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Fall 2023 California Legal Services Intern
APPLICATION DEADLINE: August 18 priority deadline
LOCATION: Hybrid / must be based in Northern California
Project ANAR is seeking fall interns for Afghan immigration legal services! This position is hybrid, with
most work conducted remotely and weekly/monthly in-person client work in the Bay Area. Law students
will be prioritized but undergraduates are eligible. Interns are expected to work roughly 15 hours a week
and start on or around September 15, 2023, for 12 weeks. Details can be finalized based upon individual
semester schedules.
Organizational background: Project ANAR is an Afghan community immigration Justice organization,
co-founded and led by Afghan American women. Project ANAR works nationally to advocate for
pathways to family reunification and refuge for Afghans outside the U.S., permanent legal status for those
in the U.S., and ultimately, an end to the systems that displace Afghans. Project ANAR’s work consists of
legal services, community education, and advocacy. Our direct legal services work is primarily focused in
Northern California. Project ANAR began out of necessity as a legal services mutual aid effort to assist
our own loved ones seeking a pathway to refuge in August 2021, particularly through Humanitarian
Parole applications. Our legal services work presently focuses on assisting the hundreds of Afghan
parolees in our region who are set to run out of temporary legal status between August and September
2023, and need outreach, education, and direct legal assistance to pursue asylum, Temporary Protected
Status (TPS), and other pathways. We also increasingly track issues faced by and offer assistance to
Afghans who arrive via the Southern Border and find themselves detained in ICE custody and/or in
removal proceedings. As an Afghan community organization, we also advocate more broadly for our
diaspora community, in coalition with other community organizations, immigration organizations, and
others. Past work has included an amicus brief challenging the seizure of Afghan assets, and co-hosting
a town hall to hold government officials accountable to answering our community’s questions. Project
ANAR is a project fiscally sponsored by Pangea Legal Services, a 501(c)3 non-profit immigration
organization based in San Francisco, CA. We lead our own work and mirror their horizontal leadership
and pay structure and pay all of our staff equally, regardless of background or education level. Project
ANAR’s team works primarily remotely, but does limited in person client work in the San Francisco Bay
Area, usually every 2 weeks.
Logistics: Interns are expected to work 15 hours a week. We encourage interns to seek external funding
for their internships or class credit.
Description:
Interns will work primarily in direct legal services with California-based Afghan parolees. 80,000 Afghans
have been relocated to the U.S. under temporary parole status since August 2021, with the majority
facing a looming deadline to pursue asylum and access permanent legal status here. The Bay Area is
one of the primary resettlement locations for Afghans in the U.S.
Interns will assist with attorney and legal assistant work, and/or take on tasks that attorneys and legal
assistants conduct, including client screenings and intakes, working on asylum applications, legal
research, Temporary Protected Status Applications, Adjustment of Status applications, and/or assisting in
defensive asylum/removal proceedings cases.
Interns may also assist with family reunification cases, including humanitarian parole and refugee
follow-to-join petitions. Interns may also assist with other projects as needed, including some advocacy
projects and community outreach and education efforts.
Interns will have an opportunity to engage in coalition work with other organizations, and contribute to the
development of Project ANAR resources.
Responsibilities:
+ Completing client screenings and intakes, including at on-site tabling events
+ Supporting all stages of the asylum application process, including drafting I-589s, interviewing clients &
drafting declarations, conducting country conditions research, and assisting with interview preparation
+ Assisting with advocacy at the Asylum Office for cases that surpass the decision deadline and following
up with clients to collect data and assess case outcomes
+ Assisting with other types of immigration applications as needed, including parole, TPS, SIV, family
based petitions, and responding to RFEs and NOIDs
+ Staffing in-person legal clinics and other community events approximately once per month
+ Assisting in virtual and in-person Know Your Rights legal presentations
+ Monitoring trends and changes related to U.S. immigration policy towards Afghans
+ Assisting in development of legal resources and materials
+ Assisting with advocacy and litigation projects as needed
+ Working collaboratively with team of attorneys, legal assistants, volunteers, and other interns
+ Attending weekly team check-ins and individual check-ins with supervising attorney
Requirements:
+ Prior law school coursework and/or practical experience in immigration law
+ Ability to work remotely and to join regular weekly meetings
+ Familiarity with Google Suite
+ Commitment to trauma-informed client interactions
+ Ability to track news and trends related to Afghan immigration and to adapt to changing policies
+ Commitment to teamwork and collaboration
+ Strong communication skills
+ Dari, Farsi, and/or Pashto fluency (oral and written, but particularly oral) strongly preferred
Please contact legal@projectanar.org with any questions.