The Stanford Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic and the ACLU began arguing their case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month in a landmark case challenging the government’s right to indefinitely detain immigrants fighting their immigration cases.

Jayashri Srikantiah, director of the Stanford Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, served on a legal team challenging the Department of Homeland Security for incarcerating four immigrants in California pending legal challenges to their deportations.

One of the men, Amadou Lamine Diouf, was incarcerated for almost two years before an immigration judge ordered his release.

“I was separated from my wife and career for almost two years because of an innocent mistake in the filing of my immigration papers,” said Diouf in a statement published by the Stanford Law School. “I’m not a danger to society. All I want is to be with my wife and get a job.”

The case has the potential to set a precedent in the United States regarding the legality of detaining immigrants indefinitely while the government investigates their legal status.

Srikantiah has extensive experience defending immigrants, both as the director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Stanford, and in previous work as an attorney for the ACLU of Northern California.

Under Srikantiah’s supervision, students regularly have the opportunity to represent immigrants whose lives are interrupted by their immigration status. They have participated in efforts to prevent the deportation of non-citizens with criminal convictions, obtained asylum protection for non-citizens fleeing persecution and assisted immigrant survivors of domestic violence in gaining lawful status in the United States.

Julie Smolinski J.D. ‘07, described her experience at the clinic as “the most significant learning experience of my time in law school.”

As part of her clinical internship, Smolinski helped defend a victim of domestic violence who faced deportation.

“She was young — supported four children on her own,” Smolinski said. “She had been through some horrendous experiences. It really showed me how privileged I have been. I was thrilled when we were able to secure relief for [her].”