Registration Guide 2024-2025

AREAS OF FOCUS

Immigration Law Immigration law can generally be divided into two large spheres – administrative or affirmative practice and deportation defense. Administrative practice involves petitioning the U.S. government to allow a person to migrate to the U.S. on an immigrant or non-immigrant visa or as a refugee. This practice can be further broken down into business immigration, family-based immigration and humanitarian based immigration. Deportation defense involves more classic litigation including interviewing and counseling clients, motions practice, legal brief writing, preparing lay and expert witnesses, oral arguments, and appellate practice. Given the high rates of immigration detention and the defensive posture, deportation defense is most like criminal defense in its practice. Business immigration is practiced in large and small firms. The clients are corporations who seek foreign-born workers and the intending immigrant is a third party beneficiary of the process. Other small firms take a wider range of cases in the administrative areas and may also do some deportation defense. There are also a number of immigration lawyers who are solo practitioners and those practitioners tend to focus on administrative practice but also do deportation defense. Lawyers at nonprofit agencies tend to focus on humanitarian based immigration such as political asylum claims, visas for victims of domestic violence, and visas for trafficking victims. Nonprofit lawyers also increasingly do deportation defense as the number of detentions and deportations grows. Some nonprofits and small firms specialize in immigrants' rights, which includes complex federal litigation, writs of habeas corpus and administrative practice. In the government sector, lawyers can work as policymakers, as prosecutors in deportation cases and as legislative aides to members of Congress specializing in immigration legislation.

Recommended Courses

Administrative Law

Immigration Law

Advanced Immigration Law

Immigration: Business

Criminal Procedure

International Law

Other Relevant Courses

Advanced Legal Writing

Family Law

Business Entity Fundamentals

Federal Courts

Evidence

Trial Advocacy: Intensive

Clinics and Externships

Immigration Clinic: Students represent low income non-citizens facing deportation from the United States, and non-citizens seeking lawful status and naturalization with a primary focus on individuals who are detained by ICE. Individual representation includes appearing before the Immigration Court in Boston. Students will also prepare and file complex immigration applications with US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Students may also work on a range of legislative and advocacy projects that will include collaborations with nationally recognized co-counsel, community organizations and the media.

The Civil and Judicial Externship Program: This program offers students semester-long placements for credit with non-profit agencies that specialize in various areas including immigration.

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