Law Commons^™

Deported By Marriage: Americans Forced To Choose Between Love And Country, Beth Caldwell

Brooklyn Law Review

As the fiftieth anniversary of Loving v. Virginia approaches, de jure prohibitions against interracial marriages are history. However, marriages between people of different national origins continue to be undermined by the law. The Constitution does not protect the marital rights of citizens who marry noncitizens in the same way that it protects all other marriages. Courts have consistently held that a spouse’s deportation does not implicate the rights of American citizens, and the Constitution has long been held inapplicable in protecting the substantive due process rights of noncitizens facing deportation. Given the spike in deportations over the past decade, hundreds …

Dna, Donor Offspring And Derivative Citizenship: Redefining Parentage Under The Citizenship Act, Stefanie Carsley

Dalhousie Law Journal

Under Canada's Citizenship Act, children born outside Canada acquire derivative citizenship-that is, citizenship through descent or parentage-if at least one of their parents is Canadian. However according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, in order to qualify for derivative citizenship a child must have a genetic link to a Canadian citizen. Canadians who use donated sperm or eggs to conceive-including women who give birth using donated eggs-are therefore not considered parents for citizenship purposes. According to the Federal Court of Appeal, Canadian donors may also pass on their citizenship to their genetic offspring. This article argues that current interpretations of the …

Taking The Direct File Statute To Criminal Court: Immigration Consequences For Juveniles, Marlon J. Baquedano

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

Florida is one of fifteen jurisdictions in the United States that have enacted a direct file statute that grants prosecutors the ability to transfer juveniles from the juvenile justice system to adult court. Critiques of the direct file statute have focused on its effectiveness on deterrence and recidivism, its arbitrariness in application, and the tension with the role of juvenile justice in reforming rather than punishing youth. This Note explores the harmful consequences of the direct file statute on non-citizen youth in immigration proceedings and the probability of obtaining immigration relief. An adult conviction as opposed to a juvenile delinquency …

Is Modern Day Slavery A Private Act Or A Public System Of Oppression?, Maria L. Ontiveros

Seattle University Law Review

The government focuses on trafficking as the definitive form of modern day slavery. In doing so, it portrays modern day slavery as a private act with identifiable wrongdoers and views the Thirteenth Amendment through the lens of forced labor. Workers’ advocates, on the other hand, portray modern day slavery as a systemic form of oppression, supported by governmental policies on immigration and occupational exclusions. These groups focus on the Thirteenth Amendment through the lens of class. A historical analysis suggests that the proper approach views the Thirteenth Amendment through the lens of both class and labor.

Matter Of A-R-C-G- And Domestic Violence Asylum: A Glimmer Of Hope Amidst A Continuing Need For Reform, Caroline Mcgee

University of Miami Law Review

In August 2014, the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) issued its first published decision recognizing domestic violence as a basis for asylum. In Matter of A-R-C-G-, the BIA held that a woman who had suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her husband in her native Guatemala qualified for asylum as a member of a particular social group. The landmark decision came after years of uncertainty regarding the viability of domestic violence asylum claims and fourteen years after the BIA had rejected domestic violence as a basis for asylum in Matter of R-A-. Parts I and II of this Comment …

The Case Against So-Called Comprehensive Immigration Reform And For, Instead, Enforcing The Numerical Limits On Immigration Adopted By Congress, Jan C. Ting

Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

National Security And U.S. Immigration Policy, Edward Alden

Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Fading Prospects For Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Muzaffar Chishti

Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Towards Comprehensive Immigration Reform: A Consensus Within Emerging Trends, Mark R. Von Sternberg

Journal of International and Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Padilla V. Kentucky: Sound And Fury, Or Transformative Impact, Steven Zeidman

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Realizing Padilla’S Promise: Ensuring Noncitizen Defendants Are Advised Of The Immigration Consequences Of A Criminal Conviction, Yolanda Vàzquez

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Conference Report: Padilla And The Future Of The Defense Function, Joel M. Schumm

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

You Are The Last Lawyer They Will Ever See Before Exile: Padilla V. Kentucky And One Indigent Defender Office's Account Of Creating A Systematic Approach To Providing Immigration Advice In Times Of Tight Budgets And High Caseloads, Carlos J. Martinez, George C. Palaidis, Sarah Wood Borak

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Immigration Enforcement And State Post-Conviction Adjudications: Towards Nuanced Preemption And True Dialogical Federalism, Daniel Kanstroom

University of Miami Law Review

The relationship between federal immigration enforcement and state criminal, post-conviction law exemplifies certain inevitable complexities of preemption and federalism. Because neither perfect uniformity nor complete preemption is possible, we must consider two questions: First, whether (and, if so, how) state courts adjudicating rights should account for legitimate federal immigration law goals, such as uniformity and finality? Second, how should federal courts deploy preemption and federalism principles when faced with challenges by federal authorities to such state court actions? This article offers a framework of “dialogical federalism,” seeking to normalize certain tensions under a rubric of dialogue, rather than formal hierarchy …

Immigration, Criminalization, And Disobedience, Allegra M. Mcleod

University of Miami Law Review

This Article explores two contending visions of immigration justice: one focused on expanding procedural rights for immigrants, and a second associated with a movement of immigrant youth who have come out as “undocumented and unafraid,” issuing a fundamental challenge to immigration restrictionism. As immigration enforcement in the United States increasingly relies on criminal prosecution and detention, advocates for reform have increasingly turned to constitutional criminal procedure, seeking greater procedural protections for immigrants. But this Article argues that this focus on enhanced procedural protections is woefully incomplete as a vision of immigration justice. Although a right to counsel, for example, may …

How The Lone Star State Reached The Entire Nation: The Need To Limit The Nationwide Injunction Against Dapa And Daca In United States V. Texas, Denise Cartolano

Florida A & M University Law Review

On June 23, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States was ultimately deadlocked in the case United States v. Texas. In just one line, the Supreme Court shattered the dreams of millions of undocumented children and their parents who were residing in the United States; those like Anthony and Maria.The Supreme Court's utterance of these nine words, "[t]he judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court," created instability and uncertainty amongst undocumented children, students, workers and parents. This divided decision upheld a nationwide injunction against President Obama's executive action creating DAPA and expanding DACA.

Although the stories of Anthony …

A Study On Immigrant Activism, Secure Communities, And Rawlsian Civil Disobedience, Karen J. Pita Loor

Marquette Law Review

This Article explores the immigrant acts of protest during the Obama presidency in opposition to the Secure Communities (SCOMM) immigration enforcement program through the lens of philosopher John Rawls’ theory of civil disobedience and posits that this immigrant resistance contributed to that administration’s dismantling the federal program by progressively moving localities, and eventually whole states, to cease cooperation with SCOMM. The controversial SCOMM program is one of the most powerful tools of immigration enforcement in the new millennium because it transforms any contact with state and local law enforcement into a potential immigration investigation. SCOMM has now been revived through …

The Preempting Of Equal Protection For Immigrants?, Jenny-Brooke Condon

Washington and Lee Law Review

Recent debates about immigration have focused overwhelmingly on unauthorized migration and the respective roles of the federal and state governments in enforcing immigration law. But that emphasis in law and theory has obscured a critical civil rights question of our time: what measure of equality is due to those with the opportunity to abide by the rules of entry, who are now lawfully present within the United States? Although the United States Supreme Court recognized decades ago that lawfully present migrants are a discrete and insular minority entitled to heightened judicial protection under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth …

Binding The Enforcers: The Administrative Law Struggle Behind President Obama's Immigration Actions, Michael Kagan

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Applying The U.S. Constitution To Foreign Asylum Seekers: Exposing A Curious, Inconsistent Practice In The Federal Courts, Shalini Bhargava Ray

Marquette Law Review

Asylum law is based on an international treaty, but federal courts routinely invoke U.S. constitutional norms in adjudicating asylum claims. Specifically, they rely on constitutional norms when gauging whether an asylum applicant has suffered harm amounting to “persecution” and whether the harm was inflicted “on account of” a protected characteristic, such as political opinion or religion. In a close analysis of this unusual practice, this Article argues that federal courts have come to inconsistent, and often incompatible, conclusions regarding the use of constitutional norms in the analysis of asylum claims: principally, on whether constitutional norms establish sufficient, insufficient, necessary, or …

Mapping Citizenship: Status, Membership, And The Path In Between, D. Carolina Núñez

Utah Law Review

The concept of citizenship poses an interesting asymmetry: though all citizens receive the same rights and obligations on equal terms, citizenship is not distributed to individuals on equal terms. In the United States, some are citizens by virtue of birth within the national territory or birth to citizen parents. Others must undergo the process of naturalization. Different citizenship rules appear to solve for different variables, and it is not clear whether and how those variables relate to one another. This Article begins unraveling the paradox. It argues that the apparent paradox results from a failure to understand the relationship between …

Thailand's Ban On Commercial Surrogacy: Why Thailand Should Regulate, Not Attempt To Eradicate, Allison L. Zimmerman

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

International commercial surrogacy is when a person or couple from one country hires a surrogate in a different country. In recent years, this form of reproductive tourism has been a booming industry in Thailand due to the lack of meaningful regulation, relatively low cost, and unavailability in other countries. After a string of scandals involving Thai surrogacy arrangements arose, however, the Thai government enacted the Protection for Children Born Through Assisted Reproductive Technologies Act (the “ART Act”), prohibiting Thai commercial surrogacy from serving foreign clients, and only allowing Thai heterosexual couples to make use of surrogacy arrangements. As a result, …