Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Law
Discretion And Disobedience In The Chinese Exclusion Era, Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia
Discretion And Disobedience In The Chinese Exclusion Era, Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia
Journal Articles
This Article examines the use of prosecutorial discretion from its first recorded use in the nineteenth century to protect Chinese subject to deportation, following to its implication in modern day immigration policy. A foundational Supreme Court case, known as Fong Yue Ting, provides a historical precedent for the protection of a category of people as well as a deeper history of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law. This Article also sharpens the policy argument to protect political activists through prosecutorial discretion and forces consideration for how modern immigration policy should respond to historical exclusions and racialized laws. This Article centers its …
Immigration Enforcement And The Future Of Discretion, Shoba Wadhia
Immigration Enforcement And The Future Of Discretion, Shoba Wadhia
Journal Articles
No abstract provided.
Remarks On Executive Action And Immigration Reform, Shoba S. Wadhia
Remarks On Executive Action And Immigration Reform, Shoba S. Wadhia
Journal Articles
This essay places the President's executive actions on immigration last November into a larger context by providing a brief history of prosecutorial discretion in immigration cases. This essay also describes how law students at Penn State Law School used the President's announcement of executive actions as a platform for local change in the State College community.
The President And Deportation: Daca, Dapa, And The Sources And Limits Of Executive Authority - Response To Hiroshi Motomura, Shoba S. Wadhia
The President And Deportation: Daca, Dapa, And The Sources And Limits Of Executive Authority - Response To Hiroshi Motomura, Shoba S. Wadhia
Journal Articles
This Essay is a response to Washburn University School of Law's Foulston Siefkin Lecture, 2015 titled "The President and Deportation: DACA, DAPA, and the Sources and Limits of Executive Authority," delivered by Professor Hiroshi Motomura in March of 2015. Part II of this Essay provides a summary of Professor Motomura's remarks from this author's vantage point. Part III of this Essay analyzes and supports Professor Motomura's conclusion that deferred action is "different" from prosecutorial discretion and elaborates on how deferred action goes one step "further" than prosecutorial discretion.
Beyond Deportation: Understanding Immigration Prosecutorial Discretion And United States V. Texas, Shoba S. Wadhia
Beyond Deportation: Understanding Immigration Prosecutorial Discretion And United States V. Texas, Shoba S. Wadhia
Journal Articles
In this article, I place the Supreme Court case of United States v. Texas into a broader context by describing the history and legal authority for prosecutorial discretion in immigration law and highlighting the contents and recommendations in my book, Beyond Deportation: The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Cases. Part I of this article offers a primer on the role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law and also describes two related programs announced by President Obama on November 20, 2014 and the subject of litigation for nearly two years as of this writing. Part II provides a history …
The History Of Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Law, Shoba S. Wadhia
The History Of Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Law, Shoba S. Wadhia
Journal Articles
This Article describes the historical role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law and connects this history to select executive actions announced by President Obama on November 20, 2014.
Demystifying Employment Authorization And Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Cases, Shoba S. Wadhia
Demystifying Employment Authorization And Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Cases, Shoba S. Wadhia
Journal Articles
On November 20, 2014, President Barack Obama announced a series of immigration programs aimed to reform the immigration system. Deferred Action for Parents of Americans or Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and extended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) represent two such programs announced by the President. Both programs extend deferred action (one form of prosecutorial discretion) to qualifying individuals. Deferred action has been part of the immigration system for more than 50 years, and has been named explicitly by Congress, federal courts, and the agencies responsible for administering immigration laws. Additionally, regulations list deferred action as one basis for work …
Immigration Remarks For The 10th Annual Wiley A. Branton Symposium, Shoba S. Wadhia
Immigration Remarks For The 10th Annual Wiley A. Branton Symposium, Shoba S. Wadhia
Journal Articles
This morning (despite the pressure that our panel comes right before lunch), I am going to provide a “101” on the role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law, which is my primary area of research and fundamental to understanding how the immigration system operates. Prosecutorial discretion is a largely invisible tool that enables thousands, if not millions, of unauthorized noncitizens to reside in the United States without fear from deportation. It may be characterized as invisible because prosecutorial discretion decisions are largely connected to no action at all or as some call it, nonenforcement. A favorable exercise of “prosecutorial discretion” …
The Immigration Prosecutor And The Judge: Examining The Role Of The Judiciary In Prosecutorial Discretion Decisions, Shoba S. Wadhia
The Immigration Prosecutor And The Judge: Examining The Role Of The Judiciary In Prosecutorial Discretion Decisions, Shoba S. Wadhia
Journal Articles
Legal scholars and judges have long examined the role of judicial review in immigration matters, and also criticized the impacts of the “plenary power” doctrine and statutory deletions of judicial review for certain immigration cases. Absent from this scholarship is a serious examination of the judiciary’s role in immigration decisions involving prosecutorial discretion. I attribute this absence to both a silent concession that prosecutorial discretion decisions are automatically barred from judicial review because of the plain language of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA); the judicial review “exceptions” in the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), and the cases that analyze these …
My Great Foia Adventure And Discoveries Of Deferred Action Cases At Ice, Shoba S. Wadhia
My Great Foia Adventure And Discoveries Of Deferred Action Cases At Ice, Shoba S. Wadhia
Journal Articles
This Article describes my adventures in FOIA litigation and analyzes deferred action data collected informally by 24 ICE field offices between October 1, 2011, and June 30, 2012. This Article also offers recommendations for the agency on data collection, recordkeeping, and transparency in deferred action cases. Deferred action is a form of prosecutorial discretion that can be granted at any stage of the immigration enforcement process and historically has been applied both to people who meet group characteristics and on an individual basis in compelling humanitarian circumstances. The theory behind deferred action and prosecutorial discretion more generally is to enable …
Sharing Secrets: Examining Deferred Action And Transparancy In Immigration Law, Shoba S. Wadhia
Sharing Secrets: Examining Deferred Action And Transparancy In Immigration Law, Shoba S. Wadhia
Journal Articles
This Article is about deferred action and transparency in related immigration cases falling under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). While scholars from other genres have written extensively on the topic of prosecutorial discretion, the subject is largely absent from immigration scholarship, with the exception of early research conducted by Leon Wildes in the late 1970s and early 2000s, and a law review article I published in 2010 outlining the origins of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law and related lessons that can be drawn from administrative law and criminal law. That article ends with specific recommendations for …
The Role Of Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Law, Shoba S. Wadhia
The Role Of Prosecutorial Discretion In Immigration Law, Shoba S. Wadhia
Journal Articles
The concept of "prosecutorial discretion" appears in the immigration statute, agency memoranda and court decisions about select immigration enforcement decisions. Prosecutorial discretion extends to decisions about which offenses or populations to target; whom to stop, interrogate, and arrest; whether to detain or release a noncitizen; whether to initiate removal proceedings; and whether to execute a removal order; among other decisions. Similar to the criminal context, prosecutorial discretion in the immigration context is an important tool for achieving cost-effective law enforcement and relief for individuals who present desirable qualities or humanitarian circumstances. Yet there is a dearth of literature on the …