Introducing the Class of 2019 Community Fellows!

Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC) has announced its 2019 Community Fellowship class. This select group of talented and promising recent college graduates will provide individualized legal screening and representation in immigration benefits applications to underserved immigrant communities, serving as first responders to the IJC program.

Fourteen graduates from colleges across the country were chosen for the prestigious Fellowship at IJC, which was conceived of by Robert A. Katzmann, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and incubated by The Robin Hood Foundation in 2013.

“This cohort of IJC community fellows is exceptional and, with the training that IJC provides, will contribute greatly to ensuring access to justice for immigrants and their families,” said Judge Robert Katzmann.

Since 2014, IJC Community Fellows have filed more than 4,880 fee waiver applications and saved low-income clients nearly $3.2 million dollars in fees, winning 95% of cases closed. The Class of 2019 is the largest cohort of Community Fellows ever accepted into the Fellowship.

The 2019 Fellows offer extensive and broad backgrounds in immigration-related internships, jobs, and volunteerism. All the new Community Fellows are bilingual – 71% of the class are native Spanish speakers. In addition, members of the new class speak Arabic, Mandarin, French, Mandingo, and Korean.

Community Fellows become Department of Justice Accredited Representatives, which allows them to represent clients before USCIS. The Fellows will serve for two years embedded within immigrant communities mostly in and around New York City.

IJC is excited to announce that this year we are sending Community Fellows to two new locations. One Fellow will be placed at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) in Dilly, Texas and another to Building One Community in Stamford, Connecticut.

Immigrant Justice Corps’ Executive Director Jojo Annobil said, “I am excited to welcome the diverse and accomplished 2019 Class of Community Fellows. I am confident that this class will bring their impressive talents and passion for social justice to the underserved communities and immigrants they will be serving and, in so doing, make a positive change in the trajectories of immigrants’ lives.”

This new class will join the 2018 class of 10 Community Fellows already in the field.