Law Commons^™

Supply And Demand In The Illegal Employment Of Undocumented Workers, Brian Owsley

Catholic University Law Review

The United States is in a quandary regarding immigration. There are over eleven million undocumented aliens residing in the country with about eight million of them working in the American economy.

The federal government has criminalized the illegal entry and the illegal reentry into the United States. Moreover, it has enacted a statute making it illegal to smuggle or harbor aliens. Federal prosecutors across the country have aggressively prosecuted people in violation of these statutes. At the same time, Congress criminalized the illegal employment of undocumented workers, but federal prosecutors rarely ever charge employers with violating this statute.

The economic …

Heirs Of An Administration: Unlawful Executive Actions, Jerome Perez

Catholic University Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States in DHS v. Regents on June 18, 2020, decided to stall the Trump administration from rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy that the Obama administration created contrary to the Administrative Procedures Act (APA)––even though in 2016 the Supreme Court affirmed a preliminary injunction on the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) policy, which mirrors DACA. This blunder offhandedly sacrifices the Supreme Court’s reputation as nonpartisan by enlisting itself as the future arbiter of administrative issues with self-evident resolutions and deciding contrary to those resolutions to endorse a political agenda. …

A Civil Shame: The Failure To Protect Due Process In Discretionary Immigration Bond Hearings, Stacy Brustin

Scholarly Articles

Over the last four years, the US Supreme Court has granted certiorari in four immigration bond review cases. The sheer number of cases the Court has recently considered underscores the significance of this area of immigration law. Each case centers on whether the Immigration and Nationality Act or the Constitution mandates a bond review hearing after prolonged detention. Yet these cases leave unresolved the issue of whether initial bond hearings themselves meet the due process threshold required of civil confinement proceedings. Federal circuit and district courts have addressed aspects of this question and found procedural due process violations. However, most …

Alternative Remedies For Undocumented Workers Left Behind In A Post-Hoffman Plastic Era, Rachel S. Steber

Catholic University Law Review

Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 in order to level the bargaining power of employees and employers to prevent burdening the flow of commerce and depressing workers’ wages. The NLRA vests the administration of promulgating the goals of the NLRA in the National Labor Relations Board (Board), broadly stating that the Board should take such affirmative action as necessary to effectuate the policies of the Act.

In 1935, however, Congress could not predict the future demographic makeup of the American workforce, and in its definition of an “employee” as covered under the NLRA, the statute makes …

Crystal Clear Vagueness: The Board Of Immigration Appeals Hampers Justice With Its Vague “Process Of Justice”, Maria Natera

Catholic University Law Review

The Immigration and Nationality Act has caused the issue of unconstitutional vagueness to become more prominent in recent years in the context of immigration law. The Act provides definitions for certain crimes that are grounds for legal immigrants to be placed in removal proceedings, with the possibility of deportation. With such severe potential consequences, it is crucial that the definitions be crystal clear on what every crime entails in order to give immigrants fair warning.

One such crime that may subject an immigrant to removal proceedings and deportation is a conviction for an “aggravated felony,” coupled with a sentence of …

The "Irish Born" One American Citizenship Amendment, Kevin C. Walsh

Scholarly Articles

Our Constitution has a deferred maintenance problem because we have fallen out of the habit of tending to its upkeep ourselves. The silver lining is a double benefit from any constitutional maintenance projects that we undertake now. These projects are good not only for what they do to our Constitution, but also for making us exercise self-government muscles that have atrophied from civic sloth.

Fortunately, the time has never been better to repeal one of our Constitution’s most pointlessly exclusionary provisions. The President of the United States is married to a naturalized citizen. And nobody can legitimately question the patriotism …

It’S Time To Open Up The L-1b: How The Emergence Of Open Source Technology Will Impact The L-1b Visa Program, Elizabeth K. Ottman

Catholic University Law Review

The L-1 visa program allows multinational companies to transfer both managerial/executive employees and employees who hold “specialized knowledge” to work in the United States. In the Information Technology (IT) industry, it has become increasingly difficult to get workers approved for intra-company transfer due to the way United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) narrowly interprets the definition of specialized knowledge. Although USCIS has issued memoranda that indicate knowledge “need not be proprietary or unique,” in practice, knowledge of proprietary software is the most effective way to prove an employee in the IT industry has specialized knowledge. However, in the last …

Forever Barred: Reinstated Removal Orders And The Right To Seek Asylum, Hillary Gaston Walsh, J.D.

Catholic University Law Review

Amid the largest refugee crisis in history, noncitizens fleeing persecution are routinely barred from applying for asylum in the United States solely because they have a reinstated order of removal. This bar to asylum access is mandated by federal regulation, and it applies indiscriminately—regardless of whether the asylum seeker was persecuted after her initial removal order was entered or whether her initial removal was based on one of the numerous, well-documented errors border patrol officers make when issuing removal orders.

This Article is the first academic piece to examine this regulation's statutory basis, including its legislative history and its troubling …

A-R-C-G- Is Not The Solution For Domestic Violence Victims, Lizbeth Chow

Catholic University Law Review

For over fifteen years, U.S. immigration authorities and courts have grappled with the idea of domestic violence as a basis for asylum. But in 2014, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued a decision indicating that victims of domestic violence may qualify for asylum. This Comment assesses the BIA’s decision and concludes that it is ultimately ineffective. This Comment further suggests that the only practical solution is for Congress to intervene. This Comment first provides a brief historical overview of asylum law to help elucidate the purpose of asylum law. It also provides an in-depth review of the elements needed …

American Presidentialism In The Light Of Barack Obama’S Immigration Reform, Rett R. Ludwikowski, Anna Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

The main purpose of this article is to bring the reader into an atmosphere of intensity created by the political disputes about the need of immigration reform in the United States. It is unquestionable that problems of the immigrants, who for decades were crossing illegally American borders, contribute to internal political turbulence in this country. This article proceeds on the assumption, that the immigration related problems created a social melting pot which became one of the most serious challenges for the American policymakers. The confrontation of the President with Congress was inevitable. On the one hand, Obama’s administration started to …

Removing The Distraction Of Delay, Jill E. Family

Catholic University Law Review

Immigration adjudication is in an awkward position. There is an intricate system to adjudicate immigration removal (deportation) cases, but that system is hindered by restrictions, and the constant threat of further restrictions, that reflect distaste for providing process to foreign nationals facing removal. There is a push and pull phenomenon, with immigration adjudication stretched uncomfortably in between two forces. On the one side, there is a push to apply common notions of due process to immigration removal cases, to push that the same concepts of procedural justice should apply in immigration cases as they would in any other context. On …

Buying Time? False Assumptions About Abusive Appeals, Michael Kagan, Fatma Marouf, Rebecca Gill

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

You Can’T Go Home Again: Analyzing An Asylum Applicant’S Voluntary Return Trip To His Country Of Origin, Brett C. Rowan

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Clearly Amorphous: Finding A Particular Social Group For Children Resisting Gang Recruitment, Adreanna Orlang

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Immigration Enforcement And The Fugitive Slave Acts: Exploring Their Similarities, Karla Mari Mckanders

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Congressional Devolution Of Immigration Policymaking: A Separation Of Powers Critique, Roger C. Hartley

Scholarly Articles

For roughly a decade, federal legislation has devolved to the states some of Congress's authority to adopt immigration policies that discriminate against permanent resident aliens. Equal protection challenges to discriminatory state policies so authorized by Congress raise the knotty issue of the appropriate scope of judicial review. Courts remain divided. The source of the difficulty is that the equal protection "congruence principle" is not applicable to alienage discrimination. Unlike equal protection cases throughout most of constitutional law, the judiciary deploys different standards of judicial review in alienage discrimination cases depending on whether the discrimination arises under federal or state law. …

Border Crossings: Understanding The Civil, Criminal, And Immigration Implications For Battered Immigrants (And Others) Fleeing Across State Lines With Their Children, Catherine F. Klein, Leslye E. Orloff, Hema Sarangapani

Scholarly Articles

This article provides an overview of the impact of state criminal parental kidnapping or custodial interference statutes on immigrant survivors of domestic violence who already have left or wish to leave their state with their children. Specifically, it discusses the jurisdictional laws that relate to interstate custody, criminal implications of intrastate versus interstate custodial interference, the varying applicability of custodial interference statutes for parents who do and do not have court-ordered custody of their children, statutory exceptions or defenses available to survivors of domestic violence facing prosecution on charges of criminal parental kidnapping, and immigration consequences related to a conviction …

Case Comment: Ins V. St. Cyr, Kevin C. Walsh

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

With No Place To Turn: Improving Legal Advocacy For Battered Immigrant Women, Leslye E. Orloff, Deeana Jang, Catherine F. Klein

Scholarly Articles

This article explains some of the unique problems faced by battered immigrant women and offers creative solutions for family lawyers and battered women advocates who have immigrant or refugee clientele. Because battered immigrant women who seek to flee violence need assistance with both family law and immigration law matters, we will discuss both areas and highlight their interrelationship.

Images Of Women In U.S. Immigration Policy: The Paradox Of Domestic Violence, Stacy Brustin

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Expanding Our Vision Of Legal Services Representation:The Hermanas Unidas Project, Stacy Brustin

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Can Congress Denationalize? The Supreme Court's View In Kennedy V. Mendoza-Martinez, Ralph J. Rohner, Jean J. Provost Jr.

Scholarly Articles

In an age when perhaps the foremost concern of the legal profession is the status and protection of the rights of individuals, the few decided cases on the right to citizenship-the most basic of all rights, the "right to have rights"- are of special significance. Since 1950, but prior to this Term, only two Supreme Court cases directly confronted the constitutional questions inherent in an assertion by Congress of the right to separate a person from his nationality. These cases, decided on the same day in 1957, were scarcely reconcilable with each other; now, in 1963, the Supreme Court has …