Whether it was helping represent women in a class-action lawsuit against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding accusations of unwanted gynecological procedures or assisting South American mothers fleeing violence in their home countries obtain asylum in the United States, BU law students have been stepping out of the classroom and into the fray.

The Boston University School of Law Immigrants’ Rights & Human Trafficking Program teaches students practical legal skills, while providing pro bono representation to vulnerable noncitizens facing deportation and survivors of human trafficking. Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a BU clinical associate professor of law and associate director of the program, helps teach students how to be immigration lawyers by being immigration lawyers.

One of the main goals of the program is to have students apply their classroom experience to the courtroom with real clients, real judges, and real stakes. “We don’t want students to just hold the flashlight,” says Sherman-Stokes, who won the 2020 Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching. “We want them to fix the car.”

Under her supervision, students represent immigrants in front of a judge and visit detained clients in jail. And when there is an immigration crisis, they jump in. In 2018, when migrant children were being forcibly separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border, Sherman-Stokes took her students to Arizona to advise families of their rights. Her students went to Tijuana to help refugees who were traveling in a caravan from Central America and being villainized by the Trump administration.

Students and program faculty also work to increase protections available to vulnerable populations and contribute to the national policy landscape by providing new models that address emerging challenges related to immigrants’ rights and human trafficking.

“It’s important for students to know that lawyers have to show up when there is something we don’t agree with,” says Sherman-Stokes. “We should be there and we should get in the way and we should bear witness to what’s happening and try to do good. A law degree is a very powerful tool. The goal is to use that tool to do good.”