Law Commons^™

Political Refugees, Captives, Slaves And Other Migrants In International Law Of Ancient Near East (2nd Millenium Bc), Víctor M. Sánchez

Víctor M. Sánchez

International treaties in the 2nd millennium BC in the Ancient Near East (ANE) demonstrate the importance placed on regulating migratory movements at the time. The economic and political basis of such regulation helps outline a critical analysis in comparison to current international law regarding the same forms of migratory movements. The loss of social value of human beings arising from demographic changes explains the enormous difference between past and present regulatory models. Only the recovery of human value in its economic sense will permit changes to the current regulation of migratory movements. The variety of extradition clauses in the treaties …

"Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now": Analyzing The Federal Prosecution Of Aliens Who Attempt To Stop Living Unlawfully In The United States, Sergio Garcia

Sergio Garcia

Abstract: Title 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) makes it a crime for a previously deported alien to be “found in” the United States without the Attorney General’s consent. There is, however, a conflict among the circuits over whether an illegal alien is “found in” the United States for purposes of § 1326 when he voluntarily travels to a port of entry and is detained there by immigration authorities while he is seeking to leave the country. The circuit courts bordering Mexico and Canada disagree on this issue as a matter of law, as well as a matter of Congressional intent. This …

Abandoning The Status Quo: Towards Uniform Application Of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Gregory Catangay

Gregory Catangay

The accompanying Article identifies and analyzes the causes of unequal application of the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) program and argues for a federal takeover of the program. The Article highlights the current immigration crisis and the plight of unaccompanied minors seeking a better life in the United States. These minors may be eligible for permanent legal status in the United States through the SIJS program. Although SIJS is a federal remedy, variations in state law and interpretation of SIJS requirements exclude eligible minors.

In order to be eligible for the SIJS program, a state trial court must find that …

The Ciudades Modelo Project: Testing The Legality Of Paul Romer’S Charter Cities Concept By Analyzing The Constitutionality Of The Honduran Zones For Employment And Economic Development, Michael R. Miller

Michael R Miller

Over the last several years, the Honduran government has been aggressively advancing a "model cities" project that it argues will provide options for its citizens to escape the extreme violence in their country without migrating to the U.S. The model cities, which are formally called "Zones for Employment and Economic Development" ("ZEDEs"), are purported to be autonomously governed areas that will attract foreign investment and compete for residents by establishing safer communities and better managed institutions governed by the rule of law.

The ZEDEs trace their origin to a concept formulated by development economist Paul Romer, who proposed the idea …

Seek Justice, Not Just Deportation: How To Improve Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Law, Erin B. Corcoran

Erin B. Corcoran

Bipartisan politics has prevented meaningful reform to a system in dire need of solutions: Immigration. Meanwhile there eleven million noncitizens with no valid immigration status who currently reside in the United States and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not have the necessary resources to effect their removal. DHS does have the authority through prosecutorial discretion to prioritize these cases and provide relief to individuals with compelling circumstances that warrant humanitarian consideration; nonetheless, DHS’s exercise of prosecutorial discretion is underutilized, inconsistently applied and lacks transparency. This Article suggests a remedy – that the immigration prosecutor’s role should redefined to …

Seek Justice, Not Just Deportation: How To Improve Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Law, Erin B. Corcoran

Erin B. Corcoran

Bipartisan politics has prevented meaningful reform to a system in dire need of solutions: Immigration. Meanwhile there eleven million noncitizens with no valid immigration status who currently reside in the United States and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not have the necessary resources to effect their removal. DHS does have the authority through prosecutorial discretion to prioritize these cases and provide relief to individuals with compelling circumstances that warrant humanitarian consideration; nonetheless, DHS’s exercise of prosecutorial discretion is underutilized, inconsistently applied and lacks transparency. This Article suggests a remedy – that the immigration prosecutor’s role should redefined to …

An “I Do” I Choose: How The Fight For Marriage Access Supports A Per Se Finding Of Persecution For Asylum Cases Based On Forced Marriage, Natalie Nanasi

Natalie Nanasi

There is something special about marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court, in striking down anti-miscegenation laws, restrictions on the right to marry for disadvantaged groups, and most recently, the Defense of Marriage Act, has long recognized the marital union to be “sacred” and “fundamental to…existence.” Yet this analysis is dramatically different when courts consider asylum law, where a woman who is seeking refuge in the United States to protect her from a forced marriage abroad will likely be denied protection because the harm she fears is not considered to be a “persecutory” act. She may therefore be forced to spend a …

Freedmen And Day Laborers: Why Enforcement Matters, Raja Raghunath

Raja Raghunath

As the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Emancipation approaches, there is a cautionary lesson for modern workers from the period that followed the abolition of chattel slavery. Reconstruction, after the Civil War, was the moment when the promise of universal liberty to work first became part of the American state’s covenant with its people. But this promise was quickly lost, as the rights that the federal government extended to the freed slaves – the freedmen – were contested and eventually nullified by vehement opposition in the working fields and cities of the South. In this sense, workers’ rights were …

Legitimate Persecution: The Effect Of Asylum’S Nexus Clause, Nicholas Bolzman

Nicholas Bolzman

The United States adopted its first comprehensive asylum law in 1980, after various ad hoc attempts to craft an immigration scheme for those fleeing persecution had limited success. While the 1980 law does correct for many prior problems, it still retains some arbitrary limitations. Specifically, the requirement that applicants show persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion creates significant hurdles for those whose persecution is not disputed, but whose persecutors’ motives are based on something else. Examples are persecution based on gender, FGM, sexual orientation, recruitment as child soldiers, and those …

A Criminal’S Path To The American Dream: Extradition As A Drug Enforcement Policy Tool, Laura A. Gavilan

Laura A Gavilan

This article explores a little-known avenue of immigration to the United States: the path that criminals from other nations embark on when they are extradited to the United States and, through cooperation agreements with law enforcement, are able to obtain immigration benefits and legal status. To illustrate this phenomenon, this article outlines the case of the United States’ war on drugs, which has led to the extradition of hundreds of Colombian drug traffickers and paramilitary leaders to the United States during the past two decades. While many of these extradited individuals have been deported back to Colombia after fulfilling their …

A Criminal’S Path To The American Dream: Extradition As A Drug Enforcement Policy Tool, Laura A. Gavilan

Laura A Gavilan

This article explores a little-known avenue of immigration to the United States: the path that criminals from other nations embark on when they are extradited to the United States and, through cooperation agreements with law enforcement, are able to obtain immigration benefits and legal status. To illustrate this phenomenon, this article outlines the case of the United States’ war on drugs, which has led to the extradition of hundreds of Colombian drug traffickers and paramilitary leaders to the United States during the past two decades. While many of these extradited individuals have been deported back to Colombia after fulfilling their …

Denying Freedom Rather Than Securing The Country: National Security Is Undermined By Laws Governing Battered Immigrants, Eve Tilley-Coulson

Eve Tilley-Coulson

Relief for battered immigrants is not an obvious national security matter per se, yet remedies are enacted in conjunction with stringent interpretations of immigration law, as though victims pose a security threat. Discrepancies exist between the immigration laws themselves—which attempt to secure the United States from disease, violence, and illegal activity—and the loopholes within remedies under these laws, unnecessarily removing victims and perpetuating a cycle of fear and abuse. By displacing the victim, rather than the abuser, the government allows the cycle of violence to continue, while simultaneously breaking up families and creating disorder and instability. The economic and societal …

Denying Freedom Rather Than Securing The Country: National Security Is Undermined By Laws Governing Battered Immigrants, Eve Tilley-Coulson

Eve Tilley-Coulson

Relief for battered immigrants is not an obvious national security matter per se, yet remedies are enacted in conjunction with stringent interpretations of immigration law, as though victims pose a security threat. Discrepancies exist between the immigration laws themselves—which attempt to secure the United States from disease, violence, and illegal activity—and the loopholes found within remedies under these laws, unnecessarily removing victims and perpetuating a cycle of fear and abuse. This paper addresses how relief for battered immigrants, when implemented with the priority of protecting national security and immigration legislation, creates and perpetuates negative societal consequences. The economic and societal …

Increase Quota, Invite Opportunities, Improve Economy: An Examination Of The Educational And Employment Crisis Of Undocumented Immigrants And Individuals From Abroad, Brittany Fink

Brittany Fink

No abstract provided.

Increase Quota, Invite Opportunities, Improve Economy: An Examination Of The Educational And Employment Crisis Of Undocumented Immigrants And Individuals From Abroad, Brittany Fink

Brittany Fink

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court Of Canada's Decision In Ezokola And The Harmonisation Of Article 1f(A) Of The Convention On The Status Of Refugees With International Criminal Law, Alan W. Freckelton

Alan W Freckelton

Canadian appellate courts have historically taken a very wide view of when there are “serious reasons to believe” that a person has committed the kinds of offences envisaged by Article 1F(a) of the Convention. In particular, they have taken the view that, in some cases at least, mere membership of a particular group is sufficient to exclude a person from protection under the Convention. However, in Ezokola v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) the Supreme Court has attempted to reconcile the requirements for responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity at international criminal law, and the requirements for exclusion under …

The Localization Of Federal Immigration Law -- A "Show Me Your Papers" Paper, J. Gabriel Castro

J. Gabriel Castro

This paper discusses the policy concerns behind state enforcement of federal immigration law, the substance of these laws, and their future following the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Arizona. It will also cover what needs to be done for the laws to be repudiated or applied more successfully. Part II will deal with the historical development behind the Supreme Court’s treatment of authority over immigration control and regulation. Part III discusses the reasoning behind the outcome of the case determining the validity of SB 1070, Arizona v. United States. Finally, part IV will look to the future of …

Increase Quota, Invite Opportunities, Improve Economy: An Examination Of The Educational And Employment Crisis Of Undocumented Immigrants And Individuals From Abroad, Brittany Fink

Brittany Fink

No abstract provided.

Foreign In A Domestic Sense: American Samoa And The Last U.S. Nationals, Sean Morrison

Sean Morrison

Citizenship is part of the foundation of being American. Yet the United States treats some of its own as second class citizens. Deep in the South Pacific, forgotten amidst the vast ocean and coconuts, is a small series of islands that represent the only U.S. jurisdiction below the Equator. American Samoa remains the last American territory that does not recognize its inhabitants as citizens. For more than a century, American Samoans have fought American wars, pledged allegiance to the American flag, and played a significant amount of American football, yet are categorized as U.S. nationals rather than citizens.

Recently, some …

"Health Care For All:" The Gap Between Rhetoric And Reality In The Affordable Care Act, Vinita Andrapalliyal

Vinita Andrapalliyal

The rhetoric of “universal health care” and “health care for all” that pervaded the health care debate which culminated in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s passage. However, the ACA offers reduced to no protections for certain noncitizen groups, specifically: 1) recently-arrived legal permanent residents, 2) nonimmigrants, and 3) the undocumented. This Article explores how the Act fails to ensure “health care for all,” demonstrates the gap between rhetoric and reality by parsing the ACA’s legislative history, and posits reasons for the gap. The ACA’s legislative history suggests that legislators’ biases towards these noncitizen groups, particularly with respect …

The Case For Mexican Asylum Seekers Fleeing Cartel Violence, Perry B. Nava

Perry B Nava

The number of Mexican immigrants filing for asylum in the United States is on the rise as cartel violence affects more people each year. The perceived increase in cartel-related, violent crime is displacing people similar to how a war forces displaced refugees out of a country; but the United States is not accepting a great majority of the applications for asylum. This paper explores the more broadly applicable law that protects persecuted people; some of the issues that have simultaneously contributed to increased migration to the United States and aggressive expansion by the drug cartels; the result of the application …

Kicking Out The Murderers, Rapists, And Tax Offenders: An Analysis Of Immigration Consequences For The Act Of Committing A Tax Offense, Eugene Choi

Eugene Choi

No abstract provided.

An Argument For A Vicarious Liability Standard For Agricultural Employers And Associations For The Acts Of Contractee Farm Labor Contractors: An Addition To The Migrant And Seasonal Agricultural Worker’S Protection Act Of 1983, Andrew Leibfried

Andrew Leibfried

Much of the federal law that has been passed to protect seasonal and migrant agricultural workers has been circumvented by Agricultural Employers and Associations who contract out their labor, and thus, many of their obligations to Farm Labor Contractors. Because these Farm Labor Contractors are considered independent contractors, seasonal and migrant agricultural laborers are required to enforce their rights under federal law against these contractors who can be either transient or judgment proof, while the Agricultural Employer or Association who hired the contractor escapes liability entirely. The focus of this paper is to present the case for a different legal …

Applying Method To The Madness: The Right To Court Appointed Guardians Ad Litem And Counsel For The Mentally Ill In Immigration Proceedings, Amelia Wilson

Amelia Wilson

A unique dilemma facing immigration judges (IJs) and practitioners today is how to address the acute problem of mentally ill respondents appearing pro se in immigration removal proceedings. Mentally ill respondents are more likely to face deportation from a position of indigence and detention, both of which create substantial barriers to obtaining counsel. Even where represented, the mentally ill are less able to contribute to their own defense or understand the proceedings against them. This lack of meaningful participation has cascading deleterious effects on respondents themselves, but also on our already overburdened immigration courts by creating docket delays, prolonged detention, …

State Law To The Contrary? Examining Potential Limits On The Authority Of State And Local Law Enforcement To Enforce Federal Immigration Law, George Bach

George Bach

As the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed in Arizona v. United States, it is well-established that the “authority of state officers to make arrests for federal crimes,” including federal immigration law, “is . . . a matter of state law.” This general, universal rule has not yielded consistent results. The circuit courts of appeals have disagreed as to when state and local law enforcement can invoke this “implicit authority” and enforce federal immigration law. On one end of the spectrum stands the Ninth Circuit view that state and local law enforcement only have such authority if affirmatively authorized by the state. …

Governors! Seize The Law: A Call To Expand The Use Of Pardons To Provide Relief From Deportation, Stacy Caplow

Stacy Caplow

An obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows an immigrant convicted of a wide range of crimes that are grounds for deportation to avoid this fate if pardoned by a chief executive. In the current era of expansion of the categories of crimes that constitute grounds for deportation and the shrinkage of equitable forms of relief, a pardon presents a vehicle for ameliorating these harsh effects. But few presidents or governors take advantage of this opportunity, even when the individual facing deportation is a long-term lawful resident whose transgression occurred long ago. During a few months in 2010, …

Where You Stand Depends On Where You Sit: Bureaucratic Incorporation Of Immigrants In Federal Workplace Agencies, Ming H. Chen

Ming H Chen

Abstract. This article integrates legal scholarship on immigrant workers with social science theory about the role of bureaucracies in the construction of rights. More specifically, it contends that immigrants’ rights can be protected when workplace agencies integrate immigrants into their law enforcement activities, in accordance with their professional ethos and without regard to personal politics. Building on the concept of bureaucratic incorporation, I argue that regulatory agencies will resist contractions of workers’ rights when their staff’s commitments as civil servants and lawyers clash with judicial interpretations of immigrants’ rights. The implication is that strongly pro-immigrant politics are not necessary for …

Coming To America: How Restrictive And Arbitrary Immigration Laws Burden The Artistic Community, Rafael Lamberti

Rafael Lamberti

The main focus of this work is to explore the effect that U.S. Immigration laws have on the international and domestic artistic community, particularly since the attacks of September 11, 2001. The economic impact of stricter immigration laws is observed in many industries, including music, film, and fashion. While there has been a candid effort by many legislators to re-write the laws, little progress has been made, and the application of the laws continues to be highly subjective and capricious. In fact, practitioners in the field often express their discontent towards a largely discretionary system that has offered little guidance …

U.S. Asylum Law As A Path To Religious Persecution, Jack C. Dolance Ii

Jack C Dolance II

U.S. asylum law protects against persecution “on account of . . . religion.” But must the law protect a non-believer seeking religious asylum in the United States? Many may instinctively answer “no,” for a non-believer is by most definitions not “religious.” Such a response misses the mark, however—at least in the context of U.S. asylum law, which is subject to the First Amendment. The protection of religious liberty enshrined in the First Amendment embodies freedom from persecution on account of one’s “religion”—in whatever form that religion may take. In the asylum context, then, “religion” must be defined broadly. Protection from …

U.S. Asylum Law As A Path To Religious Persecution, Jack C. Dolance Ii

Jack C Dolance II

U.S. asylum law protects against persecution “on account of . . . religion.” But must the law protect a non-believer seeking religious asylum in the United States? Many may instinctively answer “no,” for a non-believer is by most definitions not “religious.” Such a response misses the mark, however—at least in the context of U.S. asylum law, which is subject to the First Amendment. The protection of religious liberty enshrined in the First Amendment embodies freedom from persecution on account of one’s “religion”—in whatever form that religion may take. In the asylum context, then, “religion” must be defined broadly. Protection from …