Law Commons^™

Brignoni-Ponce And The Establishment Of Race-Based Immigration Enforcement, Isabel Skilton

Washington International Law Journal

United States v. Brignoni-Ponce solidified the racist enforcement of United States immigration laws by allowing “Mexican appearance” to be a factor forming reasonable suspicion in a roving patrol. The United States Supreme Court rationalized race-based immigration enforcement by relying on erroneous immigration demographics and a misconstrued notion of serving the public interest. This comment demonstrates that the rationales provided by the Supreme Court are illogical, discriminatory, and harmful to communities of color. This comment analyzes the impacts of race-based discrimination and provides alternatives which may cabin the impact of Brignoni-Ponce. Aside from overruling Brignoni-Ponce in its entirety, a probable cause …

No Refuge For The Sick: How The Eu's Health-Based Non-Refoulement Standard Compounds The Exclusionary Nature Of International Refugee Law, Cassandra Baker

Washington International Law Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic poses grave threats to the life and health of asylum seekers in Europe. Many potential asylees are forced to reside in cramped, unsanitary facilities and do not have adequate access to medical treatment. On top of these dangers, many are likely to be denied asylum due to the stringency of international refugee law and European Union (“EU”) asylum procedures. As a result, a number of these asylum seekers will turn to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides broader non-refoulement protections. However, even Article 3, as currently interpreted by the European Court of …

Refoulement As Pandemic Policy, Haiyun Damon-Feng

Washington International Law Journal

COVID-19 restrictions on access to asylum likely violate non-refoulement obligations under international and federal law, and while they are extreme, they are not unique. There is a small but growing body of scholarly literature that rightly argues that such policies are pretextual covers used to enact restrictive immigration policy goals, but these arguments generally arise from an ahistorical perspective. This article positions restrictive COVID immigration policies in a broader historical context and argues that the United States has a long history of weaponizing fear of disease and contagion from migrants to justify restrictive immigration policies. The article offers a historical …

Let Indians Decide: How Restricting Border Passage By Blood Quantum Infringes On Tribal Sovereignty, Rebekah Ross

Washington Law Review

American immigration laws have been explicitly racial throughout most of the country’s history. For decades, only White foreign nationals could become naturalized citizens. All racial criteria have since vanished from the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)—all but one. Section 289 of the INA allows “American Indians born in Canada” to freely cross into the United States if they possess at least 50% blood “of the American Indian race.” Such American Indians cannot be prohibited from entering the United States and can obtain lawful permanent residence status—if they meet the blood quantum requirement. Such racialized immigration controls arbitrarily restrict cross-border Indigenous …

The Substantial Impact Approach: Reviewing Policy Statements In Light Of Apa Finality, Emily Parsons

Washington Law Review

Federal agencies engage in a wide range of non-binding action, issuing guidance documents such as policy statements and interpretive rules. Although these guidance documents may have a substantial impact on industries or members of the public, courts often refuse to review their substance. The Administrative Procedure Act requires agency action to be “final” before courts can review it. The D.C. Circuit and the Ninth Circuit have taken conflicting and often messy approaches in determining whether interpretive rules and policy statements are final and thus reviewable. This Comment proposes a new approach: the substantial impact approach. Under this approach—repurposed from a …

The Story Of A Class: Uses Of Narrative In Public Interest Class Actions Before Certification, Anne E. Ralph

Washington Law Review

When litigants in public interest class actions tell their stories, the narratives can advance the law and influence public debate. But before class members’ stories can vindicate civil rights on the merits, plaintiffs must overcome the hurdle of class certification.

For decades, obtaining class certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 was not a significant challenge for plaintiffs seeking to litigate as a class. But recent restrictive procedural developments—including heightened standards for class certification—threaten the powerful stories that can be told through public interest class actions.

Missing in the critical analysis of class action jurisprudence is any discussion of …

The Trauma Of Trump's Family Separation And Child Detention Actions: A Children's Rights Perspective, Jonathan Todres, Daniela Villamizar Fink

Washington Law Review

In April 2018, the Trump Administration publicly announced a new zero-tolerance policy for illegal entries at the U.S. border. This action kicked off a wave of family separations that made headlines and drew criticism from around the globe. Despite resounding condemnation of these actions, the Trump Administration defended its family separation policy as a “tough deterrent.” At least 2,600 families were torn apart in the ensuing months. And subsequent reports—from both the government and others—have detailed widespread abuses of and substandard conditions for children held in detention centers. The consequences of these separations and the maltreatment of children in detention …

Limitations Of Washington Evidence Rule 413, Sarah Desautels

Washington Law Review

This Comment analyzes Washington State Evidence Rule 413 (ER 413). ER 413 renders evidence of the immigration status of criminal defendants, civil plaintiffs, and witnesses presumptively inadmissible at trial. The Washington State Supreme Court adopted ER413 in September 2018. It is the first of its kind in the nation. ER 413 provides a clear, uniform rule limiting the use of immigration evidence, an area where prior caselaw had created uncertainty. However, ER 413 falls short of its goal of promoting access to justice and protecting immigrants from jury bias without a supporting system that addresses (1) the dangers of implicit …

Addiction-Informed Immigration Reform, Rebecca Sharpless

Washington Law Review

Immigration law fails to align with the contemporary understanding of substance addiction as a medical condition. The Immigration and Nationality Act regards noncitizens who suffer from drug or alcohol substance use disorder as immoral and undesirable. Addiction is a ground of exclusion and deportation and can prevent the finding of “good moral character” needed for certain immigration applications. Substance use disorder can lead to criminal behavior that lands noncitizens, including lawful permanent residents, in removal proceedings with no defense. The time has come for immigration law to catch up to today’s understanding of addiction. The damage done by failing to …

Preventing Erroneous Expedited Removals: Immigration Judge Review And Requests For Reconsideration Of Negative Credible Fear Determinations, Katherine Shattuck

Washington Law Review

The Central American refugee crisis has renewed criticism of expedited removal, which allows immigration officials to remove without a hearing certain noncitizens who seek to enter or have entered the United States. Asylum seekers who arrive at the border or ports of entry without entry documents undergo a screening process to determine whether they have a “credible fear of persecution.” An individual who receives a positive credible fear determination is entitled to a full hearing before an immigration judge. In contrast, an individual who receives a negative credible fear determination is typically subjected to expedited removal. Scholars and human rights …

Kill The Snitch: How Henriquez-Rivas Affects Asylum Eligibility For People Who Report Serious Gang Crimes To Law Enforcement, James Carr

Washington Law Review

In 2015, El Salvador became the murder capital of the world. Like its Central American neighbors, El Salvador has experienced a significant increase in gang violence during the past decade, as evidenced by its 2015 homicide statistics showing over 6,600 registered homicides in the country despite a population of only 6.3 million people. Rising crime rates and widespread gang influence are forcing many affected Central Americans to seek asylum in the United States. Individuals may qualify for asylum if they have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social …

Mexico's Missed Opportunities To Protect Irregular Women Transmigrants: Applying A Gender Lens To Migration Law Reform, Alyson L. Dimmitt Gnam

Washington International Law Journal

Mexico is a transit country for hundreds of thousands of migrants traveling north. Due to economic liberalization, women increasingly migrate in search of employment opportunities, a phenomenon called the “feminization of migration.” As women migrate, they face high risks of sexual and gender-based violence, including sexual assault, rape, kidnapping, and trafficking. During transit, the impunity of organized criminal groups and corrupt state officials facilitate rampant abuse of women. Mexico’s former migration policy exacerbated women’s vulnerability to abuse by criminal organizations by pushing women into dangerous illicit migration channels. In response to the abuse of transmigrants, Mexico passed a sweeping migration …

Finding A Country To Call Home: A Framework For Evaluating Legislation To Reduce Statelessness In Southeast Asia, Alec Paxton

Washington International Law Journal

Statelessness is a problem that affects 12 million people worldwide, with severe social, economic, and political consequences. This problem is particularly acute in Southeast Asia. Over the last sixty years, Southeast Asian states have attempted to reduce existing stateless populations through nationalization. These attempts have been met with varying degrees of success. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees and other non-governmental organizations have recently started to evaluate the outcome of these legislative attempts to reduce statelessness. These ad hoc evaluations provide valuable lessons for those who are drafting legislation to reduce existing stateless populations as well as legal scholars …

A Lesser-Known Immigration Crisis: Federal Immigration Law In The Commonwealth Of The Northern Mariana Islands, Robert J. Misulich

Washington International Law Journal

After voluntarily entering into a political union with the United States, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (“CNMI”) administered its own immigration system and allowed thousands of guest workers to enter and remain indefinitely. Guest workers contributed to the exponential growth of the CNMI economy during the 1980s and 1990s. However, labor and human rights abuses under this system led to public outrage in the mainland United States, prompting numerous attempts to bring the CNMI within the jurisdiction of federal immigration law. Federalization occurred after Congress passed the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (“CNRA”). Although well intentioned, the …

Ninth Circuit V. Board Of Immigration Appeals: Defining "Sexual Abuse Of A Minor" After Estrada-Espinoza V. Mukasey, Enoka Herat

Washington Law Review

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), lawful permanent residents are rendered removable if they commit an “aggravated felony” at any time after they are admitted into the United States. Significant interpretive issues arise in determining whether a non-citizen’s state-based criminal conviction meets the INA’s definition of an aggravated felony. One aggravated felony enumerated in the INA is “sexual abuse of a minor.” The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) has interpreted the phrase using a broad federal definition as a guide. In Estrada-Espinoza v. Mukasey, however, the Ninth Circuit declined to defer to the BIA’s interpretation because the BIA’s …

Preempting State E-Verify Regulations: A Case Study Of Arizona's Improper Legislation In The Field Of "Immigration-Related Employment Practices", Rachel Feller

Washington Law Review

In 1996, Congress established E-Verify, a program that allows employers to confirm the employment eligibility of new hires by using a federal electronic database. Although the federal government makes the program voluntary for employers, some states and municipalities have enacted legislation requiring the program’s use to prevent the employment of undocumented workers. Some of these state laws have been challenged in federal court on the grounds that they are preempted by federal law, particularly the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). Courts have divided on this issue. This Comment explains the boundaries of preemption in the context of …

Trading Information For Safety: Immigrant Informants, Federal Law-Enforcement Agents, And The Viability Of Non-Deportation Agreements, Colleen Melody

Washington Law Review

Federal law-enforcement agents use informants to help guide investigations. Immigrants sometimes possess valuable information about organized crime connected with their home countries. To persuade an immigrant to divulge such information, federal agents and prosecutors often promise to reward cooperation with permission to stay in the United States. Non-deportation is a persuasive enticement to an informant who might otherwise be unwilling to help; criminal groups would likely harm a known informant returning home. After deciding to cooperate, many immigrants are placed in deportation proceedings notwithstanding their deals. This Comment discusses the persistent legal conundrum faced by immigrant informants after the U.S. …

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

Washington Law Review

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 …

New Word, Same Problems: Entry, Arrival, And The One-Year Deadline For Asylum Seekers, Joanna R. Mareth

Washington Law Review

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) imposed a one-year filing deadline on all applications for asylum. Under this law, an alien applying for asylum bears the burden of showing that he or she applied for asylum within one year of arrival into the United States. The word "arrival" is not defined in immigration law, but the Second Circuit recently held that not every border crossing into the country is an "arrival" for purposes of the asylum filing deadline. The court's reasoning was reminiscent of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1963 decision in Rosenberg v. Fleuti, …

New Word, Same Problems: Entry, Arrival, And The One-Year Deadline For Asylum Seekers, Joanna R. Mareth

Washington Law Review

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) imposed a one-year filing deadline on all applications for asylum. Under this law, an alien applying for asylum bears the burden of showing that he or she applied for asylum within one year of arrival into the United States. The word "arrival" is not defined in immigration law, but the Second Circuit recently held that not every border crossing into the country is an "arrival" for purposes of the asylum filing deadline. The court's reasoning was reminiscent of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1963 decision in Rosenberg v. Fleuti, …

The Persecutor Bar In U.S. Immigration Law: Toward A More Nuanced Understanding Of Modern "Persecution" In The Case Of Forced Abortion And Female Genital Cutting, Lori K. Walls

Washington International Law Journal

Congress installed the persecutor bar to asylum seekers in the United States thirty years after the end of World War II to facilitate the deportation of Nazi war criminals. The persecutor bar’s legal evolution was rooted in part in the practical difficulties of prosecuting crimes committed in the distant past. The bar also is based on the notion, problematic in modern contexts, that persecution has a corollary persecutor. The persecutor bar does not map well to the messy political, cultural, and practical realities that give rise to modern “persecutors.” Ten years ago, for example, forces from opposite ends of the …

Abay V. Ashcroft: The Sixth Circuit's Baseless Expansion Of Ina § 101(A)(42)(A) Revealed A Gap In Asylum Law, Wes Henricksen

Washington Law Review

In Abay v. Ashcroft, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a noncitizen mother qualified for asylum based on her fear that her daughter, who qualified as a refugee, would undergo female genital mutilation if her daughter were to return to the family's home country. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides derivative asylum for spouses and children, but not parents, of refugees granted asylum. Parents of asylees must therefore independently qualify for asylum under INA § 101(a)(42)(A), which requires that the applicant show a well-founded fear of persecution if returned to the applicant's …

The Pain Of Love: Spousal Immigration And Domestic Violence In Australia—A Regime In Chaos?, E. Odhiambo-Abuya

Washington International Law Journal

A fundamental step that the 1994 Australian Migration Regulations developed into the immigration framework was to grant certain concessions to non-Australian spouses and interdependent partners who suffer domestic violence at the hands of their Australian counterparts. Victims of domestic violence are eligible to apply for permanent residence notwithstanding the otherwise applicable two-year waiting period. To understand the domestic violence exception, this Article explores the jurisprudence that has emerged from courts and other immigration tribunals. The Article proposes that further legislative and policy changes should be made in order to seal identified "gaps," and to provide clear guidance to interested parties, …

In The Wake Of The Tampa: Conflicting Visions Of International Refugee Law In The Management Of Refugee Flows, Mary Crock

Washington International Law Journal

The Australian Government's decision in August 2001 to close its doors to a maritime Good Samaritan, Norwegian Captain Rinnan, his crew, and 433 Afghan and Iraqi rescuees, provided a curious contrast to the image of humanity, generosity, and openness that Australia tried so hard to foster during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Victims or villains according to how the facts and the law are characterized, the MI/V Tampa rescuers represented for lawyers the intersection of a variety of areas of law and a clash of legal principles. The ambiguities in both international and state law pertaining to asylum seekers …

Introduction To The Refugee Law Forum, Joan Fitzpatrick

Washington International Law Journal

The ripple effects on refugee protection from the events of August and September 2001, arising out of the rescue at sea of 433 asylum seekers by the M/V Tampa, have been substantial. It is too early to determine whether they will be as profound and as corrosive as the impact of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on other intemational legal norms, including those relating to preventive detention and to "securitizing international migration."' Australia's actions with respect to the Tampa and subsequent intercepted vessels, and its September 2001 legislation, establish a framework in which asylum seekers who arrive …

Trading In Human Misery: A Human Rights Perspective On The Tampa Incident, Irene Khan

Washington International Law Journal

The Tampa case does not stand in isolation. It is part of a wider pattern of restrictive asylum policies. To fully understand the significance of the Tampa case, one should go back more than two decades to the exodus of the Vietnamese boat people. Then, as now, boatloads of asylum seekers were pushed away, and refugees were detained on small islands, including, for example, Galang Island in Indonesia. Then, as now, many asylum seekers drowned as their calls of distress went unnoticed or unheeded. In response to this exodus, asylum, as a permanent solution to refugee problems, was diminished with …