From Michigan Law
The Immigrant Justice Lab (IJL) at the University of Michigan recently received new grants in support of its ongoing mission to train student advocates and deliver practical legal resources to immigrant communities.
Led by Michigan Law Professor Jessica Lefort, the IJL is a collaborative public humanities project that partners with institutions, nonprofit agencies, and affected communities to advocate for the rights of immigrants. Working closely with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, as well as other community and university partners, the lab trains law students and undergraduates to conduct rigorous legal research and produce practical resources—including self-help guides, legal templates, country conditions reports, and asylum briefs—for use by attorneys, advocates, and individuals navigating the immigration system without professional assistance. Since its founding, the lab has engaged more than 250 students and produced materials that have supported hundreds of clients.
“More individuals and families are navigating immigration proceedings these days without professional assistance,” said Lefort. “Together, the three grants support the lab’s response across multiple fronts.”
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LSA New Initiatives/New Instruction Grant
U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts has awarded the IJL $30,000 in first-year funding through its New Initiatives/New Instruction Grant program, with special preference for continued funding in years two and three; in addition, LSA Technology Services will cover the cost of the lab’s AI platform.
The grant supports the Next Gen Immigrant Justice Lab, a three-year initiative led by Law School professors Lefort and Amy Sankaran, ’01, and LSA professor Melissa Borja. Central to the initiative is the development of an AI-assisted tool for generating country conditions reports—the detailed, research-intensive documents required in asylum cases to establish that an applicant cannot safely return to their home country. Currently requiring 15 to 20 hours of skilled labor per case, these reports represent a significant bottleneck for under-resourced legal services organizations. Working with the data lab in U-M’s School of Social Work, the IJL has developed a proof-of-concept system that synthesizes authoritative sources and produces citation-rich draft reports, with the goal of reducing initial research and drafting time by approximately 80 percent while preserving essential attorney oversight.
Students in the lab’s fall and winter courses will participate directly in developing, testing, and critically evaluating the AI tool, learning to assess AI-generated outputs for accuracy, legal sufficiency, and ethical implications.
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Life-Changing Education Grant
The IJL also received $9,000 through the University’s Life-Changing Education Grants program to redesign and expand its public-facing website into a centralized repository of immigration resources—including legal templates, self-help guides, country conditions packets, and more—formatted for accessibility and accompanied by an expanded social media presence. The project will give particular attention to language access and the varied ways diverse populations engage with digital content.
The grant also will support a national working group convening representatives from organizations that produce similar public-facing immigration resources, with a longer-range goal of building a shared, centralized repository to reduce duplication and improve efficiency across the field.
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Investigating GenAI Teaching and Learning Mini-Grant
Finally, Sankaran has received a $1,500 stipend through the Investigating GenAI Teaching and Learning Mini-Grants program, sponsored by U-M’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching and the Year of Life-Changing Education. The grant supports a research study embedded in the IJL’s fall course that asks: does AI-assisted drafting in a live-client legal setting create better work product, improve student writing ability, or save time? Using a crossover design, students will complete two sections of their country conditions research, one half of them with access to the lab’s AI drafting tool and one without. Student reflections and end-of-semester focus groups will help the lab assess whether AI builds or erodes students’ research and writing abilities, generating insights to inform both the IJL’s future practice and broader understanding of generative AI in legal education.
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Looking ahead
Together, these grants position the Immigrant Justice Lab to deepen its impact at a critical moment.
“The need for publicly accessible legal resources has never been more urgent,” said Lefort. “These grants allow us to leverage technology thoughtfully—both to expand what we can offer to our community partners and to give students a rigorous, real-world education in what AI can and cannot do.”
The Immigrant Justice Lab (IJL) at the University of Michigan recently received new grants in support of its ongoing mission to train student advocates and deliver practical legal resources to immigrant communities.
Led by Michigan Law Professor Jessica Lefort, the IJL is a collaborative public humanities project that partners with institutions, nonprofit agencies, and affected communities to advocate for the rights of immigrants. Working closely with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, as well as other community and university partners, the lab trains law students and undergraduates to conduct rigorous legal research and produce practical resources—including self-help guides, legal templates, country conditions reports, and asylum briefs—for use by attorneys, advocates, and individuals navigating the immigration system without professional assistance. Since its founding, the lab has engaged more than 250 students and produced materials that have supported hundreds of clients.
“More individuals and families are navigating immigration proceedings these days without professional assistance,” said Lefort. “Together, the three grants support the lab’s response across multiple fronts.”
—————
LSA New Initiatives/New Instruction Grant
U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts has awarded the IJL $30,000 in first-year funding through its New Initiatives/New Instruction Grant program, with special preference for continued funding in years two and three; in addition, LSA Technology Services will cover the cost of the lab’s AI platform.
The grant supports the Next Gen Immigrant Justice Lab, a three-year initiative led by Law School professors Lefort and Amy Sankaran, ’01, and LSA professor Melissa Borja. Central to the initiative is the development of an AI-assisted tool for generating country conditions reports—the detailed, research-intensive documents required in asylum cases to establish that an applicant cannot safely return to their home country. Currently requiring 15 to 20 hours of skilled labor per case, these reports represent a significant bottleneck for under-resourced legal services organizations. Working with the data lab in U-M’s School of Social Work, the IJL has developed a proof-of-concept system that synthesizes authoritative sources and produces citation-rich draft reports, with the goal of reducing initial research and drafting time by approximately 80 percent while preserving essential attorney oversight.
Students in the lab’s fall and winter courses will participate directly in developing, testing, and critically evaluating the AI tool, learning to assess AI-generated outputs for accuracy, legal sufficiency, and ethical implications.
—————
Life-Changing Education Grant
The IJL also received $9,000 through the University’s Life-Changing Education Grants program to redesign and expand its public-facing website into a centralized repository of immigration resources—including legal templates, self-help guides, country conditions packets, and more—formatted for accessibility and accompanied by an expanded social media presence. The project will give particular attention to language access and the varied ways diverse populations engage with digital content.
The grant also will support a national working group convening representatives from organizations that produce similar public-facing immigration resources, with a longer-range goal of building a shared, centralized repository to reduce duplication and improve efficiency across the field.
—————
Investigating GenAI Teaching and Learning Mini-Grant
Finally, Sankaran has received a $1,500 stipend through the Investigating GenAI Teaching and Learning Mini-Grants program, sponsored by U-M’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching and the Year of Life-Changing Education. The grant supports a research study embedded in the IJL’s fall course that asks: does AI-assisted drafting in a live-client legal setting create better work product, improve student writing ability, or save time? Using a crossover design, students will complete two sections of their country conditions research, one half of them with access to the lab’s AI drafting tool and one without. Student reflections and end-of-semester focus groups will help the lab assess whether AI builds or erodes students’ research and writing abilities, generating insights to inform both the IJL’s future practice and broader understanding of generative AI in legal education.
—————
Looking ahead
Together, these grants position the Immigrant Justice Lab to deepen its impact at a critical moment.
“The need for publicly accessible legal resources has never been more urgent,” said Lefort. “These grants allow us to leverage technology thoughtfully—both to expand what we can offer to our community partners and to give students a rigorous, real-world education in what AI can and cannot do.”
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