IMMIGRATIONWhy Is Immigration Reform So Contentious?

The issue of immigration reform is one that both Republicans and Democrats have sought to address for years with little success. And many voters are losing their patience with the lack of progress — whether resulting from ineffective bills passed, bills that have failed to pass, or executive orders from presidents. 

Veronica Tobar Thronson is a clinical professor of law who directs the Immigration Law Clinic at the Michigan State University College of Law. Here, in a conversation with MSU Today, she provides an overview of why there has been a lack of immigration reform and how it has become a leading political issue.

What work do you lead and support with the Immigration Law Clinic?
As director of the Immigration Law Clinic, I teach students how to be attorneys. Clinics are a great teaching tool for law students. While providing a much-needed service, students learn to connect their ability and energy with the great need for legal representation. The Immigration Law Clinic provides opportunities for students to practice a complex and often high-stakes field of law in a well-supervised, academically rigorous program. Students engage in direct client representation, systemic advocacy, and community outreach and education, learning substantive immigration law and procedure as they assist clients and communities in need with immigration matters. The clients we represent are among the most vulnerable: abused, abandoned and neglected children; crime and trafficking victims; and persons fleeing persecution. All of these clients are unable to afford legal representation.

The students critically assess immigration law and policy, including proposed reforms and social justice issues, and analyze how these realities affect their client population and the world at large. Students also engage as important community resources for immigrants and their families. Importantly, students learn that the work they do matters and that they make a difference. Lastly, it is important that law students in the clinic learn the reality of our broken immigration system so that they are informed and are able to correct misinformation about immigrants in this country.

Why has the issue of immigration taken so long to reform and fix?
Immigration is a very complex issue and there has not been sufficient political will to fix it. The last major legislative change to immigration law took place in 1996. The changes we have seen since then have mostly contributed to making the system more complicated, often adding severe restrictions that prevent people from regularizing their