Niels Frenzen specializes in immigration and refugee law and is director of the USC Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic. He has been teaching at USC since 2000 and practicing law since 1985.

Frenzen’s Immigration Clinic students represent clients and work on different projects, including the LGBT Asylum Project and the Immigrant Detention Rights Project. Clinic students provide legal representation, pursuant to student practice rules, to transgender, gay and bisexual immigrants seeking asylum or protection under the Convention Against Torture. Students also work on advocacy and research projects designed to document and improve the conditions of confinement for detained immigrants through comprehensive inspection visits at detention facilities and by conducting interviews with immigrants detained at the facilities. Clinic students also represent clients in other types of cases, including other types of asylum cases, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) immigrant visa petitions, crime victim visas (U visa status petitions), general deportation defense, and appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Frenzen also writes and blogs about migration from Africa to Europe (http://migrantsatsea.org and https://twitter.com/MigrantsAtSea). Prior to joining USC, Frenzen practiced with non-profit law offices. His experience includes working as directing attorney of the Immigrants’ Rights Project at Public Counsel in Los Angeles; supervising attorney at the Haitian Refugee Center in Miami; and legislative coordinator of the ACLU of Iowa. He has represented many asylum seekers and other immigrants, has litigated federal court cases challenging the mistreatment of noncitizens, and has litigated immigration court national security cases involving classified evidence. He received his BA from Beloit College and his JD from Drake University Law School. He is admitted to the bars of California, Florida, Iowa, and is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales.