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Immigration Law Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Immigration Law

Deporting The Pardoned, Jason A. Cade Dec 2012

Deporting The Pardoned, Jason A. Cade

Scholarly Works

Federal immigration laws make noncitizens deportable on the basis of state criminal convictions. Historically, Congress implemented this scheme in ways that respected the states’ sovereignty over their criminal laws. As more recent federal laws have been interpreted, however, a state’s decision to pardon, expunge, or otherwise set-aside a conviction under state law will often have no effect on the federal government’s determination to use that conviction as a basis for deportation. While scholars have shown significant interest in state and local laws regulating immigrants, few have considered the federalism implications of federal rules that ignore a state’s authority to determine …


Rebellious State Crimmigration Enforcement And The Foreign Affairs Power, Mary Fan Jan 2012

Rebellious State Crimmigration Enforcement And The Foreign Affairs Power, Mary Fan

Articles

The propriety of a new breed of state laws interfering in immigration enforcement is pending before the Supreme Court and the lower courts. These laws typically incorporate federal standards related to the criminalization of immigration ("crimmigration'), but diverge aggressively from federal enforcement policy. Enacting states argue that the legislation is merely a species of "cooperative federalism" that does not trespass upon the federal power over foreign affairs, foreign commerce, and nationality rules since the laws mirror federal standards. This Article challenges the formalist mirror theory assumptions behind the new laws and argues that inconsistent state crimmigration enforcement policy and resulting …


Lifetime Banishment For Selling A Few Joints: The Case For The Modified Categorical Approach And Prosecutorial Discretion For Marijuana Sale Convictions In The Immigration Context, Jacqueline Stabnow Jan 2012

Lifetime Banishment For Selling A Few Joints: The Case For The Modified Categorical Approach And Prosecutorial Discretion For Marijuana Sale Convictions In The Immigration Context, Jacqueline Stabnow

Student Works

No abstract provided.


Constitutionalizing Immigration Law: The Vital Role Of Judicial Discretion In The Removal Of Lawful Permanent Residents, Maritza I. Reyes Jan 2012

Constitutionalizing Immigration Law: The Vital Role Of Judicial Discretion In The Removal Of Lawful Permanent Residents, Maritza I. Reyes

Journal Publications

For decades, scholars and advocates criticized the harsh, mandatory nature of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. They argued that federal district court judges should have discretion to authorize a punishment that fits the facts and circumstances of the crime and the defendant. Similarly, immigration scholars and advocates criticize the harsh laws that categorically remove lawful permanent residents, even after minor crimes, from the United States. In 2005, in United States v. Booker, the Supreme Court "constitutionalized" the Sentencing Guidelines by rendering them advisory, and returning judicial discretion to federal judges. This Article argues that the similar constitutional, historical, theoretical, societal, and …


The U.S. Criminal-Immigration Convergence And Its Possible Undoing, Allegra M. Mcleod Jan 2012

The U.S. Criminal-Immigration Convergence And Its Possible Undoing, Allegra M. Mcleod

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The intensifying convergence of U.S. criminal law and immigration law poses fundamental structural problems. This convergence--which manifests in the criminal prosecution of immigration law violators, in deportation of criminal law violators, and in a growing immigration enforcement and detention apparatus--distorts criminal law incentives and drains enforcement resources, misguides immigration regulation, and undermines efforts to implement alternative immigration regulatory frameworks. This article offers an account, informed by social psychological and literary theory, of why this convergence persists notwithstanding these problems, as well as how the convergence (and inherently associated problems) might be undone. The U.S. criminal-immigration convergence holds powerful sway, despite …