Stacy Brustin

School

  • Columbus School of Law

    • Expertise

  • Immigration and Refugee Law and Policy
  • Family Law
  • Access to Justice

    • Stacy Brustin is the Director of the Immigration Law & Policy Initiative at Catholic Law. She previously served as the founding Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Clinic of Columbus Community Legal Services, the law school’s on-campus clinical education program. The Immigration Law and Policy Initiative [ILPI] advances teaching, interdisciplinary research, fact-finding, policy reform, and advocacy to protect the rights and dignity of individuals seeking refuge in the United States. Through partnerships with Catholic Law’s Immigration Clinic and influential external organizations such as Catholic Charities USA and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the initiative has convened national conferences on immigration policy, cosponsored spring break legal service trips, engaged students in advocacy and research on critical issues, and expanded curricular opportunities in immigration and refugee law. 

    Professor Brustin publishes and conducts presentations on immigration law and policy, family law and policy, and access to justice.

    Professor Brustin came to the Columbus School of Law in 1991. While at Catholic University, Professor Brustin served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2006-2009 and as the director of the LL.M program from 2010 - 2017.  She also directed the Civil Practice Clinic.  Professor Brustin teaches Forced Migration: U.S. Policy Responses as well as the Immigration/Human Rights Seminar in the CUA International Human Rights Summer Law Program in Rome. 
     
    Professor Brustin serves as an appointed member of the American Bar Association's Commission on Immigration. She is also active in the D.C. legal services advocacy community, serving on the Board of Advisors of Ayuda.
     
    Professor Brustin received her B.A. from Tufts University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She was awarded a Ferguson Post-Graduate Fellowship from Harvard to study human rights and community legal education in Mexico. Upon her return to the United States, she began working as a staff attorney at Ayuda, Inc., a non-profit legal services agency serving the immigrant and refugee community in Washington D.C. In 1991, she founded the Hermanas Unidas (Sisters United) Community Education Project, a program of Ayuda, Inc., designed to help immigrant survivors of domestic violence advocate for themselves and their families. 


    Research and Writing

    Selected Publications

    Op Ed, The Dire Conditions of New Mexico's Immigration Detention Facilities and the Dismantling of Humanitarian Release, Newsweek, April 30, 2025 https://www.newsweek.com/dire-conditions-new-mexicos-immigration-detention-facilities-dismantling-humanitarian-release-2065771

    Comments on ORR Foundational Rule, Submitted November 2023

    Op Ed, Circumventing Legal Pathways Policy, The Hill, May 2023

    A Civil Shame: The Failure to Protect Due Process in Discretionary Immigration Bond Hearings, 88 Brook. L. Rev. 163 (2022)

    A Vision Forward: Policies Needed to Protect the Best Interest of “Category 4” Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, Principal Author, Justice for Immigrants Campaign, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops June 2021 is available here.

    Regulation of Non-Immigrant Birth Tourism – Safety Imperative or Political Pretext? CLE Paper for American Bar Association, Family Law Section, October 2020.

    USA Today, Op Ed, Immigration Detention at Otero, May 16, 2019 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/05/16/ice-immigration-detention-center-like-prison-otero-column/1190633001/.

    Contributing Author, Delivering Justice:  Addressing Civil Legal Needs in the District of Columbia, D.C. Access to Justice Commission (2019) available at https://www.dcaccesstojustice.org/reports.

    Bridging the Justice Gap in Family Law – Repurposing Federal IV-D Funding to Expand Community-Based Legal and Social Services for Parents, 67 Hastings Law Journal 1265 (2016) (co-authored with Lisa V. Martin)

    Paved with Good Intentions: Federal Proposals to Integrate Child Support and Parenting Time, 48 Indiana Law Review 803 (2015) (co-authored with Lisa V. Martin)

    Making Turner a Reality -- Improving Access to Justice Through Court-Annexed Resource Centers and Same Day Representation, 20 Texas Journal on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights 17 (2014-2015)

    "Child Support – Shifting the Financial Burden in Low-Income Families," 20 Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy 1, (2012) 

    Selected Presentations

    The Human Cost of ICE Raids: Their Impact on the Community and Families, American Bar Association’s Section on Civil Rights and Civil Justice, Rapid Response Episode, November 2025, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/resources/on-demand/human-cost-ice-raids-impact-community-families/?login

    Rethinking Migration Narratives – Catholic Immigration Advocacy in 2025 and Beyond, March 4, 2025, https://www.law.edu/news-and-events/2025/03/2025-0304-ImmigrationConference.html

    Marriage Validity & USCIS Policy, Training Sponsored by Vecina and Human Rights First’s Project Afghan Legal Assistance, July 19, 2024.

    The Role of the Catholic Church in Shaping Immigration Policy, Panel Moderator, Responding to Changing Realities at the U.S. Border and Beyond: Catholic Approaches to Migration Conference, April 11, 2024.

    The ABA Standards on Custody and Placement, Legal Representation, and Adjudication of Unaccompanied Children, A Five-Year Review, with Dalia Castillos of the ABA Children’s Immigration Law Academy (CILA) – January 18, 2024.

    Prospects for Integration: Opportunities and Challenges for Unaccompanied Migrant Youth in the U.S., Center for Flight & Migration, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany, December 2022.

    Webinar: A Vision Forward: Policies Needed to Protect the Best Interest of “Category 4” Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, July 21, 2021, Justice for Immigrants Campaign, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

    Regulation of Birth Tourism and Birthright Citizenship, October 23, 2020, American Bar Association, Family Law Annual CLE Conference.

    Migration Studies Summer Academy 2020 highlighting developments in international research on migration, July 15, 2020.

    Addressing Immigration Law Issues Arising in Family Mediation, Training for Multidoor Dispute Resolution Mediators, D.C. Superior Court, May 15, 2019

    “Examining Experiments and Prospects for Reform in Family Law Self- Help Representation and Financial Support Policy,” Advancing Equal Access to Justice Conference, University of California Hastings College of Law and Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, November 2015