In the Crimmigration Clinic, students work on cutting-edge issues regarding the intersection of criminal law and immigration law.
The content of the clinical projects will depend on the legal landscape and political climate at the time of clinical enrollment. In the past, students have worked on administrative and federal litigation in both appellate courts and district courts concerning criminal bars to immigration relief, detention, and the crime-based grounds of removal. Students have also drafted reports concerning the funding of immigration detention in Massachusetts, and engaged in legislative advocacy on issues, including drafting sanctuary policies for municipalities around the country. Clinical students will also work with the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute to provide advice to their case teams about the immigration consequences of criminal charges.
Clinical work will largely be performed at HLS. On litigation and policy matters, the Clinic will collaborate with local and national non-profit organizations.
How to Register
The Crimmigration Clinic is offered in the Fall and the Spring semesters. You can learn about the required clinical course component, clinical credits and the clinical registration process by reading the course catalog description and exploring the links in this section.
Meet the Instructors

Tiffany Lieu
Clinical Instructor
Wasserstein Hall, 3rd Floor
6 Everett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tiffany Lieu is a Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program. She supervises and trains students in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and in the Crimmigration Clinic on appellate and affirmative litigation as well as direct representation matters. Tiffany clerked for the Honorable Allyson K. Duncan on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the Honorable Keith P. Ellison on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. She was previously a Stanford Public Interest Fellow and staff attorney at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance. She holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.A. in History from Duke University.

Phil Torrey
Assistant Clinical Professor of Law; Director, Crimmigration Clinic
ptorrey@law.harvard.edu
6 Everett St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phil Torrey is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he has taught since 2011. He is also the Director of the Crimmigration Clinic at Harvard Law School and the Managing Attorney of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program. The Crimmigration Clinic engages in cutting-edge litigation and policy advocacy concerning issues ranging from criminal bars to immigration relief to sanctuary city policies. The Clinic also provides advice to criminal defense attorneys around the country concerning the immigration consequences of criminal charges. Torrey’s research focuses on the crime-based grounds of removal and immigration detention, including the private prison industry, and the immigration system’s mandatory detention regime. Prior to joining HLS, Torrey worked as an attorney in the Immigration Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services and as a litigation associate at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. He received his B.A. from Colgate University and his J.D. with honors from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Cindy Zapata
Senior Clinical Instructor; Lecturer on Law
Wasserstein Hall, 3rd Floor
6 Everett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Cindy Zapata is a Clinical Instructor in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, and a Lecturer on Law. She supervises and trains students in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and in the Crimmigration Clinic. She coordinates various community outreach efforts, including Know-Your-Rights presentations and Advice and Counsel sessions in the greater Boston area. As the supervising attorney for the HLS Immigration Project, a student-practice organization at HLS focused on immigration-related efforts and advocacy, she supervises students on various projects including removal defense, community outreach, and immigration applications. She was previously a litigation associate at Hughes Hubbard and Reed LLP. She holds a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law, and a B.A. in Political Science from Queens College – CUNY.
Staff Members
Liala Buoniconti | Licensed Clinical Social Worker | lbuoniconti@law.harvard.edu |
Anna Weick | Program Administrator | aweick@law.harvard.edu |
In the News
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Ricardo Jimenez Solis wins the David A. Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award
This award is presented annually to a student who demonstrates outstanding expertise in representation and policy reform initiatives and shows a clear capacity for thoughtfulness and empathy in their practice.
May 23, 2023
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‘It takes a village’: Crimmigration Clinic presents argument in First Circuit Court of Appeals
On one side of the office, two students huddled over laptops and papers, writing and re-writing draft after draft. On the other side, another student paced back and forth, ceaselessly rehearsing his opening statements, repeating them until they were second nature. The team debated word choice, took turns playing judges and government attorneys, and spent
May 4, 2023
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4 Skadden Fellows selected from Class of 2023, all clinic alumni
Four members of the HLS Class of 2023 have been selected as recipients of the Skadden Fellowship, a two-year fellowship to pursue public interest law on a full-time basis. The Skadden Foundation launched the fellowship in 1988, in line with their mission aiming to expand the legal services available to economically disadvantaged communities by supporting
March 29, 2023
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Crimmigration Clinic students present oral arguments in Second Circuit Court of Appeals
By Allie Cunningham ’23 and Jess Valenzuela Ramirez ’23 This fall, Crimmigration Clinic students Allie Cunningham ’23 and Jess Valenzuela Ramirez ’23 presented oral arguments before a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Peguero Vasquez v. Garland, a petition for review involving a client who was deported because he was deemed
November 2, 2022