Justice in View:Critical Pedagogies of Immigration Court Watching and Lessons from the Immigration Research Hub

This workshop for faculty introduces a framework for incorporating immigration court-watching into university classrooms and connecting students and educators with a growing national research effort. Presenters will share practical curricular tools-including training materials, observation protocols, survey instruments, reading lists, and discussion guides-along with lessons from a project now implemented in undergraduate and graduate classrooms, research labs, and community-engaged research. To date, participating students and researchers have observed over 2000 hours of proceedings across 26 immigration courts and 148 courtrooms in 15 states and Puerto Rico. Participants will learn how court-watching can help students analyze judicial discretion, informal norms, and off-the-record exchanges while connecting experiential learning to civic engagement. Attendees will leave with adaptable resources and pathways into the Immigration Research.