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Full-Text Articles in Law
Gender-Based Religious Persecution, Pooja R. Dadhania
Gender-Based Religious Persecution, Pooja R. Dadhania
Faculty Scholarship
People fleeing gender-based violence in the home face an uphill battle when seeking asylum in the United States. Through the lens of public and private spheres, this Article explores the underutilized religion ground for asylum for cases involving gender-based violence in the home—i.e., the private sphere. This Article argues that if an individual imposes a patriarchal practice on an asylum seeker in the private sphere and justifies that practice using religion, the asylum seeker’s resistance to that practice should constitute religious expression.
The religion ground protects individuals who are persecuted because of their religious beliefs and religious expression. It typically …
The Past As Present, Unlearned Lessons And The (Non-) Utility Of International Law, Susan M. Akram
The Past As Present, Unlearned Lessons And The (Non-) Utility Of International Law, Susan M. Akram
Faculty Scholarship
The contemporary moment provides an acute illustration of the dangers of historical amnesia—as if the Trump Administration’s policies of exclusion, extremist nationalism, and presidential imperialism were singular to ‘now,’ and entirely reversible in the next election. This Article argues to the contrary; that we have been down this road before, and the current crisis in immigration and refugee policies is the inevitable development of trends of racism, including anti-Arab, anti-Muslim racism and xenophobia, that have only become normalized by the populist resurgence of Trumpism. If this premise is correct—that we are experiencing a culmination of a historical trajectory—what lessons from …
A Particularly Serious Exception To The Categorical Approach, Fatma E. Marouf
A Particularly Serious Exception To The Categorical Approach, Fatma E. Marouf
Faculty Scholarship
A noncitizen who has been convicted of a “particularly serious crime” can be deported to a country where there is a greater than fifty percent chance of persecution or death. Yet, the Board of Immigration Appeals has not provided a clear test for determining what is a “particularly serious crime.” The current test, which combines an examination of the elements with a fact-specific inquiry, has led to arbitrary and unpredictable decisions about what types of offenses are “particularly serious.” This Article argues that the categorical approach for analyzing convictions should be applied to the particularly serious crime determination to promote …
An Offer Of Firm Resettlement, Robert D. Sloane
An Offer Of Firm Resettlement, Robert D. Sloane
Faculty Scholarship
The Attorney General lacks discretion to grant asylum to any refugee "if, prior to arrival in the United States, he or she entered into another nation with, or while in that nation received, an offer of permanent resident status, citizenship, or some other type of permanent resettlement." This rule, the doctrine of firm resettlement, is unique among the mandatory bars to asylum in the United States. It does not reflect a societal judgment about the moral fitness of an asylum applicant's character-as, for example, does the bar that prohibits granting asylum to persons with a history of violent criminal behavior. …
Orientalism Revisited In Asylum And Refugee Claims, Susan M. Akram
Orientalism Revisited In Asylum And Refugee Claims, Susan M. Akram
Faculty Scholarship
This article examines the stereotyping of Islam both by advocates and academics in refugee rights advocacy. The article looks at a particular aspect of this stereotyping, which can be seen as ‘neo-Orientalism’ occurring in the asylum and refugee context, particularly affecting women, and the damage that it does to refugee rights both in and outside the Arab and Muslim world. The article points out the dangers of neo-orientalism in framing refugee law issues, and asks for a more thoughtful and analytical approach by Western refugee advocates and academics on the panoply of Muslim attitudes and Islamic thought affecting applicants for …