This January, CDM and theUniversity of Maryland (UMD) International and Comparative Law Clinicbegan their third year of collaboration. Over the past two years, CDM Executive Director, Rachel Micah-Jones, has taught students at the law clinic, while CDM has hosted UMD students in its Mexico and Baltimore offices.
While in Mexico, UMD law students will support CDM’s international and domestic litigation and policy advocacy, and will advance CDM’s work on many important ongoing initiatives. CDM and the University of Maryland International and Comparative Law Clinic will continue work on the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) petition. CDM filed the petition in September 2011 against the US government, and will be developing a comprehensive advocacy strategy with UMD students in order to continue efforts to hold the US government accountable for the protection of H-2B guestworkers’ rights.
The University of Maryland law students will also provide direct support to CDM’s Justice in Recruitment project, promoting further understanding in policy arenas about the systematic abuses H-2A and H-2B workers face during recruitment in Mexico. Finally, CDM and the International and Comparative Law Clinic will continue to defend H-2B workers’ rights by pursuing strategic litigation under the Fair Labor Standards Act and guestworker regulations.
CDM recently sat down with the law students to hear about their hopes for the collaboration. Here’s what they had to say:
“CDM’s policy work is amazing, and it’s work that is important to me- especially the work that monitors international labor recruitment across employment sectors and visa categories. I am confident that the information that we will be helping CDM and other organizations put together can help to push structural changes in immigration and employment law to prevent predatory recruitment practices.” – Kate Brown
“I am very excited to be working with CDM this spring semester and hope to gain practical law experience through this clinic and with CDM. I can’t wait to be part of such an amazing organization. I am excited to visit workers in their home communities to discuss with them their experiences in the United States.” – Jessica Killeen
“CDM does such meaningful work. I am very eager to participate in the projects we’ll be working on with the organization. The opportunity to deal with the issues first-hand is invaluable; I’ve realized that there is so much that cannot be taught in the setting of a law school classroom. This is a unique opportunity to learn about the issues faced by international workers from a transnational perspective. I think that there is a lot of insight to be gained by working on both sides of the border.” – Catherine Gonzalez