The Washington Post has an article today on the increasing interest in immigration law courses. Although many students are taking classes and clinics, most won’t become practitioners. Like me, they seem to realize that there are less heartbreaking/more lucrative law jobs and that it makes more sense to take immigration cases on the side. I thought I wanted to be an immigration lawyer, but I now realize I would much rather do pro bono immigration so that I can help the people who really need my assistance and can’t afford a lawyer.
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Tags: Immigration
I guess. If people want less heartbreaking/more lucrative, business immigration certainly has lots of work to do. And there’s a huge middle ground of solo practitioners who do family, citizenship, deportation defense, etc. and both make a living and aren’t working for enormous corporations. I actually think immigration is one area where you can work for-profit and still be helping people who really need assistance.
Anyway, if all that happens is that more people take asylum and detention cases pro bono I’ll take that too, since I need that for my job to work
I’ve seen a huge uptick in interest in immigration at my school in the time I was there. Not all of it, I think, is due to the (reputedly hot, young) professor who teaches the course.
But I do think that many, myself included, are considering pro bono work down the line and want to be ready for it.
Funny, the word heartbreaking never entered my mind. I plan to practice immigration law, and I have done some volunteer work toward that goal as well as taught ESL classes. A lot of immigration work involves family-based petitions, student or work visas, and occasionally asylum or VAWA cases. I think domestic relations and criminal law are the more heartbreaking cases. By the time the immigration clients get to the lawyer, the tears are shed. As for providing low-cost services to these clients, you can still do so by connecting with clinics that serve immigrants who often have a list of referring attorneys. You can charge what the clinic would have charged if they come through the clinic, because even clinics who offer legal services get too many clients than they can serve. Plus many immigrants are not totally broke, an immigrant told me recently. Many can afford low cost services.
Citizen by Choice, I am going to politely disagree with you. While, yes, some can find ways to pay $5-10k for the services of a quality immigration attorney, oftentimes it means diverting money they would usually be sending home to help their families in their home countries. Or working two full-time jobs, sharing an apartment with 6 people and foregoing meals. My soon-to-be ex-husband lived that life. So did several of his cousins and many friends. Had you seen the life his family lives in their home country, you would understand the torture he went through choosing to pay for immigration services instead of sending money home to help his family. I have several friends who paid shady immigration attorneys several thousand dollars and were promised the moon, only to find out that the took their money and did little to nothing.
In terms of family-based petitions, you don’t think that is heartbreaking? As the daughter and wife of immigrants, I would beg to differ. After paying $5k to our latest immigration attorney almost a year ago, we are still awaiting a response from USCIS on my husband’s naturalization appeal. My father waited years and got the runaround from USCIS over and over. It was incredibly stressful and difficult. I had a Canadian friend who had to wait two years to bring the love of his life over on a fiance visa to marry her. My Salvadoran friend tried to do everything right. He gained his residency and applied for his wife and daughter. Eight years and thousands of dollars later, the finally were granted visas but he spent all those years watching many of his coworkers’ spouses and children arrive illegally and then get visas through loopholes in the law once they were here.
Finally, I would say I’ve shed enough tears in front of immigration attorneys to fill a bucket. I suppose it all depends on the population you serve. Even the student visa process, for people who have their heart set on studying here, can be very emotional. So I disagree with your position that immigration law is not heartbreaking.
I was interested in immigration law for a little bit too- but I fond our immigration laws to be a little depressing. It’s nice to help people out who want to join their families or find better lives in this country but I don’t think it’s quite for me despite my interest.
I’ve been reading your blog with interest for a while, as I’m starting law school in the fall. I’m going for the express purpose of working with immigrants’ rights (not necessarily just immigration law; I’m also interested in labor law) and I’m excited to see so many others who take an interest in this field.
Is it unrealistic to expect that I could work for a legal clinic, rather than just doing pro bono work on the side? I have three years to lose this shiny-eyed idealism, I figured I might as well get a head start…