Migration Studies Commons^™

Virtually Incredible: Rethinking Deference To Demeanor When Assessing Credibility In Asylum Cases Conducted By Video Teleconference, Liz Bradley, Hillary Farber

All Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic forced courthouses around the country to shutter their doors to in-person hearings and embrace video teleconferencing (VTC), launching a technology proliferation within the U.S. legal system. Immigration courts have long been authorized to use VTC, but the pandemic prompted the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) to expand video capabilities and encourage the use of video “to the maximum extent practicable.” In this technology pivot, we must consider how VTC affects cases for international humanitarian protections, where an immigration judge’s ability to accurately gauge an applicant’s demeanor can have life-or-death consequences.

This Article takes a deep dive …

A Is For Asylum Seeker / A De Asilo [Toc], Rachel Ida Buff, Alejandra Oliva

Sociology

A clear and concise A to Z of keywords that echo our current human rights crisis

As millions are forced to leave their nations of origin due to political, economic, and environmental peril, rising racism and xenophobia has led to increasingly harsh policies. A mass-mediated political circus obscures both histories of migration and longstanding definitions of words for people on the move, fomenting widespread linguistic confusion. Under this circus tent, there is no regard for history, legal advocacy, or jurisprudence. Yet in a world where the differences between “undocumented migrant” and “asylum seeker” can mean life or death, words have …

The Paradoxical Implications Of Deported American Students, Edmund T. Hamann, Jessica Mitchell-Mccollough

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This book chapter (which has no formal abstract) uses the case of two children who had to leave the United States because their father was deported to raise questions about how US schooling does or does not anticipate and support students who will need to negotiate schooling in two countries.

Principals and teachers throughout the United States (and world) have students with transnational ties. Sometimes students were born in another country. More commonly, one or both parents were. Sometimes that means students and/or parents lack documentation, which creates anxiety and ambiguity in students’ lives that schools need to negotiate. Suro …

The Intentional De-Cohesion In Deportability, Talha Issevenler

Publications and Research

A critical exploration of loss or decohesion of political agency in deportability.

Interrupted Family Ties: How The Detention Or Deportation Of A Parent Transforms Family Life, Blanca Ramirez

Latino Public Policy

Estimates suggests that between 2011 and 2013, at least half a million children experienced the deportation of a parent (Capps et al. 2015). While multiple studies document the numerous psychological and economic effects of this aggressive system of immigration enforcement, an understudied area in this literature is how families navigate family life throughout the process of a detention and/or deportation. By doing so, this study recognizes that families perform new roles including advocacy, emotional anchoring, and financial laboring in an attempt to maintain family well-being.

Crimmigration, Deportability And The Social Exclusion Of Noncitizen Immigrants, Shirley P. Leyro, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

The spread of crimmigration policies, practices, and rhetoric represents an economically rational strategy and has significant implications for the lived experience of noncitizen immigrants. This study draws up in-depth interviews of immigrants with a range of legal statuses to describe the mechanics through which immigrants internalize and respond to the fear of deportation, upon which crimmigration strategies rely. The fear of deportation and its behavioral effects extend beyond undocumented or criminally convicted immigrants, encompassing lawful permanent residents and naturalized citizens alike. This fear causes immigrants to refuse to use public services, endure labor exploitation, and avoid public spaces, resulting in …

Stateless In The United States: Current Reality And A Future Prediction, Polly J. Price

Faculty Articles

Statelessness exists in the United States-a fact that should be of concern to advocates of strict immigration control as well as those who favor a more welcoming policy. The predominant reasons for statelessness include the presence of individuals who are unable to prove their nationality and the failure of their countries of origin to recognize them as citizens. Migrants with unclear nationality, already a problem for the United States, obstruct efforts to control immigration by the deportation of unauthorized aliens. These existing problems of national identity will increase exponentially if birthright citizenship in the United States is amended to exclude …