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Mar 14, 2026
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2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
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HS 317 Antiracist Immigration Law and Advocacy
(4 credits)
(Combined Undergraduate & Graduate Course in Department of Historical and Political *Studies*–not “Science”)
US immigration law has long been a key site for the articulation of white supremacy: beliefs and practices which, intentionally or unintentionally, create systems that value white lives at the expense of other lives, and particularly Black, Indigenous, and minoritize People of Color (BIPOC) lives. Antiracist Immigration Law and Advocacy cultivates an antiracist approach to learning and practicing the law that seeks not only to understand, but actively undo these processes as they unfold in the administration of forms of humanitarian relief, such as asylum. This approach is centers intersectional and decolonial perspectives developed by Black, Indigenous, and Latine legal scholars and social theorists. Students apply these perspectives to a critical analysis of US policy responses to humanitarian crisis in the Global South during last 50 years, concentrating on the US’s treatment of BIPOC displaced from Haiti, Central America, Venezuela, and Afghanistan. Through this analysis, students learn the historical development of the humanitarian elements of immigration law; develop knowledge of the current eligibility requirements for specific forms of humanitarian relief; and gain understanding of the gender, race, and class disparities in access to such relief. In their written work, students engage redacted versions of real cases, completing the actual steps legal advocates and their clients take to build a successful petition for humanitarian relief. Through this, students develop tangible lawyering skills that are essential to effective antiracist advocacy, including competency in key genres of legal writing. |
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