Is Trump Helping To Fill Up U.S. Law Schools?


With Congress deliberating the future of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), more and more undocumented immigrants are questioning their future.
President Trump has pushed for doing away with the policy, which currently protects from deportation a number of undocumented immigrants who entered the country as minors. Earlier this year, Trump announced a travel ban that halted refugee admissions to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries. During the ban, a number of immigration lawyers worked pro bono at airports to ensure travelers knew their rights. With immigration lawyers working with federal judges to halt the Muslim ban, it seems many lawyers view their role as increasingly important in light of recent events.
A recent article by Blueprint LSAT reports that an increasing number of students are applying to law school as a result of the “recent valorization of the legal sphere.”
Erica Jansson is a law student at Southwestern. She works as a legal clerk by day and attends evening law classes at night. Jansson tells Blueprint LSAT that her decision to pursue law stems from recent decisions made by the Trump administration.
“I’m going to law school because the judicial branch seems to be the final front against the injustices that we’re currently facing,” Jansson says. “I want my daughter to grow up in a more loving and accepting country.”
Jansson is just one of the nearly 28,000 students who took the LSAT in June. The law exam saw a 20% increase in test takers in the last eight years — the largest-ever percentage increase, according to Blueprint LSAT.
In a recent poll by Blueprint LSAT, over 52% of respondents attributed recent events, such as the Charlottesville protests, as “moderately influential” to “very influential” in deciding what type of law they’d like to pursue. Fifty-two percent attributed their decision to apply to law school to the Trump presidency.
 
Sources: Blueprint LSAT, BBC, US News