Track 2: Clinical Education at the Intersection of Immigration Law and Criminal Law

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Session Type: AALS Programs

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: N/A

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Over
the past decade, the traditional practice boundary between criminal law and
immigration law has begun to fade. This practice merger, sometimes referred to
as “crimmigration,” reflects the on-the-ground reality that the criminal
justice system and immigration enforcement have grown increasingly intertwined.
More than ever before, the immigration system relies on criminal mechanisms,
such as detention in prisons and jails, to enforce the immigration law. At the
same time, the criminal system now plays a central role in adjudicating
immigration status, including detecting noncitizens subject to deportation and
advising noncitizen defendants regarding the immigration consequences of
criminal convictions.
The
integration of criminal law and immigration law has given rise to a “new
normal” for the practice of immigration law and criminal law. This concurrent
session will address efforts by clinical law professors to reflect this new
practice reality in their clinical teaching of law students in both criminal
and immigration clinical settings. Our learning objectives for participants
include: (1) to provide participants with ideas for generating new clinic
projects or collaborations that reside at the intersection of the criminal and
immigration laws; and (2) to develop frameworks for navigating the various
challenges that arise in the “new normal” of clinical work described by the
session.