In the national debate, Immigration Law has been at the forefront. Immigration policy and enforcement reforms enable attorneys to work as interpreters, enforcers, and advocates. Immigration law also encompasses a wide variety of fields of law, including housing, education, human rights, and family law. These varied opportunities make immigration law an appealing area of practice for aspiring students from law schools.
For aspiring immigration lawyers, clinical work is especially important. Experiences that can make you more marketable upon graduation are handling cultural gaps and drawing on foreign language skills. Many who are committed to an immigration law career can also consider formally focusing their J.D. Research in this area.
If you are looking to concentrate professionally on Immigration Law, we have curated a list for you with the best law schools that offer courses, programs, and experiential learning through clinical courses on Immigration Law. Hope you find the law school that suits you the best. Wishing you good luck in your future endeavours!
New York University
Concerning local and national immigrant rights cases, the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University is a premier institution. The NYU J.D. curriculum provides a public interest focus field, addressing the areas of criminal justice, international human rights, and immigration. From a year-long field clinic program supported by the law school, direct experience in immigration law can be obtained. The Immigrant Rights Clinic gives students the ability to help at all levels with the legal representation of community groups and immigrants.
Founded In: 1835
Location: New York City, New York
Ranking: 1
Contact: 212-998-6100
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University Of Virginia
The University of Virginia’s Immigration Law Program provides interested students with the requisite expertise to become familiar with legal and public policy problems surrounding immigration. Students take a basic immigration law course every year and engage in workshops on refugee law and policy, as well as citizenship and community identification. Anti-terrorism law, international human rights, and refugee law are part of the array of specialized immigration law courses regularly available. A variety of immigration law internship opportunities are presented, including a semester-long clinic with the Legal Aid Justice Center, an agency for immigrant advocacy that offers students the kind of hands-on experiences that will prepare them for their careers.
Founded In: 1819
Location: Charlottesville, Virginia
Ranking: 2
Contact: 434-924-7354
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City University of New York School of Law
Students will work at the Immigration and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic, which provides free care to immigrants in need of legal services while pursuing a law degree at the City University of New York. Via participation in many facets of cases, including research, writing, oral argument, interviewing, and policy advocacy, students gain real-world experience. Graduates are well qualified to pursue legal careers focused primarily on immigration law after obtaining a J.D.
Founded In: 1983
Location: New York City, New York
Ranking: 3
Contact: 718-340-4200
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Columbia University
Columbia Law School has been a global pioneer in legal education since 1858. Columbia Law School is known for its curriculum’s academic rigour and its faculty’s pioneering scholarship. Students complete their legal training ready to deal with the world’s most daunting problems across boundaries, territories, topics, markets, and industries, drawing strength from the immense interdisciplinary resources of their respected research university and the global stage of New York City. Immigration has been one of the United States’ most important political and human rights issues. On behalf of the most marginalized immigrants who would otherwise face the deportation process without representation, students at the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic carry on major case responsibilities. Under the leadership of Professor Elora Mukherjee, an internationally respected immigrant rights authority who regularly appears in the media, the clinic works in collaboration with or on behalf of national and local immigration reform organizations. Students take on cutting-edge initiatives that include policy and regulatory reform, impact litigation, and public education.
Founded In: 1858
Location: New York City, New York
Ranking: 4
Contact: 212-854-2674
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Loyola Marymount University Law School
Loyola Law School is Loyola Marymount University’s law school, a private catholic college in Los Angeles, California. In 1920, Loyola was founded. A community-based partnership of Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University, Homeboy Industries Inc., and Dolores Mission Church is the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic (LIJC). The dual-pronged goal of LIJC is to advance the rights of the indigent immigrant population in East Los Angeles through direct legal services, education, and community empowerment while teaching the capacity to campaign for law students in a real-world environment. Participation in LIJC introduces students to the legal and advocacy skills required to be a successful advocate for immigrants’ rights and teaches students to both substantive and procedural law as it applies to the cases of your client. Via reading, classroom discussion, and reflection papers, LIJC also offers students the opportunity to focus on the role of the indirect lawyer representation and community-based legal advocacy.
Founded In: 1920
Location: Los Angeles, California
Ranking: 5
Contact: 213-736-1000
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Cornell University
In a close-knit and collegial academic culture, Cornell Law School integrates motivated teaching with cutting-edge scholarship. The faculty has long maintained the idea that within the sense of its ultimate humanity, the law must be studied. They understand that this theory requires the same commitment, passion, and critical spirit that infuses all liberal study as part of a great American research university. In their first year of law school, the 1L Immigration Law & Advocacy Clinic offers students the ability to connect with clients indirect services. In this sense, immigration law students will learn how to provide a range of legal services via a client-centred approach. Students at clinics can expect to achieve proficiency in the following areas: client interviewing; community-based advocacy; oral presentations; case management; cultural competence; and immigration law facility.
Founded In: 1887
Location: Ithaca, New York
Ranking: 6
Contact: 607-255-5141
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University of California
Clinics offer students the chance to take on big national and global issues while making a tangible difference in the lives of people. Students serve as first-chair advocates across UCLA’s selection of clinical offerings and develop skills they can use in practice, under the professional guidance of faculty and practitioners. The faculty and students of UCLA Law are passionately committed to social justice and reflective lifelong learning practice. There are two clinical programs pertaining to immigrants; Immigrant Family Legal Clinic, and Immigrants’ Rights Policy Clinic. Housed on the RFK Community Schools campus, where six public schools serve the communities of L.A.’s Koreatown/Pico-Union, the Immigrant Family Legal Clinic provides unique legal service delivery and advocacy model embedded in a trusted community space. In a realistic environment, the Immigrants’ Rights Policy Clinic addresses structural problems of immigrant rights, with a focus on state and local involvement in immigration law. Students collaborate with community activists and city authorities and administrators to draft ordinances affecting refugees, their families, and neighbourhoods to bring the constitutional and legislative law of immigrant rights into effect.
Founded In: 1949
Location: Los Angeles, California
Ranking: 7
Contact: 310-825-4321
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University of Chicago
The Law School of the University of Chicago is a University of Chicago professional graduate school. It is consistently ranked among the world’s best and most prestigious law schools, and in the judiciary, education, government, politics, and industry, it has produced many distinguished alumni. The Immigrants’ Rights Clinic offers legal aid on behalf of community-based groups to immigrant communities in Chicago, providing individual representation of immigrants in deportation proceedings, immigration-related complex federal litigation, and policy and community education programs. Students will interview clients, create arguments and defences, draft charges, participate in discussions of motion practice and settlement, appear in federal, state, and administrative courts, and appeals brief and argue.
Founded In: 1902
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Ranking: 8
Contact: 773-704-9494
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University of Washington
The University of Washington School of Law, located on the northwest corner of the main campus in Seattle, Washington, is the law school of the University of Washington. The University of Washington School of Law has a student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1 with an entrance class size of about 190 students. U.W. Law offers J.D. concurrent or joint degree programs for students in partnership with other University of Washington academic departments. U.W. Law offers real-world legal training to students supporting clients and societies. Students work on actual cases, transactions, or academic credit ventures supervised by seasoned faculty members, building on the foundational lawyering skills gained in the first year. The Immigration Clinic consists of eight students and a director representing individuals who would otherwise lack legal representation and working together to lobby for immigrant rights with local, regional, and national organizations.
Founded In: 1899
Location: Seattle, Washington
Ranking: 9
Contact: 206-543-4078
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Yale University
Yale Law School has one of the country’s most comprehensive clinical programs. Students will begin taking clinics and appearing in court during the spring of their first year, unlike most other colleges. Students from the clinic represent actual clients with real legal issues (not in simulations or role-playing exercises) and are supervised by senior faculty members with whom they also establish close and enduring relationships with mentors. Students in the Legal Assistance: Immigrant Rights Clinic (IRC) serves immigrants in law, before government bodies, and in the legislature, together with their organizations. IRC is based at New Haven Legal Assistance, a historic civil legal services non-profit office whose mission is to provide justice for all residents of New Haven County who are unable to participate in legal advice and to protect their rights. For immigrant families and their organizations, the clinic is a legal resource. Students in the clinic train to practice as legal aid attorneys representing immigrants and their groups through their activism and coursework.
Founded In: 1824
Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Ranking: 10
Contact: 203-432-4992
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