ser­vices providers; oth­er attor­neys; local, state and fed­er­al law enforce­ment or pros­e­cu­tors; and sur­vivors who have self-identified. 

The best way to request assis­tance for your­self or some­one else is to call our office at 734−615−3600. We are gen­er­al­ly open Mon­­day-Fri­­day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.. When you call, be pre­pared to briefly pro­vide the nature of the vic­tim­iza­tion, the legal need, and safe con­tact infor­ma­tion. We do not accept walk-ins.

Thank you for offer­ing to assist our efforts. Our first pri­or­i­ty is always to ensure we are accom­mo­dat­ing the vol­un­teer inter­ests of mem­bers of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan Law School com­mu­ni­ty. Thus, we do not have vol­un­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties for indi­vid­u­als out­side of the Michi­gan Law School Community.

The only excep­tion to the above state­ment applies to those who pos­sess non-Eng­lish lan­guage skills. There are instances when we need interpretation/​translation of a less-com­­mon­­ly spo­ken lan­guage and there is no one in the Law School com­mu­ni­ty able to meet that need. If you are flu­ent in a lan­guage oth­er than Eng­lish and are inter­est­ed in being a vol­un­teer interpreter/​translator, please email humantrafficking@​umich.​edu with your name, email, phone num­ber, and the language(s) in which you are fluent.

Thank you for your inter­est in the top­ic of human traf­fick­ing. We receive an over­whelm­ing num­ber of requests for a speak­er and are only able to accom­mo­date a small frac­tion of the requests we receive. If you would like to request a speak­er, please send an email to humantrafficking@​umich.​edu with the fol­low­ing infor­ma­tion: the agency or orga­ni­za­tion you are asso­ci­at­ed with; pro­posed date(s) and time(s); the length of the pro­posed pre­sen­ta­tion; loca­tion; a descrip­tion of the audi­ence includ­ing an esti­mat­ed num­ber in atten­dance; and what kind of infor­ma­tion on human traf­fick­ing you are seek­ing. Depend­ing on the nature of the request, there may be a speaker’s fee.

We are thank­ful that you are inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about the issue, but we are unable to respond to gen­er­al research requests. The clin­ic is a func­tion­ing law office and we must ensure that we are ded­i­cat­ing our lim­it­ed staff time to meet­ing the needs of our clients.