A Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, Karge is a graduate of Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. She has practiced immigration law in Chicago for more than 30 years. She volunteers in immigration clinics in Chicago and with the CARA Pro Bono Project at the South Texas Residential Family Center in Dilley, Texas, the private prison for noncriminal asylum-seeking women and children. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).