Michael Berdan ‘22
Opinions Editor
Ida Abhari ‘22
Guest Writer
More than one in seven residents of the United States was born in another country, and about eleven million of them are presently undocumented. The current President was swept into office due in no small part to his (let’s call it) “aggressive rhetoric”[1] against immigration, and his administration has abided by this anti-immigrant ethos in policy,[2] rulemaking,[3] and procedural reform.[4] Since immigration courts are not Article III courts, but rather fall under the Justice Department, asylum seekers have limited due process rights—most glaringly, they have no guarantee of legal counsel. More than one attorney has referred to our asylum system as “doing death penalty cases in a traffic court setting.”[5] About one in five asylum trials are conducted with the immigrant-petitioner appearing pro se. The ABA has called on legal professionals to step up pro bono work for asylum seekers, saying that such help is needed “now more than ever.”[6]
Many law firms have responded to the call, bringing their abundant resources and manpower to bear on this problem. Firm websites routinely boast of their attorneys’ participation in asylum, visa, DACA, and other immigration matters.[7] Many law schools have expanded their immigration offerings, with more and more law students entering intent on studying and practicing immigration law in direct response to current events.[8]
UVA Law currently offers the following courses on immigration law: Immigration Law Clinic (year-long, eight students); Immigration Law and Policy: Business and Family (fall, twenty students); and Border Policy and Politics (Spring, twelve students). Notably missing from this list is a foundational, black-letter course in Immigration Law. This was most recently taught by Professor Kevin Cope in Spring 2019 and Spring 2018, but he did not teach it last spring, and it is not scheduled to be taught next spring. Immigration Law and Policy: Business and Family, taught by Adjunct Professor Bill Benos, deals only with a select few avenues for entry which are applicable to Benos’s practice at Williams Mullen, where he is a partner.[9]
Last spring, Professor Cope taught International Law of Migration and Refugees, which “explore[d] the international law of migration, with a focus on refugee law,” particularly regarding international treaties and their impact on migration but also touching on US-specific law and policy regarding refugees and asylum. This international and comparative focus plays to Professor Cope’s scholarly strengths: He researches and writes on international and comparative law, with a particular focus on migration; he is not a US immigration law scholar. Katie Carpenter ’21, who took Immigration Law with Cope in Spring 2019, notes that Cope favors international law topics over domestic immigration law, and that he seemed less comfortable when discussion turned to the mechanics of US immigration law. Cope, when contacted for this article, acknowledged that he “came to immigration law from international law and comparative law, which encompasses most of [his] research,” but also pointed out that he has had experience with immigration removal cases as a lawyer and law clerk, experience which is helpful in the classroom.
This exposes another gap in UVA Law’s slate of immigration offerings. Professor Cope is the only non-adjunct faculty member with any immigration law expertise, and he is not a scholar of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the central body of immigration law in this country. Students seeking to do independent research on aspects of the notoriously technical INA are left with few options.
Ariana Smith ’23 is dismayed by this shortcoming: “Given the current political climate in our country and the world, and the increasingly large role that immigration is playing in intra- and international dialogue, it is extremely important that UVA Law hires a full-time professor who specializes in US immigration law. It is UVA Law's duty to provide additional professors, courses, and resources to students who are studying or are interested in studying immigration law.” Jordan Woodlief ’23, who was an immigration paralegal before coming to the Law School, commented, “Immigration law is a specialized, ever-changing, and ever-growing field of law, and students need a source of guidance as it changes every day. Immigrants are often underserved and exploited in the United States, and UVA should be taking the lead in training the next generation of lawyers who will face this challenge head-on.”
Both Smith and Woodlief are also members of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) at UVA Law, which mobilizes law students in support of direct legal aid and systemic advocacy for refugees and displaced persons. While IRAP at UVA Law offers its members trainings on topics relevant to its pro bono work, membership is subject to an application process, and the lack of institutional resources for immigration law from the Law School itself “makes it hard to generate interest when students see that there aren’t many opportunities to pursue immigration law beyond discrete pro bono projects and may lose interest as a result,” according to Dominick Giovanniello ’21, IRAP at UVA Law’s vice president.
In preparing this article, I corresponded with both Dean Risa L. Goluboff and Vice Dean Leslie Kendrick. I asked whether they felt a sense of urgency about bolstering the Law School’s offerings in immigration law, particularly with respect to adding a foundational, black-letter course and hiring US immigration law faculty to supervise student research. Dean Goluboff responded that since the 2016 retirement of Professor Emeritus David A. Martin, the Law School has sought to hire immigration law faculty (Cope’s hire being an example of success) and continues to do so “specifically and affirmatively.” Dean Goluboff noted that immigration is “a challenging field in which to hire,” but did not give particulars on what the University is doing to meet that challenge.
Dean Kendrick noted that the Law School has offered an Immigration Law course in nine of the past ten years. (This math must count Bill Benos’s course in business and family immigration, as it was previously labeled simply “Immigration Law,” a label which frustrated students, as the course does not cover refugee, asylum, or other parts of the more “humanitarian” side of immigration that one thinks of as crucial in a foundational course.) Dean Kendrick also acknowledged that “teaching the basic immigration course is important . . . and I expect we will offer it again next year.” As for UVA Law’s immigration-minded students, and the future clients who will depend on them, they can only hope that this means the administration intends to reassess and redouble their efforts to assemble a UVA-caliber immigration law faculty.
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mwb4pk@virginia.edu
ia7rh@virginia.edu
[1] See, e.g. "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They’re not sending you . . .They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems . . . They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." -Donald Trump’s campaign announcement speech, June 15, 2015.
[2] U.S. and Guatemala Enter into Agreement Designating Guatemala as a “Safe Third Country” - https://www.aila.org/infonet/us-guatemala-agreement-safe-third-country
[3] Trump Officials Rush to Make it Tougher for Skilled Foreign Workers to Gain Visas - https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-election-immigration-workers-idUSKCN26C2T4
[4] Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy has thousands of asylum seekers still stuck at the border - http://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/09/25/trump-remain-mexico-policy-asylum-seekers
[5] https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/publications/litigation-news/practice-points/death- penalty-cases-traffic-court-setting-lessons-front-lines-immigration-courts/
[6] https://www.americanbar.org/groups/gpsolo/publications/gpsolo_ereport/2020/july-2020/asylum- seekers-need-pro-bono-lawyers-now-more-than-ever/
[7] https://www.cravath.com/news/pro-bono-client-granted-new-asylum-hearing-with-appellate- victory.html
[8] https://www.wbur.org/edify/2019/06/19/law-students-immigration-clinics-boston
[9] I am in that class right now, and it is a fantastic class, but it is not a foundational, black-letter Immigration Law course.