Welcome to Justice In View!

Justice in View brings students into the heart of immigration courtrooms across the United States to observe and document how justice is enacted—or denied—in real time. Through ethnographic court-watching, students witness the everyday workings of a system that is often opaque, politically charged, and deeply consequential.

By training students in immigration law, research ethics, and observational methods, we are building a national network of researchers who collectively generate rich data on courtroom dynamics. This work not only democratizes knowledge production but also sheds light on the affective, bureaucratic, and political forces shaping immigration adjudication today.

A teaching and research initiative created by Dr. Amelia Frank Vitale, Dr. Lauren Heidbrink, and Luis Guaman, the program consists of 7 modules to prepare students for conducting systematic observations in immigration courts as part of a project. Each module concludes with a quiz, and participants receive a completion certificate.

After watching this first module, please take the Module 1 quiz.

Thank you for joining our research collective!