Immigration Law
NYU Law has a robust set of courses and clinics devoted to immigration law and practice. Together, these courses are designed to provide students with a firm grasp of the analytical foundations of immigration law, its evolution, and the role of attorneys in shaping immigration law and practice. NYU Law’s offerings include: Immigration Law and the Rights of Noncitizens, Contemporary Issues in Immigration Law and Policy Seminar, the Refugee and Asylum Law Seminar, the Immigrant Rights Clinic, the Advanced Immigrant Rights Clinic, the Immigrant Defense Clinic, and the Crimmigration Clinic.
Key learning outcomes for NYU Law’s immigration offerings include:
- Understanding the choices embodied in immigration statutes about when and how persons may immigrate to the United States, including the role of family and employment in shaping immigration paths, the rights of refugees and others facing persecution or other harm, and the role of race and nationality in the evolution of immigration law and enforcement.
- Understanding the interrelationship of the executive, Congress, and the courts in shaping immigration policy.
- Understanding the interrelationship of state, local, and federal policies relating to immigrants and immigration enforcement.
- Understanding the role of judicial review in immigration cases and how it has evolved over time. Students will learn about the plenary power doctrine, the role of deference in reviewing statutory questions, and how to apply these concepts to new issues in immigration law.
- Ability to distinguish between inadmissibility and deportability rules and an understanding of the role these categories play throughout immigration law.
- Learn when and how to apply the categorical approach in analyzing the effect of criminal convictions on immigration status and access to waivers and relief from removal.
- Understanding the two step system of removability and eligibility for relief, and the categories of noncitizens who are subject to removal and eligible for relief from removal.
- Understanding systems of discretionary and mandatory detention and how these concepts apply at the border and in the interior. Students will learn statutory limits and constitutional standards for evaluating the legality of detention and areas of potential evolution of doctrine.
- Understanding the role and limits of procedural due process in the context of immigration law.
- Being able to clearly distinguish between international obligations and domestic immigration law, and understand the role that international obligations might play in the interpretation of domestic immigration law.
- Having a working knowledge of how to apply immigration doctrine in specific factual scenarios to evaluate the risks and opportunities for individuals in those scenarios and identify arguments and potential strategies for those individuals.
- Students in clinical offerings will learn how to advocate for specific clients in a range of contexts, including administrative and court proceedings. Specific learning goals for clinics are set out here: Clinical Programs Learning Outcomes.