Yale Medical-Legal Partnership Students Help Families Prepare In Case of Deportation
Over the past year, Yale Law School students in the Yale/Yale New Haven Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) have played a lead role in helping immigrant families better prepare for the detention and deportation of their loved ones, resulting in a guide published by the state of Connecticut.
The partnership is a collaboration of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, the Yale New Haven Health System, and the Yale School of Medicine. Through the MLP, lawyers and law students join directly with health care providers to meet clients where they are, in places they trust, and address the broad range of civil legal needs that impede positive health outcomes. Since launching in 2012, the MLP has expanded to eight health care clinics across the Yale system, including the HAVEN free primary care clinic, which mainly serves immigrant patients without health insurance.
As 2024 drew to a close, and it became clear that the federal government would increase immigration enforcement, MLP students heard growing concerns from clients about what might happen to their children if they or other caretakers were placed in immigration custody. Determined to respond, the students collaborated with community organizations to create resources to help families plan for such an outcome.
The product of their efforts was recently published by the office of Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont. The Connecticut Family Preparedness Plan is a detailed packet that guides families through the steps they can take to prepare for immigration enforcement. The packet lays out a series of proactive strategies families can use, such as keeping a file with vital documents, establishing a childcare plan in the event of a parent’s absence, and signing a standby guardian form to give a trusted adult the legal power to care for a child if their parent no longer can.
Under the supervision of Yale/Yale New Haven MLP Legal Director James Bhandary-Alexander, students spent numerous hours developing the guide, identifying patients who might need the information, running community workshops to raise awareness about family preparedness, and meeting with families to provide legal advice and help them execute important legal forms. This work built on earlier family preparedness efforts Bhandary-Alexander spearheaded as an attorney at the New Haven Legal Assistance Association.
“The many, many families that we’ve served have enthusiastically embraced the process of completing these forms and expressed nothing but relief that there is a way to take care of these essential issues, taking care of the kids, taking care of property, before anything bad might happen,” Bhandary-Alexander told Connecticut Public Radio in an interview earlier this month.
For the Yale Law School students enrolled in the MLP, the work has proven an opportunity to not only gain valuable legal skills but also make a significant difference in the lives of underserved Connecticut residents.
“Family preparedness planning is one of the quickest ways to concretely lessen the burden on families in our communities,” Mijal Epelman ’25 said. “As much as I hope none of the plans I have prepared ever get used, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to prepare them and to know that I am doing something about one of the most urgent humanitarian crises in our country.”
About the Solomon Center
The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School is the first of its kind to focus on the intersection of law and the governance, practice, and business of health care. The Center brings together leading experts and practitioners from the public and private sectors to address cutting-edge questions of health law and policy, and to train the next generation of top health lawyers, industry leaders, policymakers, and academics.
