Legal clinics support immigration needs amid attorney shortage

As Indiana faces an ongoing attorney shortage in several practice areas, one specialty in particular is feeling the heat: immigration law.

The University of Notre Dame and other institutions across the state are trying to do something about it.

Last summer, Notre Dame’s law school launched an immigration clinic that offers students the chance to represent clients for free on a range of issues. The clinic accepted 55 to 60 cases when it began working with clients this spring, and it’s about to start accepting new cases again.

“Everybody thinks that immigration need is only at the border,” said Ashley Sanchez, faculty director of the school’s immigration clinic. “But there is need all over the entire country. Every corner of the state of Indiana needs immigration lawyers.”

Sanchez and others say the clinic’s work doesn’t cover the full breadth of need in its community. Other organizations in the area and around the state say they also are working hard to provide support.

Immigrants make up around 6% of Indiana’s population, according to 2023 data from the American Immigration Council. It’s hard to pin down the exact number of immigration attorneys in the state, but Indiana ranks 43rd overall in lawyers per capita. The state has around 2.26 lawyers per 1,000 residents, or 15,485 attorneys for nearly 7 million residents, according to 2024 data from the American Bar Association.

As the United States sees a growing immigration crackdown coming from both federal and state governments, attorneys and other experts in Indiana are trying to fill gaps in the need for legal help.

Addressing needs locally

Law students in Notre Dame’s Immigration Clinic provide services for a range of issues, including asylum, removal defense and family reunification matters. Students are certified under the state’s certified legal intern program, and under rules of the United States Executive Office for Immigration Review, they can represent clients in immigration courts, both in Indianapolis and Chicago.

Sanchez emphasized that, though students work on their own, they’re always supervised closely by licensed attorneys.

Third-year law student Ana Obergfell worked in the immigration clinic this spring. She’ll continue to serve during the upcoming fall semester, assisting with green card applications, asylum needs and representing immigrants in immigration court.

“Immigration law is very complicated, and the process can be very daunting,” Obergfell said. “So it’s been incredibly fulfilling to be able to assist these families and be able to put applications in on their behalf and help them on their way towards citizenship or just getting legal status in the United States.”

After graduating, Obergfell will practice business law, but she plans to focus her pro bono work on immigration.

Not all students who join the immigration clinic plan to make a career in it, Sanchez said. But she hopes they’ll consider future work in the practice area beyond the clinic, whether it’s full time or, like Obergfell, on a pro bono basis.

The clinic tries to prioritize taking clients who live in Michiana, the region that makes up northern Indiana and southwest Michigan, due to the need, Sanchez said.

In addition to offering one-on-one legal services, the clinic also partners with local organizations to host community events. This spring, the clinic partnered with a local church for what Sanchez called a “family preparedness” clinic. During the event, organizers helped around 50 families learn about power of attorney for both them and their children in the event of deportation or arrest.

“We’re helping single moms, victims of domestic violence, abandoned children,” Sanchez said. “Those are the types of people that we want to prioritize, and also cases where we think that having a Notre Dame Law student who’s really smart and really passionate, dedicated to their case will make a difference.”

Access to justice across the state

Notre Dame’s clinic is not the only one in the area helping with immigration law. On the south side of South Bend, La Casa de Amistad is working with Notre Dame Law to support local residents in need of low-cost immigration services.

La Casa was established in the 1970s by the Congregation of the Holy Cross to respond to the needs of the Latino community in the South Bend area. Over the years, the organization evolved to support its community through youth and family programming, social services and advocacy efforts, including its immigration services.

The statewide attorney shortage is further exasperated in the immigration practice area, according to Sean O’Brien, an immigration attorney and director of La Casa’s immigration legal services. This, combined with the needs of immigrant residents in the greater South Bend community, means La Casa must adapt to ensure it can keep up with demand.

O’Brien joined La Casa in January 2025 after 15 years directing the Center for Civil & Human Rights at the Notre Dame Law School. Since joining the nonprofit, O’Brien and the team, in some ways, “haven’t come up for breath,” he said. As the first attorney at La Casa, he’s helped expand the legal services La Casa can offer.

Since 2014, La Casa has been recognized under the U.S. Department of Justice’s Recognition & Accreditation Program as an organization that can provide legal immigration services to low-income and indigent people. Under the program, La Casa employs individuals who are accredited to serve as legal representatives for immigrant clients. Through the program, non-attorneys are trained to represent clients before the Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

O’Brien says he is thrilled to work in tandem with Notre Dame Law to serve its shared community. Law students, he said, have the skills, time and access to legal materials many practitioners don’t in order to handle elaborate legal arguments.

“It’s very rewarding to practice law in an environment in which clients aren’t viewed as legal problems,” O’Brien said.

Further south, organizations in Indianapolis are also working to address the needs of the local immigrant community. The Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic provides both legal and humanitarian services to clients through pro bono work. The workload is heavy in the Indianapolis area, according to Catherine Karanja, director of the clinic’s immigrant and survivor justice program.

The clinic’s immigration team manages about 16 client consultations a month spread between two consultation sessions. Depending on the team’s capacity, however, the clinic can sometimes only manage to take on one client. But sometimes all the client needs is guidance in their next step.

“Sometimes we might just clarify a point of view that they might be confused about, and they might not even need an attorney,” Karanja said. “But it’s helpful for them to just have that contact with an attorney to explain to them that this is the issue at hand, and [these are] the steps that they need to take.”

Like Notre Dame, Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law offers an immigration clinic for students to support low-income clients. The clinic is done in partnership with Indiana Legal Services.

“Everything under the immigration umbrella these days seems to be changing rapidly,” said Kristin Edison Garn, adjunct professor for the immigration clinic. “The clinic will respond to the changing situation in order to meet the needs of immigrants in our community.”•