Immigration Law Commons^™

Settlers And Immigrants In The Formation Of American Law, Aziz Rana

Aziz Rana

This paper argues that the early American republic is best understood as a constitutional experiment in “settler empire,” and that related migration policies played a central role in shaping collective identity and structures of authority. Initial colonists, along with their 19th century descendants, viewed society as grounded in an ideal of freedom that emphasized continuous popular mobilization and direct economic and political decision-making. However, many settlers believed that this ideal required Indian dispossession and the coercive use of dependent groups, most prominently slaves, in order to ensure that they themselves had access to property and did not have to engage …

Immigration Surveillance, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

In recent years, immigration enforcement levels have soared, yielding a widely noted increase in the number of noncitizens removed from the United States. Less visible, however, has been an attendant sea change in the underlying nature of immigration governance itself, hastened by new surveillance and dataveillance technologies. Like many other areas of contemporary governance, immigration control has rapidly become an information-centered and technology-driven enterprise. At virtually every stage of the process of migrating or traveling to, from, and within the United States, both noncitizens and U.S. citizens are now subject to collection and analysis of extensive quantities of personal information …

Alone And Unrepresented: A Call To Congress To Provide Counsel For Unaccompanied Minors, Shani M. King

Shani M. King

The legal rights of children who enter a country without their parents or other guardians, including the right to legal representation in immigration proceedings, differ vastly across the globe. This Article is the first to show that unaccompanied minors lie at the nexus of international and regional human rights standards governing the treatment of immigrants, children, and civil counsel and to show how the development of human rights standards in these three areas underscores the importance of and the need for counsel for unaccompanied minors. Part I illustrates why unaccompanied minors in the United States need legal representation by focusing …

U.S. Immigration Law And The Traditional Nuclear Conception Of Family: Toward A Functional Definition Of Family That Protects Children's Fundamental Human Rights, Shani M. King

Shani M. King

Although the paramount purpose of United States immigration law is not to protect the integrity of family, U.S.immigration law does explicitly aim to do so in certain circumstances. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) includes family reunification provisions, for example, which allow United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to petition for family members who live in other countries to join them in the United States. Even the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), often described as a draconian statute, technically allows otherwise removable "aliens" to remain in the United States if removal would result in …

Children And Immigration: International, Local, And Social Responsibilities, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol, Justin Luna

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

This essay focuses on the human rights of immigrant children, regardless of the legality of their presence within U.S. borders, especially with respect to health, education, and welfare. In that context, the work explores, as the title suggests, the international, local, and social/cultural normative standards that structure the responsibilities -- independently and collectively, that proverbial village -- with respect to children's well-being. We develop these ideas in three parts. First, we address the foundations of the human rights idea and specifically enumerate the particular normative notions, including international treaties that govern children's lives. Next, we discuss immigration in the United …

On Becoming The Other: Cubans, Castro, And Elian -- A Latcritical Analysis, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

It is difficult to imagine that a cute, little, six-year-old boy would be able to change the favorable socially constructed images of cubanas/os virtually overnight. But that is precisely what happened with Elian and the comunidad cubana en Miami en estos estados unidos. The story is sad and poignant, heart-wrenching and surreal, human and political, civil and social, cultural and economic. It reaches into the souls of all who have fought and lost after having thought that they had fought and won. This essay explores the transformation of the Cuban community in the eyes of the estado unidense majority in …

Nativism, Terrorism, And Human Rights -- The Global Wrongs Of Reno V. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee decision (American-Arab or AADC) is the most recent U.S. Supreme Court pronouncement regarding the intersection of immigration regulations and fundamental constitutional rights enjoyed by foreign subjects present within the United States. In American-Arab, the U.S. government commenced deportation proceedings against two legal permanent residents and six temporary visa holders on the basis of an ideological bias: the plaintiffs were alleged to be members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Popular Front or PFLP) -- a charge all the plaintiffs denied. The Supreme Court's ruling endorsing the legality of the government's deportation actions wholly …

Undocumented Children And Families In America: An Interdisciplinary Exploration Of Challenges And Emerging Opportunities, Diane C. Geraghty

Diane C. Geraghty

No abstract provided.

Keynote Address, Aftermath: Deportation And Human Rights, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

A keynote lecture about how deportation has worked and how deportees are scattered around the world.

The Forgotten Deportees, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

Deportees have basic rights, especially pursuant to European Human Rights Law. We need a better global framework such as a Declaration on the Rights of the Deported, drafted by myself and others.

The (D)Evolution Of Deportation: 1798-2014, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

An overview of where deportation is, where it has come from, and where it is going.

Panelist, Federal Interior Enforcement, With And Without Legalization, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

Discussion about priorities for future enforcement that balance efficiency and basic rights.

An Administrative "Death Sentence" For Asylum Seekers: Deprivation Of Due Process Under 8 U.S.C. § 1158(D)(6)'S Frivolousness Standard, E. Lea Johnston

E. Lea Johnston

In 1996, Congress amended the Immigration and Nationality Act by providing a new sanction for asylum seekers: if an immigration judge makes a finding that a noncitizen has knowingly filed a fraudulent asylum application, then that person is permanently ineligible for immigration benefits. For eleven years, immigration judges, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and federal courts have imposed and reviewed this sanction without specifying a burden of proof. When it did act to fill the statutory gap in April 2007, the Board held that the government must prove the elements of the statute by a preponderance of the evidence. This …

Invisible No More: Domestic Workers Organizing In Massachusetts And Beyond, Natalicia Tracy, Tim Sieber, Susan Moir Scd

Tim Sieber

Domestic workers across the country are making it clear that, even in a difficult political environment, it is possible to make gains for low-wage workers. For the first time in many, many decades, domestic workers are finding ways to win. They are creat
ing policy change that will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers in tangible and substantial ways. The 2014 Massachusetts Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights is the most expansive codification of rights for this long-overlooked part of the labor force ever to be enacted. In one sense, there is nothing new about domestic workers organizing …

Health Care, Immigration, And Voting: The Supreme Court And Judicial Power, Eric J. Segall

Eric J. Segall

No abstract provided.

Punitive Injunctions, Nirej S. Sekhon

Nirej Sekhon

No abstract provided.

Eugenic Laws Restricting Immigration, Paul A. Lombardo

Paul A. Lombardo

No abstract provided.

Famigration (Fam Imm): The Next Frontier In Immigration Law, Kari E. Hong

Kari E. Hong

The recently published article, Immigration’s Family Values by Professor Kerry Abrams and R. Kent Piacenti, and the forthcoming Removing Citizens: Parenthood, Citizenship, and Immigration Courts by Kari Hong examine how, when, and why immigration law uses a different definition of family than the one used in state courts. Despite their differences, in conversation, these two pieces highlight how the Department of Homeland Security likely is either following misguided policies or pursuing improper objectives when creating a federal family law. Crimmigration (Crim Imm) scholarship successfully identified the ways in which the (purported) civil proceedings of immigration law needed the extra constitutional …

Combating Terrorism With The Alien Terrorist Removal Court, Jonathan Yu

Jonathan Yu

No abstract provided.

Natural Disasters, Climate Change And Non-Refoulement: What Scope For Resisting Expulsion Under Articles 3 And 8 Of The European Convention On Human Rights?, Matthew Scott

Matthew Scott

Climate change is already contributing to the displacement of millions of people worldwide as extreme weather events become increasingly frequent and intense. Proposals for responding to the phenomenon of climate change-related displacement overwhelmingly rely on the state to act, with limited discussion of the potential to determine and develop the scope of protection through strategic litigation. This article considers the current and potential scope of protection under articles 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) from a strategic litigation perspective. Individuals facing expulsion from a European host state to a receiving state during or in the …

Observations From The Pilot Study On The Practice And Perspectives Of Lawyers In The United Kingdom And Sweden Regarding Protection From Environmentally Related Harm In An Era Of Climate Change, Matthew Scott

Matthew Scott

A total of nine semi-structured interviews were carried out between November 2013 and April 2014 with senior lawyers specialising in asylum and immigration law in the United Kingdom and Sweden enquiring into their perspectives and practice around the issue of environmentally related cross border displacement. The pilot study suggests that lawyers in Sweden and the United Kingdom are not routinely involved in seeking international protection for individuals who may be at risk of being exposed to environmentally related harm if returned to their countries of origin or habitual residence, although some 'pathways to protection' were identified. I suggest that lawyers …

Immigrants Unshackled: The Unconstitutional Use Of Indiscriminate Restraints, Fatma Marouf

Fatma Marouf

The International Law Of Migrant Smuggling, Anne T. Gallagher Ao, Fiona David

Anne T Gallagher

Presenter - Domestic Migration And State-Created Immigration Climate In The United States, Huyen Pham

Huyen T. Pham

No abstract provided.

Book Review: National Insecurities: Immigrants And U.S. Deportation Policy Since 1882 By Deirdre M. Moloney, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

No abstract provided.

Conference On Draft Convention On Rights Of Forcibly Expelled Persons, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

On May 1-3, Center Interim Director, and Post-Deportation Human Rights Project Director, Dan Kanstroom convened a group of scholars and activists at Boston College’s Connors Center in Dover, MA, for a major conference to discuss the newly created Draft Convention on Rights of Forcibly Expelled Persons.

Human Rights And Immigrants’ Access To Care, Wendy E. Parmet, Simon Fischer

Wendy E. Parmet

Although the human right to health is well established under international law, many states limit non-citizens’ participation in public insurance programs. In the United States, immigrants face especially high barriers due to the lack of recognition of a broad right to health as well as federal statutes restricting many immigrants’ eligibility to federally-funded insurance. High rates of uninsurance among immigrants have a detrimental effect on their health, as well as on the health of citizens who live in their communities. Finch vs. Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector, a recent case decided by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, recognized the rights …

Refuge From Climate Change-Related Harm: Evaluating The Scope Of International Protection Following New Zealand’S Teitiota Judgment, Matthew Scott

Matthew Scott

Extreme weather events have the potential to cause serious harm and can contribute to displacement. Such events are expected to increase in frequency and/or intensity as a consequence of climate change. It is therefore of concern that there is widely considered to be a protection gap when affected individuals cross an international border. However, apart from a handful of cases in Australia and New Zealand, the contours of this perceived gap have seldom been tested in practice. Most recently, the High Court of New Zealand in Teitiota v Chief Executive of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment described a …

The Life Cycle Of Immigration: A Tale Of Two Migrants, William J. Aceves, James M. Cooper

William Aceves

No abstract provided.

Solidarity And Meaningful Membership In Diverse Communities, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

No abstract provided.