Pathways to Practice
This type of immigration attorney typically represents clients who are facing deportation and removal proceedings before immigration courts.
What is a removal defense attorney?
This language has helped attorneys gain clients.
What is Spanish/French/Russian/etc.?
Unlike criminal or civil attorneys, immigration lawyers spend the majority of their time preparing these, rather than arguing in court, as much of the immigration process is handled through paperwork.
What are forms, applications, and written submissions?
This term refers to the system by which those who are facing persecution request protection from the United States government.
What is Asylum?
This foundational piece of U.S. immigration legislation governs immigration policies, including visas, deportation, and naturalization.
What is the INA (Immigration and Nationality Act)?
This type of immigration attorney specializes in working with employers to secure these types of visas for skilled foreign workers, such as H-1B or L-1 visas.
What is an employment-based immigration attorney?
This clinic at DU helped prepare attorneys for real practice after law school.
What is the immigration law and policy clinic?
Immigration attorneys frequently spend time drafting these legal documents that summarize their client's case and argue why they are eligible for relief or a specific immigration benefit.
What are legal briefs?
This program, aimed at protecting young people brought to the U.S. as children, remains a subject of legal battles and policy changes?
What is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)?
This government agency oversees immigration courts and is responsible for adjudicating immigration cases and conducting removal hearings.
What is EOIR (Executive Office for Immigration Review)?
This type of immigration attorney works with families to reunite them by filing petitions for family members to obtain green cards or visas.
What is a family-based immigration attorney?
This resource is essential for anyone who wants to work in immigration law.
What is the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)?
An immigration attorney might spend hours reviewing these kinds of documents to gather evidence of a client's residency, employment, or family connections.
What are affidavits, tax returns, and pay stubs?
In 2022, the U.S. saw a historic increase in the number of these at the southern border, leading to debates on how to best manage processing and enforcement.
What is migrant encounters?
This immigration status allows individuals from designated countries experiencing conflict or natural disasters to remain in the U.S. temporarily.
What is TPS (Temporary Protected Status)?
This type of immigration attorney represents clients in federal appellate courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals.
What is an appellate immigration attorney?
This skill, critical for managing multiple cases and deadlines in immigration law, helps attorneys balance client needs, court dates, and document filings.
What is time management?
This was the biggest difference between law school and practicing immigration law.
What is figuring things out on your own?
Due to the changing nature of immigration law and policies, attorneys must have this skill to stay up-to-date and adapt to new develolpments.
What is research or adaptability? I.e. defective NTAs
This document grants noncitizens the legal right to work in the U.S.
What is an EAD (Employment Authorization Document)?
This type of immigration attorney works at a government agency, such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
What is a government attorney?
Immigration cases often require long-term commitment, and an attorney must have this quality to persist through lengthy processes and challenges.
What is patience or perseverance?
This is how an attorney decides to open their own practice.
What is experience?
This controversial immigration policy, commonly referred to by its nickname, "Remain in Mexico," requires certain Asylum seekers to wait outside the U.S. while their claims are processed.
What is Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)?
This document is the official charging document that initiates removal proceedings.
What is a NTA (Notice to Appear)?