Law Commons^™

In Efforts To Regulate Immigration, States Test Limits Of Their Authority, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.

November Roundtable: Multiculturalism And Integration Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Germany's Integration Blinkers. What's So Bad About Parallel Societies?” by Henryk M. Broder, Spiegel Online, November 20, 2010

and

“Angela Merkel: German Multiculturalism has Utterly Failed,” by Matthew Weaver, The Guardian, October 17, 2010

A Protection Post-Mortem On The "Death" Of Multiculturalism In Germany, Erin Mooney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Noticeably absent from the recent pronouncements of the “death” of multiculturalism in Germany, including Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own conclusion that the policy had “utterly failed,” has been any interest to seriously examine, let alone address, the reasons for such a failure.

Multiculturalism And The Struggle Of National Normative Challenges, Marc Alexander C. Gionet

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Globalization has not translated into a set of universal monolithic values. As populations relocate for various reasons, increasingly less effort is required not only to stay connected, but to remain within the home community via satellite television, radio, telecommunications, and locally concentrated diaspora. Henryk M. Broder has described such a phenomenon as the development of “ parallel societies, ” which result from immigrants’ failure or lack of interest in integrating into a host community. The question that many commentators have attempted to answer is: does the development of parallel societies, or even additional cultural diversity, represent a threat or a …

European Identity Struggles In The Age Of Austerity, Par Engstrom

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The economic crisis has coincided with a discernible rise of right-wing populist parties in a number of European countries. This was most recently seen in elections in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Right-wing populist parties also hold parliamentary seats in Austria, Denmark, Finland, and Norway, and they have been part of coalition governments in Italy and Switzerland for some time. In France, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front, although not represented in parliament, wields considerable political influence, and may receive an additional electoral boost should Le Pen’s daughter, Marine Le Pen, inherit the party leadership. True, these parties still enjoy only …

Immigration As Urban Policy, Rick Su

Journal Articles

Immigration has done more to shape the physical and social landscape of many of America’s largest cities than almost any other economic or cultural force. Indeed, immigration is so central to urban development in the United States that it is a wonder why immigration is not explicitly discussed as an aspect of urban policy. Yet in the national conversation over immigration, one would strain to hear it described in this manner. This essay addresses this oversight by making the case for a reorientation of immigration toward urban policy; and it does so by advocating for an immigration regime that both …

Lessons Learned, Lessons Lost: Immigration Enforcement's Failed Experiment With Penal Severity, Teresa A. Miller

Journal Articles

This article traces the evolution of “get tough” sentencing and corrections policies that were touted as the solution to a criminal justice system widely viewed as “broken” in the mid-1970s. It draws parallels to the adoption some twenty years later of harsh, punitive policies in the immigration enforcement system to address perceptions that it is similarly “broken,” policies that have embraced the theories, objectives and tools of criminal punishment, and caused the two systems to converge. In discussing the myriad of harms that have resulted from the convergence of these two systems, and the criminal justice system’s recent shift away …

Aliens, Deportation And The Equal Protection Clause: A Critical Reappraisal, Terry Jane Helbush

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond Status: Seeing The Whole Child, Angela D. Morrison, David B. Thronson

Angela D. Morrison

Cubans, ¡Si!; Haitians, ¡No!: U.S. Immigration Policy, Cultural Politics, And Immigrant Eligibility, Michele Zebich-Knos

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

No abstract provided.

Think Outside The Cell: Are Binding Detention Standards The Most Effective Strategy To Prevent Abuses Of Detained Illegal Aliens?, Federico D. Burlon

Political Science Honors Projects

In the last twenty years the U.S. government has increasingly utilized detention to control illegal immigration. This practice has become controversial because it has caused numerous in-custody abuses and deaths of immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees and even citizens. Immigrant rights advocates have called for the passage of binding detention standards to prevent in-custody abuses. This thesis’s policy analysis reveals, however, that while they may finesse the practice of immigration detention, such binding standards would be ineffective in protecting immigrants’ rights. Instead this policy analysis calls for and explains the feasibility of discontinuing the practice of mass immigrant detention.

Rethinking Immigration Detention, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

In recent years, scholars have drawn attention to the myriad ways in which the lines between criminal enforcement and immigration control have blurred in law and public discourse. This essay analyzes this convergence in the context of immigration detention. For decades, courts and observers have documented and analyzed a wide range of detention-related concerns, including mandatory and presumed custody, coercion and other due process violations, inadequate access to counsel, prolonged and indefinite custody, inadequate conditions of confinement, and violations of international law obligations. With the number of detainees skyrocketing since the 1990s, these concerns have rapidly proliferated - to the …

The Politics Of Immigration: A Representation Of The Unconscious Mind, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the concept of an illegal immigrant from different psychological perspectives.

The Political Economy Of International Labor Migration Law, Joel P. Trachtman

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Crossing Over: Why Attorneys (And Judges) Should Not Be Able To Cross-Examine Witnesses Regarding Their Immigration Statuses For Impeachment Purposes, Colin Miller

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Local Fragmentation As Immigration Regulation, Rick Su

Journal Articles

Immigration scholars have traditionally focused on the role of national borders and the significance of nation-state citizenship. At the same time, local government scholars have called attention to the significance of local boundaries, the consequence of municipal residency, and the influence of the two on the fragmentation of American society. This paper explores the interplay between these two mechanisms of spatial and community controls. Emphasizing their doctrinal and historic commonalities, this article suggests that the legal structure responsible for local fragmentation can be understood as second-order immigration regulation. It is a mechanism that allows for finer regulatory control than the …

The Overlooked Significance Of Arizona's New Immigration Law, Rick Su

Journal Articles

The current debate over Arizona's new immigration statute, S.B. 1070, has largely focused on the extent to which it “empowers” or “allows” state and local law enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration laws. Yet, in doing so, the conversation thus far overlooks the most significant part of the new statute: the extent to which Arizona mandates local immigration enforcement by attacking local control. The fact is the new Arizona law does little to adjust the federalist balance with respect to immigration enforcement. What it does, however, is threaten to radically alter the state-local relationship by eliminating local discretion, undermining the …

Reclaiming The Immigration Constitution Of The Early Republic, James Pfander

Faculty Working Papers

In contrast to the view that national immigration policy began in 1875, this article explores evidence that immigration policy dates from the early republic period. Built around the naturalization clause, which regulates the ability of aliens to own land and shaped their willingness to immigrate to America, this early republic immigration policy included strong norms of prospectivity, uniformity, and transparency. Drawing on these norms, which readily apply in both the naturalization and immigration contexts, the paper argues against the plenary power doctrine, particularly as it purports to authorize Congress to change the rules of immigration midstream and apply them to …

The High Cost Of Free Speech: Anti-Solicitation Ordinances, Day Laborers And The Impact Of 'Backdoor' Local Immigration Regulations, Kristina M. Campbell

Journal Articles

This paper examines how local efforts to regulate the activities of immigrants, while not regulation of immigration per se, can have a substantial and detrimental effect on the civil rights of immigrants and Latinos. The paper discuss how day laborers - individuals, mostly Latino men, who seek short-term employment in public fora - are routinely targeted by state and local governments, federal immigration authorities, anti-immigrant activists, and the general public as a symbol of the employment of unauthorized aliens. Even though many day laborers are lawfully present, or have authorization to work in the United States, due to the high-profile …

Welcoming Women: Recent Changes In U.S. Asylum Law, Jillian Blake

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

The Statue of Liberty, which has been called the "Mother of Exiles," stands as a reminder of one of the foundational ideals of U.S. immigration policy-providing refuge to the vulnerable. Women worldwide have new reason to believe in this promise, because victims of domestic violence may now have a better chance of being granted asylum in a U.S. immigration court.

Exhaustion Of Administrative Remedies In Immigration Cases: Finding Jurisdiction To Review Unexhausted Claims The Board Of Immigration Appeals Considers Sua Sponte On The Merits, Larry R. Fleurantin

Larry R. Fleurantin

In order for an appellate court to review an agency action, the action must be final and all administrative remedies must be exhausted. With regard to the exhaustion requirement, the author examines how the majority of circuits have held that federal circuit courts have jurisdiction to review immigration claims considered sua sponte by the Board of Immigration Appeals. However, the Eleventh Circuit seems to be the one outlier finding no jurisdiction, and the author believes the holding in Amaya-Artunduaga v. United States Attorney General to be incorrect and recommends it be overruled

The Meaning Of Marriage: Immigration Rules And Their Implications For Same-Sex Spouses In A World Without Doma, Scott Titshaw

Scott Titshaw

An estimated 35,000 U.S. Citizens are living in our country with same-sex foreign partners, but with no right to stay here together on the basis of their relationship. Many are faced with a choice between their partners and the country they love. This is true, even if the couple is legally married in one of the growing number of states and foreign countries that recognize same-sex marriage. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines “marriage” under all federal law as an exclusively heterosexual institution, now stands squarely in their way. Reform options that would help these couples to stay …

Sorry Ma'am, Your Baby Is An Alien: Outdated Immigration Rules And Assisted Reproductive Technology, Scott Titshaw

Scott Titshaw

The growing use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) and legal recognition of same-sex relationships are raising questions regarding the recognition of parent-child relationships. State and foreign family law have been wrestling with these issues for decades, but U.S. immigration law is lagging far behind. So far, guidance exists on only one ART related issue under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA): whether a U.S. citizen transmits her citizenship to a child born abroad. Unfortunately, that guidance is contradictory. The U.S. Department of State (DOS) requires genetic kinship for citizenship transmission. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals focuses on the parents’ …

The Unintended Consequences Of Low H-1b Visa Caps: Brain Blocking, Brain Diversion, And Racial Discrimination Against Asian Technology Professionals, Jeffrey L. Gower

Jeffrey L Gower

American business interests face increasing difficulties as they attempt to compete against global technology-based industries. As the U.S. educational system produces interests face increasing difficulties as they attempt to compete fewer technology workers, many firms look to foreign countries such as India, China, or other Asian countries that have an abundance of skilled professionals. The U.S. Congress created the H-1B visa program in 1990 for educated skilled foreign workers, and manipulated the yearly cap on several occasions. Limits were as high as 195,000 as recently as 2003, but were reduced to 65,000 by 2009. The result of placing a low …

The Role Of Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Law, Shoba S. Wadhia

Journal Articles

The concept of "prosecutorial discretion" appears in the immigration statute, agency memoranda and court decisions about select immigration enforcement decisions. Prosecutorial discretion extends to decisions about which offenses or populations to target; whom to stop, interrogate, and arrest; whether to detain or release a noncitizen; whether to initiate removal proceedings; and whether to execute a removal order; among other decisions. Similar to the criminal context, prosecutorial discretion in the immigration context is an important tool for achieving cost-effective law enforcement and relief for individuals who present desirable qualities or humanitarian circumstances. Yet there is a dearth of literature on the …

Decriminalizing Border Crossings, Victor C. Romero

Journal Articles

An international border crosser should only be deemed a criminal if the United States government can prove that, with requisite criminal intent, she engaged in an act aside from crossing the border that would constitute a crime. No longer should crossing the border be a strict liability criminal offense. Doing so will restore balance to the civil immigration system, conserve scarce enforcement resources to target truly criminal behavior, enhance our standing abroad, and help heal our racially-polarized discourse on immigration policy.

Christian Realism And Immigration Reform, Victor C. Romero

Journal Articles

Drawing upon President Barack Obama’s admiration of Reinhold Niebuhr’s work, this Essay outlines a Protestant, Christian realist approach toward immigration policy, with specific focus on the role of the executive in providing providential leadership. Embracing realism in its political, moral, and theological dimensions, Christian realism offers a pragmatic, yet optimistic, alternative to secular liberalism’s faith in reason by striving instead to adhere to God’s guidance on matters, taking into account the fundamentally flawed nature of man. The specific policy prescriptions described here mirror the twin virtues of Christian realism by promoting the hope in pursuit of the peaceable kingdom and …

Interrogating Iqbal: Intent, Inertia, And (A Lack Of) Imagination, Victor C. Romero

Journal Articles

In Ashcroft v. Iqbal, the Court reaffirmed the long-standing equal protection doctrine that government actors can only be held liable for discriminatory conduct when they purposefully rely on a forbidden characteristic, such as race or gender, in promulgating policy; to simply know that minorities and women will be adversely affected by the law does not deny these groups equal protection under the law. This Essay interrogates this doctrine by taking a closer look at Iqbal and Feeney, the thirty-year-old precedent the majority cited as the source of its antidiscrimination standard. Because Feeney was cited in neither of the …

The Veil That Covered France's Eye: The Right To Freedom Of Religion And Equal Treatment In Immigration And Naturalization Proceedings, Kendal Davis

Nevada Law Journal

In June 2008, France’s highest administrative court upheld a decision to deny citizenship to a Muslim woman because, essentially, she was ‘not French enough.’ This decision incited both praise and outrage in the international human rights arena regarding considerations such as the right to freedom of religion, gender equality, and citizenship.

This Note examines relevant French domestic law and international human rights instruments, and argues that while immigration and naturalization decisions remain an exercise of broad sovereign powers, the emerging human rights norm to be free from discrimination should apply in naturalization proceedings. Furthermore, despite judicial deference and flexibility to …

The Overlooked Significance Of Arizona's New Immigration Law, Rick Su

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

Immigration has once again become the subject of widespread interest and public debate. This renewed interest, however, was not the result of Harry Reid's vow that the Senate will tackle comprehensive immigration reform sometime this year. Nor was it prompted by new policy initiatives with respect to immigration enforcement being implemented by the Department of Homeland Security. Rather, it has been the result of legislative action taken in one state-Arizona. Arizona's move to regulate immigration has predictably raised questions about the proper role of a state with respect to an area dominated by federal legislation. Yet the discussion thus far …