Research & Advocacy

ILPI, in collaboration with the Center for Advancement of Children, Youth, and Families (CACYF) at the National Catholic School of Social Service, is conducting research on the impact of increased immigration enforcement on families and communities. Our research focuses on enforcement at sensitive locations and detention/deportation of parents of minor children. On January 20, 2025 the Department of Homeland Security rescinded long-standing policy prohibiting immigration enforcement in “protected areas” such as schools, medical facilities, and places of worship (except in limited, exigent circumstances). DHS also rescinded enforcement priorities that had shielded most parents of minor children from detention and family separation pending immigration court proceedings. ILPI and CACYF are surveying and interviewing providers at faith-based service agencies around the country and local community-based partners in the D.C. metro area, to document and report on the scope and impact of this enforcement.

Narrative Shift on Immigrants and Immigration

On March 4, 2025, the University hosted, in partnership with the Migration and Refugee Services Office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Jesuit Refugee Services, a conference titled, Rethinking Migration Narratives – Catholic Immigration Advocacy in 2025 and Beyond. Scholars, policymakers, and clergy discussed the history of nativist narratives in the U.S., the psychological pull of fear-based messaging, and the security and economic concerns underlying support for restrictive policies. The 300 attendees broke into small groups and generated strategies for reframing immigration narratives.

ILPI, in partnership with USCCB and Catholic Charities U.S.A. will begin a pilot project in 2026 capturing, through video recordings, the family migration stories of Catholics whose relatives immigrated (voluntarily or involuntarily) to the U.S. two, three, four or more generations ago. We will highlight these stories to promote narrative shift and facilitate informed dialogue about immigration. 

Community Education and Outreach

• Legal Expert in Residence, Ashley Feasley, discussed H.R. 1 and the impact of the increased funding the bill authorizes for immigration enforcement and detention during a roundtable discussion held on September 11, 2025, Deportations and Assaults on Human Dignity: on Catholic Principles, Human Costs, and Pastoral Challenges. Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Thought and the Public organized the event and co-panelists included Archbishop José Gomez, Archbishop Thomas Wenski, Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, Bishop Mark Seitz, Sister Norma Pimental, Professor Nicole Flores, and Fr. Guillermo Trevino, Jr.
  
  
• Continuing its focus on the impact of indiscriminate immigration enforcement, on October 8, 2025, ILPI organized and co-sponsored a panel of law school faculty experts to discuss the impact of recent policy changes on immigrants, refugees and human trafficking survivors. Second year law student, Ashleigh Wilson moderated the panel and Professor Mary Graw Leary, Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Clinic Director, Jocelyn Dyer, and ILPI’s Inaugural Legal Expert in Residence, Ashley Feasley, engaged in a lively and informative discussion.
  
  
• In November 2025, ILPI’s Director, Professor Emerita Stacy Brustin, was featured in an educational video produced by the American Bar Association’s Section on Civil Rights and Civil Justice, titled The Human Cost of ICE Raids: Their Impact on the Community and Families.
  
  
  

Recent Case Wins

• IRAC students successfully represented a client who had peacefully protested and advocated for human rights in his home country. Our client was arrested, detained, and tortured before seeking safety in the United States. After he received asylum in August 2025, IRAC filed applications to bring his wife and three children to the United States.
  
  
• In May 2025, IRAC students helped a client prepare for his affirmative interview before an asylum officer at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In three short months, IRAC students were able to fully prepare their client and extensively document the case. Now that he has been granted asylum, he, his wife, and children will be able to safely remain in the U.S.
  
  
• In April 2025, IRAC students won a contested Immigration Court trial, securing asylum protection for a family of four. IRAC students conducted direct examinations of witnesses, extensively briefed the legal issues, and made passionate closing arguments. IRAC is now helping the family secure their green cards, the next step in their immigration process.
  
  

Spring 2025 Legal Services Trip to U.S./Mexico Border

In March 2025, IRAC and ILPI jointly sponsored an immigration legal services trip to New Mexico and Texas over spring break. Professors Brustin and Dyer, along with 8 Catholic Law students, volunteered with the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. Throughout the week, the group engaged in impactful, hands-on work, including visits to detention centers, Know Your Rights presentations, court observations, and discussions with Catholic Charities of Central New Mexico. During the week, the law students prepared and filed more than a dozen parole requests for immigrants held in local detention centers. The trip underscored the urgent need for advocacy and reform in immigration law.

Professor Brustin published a powerful Op-Ed in Newsweek after the trip titled “The Dire Conditions of New Mexico’s Immigration Detention Facilities and the Dismantling of Humanitarian Release.”

Community Education Projects

In February 2026, IRAC will host a Citizenship/Naturalization Workshop for local refugees in collaboration with Solutions in Hometown Connections, a local non-profit founded by a Catholic Law alum to support refugee families. 

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Other ILPI Updates

 

Catholic Law Promotes Religious Liberty for Immigrants

Catholic Law signed on to an amicus brief in Escobar Molina v. DHS, a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s immigration arrests without warrants or probable cause in Washington, D.C. The amicus brief focuses on the impact enforcement has had on the free exercise of religion and attendance at places of worship.

Curricular Opportunities in Immigration and Refugee Law

• On October 24, 2025, the faculty approved a new course for inclusion in the law school’s permanent course offerings, Forced Migration: U.S. Law and Policy Responses. Professor Stacy Brustin has taught the cause on an experimental basis for two semesters and will be teaching the course in the Spring 2026 semester.
  
  
• Immigration Judge Nelson Vargas-Padilla taught the Immigration Law survey course in the Fall 2025 semester.
  
  
• Ashley Feasley will be teaching a new, one credit course, Forced Migration: Advocacy Skills in the Spring 2026 semester.
  
  
• Professors Dyer and Brustin will be supervising the one credit Immigration Legal Services - US/Mexico Border Trip in March 2026.
  
  
• Brustin & Feasley will be co-teaching the Immigration and Human Rights Seminar in the law school’s International Human Rights Summer Program in Rome May 17 – June 5, 2026.
  
  

Extracurricular and Pro Bono Opportunities for CUA Law Students & Alumni

Use the contact form button below to learn more about:

• Apply to be a Research Fellow (students) or Legal Expert in Residence (alumni) with the Immigration Law and Policy Initiative
  
  
• Join the Immigrant and Refugee Interest Society (IRIS). IRIS welcomes new law student members
  
  
• Volunteer for the upcoming Citizenship/Naturalization Clinic Sponsored by the Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Clinic