IMMIGRATION LAW

PENN LAW FACULTY

PUBLIC SERVICE PLACEMENTS

Advancement Project
Bingham McCutchen, LLP
Camden Center for Law and Social Justice, Inc.
Catholic Social Services - Immigration
Community Legal Aid Society, Inc.
Community Legal Services, Inc. - Immigrant Employment
D.C. Employment Justice Center
Dechert LLP
Dechert LLP, NJ - TASK Project
DeKalb County, GA Public Defender's Office
Goodwin Procter LLP
HIAS and Council Migration Service of Philadelphia
Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU)
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
Lawyers Without Borders
Linklaters
Lutheran Children and Family Service – Adult Education Program
Nationalities Service Center
New York Civic Participation Project (NYCPP)
New York Legal Assistance Group
Penn Law Christian Legal Aid
Penn Law Immigration Project
Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project
Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program (VIP)
PRIME - Ecumenical Commitment to Refugees
Public Counsel Law Center
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Coalition (SEAMAAC)
U.S. Senator Arlen Specter

SPRING 2007 COURSES

Advanced Constitutional Law
This course will focus on topics not covered, or covered only lightly, in the first-year constitutional law course. Emphasis will be placed on important current issues and recent or pending cases. Among the topics to be discussed: Civil liberties in the Age of Terrorism; immigration, citizenship and alien rights; congressional enforcement of the reconstruction amendments; new developments in racial equality (e.g., Michigan); sexuality and the constitution (e.g. Lawrence); religion and the 1st Amendment; distribution of national power; commerce clause limitations on state power; congressional regulation of the political process.

Refugee Law
This course will explore the origins of “refuge” or “asylum” including public policy issues such as the beneficiaries of asylum, the State that grants asylum, the international agency or agencies that accord protection, and the myriad of human rights violations that force people to flee and seek asylum will be explored. The course will cover both the international refugee law and human rights context of State practice with reference to international treaties and customary international law. The United Nations 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees will be the standard against which refugee protection will be measured. The course will also review regional practice relating to refugees in Europe, Latin America and Africa and Asia. A major portion of the course will deal with US statutory, regulatory and case law determining who is and is not a refuge vis-a-vis the 1980 Refugee Act and implementing regulations. The course will end by looking at the international institutional response to refugee problems. Students will study the legal dimensions, and the responsibilities and realities of the Office of the United National High Commissioner for Refugees, the United States government, the reasons of current and potential population displacements caused by a variety of reasons. Students will also explore the justification and viability of recent national and regional responses to refugee flows, such as, deterrence, detention, restricted employment and welfare entitlements, expedited procedures, and returns to safe countries. By the end of the course, students should be able to: 1. Understand international and domestic framework for refugee and asylum related issues 2. Show competency in conducting an intake of an asylum seeker and developing a case analysis 3. Prepare an Application for Asylum, Form I-589 and affidavit attesting to the asylum seeker's claim for asylum

Transnational Legal Clinic
The Transnational Legal Clinic will explore the lawyer’s work in settings that cut across cultures, borders, languages and legal systems. Students will engage in direct legal representation of individual and organizational clients in the context of immigration as well as broader advocacy efforts raising settled and developing int'l and comparative legal norms in a variety of venues. Fieldwork may also include projects in transactional, legislative, or policy settings. Students will work in teams of two or more under faculty supervision, and will be responsible for all aspects of client representation (e.g., interviewing, case theory development, fact investigation, strategic planning, counseling, negotiation, and written and oral advocacy). Students will be expected to engage in critical reflection on choices presented and made in the course of lawyering, and their individual development as a lawyer. Throughout the semester, students will have the opportunity to discuss competing interests underlying the development of immigration law in the U.S. and its relationship to int'l law, the role of int'l and comparative law in legal advocacy, law and organizing, and the role of the client in larger human rights/impact litigation cases. The Clinic will meet in seminar twice weekly for training in fundamental lawyering skills (interviewing, counseling, fact investigation, case theory and persuasive advocacy). Seminar time will also be used for case rounds, during which students will share with their clinic colleagues developments in their cases, and solicit suggestions and feedback on legal, factual, ethical and strategic issues. In addition, students will meet regularly in their teams with the faculty supervisor to receive supervision and constructive feedback. The seminar is not a substitute for an international law or immigration course. Substantive law will only be discussed to the extent it is relevant to specific cases. The students are responsible – with the guidance of the faculty supervisor – for researching and learning the underlying substantive law relevant to their individual cases. Fieldwork and seminar components of the course will be graded separately. Students will be provided with a grading memo at the start of the semester outlining the criteria on which they will be graded, and students will be required to write a self-reflection memo at the end of the semester evaluating their own performance in accordance with those criteria. Students will meet one-on-one mid-semester with their faculty supervisor to exchange constructive feedback on performance to date in the course. Class participation is mandatory. Students enrolled will be asked to read prior to the start of classes The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman. The book explores the relationships between the American medical system, doctors and social workers, and a young Hmong girl and her refugee family. It raises several issues of cross-cultural communication that will serve as the basis for discussions throughout the semester.
N.B. You may not enroll in this course if you are enrolled in another clinical course or an externship in the same semester. Preference will be given to 3Ls.

OTHER COURSES

American Public Benefits Law
This course will survey the fastest-changing area of public welfare law. We explore the major legal and policy problems that arise in the design of public benefit programs serving low-income families, particularly cash assistance, food stamps, and Medicaid. Among the issues addressed will be attempts to equate material poverty with immorality, designing and administering means tests, approaches to rationing scarce budgetary resources, varying conceptions of "entitlement," work requirements, interactions with family, immigration and disability law, civil rights issues, and problems of federalism and the separation of powers that help shape means-tested programs.

Immigration Law
This course explores immigration policy and provides a comprehensive overview of the legal framework that regulates the admission and deportation of aliens in the United States. The course begins with a brief review of the history of immigration in the United States, a discussion of the morality of immigration restrictions, an analysis of the economic effects of immigration, and an examination of the constitutional basis for the federal government's power over immigration matters. The course then covers the existing categories of visas, the statutory provisions that can trigger exclusion or deportation, the issue of unauthorized immigration, and the constitutional law regarding restrictions on immigrant access to public benefits. The course explores the constitutional rights of aliens and the corresponding limits to the federal immigration power, including those arising from the First Amendment and from the Due Process Clause.