Abhilasha Khanal, ESQ.
About
Abhilasha Khanal is an immigration attorney focused on federal litigation and removal defense, with a particular emphasis on challenging unlawful immigration detention. She litigates habeas corpus petitions before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, successfully securing relief for clients challenging unlawful immigration detention. Her litigation has resulted in clients’ immediate release from detention and court-ordered bond hearings, including a second bond hearing obtained through a motion to enforce habeas relief. She also brings writs of mandamus challenging unreasonable agency delay and unlawfully withheld immigration benefits.
In Immigration Court, Ms. Khanal represents individuals seeking asylum, withholding of removal, protection under the Convention Against Torture, and other humanitarian relief. Her practice includes bond hearings, merits hearings, motions to reopen, reconsider, and terminate, emergency stays of removal, and appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals. She also handles select employment-based matters, including O-1 and National Interest Waiver petitions.
Ms. Khanal’s commitment to immigrant advocacy began at Penn State Dickinson Law’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic. There she represented a detained asylum seeker and secured a grant of asylum, earning two CALI Excellence for the Future Awards. Her scholarship examines the systems that shape immigration outcomes, most recently how AI-driven risk assessment tools affect detention in humanitarian cases. Her work has appeared in the AILA Law Journal, the Penn State Dickinson Law Immigration Law Blog, and Penn State Dickinson Journal of Law & International Affairs (JLIA) Blog.
Born in Nepal, Ms. Khanal immigrated to the United States at age twelve. She watched her family move from a life centered on survival to one of stability and opportunity. That journey led her to immigration law, determined to be the attorney she wished her own family had known: one who fights for her clients’ rights, protects their future, and stands beside them through uncertainty.
Education
Penn State Dickinson Law – University Park, The Pennsylvania State University
- Juris Doctor, cum laude, May 2025
- Two CALI Excellence for the Future Awards, Immigration Clinical Practice
Southern New Hampshire University
- Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, summa cum laude, May 2021
Bar Admissions
- Virginia
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
PROFESSIONAL Memberships
- American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
- AILA Washington, D.C. Chapter
- South Asian Bar Association of Washington, D.C. (SABA-DC)
PUBLICATIONS
- Detained by Design: How AI-Driven Risk Assessment Algorithms Undermine Justice in Humanitarian Immigration Cases, AILA Law Journal, April 2026 (https://www.aila.org/books-and-publications/aila-law-journal-subscriptions/detained-by-design )
- Rethinking the Role of Patent Licensing in U.S. Immigration Laws, AILA Law Journal, October 2025 (https://www.aila.org/library/rethinking-the-role-of-patent-licensing-in-u-s-immigration-laws)
- Administrative Closure: A Codified Shield for Justice and Judicial Efficiency, Penn State Dickinson Law Immigration Law Blog, April 2025 (https://insight.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/ilsblog/16/)
- Mercy for the Merciless: Sobhraj the Slippery Serpent, Penn State Dickinson Journal of Law & International Affairs (JLIA) Blog, April 2023 (https://sites.psu.edu/jlia/mercy-for-the-merciless-sobhraj-the-slippery-serpent/)
LANGUAGES
- English, Nepali, and Hindi
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