Hofstra Law School’s 2022 Immigration Law and Border Enforcement Program, Professor’s Reflection

Guest post by Alexander Holtzman, Visiting Associate Clinical Professor of Law at The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University

In May 2022, a group of law students and I traveled to San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico, to learn about immigration law and policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. This annual one-week course provides law students throughout the country with three credits and a tremendous immersive learning experience at the border. In addition to curriculum and coursework on the history, law, and policies at the border, students have an opportunity to communicate with leading advocates and experts in the field and visit with government officials implementing immigration law.

As described in this downloadable program schedule, we met with attorney advocates at Al Otro Lado, American Immigration Council, Human Rights First, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, and with a former Senior Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer turned whistleblower. Students visited government agencies, including the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Otay Mesa Immigration Court, U.S. Coast Guard in San Diego, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of California. We met with Federal District Court Chief Judge Dana Sabraw – who issued the Ms. L decision regarding separated children – and with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Randy Grossman to discuss prosecutions at the border. Students observed sentencings in federal court and the detained docket at Otay Mesa Immigration Court before speaking with a panel of three immigration judges.

Students toured Tijuana and the border with the Project Director at Al Otro Lado, including visiting Friendship Park, speaking with the co-Executive Director of the Deported Veterans, and visiting several refugee camps. We wrapped up the program by hiking along the border wall to Friendship Park on the U.S. side and shared a farewell meal where we discussed the U.S. immigration system and how we view the current state of immigration law and policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. I am very much looking forward to teaching the program again next year. Interested students can learn more and apply here: https://law.hofstra.edu/border-enforcement/.

-posted by KitJ on behalf of Alexander Holtzman