Jocelyn B. Cazares Willingham is an Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. As part of the clinic, she supports her students in their individual journeys to becoming compassionate, effective, and thoughtful advocates through their representation of individuals experiencing human rights violation and immigration enforcement actions. Prior to joining UDC’s faculty, Professor Cazares Willingham was a Supervising Attorney and Clinical Teaching Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Applied Legal Studies clinic. At CALS, Professor Cazares Willingham mentored, guided, and supported students through their representation of individuals seeking humanitarian protection in the United States because of threatened persecution or torture in their countries of return.
Professor Cazares Willingham has represented a wide array of individuals in both affirmative and defensive immigration applications, including individuals impacted by the family separation policy, individuals deemed “mentally incompetent” by the immigration court in removal proceedings as part of the National Qualified Representation Program, and unaccompanied children through her work with Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (CAIR), Esperanza Immigrants’ Right Project and Public Counsel. At CAIR, Professor Cazares Willingham mentored, taught, and supported a wide range of legal advocates and pro se litigants in various immigration matters, including asylum, withholding of removal, protection under the Convention against Torture, Cancellation of Removal, adjustment of status, U and T visas, bond, motions to reopen, and appeals. As part of the Legal Orientation Program, she managed stakeholder relationships at Caroline County Detention Facility, Howard County Detention Center, and Worcester County Detention Center to ensure access to meaningful legal services to detained individuals, including providing key information and assistance to pro se individuals through group and individual orientations to help them navigate the immigration court system. She also led the Caroline County Anonymous Grant which provided legal representation to individuals detained at the Caroline County Detention Facility. As part of the grant, Professor Cazares Willingham represented numerous individuals in a wide array of defensive applications for relief in their removal proceedings and release from detention facility, including one of the first successful challenges to the application of the Third Country Transit Ban for an individual who was subject to the ban due to the contested metering practice at the US-Mexico Border. She also spent extensive time working at various indigent defense offices, including the Los Angeles County Public Defender Office, Harlem Neighborhood Defender Service, and Bronx Defenders.
Professor Cazares Willingham received her LL.M. in Advocacy, with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and awarded the Lowenstein Fellowship due to her extraordinary commitment to social justice and human rights. She received her B.A. in Anthropology with a minor in English from the University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarly interests include clinical pedagogy, crimmigration, critical race theory, immigration, and professional responsibility. Professor Cazares is a native Spanish speaker and first-generation Mexican American.