An innovative new partnership between UCLA School of Law’s Criminal Law and Policy Consortium (CLPC) and the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office (LACPD) will give individuals facing deportation legal representation from a UCLA Law graduate with deep experience in immigration or public interest law.

The first-of-its-kind Removal Defense Fellowship will place the law school alum with the LACPD’s newly launched removal defense team to represent clients in federal removal proceedings. At the LACPD, the fellow will conduct legal research on immigration-related issues; draft legal documents, including briefs, memoranda, and pleadings; assist with discovery; organize and maintain case files and documents; assist attorneys with trial preparation and court appearances; communicate with clients and other parties involved in the immigration case; and perform other tasks that are vital to the representation of clients during a moment of urgent need.

“UCLA Law and the CLPC share in the LACPD’s commitment to upholding the legal rights of Los Angeles County’s most vulnerable people, including its non-citizen residents, and we are tremendously grateful to be partnering with them,” says Ingrid Eagly, faculty co-director of the CLPC and a UCLA Law professor. “This visionary fellowship offers immigrants essential representation and affords recent law school graduates an important opportunity to gain valuable experience and make a meaningful difference.”

Graciela Martinez, an assistant public defender, says, “The LACPD is excited to partner with UCLA Law as we expand our services to include a removal defense team. In the face of aggressive enforcement of stringent immigration policies, LACPD is expanding our immigration unit to enhance our ability to not only protect the liberty of our non-citizen clients but also safeguard their homes, their jobs, and the integrity of their families. Through these efforts, we aim to ensure that the fundamental rights and dignities of our clients are preserved.”

The one-year fellowship will pay the UCLA Law graduate up to $100,000, plus a $2,500 bar stipend, and it has already been renewed for a second year.

The inaugural fellow is Niki Nguyễn ’25. “I am beyond honored to be working alongside and supporting system-impacted immigrant community members in Los Angeles County through this removal defense fellowship with the LACPD. My background as the child of Vietnamese refugees and as a witness of the harm that the prison-to-deportation pipeline causes on my family and community grounds my hope for a world in which family and community unification are guaranteed, and people are never rendered disposable,” she says. “Through this fellowship, I look forward to leveraging the law as a necessary interim tool to free people from immigration detention and fight their deportations.”