Spring 2011 Immigration Article Contest

When we asked law students to write about immigration issues, the impressive articles we received covered everything from the separation of US immigrant families to the flaws in verifying employment eligibility.

The instructions for this contest were:

Submit an unpublished article on legal issues that affect immigration in the United States and/or abroad. Articles should reflect recent developments in immigration, bring forth new ideas about the subject or introduce a discussion.

Sharon Brenner, a law student at Golden Gate University, won the first place $500 prize in Legal Language Services’ first ever writing contest. Her article, “Challenges Facing Unaccompanied Refugee Minors’ Access to Legal Aid,” brings up the challenges refugee children face in accessing necessary legal services in the United States and discusses the effect a comprehensive approach to legal aid can have on this portion of the US immigrant population.

“Achievement of the US goal of caring for refugee minors and preparing them for productive lives in the US cannot be realized without giving more aggressive attention to this vulnerable immigrant population,” Brenner wrote.

Congratulations to all our winners!

Grand Prize Winner of a $500 Award:

Second Place Winner of a $100 Award:

Third Place Winner of a $100 Award:

  • Robert Meltzer, law student at Boston College Law School, for his article, “Where We Fail“

While people’s views on US immigration policies may differ wildly, one thing that nearly everyone can agree on is that comprehensive immigration reform needs to happen — and the sooner, the better. These winning articles show that the lawyers and legal professionals of tomorrow are more than ready to take on the numerous issues of the US immigration system that are in dire need of being addressed.

*The content submitted expresses the opinions of the contest participants, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Legal Language Services. Each participant is solely responsible for the information and/or analysis of their submitted content.