David Koelsch serves as a practitioner-in-residence with the Chacón Center for Immigrant Justice. Prior to that role, he worked as a technical assistance and training attorney with World Relief, a faith-based nonprofit. Prior to that, he served as an immigration Judge for eight years until resigning in 2025. He also served as a supervisor at the Asylum Office. Prior to his government service, Koelsch was a tenured law professor at the University of Detroit Mercy where he directed the immigration law clinic and taught U.S. and Canadian immigration law. He also previously served as legal director at Freedom House, a Detroit-based nonprofit serving asylum seekers. Koelsch is admitted to the Maryland and Michigan bars.
David Koelsch
Practitioner-in-Residence, Chacón Center for Immigrant Justice
Articles
Embracing Mercy: Rehabilitation as a Means to Fairly and Efficiently Address Immigration Violations, 8 Intercultural Human Rights Law Review 323 (2013).
Follow the North Star: Canada as a Model to Increase the Independence, Integrity and Efficiency of the U.S. Immigration Adjudication System, 25 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 763 (2011).
Shared Experiences, Divergent Outcomes: American Indian and Immigrant Victims of Domestic Violence, 25 Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society 185 (2010) (with Jacqueline P. Hand).
Panic in Detroit: The Impact of Immigration Reforms on Urban African Americans, 5 Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy 447 (2007).