Albany Law School Professor Sarah Rogerson is this year's recipient of the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators' Immigrant Excellence Award. Professor Rogerson—nominated by state Senator Julia Salazar—received the award February 17 at NYSABPRL's annual legislative conference in Albany.

Professor Rogerson is the director of Albany Law School's Immigration Law Clinic—part of The Justice Center—which since 2015 has provided free legal services to undocumented immigrants seeking a lawful path to citizenship based on humanitarian grounds, such as asylum, domestic violence, or special visas for unaccompanied children and crime victims. Immigration Law Clinic students, working under the supervision of Professor Rogerson and her staff, have also handled appeals and Freedom of Information Act requests, and regularly participate in related community outreach initiatives.

Professor Rogerson is also one of the lead organizers of the Detention Outreach Project, a rapid-response coalition that provided legal aid to hundreds of migrants who were detained at the southern U.S. border and transported to the Albany County Correctional Facility in the summer of 2018. The project—a partnership of The Justice Center at Albany Law School, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, The Legal Project, and the New York Immigration Coalition—and its organizers have been recognized by the New York State Bar Association, the Capital Region Chamber of Commerce, and others.

Read more: Neighbors Helping (New) Neighbors: A Conversation with Prof. Sarah Rogerson, Director of the Immigration Law Clinic