Law Commons^™

Better Late Than Never: Climate Displacement And The Case For Expanding Temporary Protected Status, Anna C. Cincotta

Villanova Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Courthouse Doors Are Closed To Foreign Citizens For International Law Torts Committed By American Corporations, Gisell Landrian

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This Note examines the intersection of corporate accountability, human rights violations, and legal recourse for victims of child slavery in the cocoa industry inspired by the Court’s decision Nestle USA, Inc. v. Doe. This decision further limited the scope of the Alien Tort Statute, hindering the plaintiffs’ quest for justice for international human rights violations. The Note analyzes the decision in Nestle USA, Inc. v. Doe through (1) an examination of the Court’s limitations on the Alien Tort Statute and (2) an analysis of the Canadian Supreme Court’s decision in Nevsun.

The Detention Of Immigration Policy: How States Are Commandeering Dhs Enforcement Guidelines, Brianna Riguera

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

In 2021, the Department of Homeland Security issued immigration guidelines that de-emphasized detention and removal of non-citizens who, aside from being undocumented, are otherwise contributing members of communities across the United States. However, Arizona, Montana, Ohio, Texas, and Louisiana challenged these guidelines, launching a nuanced legal dispute that concerned states standing under Article III, prosecutorial discretion, and nationwide preliminary injunctions. In United States v. Texas, the Court ruled 8-1 that the states lacked standing and reversed the Fifth Circuit’s nationwide injunction, but the majority opinion failed to address the other legal issues that are pressing on a rife debate about …

Immigration Law, Bianca N. Dibella, Hannah L. Baskind

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys cases from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023, in which immigration law was a central focus of the case. During this time, the Eleventh Circuit decided several of these cases. As such, the cases discussed herein are those that explore jurisdictional boundaries of the Eleventh Circuit’s appellate review of immigration cases, and those that interpret standards that impact an immigrant’s ability to obtain relief. This Article discusses (1) removal cancellation, including the court’s jurisdiction to review such decisions, the standard for removal cancellation, and the …

Questioning The Legitimacy Of The Expedited Removal Process – The Tall Task Of Protecting The Constitutional Rights Of One Of America’S Most Marginalized Groups, Jacob J. Bourquin

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note explores the origin and development of 8 U.S.C. § 1225—a heavily debated facet of the United States’ immigration law. Section 1225, colloquially referred to as the “expedited removal process,” has been interpreted to permit low-level immigration officers to summarily remove certain “arriving” noncitizens from the United States without affording them the procedural due process protections guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution to all individuals present in the United States. This Note posits that the current interpretation of § 1225, particularly the interpretation of “is arriving,” and application of the expedited removal process is inconsistent …

Off The Marques: An Exploration Of Arbitrariness In Immigration Law Through Marques V. Lynch, Patrick Fields

Mississippi College Law Review

Ronaldo de Lima Marques appeared to hit the jackpot. He paid a United States citizen to marry him, submitted immigration paperwork on the basis of that fraudulent marriage, and waited. His goal: become a permanent resident of the United States; stay in the country as long as he pleased; perhaps become a U.S. citizen. He succeeded. On September 9, 2006, Mr. Marques received authority from the United States government to make this country his permanent home. He did it. He hoodwinked the system.

His days of peace, however, were limited. Despite an initial failure to detect his sham marriage, the …

The "Free White Person" Clause Of The Naturalization Act Of 1790 As Super-Statute, Gabriel J. Chin, Paul Finkelman

William & Mary Law Review

A body of legal scholarship persuasively contends that some judicial decisions are so important that they should be considered part of the canon of constitutional law including, unquestionably, Marbury v. Madison and Brown v. Board of Education. Some decisions, while blunders, were nevertheless profoundly influential in undermining justice and the public good. Scholars call cases such as Dred Scott v. Sandford and Plessy v. Ferguson the anticanon. Recognizing the contemporary centrality of statutes, Professors William Eskridge and John Ferejohn propose that certain federal laws should be recognized as part of legal canon because of their extraordinary influence and duration. These …

Creating A Racialized Liminal Status: The 1790 Act And Interstitial Citizenship, Rose Cuison-Villazor

William & Mary Law Review

This Comment began with De La Ysla’s case to highlight the political status that Filipinos held when the Philippines was a U.S. territory. This Comment argues that this status, which a court would later describe as a “hybrid status ... the so-called ‘non-citizen national,’” was a racialized liminal political status with roots in the 1790 Naturalization Act (1790 Act). Professors Jack Chin and Paul Finkelman claim that the 1790 Act played a critical role in shaping “the very composition of the people of the United States” by including the “free white person” clause in the country’s first naturalization law. One …

Afterward: A Reply To Commentators, Gabriel J. Chin, Paul Finkelman

William & Mary Law Review

Authors Gabriel J. Chin and Paul Finkelman respond to the comments on their article, The "Free White Person" Clause of the Naturalization Act of 1790 as Super-Statute.

Paradoxical Citizenship, Amanda Frost

William & Mary Law Review

In their article, The “Free White Person” Clause of the Naturalization Act of 1790 as Super-Statute, Gabriel J. Chin and Paul Finkelman make a powerful case that the Naturalization Act of 1790 is a “super-statute” that has shaped not only U.S. immigration law and policy, but also America’s conception of itself as a “White nation.”

[...]

This Comment explores the conflict between the Naturalization Act’s racial restrictions on citizenship (and its proponents’ vision of the United States as a White nation) and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause (and its proponents’ vision of the United States as a multiracial …

Manufactured State Immigration Emergencies As State Vigilantism, Kate Huddleston

Texas A&M Law Review

President Trump shattered norms when he declared a national emergency at the U.S.–Mexico border to build a border wall. State governors have now followed that lead in taking up what Justice Jackson, dissenting in Korematsu v. United States (1944), called the “loaded weapon” of emergency—doing so, like Trump, in the context of the border. Governors of Texas, Arizona, and Florida have all issued state declarations of emergency based on (1) migration, and (2) the Biden administration’s purported failure to engage in immigration enforcement. These state emergency declarations have not been studied or even identified in legal literature as a state …

Essentializing Cultures In Us Asylum Law, Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, Estelle Mckee

Brooklyn Law Review

Asylum applicants must tell a story about their home country that reduces and problematizes its culture. The requirements of asylum law demand that an applicant show why they will suffer persecution in their home country and that their government will not protect them from it. This legal framework prompts applicants to present a narrative in which their home culture plays the role of the ultimate antagonist, the force that propels the applicant’s persecutors to single them out for harm and renders their government passive—or even complicit—in the face of it. Such a narrative necessarily reduces the applicant’s culture to its …

Mass Surrender In Immigration Court, Michael Kagan

UC Irvine Law Review

In theory, the Department of Homeland Security bears the burden of proof when it seeks to deport a person from the United States. But the government rarely has to meet it. This Article presents original data from live observation in Immigration Court, documenting that almost all respondents in deportation proceedings admit and concede the charges against them, even when they have attorneys, without getting anything in return from the government. Focusing especially on the role of immigrant defense lawyers, the Article explores why this is happening. It critiques the legal standards of proof used in Immigration Court, while also exploring …

From Precedent To Policy: The Effects Of Dobbs On Detained Immigrant Youth, Ciera Phung-Marion

Washington Law Review

In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court released the historic decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, holding that the U.S. Constitution does not protect an individual’s right to an abortion. Dobbs overturned many cases, including J.D. v. Azar, which previously protected abortion rights for unaccompanied migrant youth in federal detention facilities. Post-Dobbs, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)—the agency responsible for caring for detained immigrant children—still protects abortion rights as part of its own internal policy. Without judicial precedent, however, this policy lacks the stability to truly protect the rights of the children in its …

Misrepresentations In Labor Trafficking: State Laws As An Alternative Theory Of Liability For Recruiters, Hannah Garvin

Georgia State University Law Review

When addressing labor trafficking of migrants, the focus is typically on prosecuting the traffickers directly involved in obtaining a victim’s labor, but traffickers cannot exploit labor without victims. Research has shown that recruiters, both those intending to provide labor traffickers with victims and those who have no knowledge of the subsequent exploitation perpetrated by the supposed employer, often misrepresent job opportunities to migrants. Both types of recruiters profit off of the exploitation of migrants and ultimately continue to propagate labor trafficking. To effectively deter trafficker-recruiters and ensure independent recruiters are acting ethically, an all-encompassing method of accountability needs to be …

Forced Back Into The Lion's Mouth: Per Se Reporting Requirements In U.S. Asylum Law, Amelia S. Mcgowan

Marquette Law Review

This Article makes a significant contribution to scholarship on asylum

law by identifying and calling for the abolition of a deadly (but unexplored)

development in asylum law: per se reporting requirements. In jurisdictions

where they apply, per se reporting requirements automatically bar protection

to asylum seekers solely because they did not report their non-state persecutors

(such as cartels or domestic abusers) to the authorities before fleeing, even

where reporting would have been futile or dangerous. These requirements

similarly provide no exception where law enforcement openly support an

applicant’s persecutor.

This Article demonstrates that even though per se reporting requirements

have …

Designing Sanctuary, Rick Su

Michigan Law Review

In recent decades, a growing number of cities in the United States have adopted “sanctuary policies” that limit local participation in federal immigration enforcement. Existing scholarship has focused on their legality and effect, especially with respect to our nation’s immigration laws. Largely overlooked, however, is the local process through which sanctuary policies are designed and the reasons why cities choose to adopt them through city ordinances, mayoral orders, or employee handbooks. This Article argues that municipal sanctuary policies are far from uniform, and their variation reflects the different local interests and institutional actors behind their adoption and implementation. More specifically, …

In Citizenship We Trust? The Citizenship Question Need Not Impede Puerto Rican Decolonization, Jimmy Mcdonough

Michigan Law Review

Puerto Rico is an uncomfortable reminder of the democratic deficits within the world’s oldest constitutional democracy. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens who live in a U.S. territory that is subject to the plenary authority of Congress, to which they cannot elect voting members. In 2022, under unified Democratic control for the first time in a decade, Congress considered the Puerto Rico Status Act, legislation that would finally decolonize Puerto Rico. The Status Act offered Puerto Rican voters three alternatives to the colonial status quo—statehood, independence, or sovereignty in free association—and committed Congress to implementing whichever alternative won majority support from …

Peripheral Detention, Transfer, And Access To The Courts, Jessica Rofé

Michigan Law Review

In the last forty years, immigration detention in the U.S. has grown exponentially, largely concentrated in the southern states and outside of the country’s metropoles. In turn, federal immigration officials routinely transfer immigrants from their communities to remote jails and prisons hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away, often in jurisdictions where the law is more favorable to the government. These transfers are conducted without notice or process and frequently occur on weekends or in the predawn hours, when offices are closed and interested parties are lucky to access voicemail.

Federal immigration officials’ use of peripheral detention and transfer significantly …

The United States Must Reform Its Laws To Eradicate Female Genital Mutilation, Kelly Schweikert

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Interconnectedness Of The Classroom To The Health Of Black Men Who Have Sex With Men, Travis Hardee

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

The human right to education and health are inherently interrelated, both key in ensuring the health and development of an equitable and just society.1 Yet, the series of bills currently threatening the inclusion of essential conversations about race, sexuality, and sexual orientation is an overt attempt to obscure the honest history of the United States and further supplant the current social hierarchy. The United States’ failure to acknowledge the essential role representational education plays in undermining the disparate outcomes that afflict vulnerable communities in the country deserves more attention than it has garnered. Here, the disparate health status of Black …

Anti-Abortion Authoritarianism: The Rise Of Restriction On Voting Rights And Free Speech Post-Dobbs, Emma Kalucki

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, state governments have individually addressed abortion rights through legislation. Many Republican controlled state legislators have taken extreme authoritarian and harsh measures to push anti-abortion legislation; however, these measures, while addressing abortion rights, heavily infringe on basic human rights guaranteed to the American people. More specifically, the proposed amendment to Ohio’s State Constitution in August 2023 violated Ohioan’s essential voting rights and Idaho’s No Public Funds for Abortion Act blatantly infringes upon public university professor’s First Amendment freedom of speech.

False Promises Of Protection: Town Of Castle Rock V. Gonzales And The Supreme Court’S Failure To Protect Human Rights, Kylie Rhoton

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Italian And Eu Funding Of The Libyan Coast Guard: How Italian External Border Immigration Policies Have Created Crimes Against Humanity, Public Ignorance, And Legal Accountability Issues, Andrea Beck

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

287(G): Ice Deputizing Local Law Enforcement Harms Migrants And Local Communities, Charles Powers

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to form agreements with local law enforcement departments; deputizing them for ICE’s objectives while they continue to serve their local municipalities. This program has resulted in racial profiling, the stripping of liberties, and wrongful detentions. In recent years, municipalities have signed 287(g) agreements at a staggering rate. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a report pleading for the US to end this practice, yet there seems to be no end in sight. In this essay, I hope to explain …

Barriers At The Border: The Impact Of United States Immigration Policy On Multi-Host Sporting Events, Phoebe Cooper

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reparative Citizenship, Amanda Frost

William & Mary Law Review

The United States has granted reparations for a variety of historical injustices, from imprisonment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War to the Tuskegee syphilis experiments. Yet the nation has never considered reparations for 150 years of discriminatory immigration and citizenship policies that excluded millions based on race, gender, and political opinion—including some who are alive today. This Article argues that the United States can atone for these transgressions by granting “reparative citizenship” to those individuals and their descendants, following the lead of several European countries who have recently provided such relief for those wrongly expelled or excluded in …

“Help Is Here”: How A Daca Pathway To Citizenship Will Help Save The Social Security Fund, Jissel Esparza

Arkansas Law Review

Two federal programs hold their beneficiaries in limbo: DACA and Social Security. This Comment demonstrates that creating a citizenship pathway for the DACA population will not only give these deserving individuals the ability and security to remain in the United States but will also provide relief to Social Security’s impending insolvency through the influx of taxes that these then citizens will contribute as a result of increased opportunities. At the same time, this Comment does not attempt to portray its argument as a “silver bullet.” Rather, this approach is one tool that can be utilized by legislative efforts to remedy …

Having Decency Towards Immigrants Requires The Abolition Of For-Profit Detention Centers, Ariadna Quinares Navarrete

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Opting Out Of The Exception: Washington’S Opportunity To Provide Due Process For Detained Immigrants, Ryan Saunders

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.