Easing The Guidance Document Dilemma Agency By Agency: Immigration Law And Not Really Binding Rules, Jill Family
Dec 2012
Easing The Guidance Document Dilemma Agency By Agency: Immigration Law And Not Really Binding Rules, Jill Family
Jill E. Family
Immigration law relies on rules that bind effectively, but not legally, to adjudicate millions of applications for immigration benefits every year. This article provides a blueprint for immigration law to improve its use of these practically binding rules, often called guidance documents. The agency that adjudicates immigration benefit applications, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), should develop and adopt its own Good Guidance Practices to govern how it uses guidance documents. This article recommends both a mechanism for reform, the Good Guidance Practices, and tackles many complex issues that USCIS will need to address in creating its practices. The …
Opinion Analysis: Deferring To (Even More) Limited Relief From Removal, Jill Family
May 2012
Opinion Analysis: Deferring To (Even More) Limited Relief From Removal, Jill Family
Jill E. Family
In a unanimous decision on Monday, the Court held that the Department of Justice’s Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) reasonably construed a statute to forbid the imputation of a parent’s U.S. residency and immigration status to a child to compute the child’s eligibility for relief from removal (deportation). The Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit in Holder v. Gutierrez, consolidated with Holder v. Sawyers.
Argument Recap: Imputing Eligibility For Relief From Removal, Jill Family
Jan 2012
Argument Recap: Imputing Eligibility For Relief From Removal, Jill Family
Jill E. Family
At oral argument on January 18, the Court questioned the attorneys in Holder v. Gutierrez and Holder v. Sawyers about calculating relief from removal. At issue in these consolidated cases is whether a parent’s immigration status and residency in the United States may be imputed to a minor child to calculate eligibility for relief from removal. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) said no; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said yes.
Argument Preview: Calculating Relief From Removal, Jill Family
Jan 2012
Argument Preview: Calculating Relief From Removal, Jill Family
Jill E. Family
Holder v. Gutierrez and Holder v. Sawyers call into question the BIA’s decision to forbid the imputation of a parent’s immigration status and residency in the United States to a minor child for the purpose of calculating eligibility for relief from removal. Scratching that simple surface reveals a complex history of imputation and relief from removal.
Administrative Law Through The Lens Of Immigration Law, Jill Family
Dec 2011
Administrative Law Through The Lens Of Immigration Law, Jill Family
Jill E. Family
Immigration law does lag behind in the advancement of public law, but not in all respects. While immigration law is idiosyncratic in many ways, this article finds immigration law in the administrative law mainstream when it comes to its troubles with nonlegislative rules (sometimes called guidance documents). There are concerns throughout administrative law that agencies use such rules to bind regulated parties practically, even if not legally, without the procedural protections of notice and comment.
This article analyzes immigration troubles with nonlegislative rules and makes three main contributions. First, it casts new light on the negative effects of guidance documents …
"Passed Beyond Our Aid:" U.S. Deportation, Integrity, And The Rule Of Law, Daniel Kanstroom
Nov 2011
"Passed Beyond Our Aid:" U.S. Deportation, Integrity, And The Rule Of Law, Daniel Kanstroom
Daniel Kanstroom
The United States is still in the midst of a massive deportation experiment that is exceptionally sweeping and harsh by virtually any historical or comparative measure. In the last twenty-five years, the number of non-citizen deportations has exceeded 25 million. It is therefore important to think critically about how deportation is really working, especially as to many hundreds of thousands of green-card holders. These individuals have grown up, been fully acculturated, attended school, and raised families in the United States. Upon deportation, they are separated from their families and sent to places where they frequently have few acquaintances, do not …
The Right To Deportation Counsel In Padilla V. Kentucky: The Challenging Construction Of The Fifth-And-A-Half Amendment, Daniel Kanstroom
Nov 2011
The Right To Deportation Counsel In Padilla V. Kentucky: The Challenging Construction Of The Fifth-And-A-Half Amendment, Daniel Kanstroom
Daniel Kanstroom
The U.S. Supreme Court’s pathbreaking decision in Padilla v. Kentucky seems reasonably simple and exact: Sixth Amendment norms were applied to noncitizen Jose Padilla’s claim that his criminal defense counsel was ineffective due to allegedly incorrect advice concerning the risk of deportation. This was a very significant move with virtues of both logic and justice. It will likely prevent many avoidable and wrongful deportations. It may also help some deportees who have been wrongly or unjustly deported in the past. However, the apparent exactness of the case, as a Sixth Amendment decision, raises fundamental constitutional questions. For more than a …
Padilla V. Kentucky And The Evolving Right To Deportation Counsel: Watershed Or Work-In-Progress?, Daniel Kanstroom
Nov 2011
Padilla V. Kentucky And The Evolving Right To Deportation Counsel: Watershed Or Work-In-Progress?, Daniel Kanstroom
Daniel Kanstroom
Though widely heralded by immigration and human rights lawyers as a “landmark,” possible “watershed,” and even “Gideon decision” for immigrants, Padilla v. Kentucky is perhaps better understood as a Rorschach test, than as a clear constitutional precedent. It is surely a very interesting and important U.S. Supreme Court case in the (rapidly converging) fields of immigration and criminal law in which the Court struggles with the functional relationship between ostensibly “civil” deportation proceedings and criminal convictions. This is a gratifying development, for reasons not only of justice, fairness, proportionality, and basic human decency, but also (perhaps) of doctrinal consistency. The …
Beyond Decisional Independence: Uncovering Contributors To The Immigration Adjudication Crisis, Jill Family
Feb 2011
Beyond Decisional Independence: Uncovering Contributors To The Immigration Adjudication Crisis, Jill Family
Jill E. Family
The conversation about immigration adjudication has shifted from one detailing shortcomings to one addressing solutions. When formulating solutions, it is important to look beyond any one contributor to the crisis and to promote a holistic view. Recent proposals for immigration adjudication reform acknowledge that fixing the system requires a multi-faceted approach. This article confirms the need for such an approach by showing how one popular cause of the crisis - a lack of decisional independence - only scratches the surface of what ails the immigration adjudication system. Along the way, the article uncovers and evaluates underappreciated crisis contributors.
While decisional …
Murky Immigration Law And The Challenges Facing Immigration Removal And Benefits Adjudication, Jill Family
Dec 2010
Murky Immigration Law And The Challenges Facing Immigration Removal And Benefits Adjudication, Jill Family
Jill E. Family
Immigration adjudication is more diverse than it may seem. Scholars tend to focus on one aspect of administrative immigration adjudication, the decision-making process established to determine whether an individual may be removed (deported) from the United States. But there is a whole other function of administrative immigration adjudication that relatively is ignored in the legal literature. Immigration adjudicators are also tasked with determining whether to grant immigration benefits, such as whether to grant lawful permanent resident (green card) status.
Both types of administrative immigration adjudication, removal and benefits, are in crisis. This article explores the challenges facing each and argues …
A Broader View Of The U.S. Immigration Adjudication Problem, Jill Family
Dec 2010
A Broader View Of The U.S. Immigration Adjudication Problem, Jill Family
Jill E. Family
Immigration adjudication is ailing. A combination of problems within the administrative system and steady efforts to narrow the role of the federal courts has resulted in a system subject to much criticism. It is not unusual to find court of appeals judges describing the administrative adjudication system as dysfunctional.
Becoming An Immigration Lawyer, Jill Family
Dec 2009
Becoming An Immigration Lawyer, Jill Family
Jill E. Family
This book is an essential resource for law students and lawyers interested in a career in administrative law. In the first half of the book, a national expert describes the field, and outlines your optimal entry strategies. The second half offers individual, personalized examples of the various career paths in administrative law, and details the demands and rewards of each. The "how-to" essays are authored by 19 of the leading law firm practitioners, government agency counsels, federal administrative law judges, non-profit group advocates and legal educators. In plain language, they open your eyes to the many rewarding careers that lie …
A Broader View Of The Immigration Adjudication Problem, Jill Family
Dec 2008
A Broader View Of The Immigration Adjudication Problem, Jill Family
Jill E. Family
Are too many individuals diverted from civil immigration adjudication? Each year, the government completes millions of diversions from civil immigration adjudication through explicit and implicit waivers, the expedited removal program and the increasing criminalization of immigration law.
By uncovering and analyzing this diversion phenomenon, this article exposes an important piece of the immigration adjudication problem that has been largely undiagnosed. While judges, scholars, government officials and practitioners have acknowledged serious problems within the civil immigration adjudication system, this article widens the view to incorporate the issue of whether too many are being sidetracked from the system altogether.
This article concludes …
