Center News

The Binger Center for New Americans held its annual Fall Immigration Forum on Friday, October 11.  The daylong event included more than 100 attendees and featured 20 panelists who explored the rights of immigrants to thrive within the U.S. economy. Legal and policy scholars discussed how the immigration system often extracts wealth from immigrant communities rather than creating opportunities for them to build it.

Professor Linus Chan, James H.

The University of Minnesota Law School is seeking applicants who are recent law graduates for an Immigration Litigation and Advocacy Fellowship with the James H. Binger Center for New Americans. The fellowship will begin in August 2025 and is anticipated to be a two-year commitment based on an annual, renewable appointment, with an optional third year.

Mahmoud Ahmed, community outreach program and research coordinator at the James H. Binger Center for New Americans, has been named a fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC). Alongside this prestigious fellowship, Ahmed has begun a Master of Human Rights (MHR) degree at the University’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, in collaboration with the College of Liberal Arts.

Minnesota Law’s Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic (FILC) — part of the James H. Binger Center for New Americans— has partnered with the American Immigration Council to publish a new practice advisory to assist practitioners in advocating for noncitizen clients before the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) and the U.S. Courts of Appeals, particularly in cases in which the government contends that a criminal conviction renders the client removable from the United States.

Professor Linus Chan, the James H. Binger Professor of Clinical Law, has been named a Minnesota Attorney of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the Group category for his participation in "Immigration Attorneys for Drivers Licenses for All."

Two University of Minnesota Law School clinics—the Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic (FILC) and the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic (CRA Clinic)—have joined together with the Houston-based law firms Gonzalez Olivieri LLC and Waterhouse, Dominguez & Strom PLLC to represent a noncitizen before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Clinics’ client, Mr.

After years of work, the Binger Center for New Americans has achieved key objectives to protect the rights of noncitizens subject to immigration custody. The Binger Center’s work—spearheaded by the Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic (FILC), the Detainee Rights Clinic (DRC), and some of the Center’s nonprofit and law firm partners—has focused on noncitizens with criminal histories who are spending years in mandatory civil immigration detention in Minnesota with little opportunity to meaningfully challenge their custody.

Students in the Detainee Rights Clinic (DRC) recently scored a major victory for a client formerly from El Salvador who has been seeking asylum for nearly a decade.

The clinic began representing the person in 2014, one of its first clients. Clinic leaders secured the person’s release from detention to stay deportation. Over the next few years, students worked with faculty to win an appeal at the Board of Immigration that opened a pathway for asylum.

Professor Linus Chan has been appointed the James H. Binger Clinical Professor of Law.  The Board of Regents also recently approved his promotion to the rank of clinical professor of law.  His clinical work focuses on removal defense for those detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He is widely recognized for his work on behalf of his clients and for his work with students. From 2021 to 2023, he was the Law School's Vaughan G.