Immigrant Justice Clinic

Immigrant Justice Clinic

In the Immigrant Justice Clinic (IJC), law students, working in teams under the supervision of clinical faculty, represent noncitizen clients in a variety of immigration matters; engage in immigrant rights’ advocacy projects; and conduct intakes at immigration detention centers in conjunction with attorneys from the PAIR Project.

The types of cases that IJC students handle include applications for asylum, U-visas, T-visas, and other forms of relief, as well as bond hearings in Immigration Court. Students manage all aspects of their cases, including interviewing, fact development, legal research, drafting and oral advocacy.

[Left to right: Zoe Bowman ’21, Rebecca Sparks ’24, Nora Doherty ‘24, Noelle Gulick ‘24, Blessing Eyee ’23, Jennifer Gonzales ‘24 and Ali Chaudhary ‘23 spent a week volunteering for the El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in April 2023]]

In April 2023, IJC, through the generosity of donors, sent six students and a graduate leader to the southern border to assist Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization based in El Paso, Texas, that provides free and low-cost legal services to immigrants and refugees in West Texas and New Mexico. Las Americas has served more 40,000 people from more 77 countries since its inception in 1987. (more)

In  2019, clinic students traveled to Dilley, Texas, home to the nation’s largest family detention center. At the 2,400-bed South Texas Family Residential Center, immigrant mothers and children — mostly fleeing extreme violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — need lawyers. The students assisted the Dilley Pro Bono Project (DPBP), a local partner in the Immigration Justice Campaign, which operates a non-traditional pro bono model of legal services that offers direct representation. (more)

Students have also won asylum cases, including the grant of asylum for a woman and her son from Mexico that was the culmination of almost a year of clinic work among six different students and the two faculty members, Professor Rachel Rosenbloom and Professor Hemanth Gundavaram.

In 2018, students documented the harmful effects of arrests of immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at courthouses in Massachusetts.
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Professor Hemanth Gundavaram (center), director of the clinic, with students.

Recent Press

• April 7, 2024: Hemanth Gundavaram, The Lowell Sun, “New Immigration Court in Chelmsford Aims to Relieve Case Backlog.”
• February 25, 2024: Hemanth Gundavaram, The Boston Globe “A New Immigration Court Is Set To Open in Mass. Will It Help the Immense Backlog of Cases?” 
• March 22, 2024: Rachel Rosenbloom, Northeastern Global News, “Allowing Texas Immigration Law Would Lead to “Total Chaos,” NU Law Expert Says.”
• June 15, 2023: Zoe Bowman ’21, Nora Doherty ’24, Blessing Eyee ’24, Ilana Greenstein ’98, IJC, “At the Texas Border, These Students Help Asylum-Seekers Make Their Case.”
• September 21, 2022: Hemanth Gundavaram, Cape Cod Times, “Why Immigration Reform Has Been So Elusive Over the Years.”
• June 29, 2022: Hemanth Gundavaram and Rachel Rosenbloom, News@Northeastern, “Northeastern Immigration Law Expert Reacts to Supreme Court’s Ruling on ‘Remain in Mexico'.”
• June 28, 2022: Hemanth Gundavaram, WGN Radio, “Legal Face Off Supreme Court Special.”
• September 3, 2021: Hemanth Gundavaram, News@Northeastern, “Why the Remain in Mexico Policy, Recently Upheld by the Supreme Court, Can Still Be Trumped.”
• August 24, 2021: Hemanth Gundavaram, News@Northeastern, “For the Many Left Behind in Afghanistan, a Refugee Crisis in the Making.”
• April 12, 2021: Samantha Chang ’21, “The Wall that COVID-19 Built: Barriers to Immigrant Justice during the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
• August 16, 2020: Rachel Rosenbloom, The Washington Post, “There’s no Question about Harris’s Citizenship. So Why is Trump Questioning It?”
• August 7, 2020: Hemanth Gundavaram, Politico, “How the Trump Administration Is Weaponizing Work Permits.”
• August 4, 2020: Hemanth Gundavaram, The Global Observer, “Int’l Students Contribute Immeasurable Benefits to US Universities.” 
• March 25, 2020: Hemanth Gundavaram, News@Northeastern, “Immigrant Detainees are at High Risk for COVID-19. Should They be Released?” 
• September 16, 2019: Hemanth Gundavaram, International Institue of New England Blog, “The Third Narrative about Immigrants: Why We Need Them As Much As They Need Us.”
• August 9, 2019: Hemanth Gundavaram, “The ICE Raids Aren’t Just Wrong – They’re Expensive,” Politico.
• June 29, 2019:  WBUR “Law Schools See 'Trump Effect,' With More Students Studying Immigration Law.”
• July 12, 2019: Aziza Ahmed, Signs Journal, “Ask a Feminist: Deborah Anker Discusses Gender and US Asylum Law with Aziza Ahmed.”.
• May 22, 2019: “‘You Come into People’s Lives at this Extraordinary Moment,’” News@Northeastern.
• April 8, 2019: “Sec. Nielsen Is Out, But Her Family Separation Legacy Lives On,” WGBH News.
• March 29, 2019: Hemanth Gundavaram, Northeastern News, “Will an ISIS Bride be Allowed to Return to the US?”
• January 7, 2019: Hemanth Gundavaram, NECN News, “Trying to Make Sense of the Government Shutdown.”
• July 31, 2018: Hemanth Gundavaram, The Christian Science Monitor, “Abolish ICE? Reform it? Or what?”
• June 28, 2018: Hemanth Gundavaram, Foxs News Insider, “Tucker Battles Professor Who Wants to Abolish ICE: Who Will Arrest Criminal Aliens?,” (June 28, 2018).
• June 27, 2018: Hemanth Gundavaram, USA Today, “Ice on Ice? Move to Abolish Ice, at Center of Storm in Immigration Battle, Has a Long Way to Go.”
• June 22, 2018: Rachel Rosenbloom, The Boston Globe, “Supreme Court Ruling on Martha’s Vineyard Man Could Change How Some Deportation Proceedings Are Initiated.” 
  
• June 22, 2018: Rachel Rosenbloom, Law360, “A Win For Immigrants And Cloud Over Chevron At High Court.” 
• June 21, 2018: Rachel Rosenbloom, Northeastern News, “Trump Signed an Executive Order to Stop Separating Families at the Border. but What Does It Actually Do?”
• June 20, 2018: Rachel Rosenbloom, LSE USAPP Blog, “Separating Families at the Border Takes Harsh Immigration Enforcement Practices to a New Extreme.”
• June 5, 2018: Hemanth Gundavaram, Northeastern News, “No, The Government Hasn't Lost 1,500 Children. What's Actually Happening Might be Worse.”
• May 21, 2018: “Immigrant Justice Clinic Achieves First Victory.”
• May 8, 2018: Hemanth Gundavaram, BUTV's On That Point, “DACA and Dreamers.”
• April 24, 2018: Rachel Rosenbloom, The Boston Globe, “Supreme Court Hears Case Involving Brazilian Immigrant Who Lives on Martha’s Vineyard.”
• April 23, 2018: Hemanth Gundavaram, PolitiFact, “What the US Supreme Court Decision Means for the Deportation of Criminal Immigrants.”
• April 19, 2018: Genia Blaser '11, The New York Times, “A Marriage Used to Prevent Deportation. Not Anymore.”
• March 6, 2018: Amy Grenier '18, The Migrationist, “The Supreme Court Punts on the Constitutional Right to a Bond Hearing for Detained Immigrants.”
• February 22, 2018: Northeastern News, “Law Clinic Fights for Immigrant Justice.”
  
• February 14, 2018: Rachel Rosenbloom, SIGNS Journal, “Ask a Feminist: Dolores Huerta and Rachel Rosenbloom Discuss Gender and Immigrant Rights.”
  
• February 7, 2018: The Huntington News “Law School Opens Clinic to Help Undocumented Immigrants.”
• January 28, 2018: Hemanth Gundavaram, WCVB5, “Immigration Issues.”
• January 19, 2018: Hemanth Gundavaram, Northeastern News,“How the 7-Eleven Immigration Raids 'Feed on Fear.'”