Law Schools See ‘Trump Effect,’ With More Students Studying Immigration Law
Sarah Sherman-Stokes is a clinical teaching fellow at Boston University’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic. Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR
Local law school instructors said there’s been a rise in the number of students studying immigration law in response to President Trump’s aggressive stance on immigration enforcement.
The increased interest started with the president’s travel ban, which came down on Jan. 27, 2017, stranding travelers and creating chaos that lasted weeks in airports across the country. In Boston, protesters, journalists, politicians and lawyers flooded Logan Airport’s international terminal.
Hemanth Gundavaram said Northeastern University’s immigrant justice clinic was born that night.
“Northeastern looked and saw how many students were passionate about what was happening and decided to set into motion the immigrant justice clinic,” he said.