Immigration Law Courses

For an industry that has kept fax machines alive for decades, the healthcare industry is currently deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) faster than many other industries. This course will explore the real-time transformative impact of AI on the healthcare industry. Taking a holistic approach, we will examine how AI is disrupting long established practices in healthcare, and what attorneys need to consider as they advise clients across the healthcare continuum, including hospitals, insurers, and health-tech companies. The course will: (1) Provide an introductory overview of significant AI concepts including machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI. (2) Track the tension between state and federal AI regulations; especially as they overlay on the established healthcare regulatory framework. (3) Analyze the evolution of specific healthcare topics e.g., scope of practice, privacy, and Software as a Medical Device in the context of rapidly advancing AI technology. (4) Discuss ethical and policy implications of the new technology and how it can improve or exacerbate current health disparities, including patient outcomes and patient safety. (5) Examine topics that often come up in practice including governance and contracting issues such as liability, data use, and intellectual property rights. Participants will be evaluated on class participation and assignments. There will be a final exam. PRE/COREQUISITES: Participants should have some familiarity with healthcare law, through a previous course, a concurrent course, or work experience. RESTRICTION: Students may not enroll in this course and AI in the Professions (JD795).

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SPRG 2027: LAW JD 747 A1, Jan 11th to Apr 21st 2027

This course will provide an overview of business immigration law, with a particular focus on the various nonimmigrant and immigrant visa categories a business immigration lawyer would be expected to handle. Topics will include business immigration visa categories, business immigration strategies, visa challenges in entrepreneurship; immigration obstacles faced by multinational businesses; the intersection of business immigration with employment laws; and enforcement trends targeted at employers. We will also briefly review the parameters of executive power in shaping business immigration law and the regulatory process. We will also identify, examine and discuss core professional responsibility issues that arise in business immigration practice. There are no prerequisites for this course. There is no writing requirement, but there will be weekly reading assignments and frequent hypotheticals to analyze before class for class discussion as well as a final examination. Class attendance and participation are essential.

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SPRG 2027: LAW JD 807 A1, Jan 11th to Apr 21st 2027

THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program. Students have three fieldwork options: (1) concentration in immigrants' rights; (2) concentration in human trafficking; or (3) work on both types of cases. Students focusing on immigrants' rights will represent adult and children asylum seekers and other vulnerable noncitizens with the opportunity to litigate an immigration case in the Boston Immigration Court. Students focusing on anti-trafficking work will represent survivors of labor and sex trafficking in a wide range of civil matters and engage in policy-related work to address gaps in the local and national landscape. Students focusing on both immigrants' rights and human trafficking will represent immigrant clients and survivors of human trafficking in a range of civil matters. All students will have the opportunity to engage in immigrants' rights and human trafficking work through "Know-Your-Rights" visits at the local jail/detention center and by conducting intake at the Family Justice Center for human trafficking survivors. Students, working in pairs, assume the primary responsibility for multiple clients' complex cases, from start to finish. Students conduct client interviews, track down witnesses, speak with experts, develop documentary, testimonial and expert evidence, and write legal briefs. The clinical supervisors prepare students for their cases through weekly supervision meetings, mid-semester and final individual meetings, and mock hearings, as appropriate. NOTE: The Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. PRE/CO-REQUISITE: Evidence. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.

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FALL 2026: LAW JD 859 A1, Aug 31st to Dec 3rd 2026
SPRG 2027: LAW JD 859 A1, Jan 11th to Apr 21st 2027

THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program. In this seminar, students will further develop their trial advocacy and client counseling skills by participating in multiple simulations and a mock hearing. They will learn about comparative models to address human trafficking, and the challenges of a criminal justice framework to solving complex social problems. The course will focus on the lawyer's role in anti-trafficking work, given: (1) converging areas of law; (2) the emerging multi-disciplinary nature of legal work; and (3) tensions among the role of the client as both victim and defendant. Courses will focus on further developing students' competencies in the following areas: (1) strategic planning and decision-making; (2) client interviewing and counseling; (3) trial advocacy; (4) leadership and innovation; and (5) professional responsibility. Classes will focus on a wide range of topics, including: (1) oral advocacy; (2) direct and cross examination; (3) accompaniment and survivor-led advocacy; (4) legal advocacy and brief writing; (4) legislative advocacy; and (5) developing professional roles and self-care. NOTE: The Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.

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SPRG 2027: LAW JD 817 A1, Jan 11th to Apr 21st 2027

THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program. In this seminar, students will further develop their trial advocacy skills by participating in multiple mock hearings and portions of simulated trials. In particular, this course will focus on developing students' competencies in the following topics: (1) witness preparation, including working with lay and expert witnesses; (2) oral advocacy, including direct/cross examination and opening and closing statements; (3) factual and legal research; (4) cross-cultural lawyering and implicit bias; (5) legal advocacy and brief writing; (6) basic negotiation; and (7) developing professional roles and identities. Students will also be introduced to the intersections between criminal and immigration law, and to law and organizing in the immigration context. NOTE: The Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.

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SPRG 2027: LAW JD 888 A1, Jan 11th to Apr 21st 2027

THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program. The seminar is the fall companion course for students enrolled in the Program. It provides a practice-oriented introduction to advocacy on behalf of indigent clients, including noncitizens and survivors of human trafficking. Students will develop a wide range of competencies with classes focusing topics including: (1) client interviewing and counseling; (2) case planning; (3) legal research and writing; (4) cultural competency; (5) legal story-telling and developing a theory of the case; (6) affidavit writing; (7) vicarious and secondary trauma; and (8) professional responsibility. Students will participate in class simulations, present in case rounds, and actively engage in facilitated discussions. There also will be two boot camp classes for students with specialized training in the following areas: (1) immigration law with a focus on asylum law and representing vulnerable noncitizens; and (2) human trafficking law with a focus on the protection framework in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and multi-disciplinary lawyering. NOTE: The Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.

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FALL 2026: LAW JD 882 A1, Aug 31st to Dec 3rd 2026

This class will cover the immigration laws of the United States, including the administrative and regulatory framework of the United States agencies charged with enforcing U.S. immigration laws. The topics covered by this course include the power of the Congress to regulate immigration; the effect of politics on immigration policy; nonimmigrant and immigrant visa classifications; the law of asylum; the intersection of immigration law and criminal law; grounds of removal from the United States; relief from deportation, immigration court representation and access to justice; and the law of naturalization and derived citizenship.

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FALL 2026: LAW JD 968 A1, Aug 31st to Dec 3rd 2026

Immigration law research is complex, requiring knowledge of unique sources and materials. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit noted the “labyrinthine character of modern immigration law -- a maze of hyper-technical statutes and regulations.” Drax v. Reno, 338 F.3d 98, 99 (2d Cir. 2003). In addition, it is an area with the potential for sweeping legislative and regulatory change in the upcoming year. This one-credit experiential course will help students navigate this complex and shifting legal and regulatory environment, by covering a broad spectrum of search strategies and tactics for researching immigration law issues.  The course will initially focus on some key immigration statutes (the Immigration and Nationality Act and its many amendments, the Refugee Act, and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility of 1996). From there the course will proceed to administrative law, which heavily impacts immigration. Students will look at the agencies responsible for immigration procedure, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Department of Labor (DOL), and they will learn to research the regulations, administrative decisions, and guidance documents from these agencies and how they affect immigration law. Research topics will include asylum law, grounds of inadmissibility, deportation and removal proceedings, visa classifications, business immigration law and the intersection of criminal law and immigration. The goal of the course is for students to become comfortable researching both simple and complex immigration issues. NOTE: This class counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: A student who fails to attend the first class or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, will be administratively dropped from the class. Students who are on the wait list are required to attend the first meeting to be considered for enrollment.

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FALL 2026: LAW JD 769 A1, Oct 19th to Dec 3rd 2026

THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Racial Justice & Movement Lawyering Clinic. The Clinic offers students the opportunity to provide legal support to organizations, coalitions, and grassroots groups seeking to challenge forms of subordination and build community power. Clinic fieldwork will vary based on the goals of our clients and movement partners but may involve litigation, policy advocacy, legal research, public education, or infrastructure/capacity-building projects. Under the clinic director’s supervision, students act as the lead attorneys on these projects, meaning that students will be responsible for establishing relationships with partners, identifying project goals, drafting agreements, and executing projects. In this process, students will learn to, among other things: develop litigation and non-litigation strategies; critically analyze the role of lawyers in social movements; identify different theories of social change; engage in legal writing that is persuasive and well-supported by evidence; and communicate complex legal subjects to a range of audiences. Students will also develop their professional identities and explore how they can most effectively show up for clients and community partners given their particular set of skills and experiences. CO-REQUISITE: LAW JD 949 (Clinic Seminar). NOTE: Both the fieldwork and in-class seminar count towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This clinic does not offer the CR/NC/H option.

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FALL 2026: LAW JD 948 A1, Aug 31st to Dec 3rd 2026
SPRG 2027: LAW JD 948 B1, Jan 11th to Apr 21st 2027