Law Commons^™

Arizona’S Support Our Law Enforcement And Safe Neighborhoods Act: Its Likely Consequences On Latino Communities And What To Do About Them, Elena Llamas

elena llamas

The U.S. has seen a recent wave of legislative efforts to empower state and local law enforcement officers with anti-illegal immigration responsibilities. The purpose of this article is to suggest community policing changes that police departments could enact to best enforce these types of laws and mantain good relations with Latinos.

Beyond Saints And Sinners: Discretion And The Need For New Narratives In The U.S. Immigration System, Elizabeth Keyes

Elizabeth Keyes

This article examines the forces affecting the exercise of discretion in American immigration courts, and argues that in this present age of immigration anxiety, the same facts that place an individual in deportation proceedings may constitute the reasons a judge will, relying on discretion, deny them relief for which they are otherwise eligible. The article explores the polarized narratives told about “good” and ”bad” immigrants, the exceptionally difficult task of adjudicating in overburdened immigration courts, and the ways in which these polarized narratives interact with psychological short-cuts, or heuristics, that affect judicial exercises of discretion. After engaging in this analysis, …

The Abuse Of H-2 Visas And Their Use For Labor Trafficking Purposes, Maryam Tabatabai

Maryam Tabatabai

This article will discuss recent cases of guest worker exploitation, ineffective enforcement of H-2 regulations, inadequate protection of guest workers, causes of action currently available to victims, and possible solutions to mitigate abuse. Every year, about 121,000 guest workers arrive in the United States with hopes of achieving a better life for themselves and their families. Our system needs to ensure that we have legislative frameworks and the enforcement mechanisms in place to protect these workers, so that they may work hard to obtain a better living.

After The Flood: The Legacy Of The "Surge" Of Federal Immigration Appeals, Stacy Caplow

Stacy Caplow

For many years, the big news in United States Courts of Appeal was the skyrocketing immigration caseload. For Courts that traditionally had busy immigration dockets, the effect was tsunamic. One of those Circuits, the Second, instituted a nonargument calendar that, over the past five years, has enabled the Court to regain some control over its swollen docket. While this administrative strategy has rescued the Court from drowning, the flow of cases continues, somewhat abated, but with enduring force. The so-called surge had unanticipated consequences extending far beyond court management changes. As a result of their increased exposure to immigration cases …

Immigration Policy Through The Lens Of Optimal Federalism, Dale B. Thompson

Dale Thompson

The controversial immigration bill S.B. 1070 enacted by the Arizona legislature utilizes local police to enforce Arizona's interpretations of immigration rules. Meanwhile, the "Utah Compact" suggests that all aspects of immigration policy should be handled by the federal government, not by states or localities. In the midst of this contentious debate, this article uses an "optimal federalism" framework to examine the appropriate locus for immigration policy. It compares economies and diseconomies of scale across enactment, implementation, and enforcement institutions, in order to determine the appropriate level of government for addressing these institutional aspects of immigration policy. It concludes that due …

Immigration Policy Through The Lens Of Optimal Federalism, Dale B. Thompson

Dale Thompson

No abstract provided.

Immigration Policy Through The Lens Of Optimal Federalism, Dale B. Thompson

Dale Thompson

The controversial immigration bill S.B. 1070 enacted by the Arizona legislature utilizes local police to enforce Arizona's interpretations of immigration rules. Meanwhile, the "Utah Compact" suggests that all aspects of immigration policy should be handled by the federal government, not by states or localities. In the midst of this contentious debate, this article uses an "optimal federalism" framework to examine the appropriate locus for immigration policy. It compares economies and diseconomies of scale across enactment, implementation, and enforcement institutions, in order to determine the appropriate level of government for addressing these institutional aspects of immigration policy. It concludes that due …

Immigration Policy Through The Lens Of Optimal Federalism, Dale B. Thompson

Dale Thompson

The controversial immigration bill S.B. 1070 enacted by the Arizona legislature utilizes local police to enforce Arizona's interpretations of immigration rules. Meanwhile, the "Utah Compact" suggests that all aspects of immigration policy should be handled by the federal government, not by states or localities. In the midst of this contentious debate, this article uses an "optimal federalism" framework to examine the appropriate locus for immigration policy. It compares economies and diseconomies of scale across enactment, implementation, and enforcement institutions, in order to determine the appropriate level of government for addressing these institutional aspects of immigration policy. It concludes that due …

Immigration Policy Through The Lens Of Optimal Federalism, Dale B. Thompson

Dale Thompson

The controversial immigration bill S.B. 1070 enacted by the Arizona legislature utilizes local police to enforce Arizona's interpretations of immigration rules. Meanwhile, the "Utah Compact" suggests that all aspects of immigration policy should be handled by the federal government, not by states or localities. In the midst of this contentious debate, this article uses an "optimal federalism" framework to examine the appropriate locus for immigration policy. It compares economies and diseconomies of scale across enactment, implementation, and enforcement institutions, in order to determine the appropriate level of government for addressing these institutional aspects of immigration policy. It concludes that due …

Moral And Legal Dilemma: A Legal Analysis Of The Criticisms Leveled Against Arizona Sb 1070, Michael K. Marriott

Michael K Marriott

The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, more commonly known as Arizona SB 1070, is a recently passed bill targeting unlawful immigration. Touted to be the strongest piece of immigration legislation passed in America's recent history, the bill has come under fire on state, national, and international levels.

This paper begins by setting the stage for why SB 1070 was passed, and what legislators sought to accomplish. It then provides a basic overview of the bill, with an emphasis towards its more controversial aspects. From there it groups together certain classes of criticisms that have been publicly leveled …

Advocating Duress And Infancy Exceptions To The Persecutor Bar To Asylum For Former Child-Soldiers, Joshua Dankoff

Joshua Dankoff

After briefly discussing asylum law, the persecutor bar to asylum, and the 2009 Supreme Court decision Negusie v. Holder, this paper argues that former child soldiers are a unique population of asylum seekers. The article considers the wide use of duress in domestic and international law, and briefly discusses the infancy defense. The article then argues that a lack of duress exception to the persecutor bar for former child soldiers negatively impacts child asylum seekers, and proposes that the Board of Immigration Appeals read in both a duress and infancy exception to the persecutor bar to asylum.

A Modest Proposal: To Deport The Children Of Gay Citizens, & Etc: Immigration Law, The Defense Of Marriage Act And The Children Of Same-Sex Couples, Scott Titshaw

Scott Titshaw

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines the terms “marriage” and “spouse” for federal purposes, clearly prevents the recognition of same-sex spouses under U.S. immigration law. Unless judges and immigration officials are careful to limit it as Congress intended, DOMA might also have a tragic unintended effect on some parent-child relationships. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) employs terms like “born in wedlock” and “stepparent” to define parent-child relationships for various immigration and citizenship purposes. One could argue, therefore, that DOMA prevents INA recognition of parent-child relationships stemming from a same-sex marriage. These relationships determine whether a person can …

"As Dumb As We Wanna Be: U.S. H-1b Visa Policy And The 'Brain Blocking' Of Asian Technology Professionals, Jeffrey L. Gower

Jeffrey L Gower

American technology firms must employ foreign specialty professionals through the H1-B system administered by the U.S. Immigration Service. Most applications for H1-B visas are from firms in the high technology sector, and the visas are granted through a lottery system. Chinese technology professionals are the second-highest recipients of these visas. The current total national H1-B visa allowance for 2008 and 2009 was capped at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 visas reserved for holders of Master's degrees or higher, down from 195,000 visas in the early 1990s. Computer software design firms and high technology application firms argue for an abolishment of …