by Kenny Berkowitz
In his first immigration case, Stephen W. Yale-Loehr represented a doctor whose visa was about to expire. At the time, Yale-Loehr had no experience in immigration. He was a new associate at a firm in Washington, D.C., where he focused on international trade, and if it wasn’t for what he calls “happenstance,” he would never have been given the assignment.
He was, and he won.
“Occasionally, partners would throw an immigration question to the associates and say, ‘See if you can figure this out,’” says Yale-Loehr, B.A. ’77, J.D. ’81, talking in his home office more than forty years later. “As I started to do more and more immigration work, I realized how much I liked this field. Helping someone get a green card is a feel-good process. It’s happy law, as opposed to something like divorce law or litigation. And frankly, I like the complexity of immigration, because it allows you to take an idea from one area and apply it to another. It lets you be creative.”
From 1991, when he joined Cornell Law as an adjunct, until December 2024, when he retired as professor of immigration law practice, Yale-Loehr channeled that creativity into building an immigration curriculum from square one. He taught the Law School’s first course on immigration, founded its Immigration Law and Policy Program, co-directed its Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic, helped launch its Afghanistan Assistance Clinic, and months before retiring, helped established its Path2Papers project to serve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
Along the way, Yale-Loehr became a full-time faculty member at Cornell Law, teaching a doctrinal course in the fall and the asylum clinic in the spring; expanded his immigration practice as of counsel at Miller Mayer, where he focused largely on advising corporate clients about business visas; formed and directed Invest in the USA, a trade association dedicated to developing domestic jobs for EB-5 visa holders; conducted research at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank on immigration; and served as a faculty fellow at the Cornell Migrations Initiative, where he helped coordinate multidisciplinary research at the university.
Over the course of his career, he co-edited the twenty-two-volume, quarterly revised Immigration Law and Procedure, widely regarded as the field’s leading treatise and cited by U.S. federal courts more than 500 times. He published more than 200 books and articles, including Green Card Stories, which features narratives of fifty recent immigrants to the United States; edited Interpreter Releases, a weekly report of developments in immigration law, and Immigration Briefings, a monthly analysis for practitioners; and co-authored a bi-monthly immigration column for the New York Law Journal.
“There are only a handful of people over the life of an institution who really leave their mark,” says Beth Lyon, associate dean for experiential education, clinical professor of law, and clinical program director. “Steve is one of those people. Cornell is known all around the world for immigration law, and that’s because of Steve.”
Described by colleagues as “brilliant,” “dedicated,” “generous,” “incredibly scrupulous,” “inspiring,” “super-organized,” and “unflappable,” Yale-Loehr was (and is) widely quoted in the mainstream media, with new comments added every week. He’s testified before Congress multiple times, fielding thoughtful questions from both Democrats and Republicans, and articulating a carefully balanced, pro-immigration, pro-business argument that emphasizes the importance of immigrants to the U.S. economy.
On November 8, at a symposium to mark Yale-Loehr’s retirement, Dean Jens David Ohlin called him the “center of gravity” for the university’s efforts in migration and immigration, cataloging his “extraordinary impact in the classroom, in the clinic, as a practitioner, and as a policy advocate, pushing forward the conversation about immigration with both principled and pragmatic suggestions for reform.”
“Everyone in the field knows Steve as a great teacher, a great scholar, and a great lawyer,” says Ohlin, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law, talking from his office in Myron Taylor Hall. “His writings are cited by all the top practitioners in the field, and by now there are generations of attorneys who either studied with him or worked with him. He’s built this program into the number one immigration law and policy group in the country. Thanks to Steve, people who know immigration know Cornell Law. That’s our reputation, and that’s his legacy.”
Born in Virginia and raised in Kansas, Yale-Loehr moved to Ithaca at fifteen years old, attending Ithaca High School and spending a post-graduation year as an exchange student in Japan. Coming to Cornell, he studied archeology, Japanese, and photography, graduating in the recession year of 1977 with a bachelor’s degree and no career prospects. He took a job as a hotel bellhop in Syracuse, applied to the Law School “on a lark,” and after surviving the Socratic struggles of 1L, found his way toward international legal affairs and the Cornell International Law Journal, where he served as editor in chief.
That led to one year clerking for a federal judge, four years as an associate at a large D.C. law firm, and two years as an adjunct professor teaching immigration at Georgetown University Law Center. Yale-Loehr moved back to Ithaca in 1990, started an immigration practice at Miller Mayer, and joined Cornell Law’s adjunct faculty to offer something brand new: the school’s first course in immigration law.
In 2003, while still an adjunct, Yale-Loehr partnered with Estelle M. McKee, clinical professor of law, to co-found the Law School’s Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic, one of the earliest asylum appeals clinics in the country. At that point, Yale-Loehr had much more experience in business immigration than in asylum law, and though he’d never led a clinic before, he jumped at the invitation.
“I was intimidated to ask him, because I’d been told he was a very serious person,” says McKee, who continues to direct the clinic after more than twenty years. “He turned out to be an absolute joy to work with, and I’ve learned so much from him. I don’t know anyone who’s on par with Steve in terms of his brilliance, the depth and extent of his knowledge, and his generosity in sharing knowledge with anyone who asks. In this field, most attorneys specialize. Steve does it all. Student visas. Business visas. Investor visas. Crimmigration. Humanitarian relief. That’s very rare, and it makes Steve an incredible resource for colleagues, immigrants, and students.”
In a world where the deck is stacked against asylum applicants, and even more heavily stacked against asylum appellants, Sital Kalantry, Ian Kysel, McKee, Yale-Loehr, and their clinical students have won more than half their cases—compared to the national average of 10 percent. In one victory, they prevailed in their appeal for a gay man who’d made his way out of Ghana, traveled through nine countries spanning four continents, crossed the border from Tijuana, applied for asylum, and been placed in detention. In another, they reunited dissident husband-and-wife doctors who’d been separated by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement after fleeing from Cuba to Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and Arizona, where his request for protection was granted and her identical request was denied.
“I watched Steve and his students try everything for this client,” says Kysel, associate clinical professor of law, talking about the wife, who ultimately received asylum. “Outreach to members of Congress. Working with the media. Identifying practitioners who could help bring a petition of habeas corpus. Other attorneys might have seen their role as simply taking on an appeal, but Steve was determined to advocate to the ends of the earth. That was a tremendous lesson to give his students, and it showed Steve’s resolve to leave no stone unturned in securing the best outcome for a client. He’s the definition of a zealous advocate.”
“One of the amazing things about Steve is that everybody likes him,” adds Dan Berger ’96, visiting DACA immigration scholar, who first worked for Yale-Loehr as a research assistant. “Everybody. Immigration is extremely polarizing. We all know that, and most people are either on one side or the other. Not Steve. He’s constantly learning, constantly in dialogue with a wide variety of people, and everywhere he goes, people listen to him, because he’s so good at explaining complex ideas simply. And that’s very much needed these days.”
Having retired from all his jobs in December, Yale-Loehr keeps busy following the latest immigration news, Zooming with reporters—“There’s a war against immigrants right now,” he said in a recent television interview—and spending more time with family. Looking back, he talks about the steadily increasing complexity of immigration law and the progress that’s been made since he arrived as a 1L, pointing to the students he’s taught, the faculty members he’s worked with, the appeals they’ve won, the communities they’ve built, and the programs that will continue their work. Looking forward, he sees a difficult climate for U.S. immigration becoming even more difficult, with 8 million jobs currently unfilled, 11 million people lacking a legal status, and a backlog of almost 4 million deportation cases.
“I just wanted to expose law students to immigration law,” says Yale-Loehr, summarizing his career. “To encourage them to practice immigration law, or at least take a few pro bono cases, no matter what their area of law. I think I achieved that. I’ve taught over 500 students, I’ve seen a growing acceptance of the importance of immigration law, and I’ve learned a lot myself. Over thirty-plus years, my students have continually inspired me with their amazing enthusiasm and energy. Even though it’s getting harder to succeed, they’re ready to fight the big battles.”
