Law Commons^™

Defining “Sexual Abuse Of A Minor” In Immigration Law: Finding A Place For Uniformity, Fairness And Feminism, Kate Barth

Kate S. Barth

This article examines the circuit split over the proper definition of the term "sexual abuse of a minor" in the Immigration and Nationality Act, using considerations of fairness, uniform application of the law, and feminist perceptions of the purpose of statutory rape laws to help guide analysis. The Board of Immigration Appeals, the Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Circuits have tied the term "sexual abuse of a minor" to the definition given in 18 U.S.C § 3509(a)(8). The Ninth Circuit, on the other hand, recently decided that the term should more properly be tied to the definition given in …

Slavery As Immigration?, Rhonda V. Magee

Rhonda V Magee

Slavery as Immigration? In this essay, the author argues that transatlantic slavery was, in significant part, an immigration system of a particularly pernicious sort -- a system of forced migration immigration aimed at fulfilling the nascent country's needs for a controllable labor population, and desire for a racialized one. As such, the law and policy of chattel slavery should be viewed as perhaps the most important historical antecedent to contemporary immigration law regarding low- and unskilled labor in the United States. Following an analysis of the treatment of chattel slavery in general immigration history scholarship, and in scholarship on the …

Pulling The Trigger: Separation Violence As A Basis For Refugee Protection For Battered Women, Marisa S. Cianciarulo

Marisa S. Cianciarulo

For over a decade, women seeking asylum from persecution inflicted by their abusive husbands and partners have found little protection in the United States. During that time, domestic violence-based asylum cases have languished in limbo, been denied, or occasionally been granted in unpublished opinions that have not provided a much-needed adjudicative standard. The main case setting forth the pre-Obama approach to domestic violence-based asylum is rife with misunderstanding of the nature of domestic violence and minimization of the role that society plays in the proliferation of domestic violence. Fortunately, however, a recent Obama-administration legal brief indicates that women fleeing countries …

Contemporary Constitutional Issue: Deportation By Private Hospitals, Jinsung Chang

Jason Zang

An indigent alien’s rights under the Constitution and Immigration and Nationality Act was traversed when a private hospital transferred him to Guatemala on an invalid order by Florida state court which violated Due Process rights entitled him to a specified proceedings delineated by Congress.

When Immigration Borders Move, Huyen T. Pham

Huyen T. Pham

With recent immigration enforcement efforts, we have created a completely new paradigm of moving borders: laws enacted at all levels of government that require proof of legal immigration status in order to obtain a driver’s license, a job, rental housing, government need-based assistance, and numerous other essential benefits. Unlike the fixed physical border, these laws require proof of immigration status at multiple, moving points in the country’s interior and are triggered through everyday transactions. A person who is unable to prove legal status is denied the restricted benefit; if a person is denied access to multiple essential benefits, then she …

Slavery As Immigration?, Rhonda Magee

Rhonda V Magee

No abstract provided.

A Broader View Of The Immigration Adjudication Problem, Jill Family

Jill E. Family

Developments In The Immigration Courts, Jill Family

Jill E. Family

Immigration, Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

No abstract provided.

Pulling The Trigger: Separation Violence As The Basis For Battered Women, Marisa Cianciarulo, Dr. Cladia David

Marisa S. Cianciarulo

Maria Elena fears for her life. For years she has lived under the rule of a despot intent on maintaining absolute control of his realm. As a member of a historically oppressed tribe with few political rights, Maria Elena is a prime target for the dictator’s calculated methods of maintaining control. He has randomly imprisoned, tortured, beaten, and threatened to kill Maria Elena over a period of several years. The torture is worse when Maria Elena takes any action that challenges the despot’s absolute authority.

In this scenario, the classic refugee described above would apply for refugee protection in the …

Fitting Punishment, Juliet P. Stumpf

Juliet P Stumpf

Proportionality is conspicuously absent from the legal framework for immigration sanctions. Immigration law relies on one sanction – deportation – as the ubiquitous penalty for any immigration violation. Neither the gravity of the violation nor the harm that results bears on whether deportation is the consequence for an immigration violation. Immigration law stands alone in the legal landscape in this respect. Criminal punishment incorporates proportionality when imposing sentences that are graduated based on the gravity of the offense; contract and tort law provide for damages that are graduated based on the harm to others or to society. This Article represents …