Law Commons^™

The Pressure Is On—Criminal Defense Counsel Strategies After Padilla V. Kentucky, Bill Hing

Bill Ong Hing

The Supreme Court’s message to criminal defense attorneys in Padilla v. Kentucky was clear: when there is a risk of deportation, defense counsel has a constitutional duty to inform an immigrant defendant of the potential for deportation or adverse immigration consequences prior to pleading guilty. In my view, this constitutional duty places tremendous pressure on defense counsel to do more than advise, because once advised, the client very naturally may want to know what options are available other than going to trial. Rather than simply focusing on how to minimize the time of incarceration for the client under a particular …

Clear And Simple Deportation Rules For Crimes: Why We Need Them And Why It's Hard To Get Them, Rebecca Sharpless

Rebecca Sharpless

Redressing The Shame Of U.S. Immigration Laws And Enforcement Policies, Bill Hing

Bill Ong Hing

n this chapter, I provide a focused view of certain examples of U.S. immigration laws and enforcement policies that have gone too far. I provide a fuller picture of employer sanctions enforcement and Operation Gatekeeper, along with harsh deportation policies that are enforced in the name of protecting our borders and ourselves from a so-called invasion of immigrants. I explain how the lack of sufficient visas and U.S. trade policies have exacerbated the alleged “illegal immigration” problem. And I discuss how a system based on ethical values is needed to remedy the evils of current U.S. immigration policies.

The experiment …

The Waivers Book: Advanced Issues In Immigration Law Practice, Irene Scharf

Irene Scharf

Immigration practitioners finally have one book they can turn to that addresses one of the most important issues in their practices: waivers and other advanced remedies. Assuming at least an introductory knowledge of the issues pertinent to practicing immigration law today, and covering a broad array of topics that arise in any sophisticated immigration practice, The Waivers Book: Advanced Issues in Immigration Law Practice will be useful reference tool, not only to those who are relatively new to this area of law, but also to those who already have considerable practice experience.

A People's Guide To U.S. Immigration Law, Irene Scharf

Irene Scharf

The goal of this book is to help those who are already here to understand their rights, responsibilities, and choices under the ever-more complicated immigration laws. In these insecure times, it is crucial to understand one's legal rights during work and home raids, how to act if charged by the authorities, how to avoid being deported/removed, how to decide whether to hire a lawyer and if hiring one how to choose one, how to assist one's lawyer to reduce fees, and much more.

What Process Is Due?: Unaccompanied Minors' Rights To Deportation Hearings, Irene Scharf, Christine Hess

Irene Scharf

Thousands of foreign-born children enter the United States every year. Many, particularly those crossing at the Mexican border, arrive without legal immigration status and unaccompanied by adults. Once here, these children have certain rights under the Constitution and the immigration laws of this country. Their primary right is to a deportation hearing. Under the current procedures used by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), however, these children are encouraged to waive that right and "elect" voluntary departure. The voluntary departure process requires that they admit to having entered the country illegally, choose the country to which they will return, and leave …

Illegal Emigration: The Continuing Life Of Invalid Deportation Orders, Richard Frankel

Richard H. Frankel

Federal appeals courts overturn more than one thousand deportation orders every year. A significant number of those reversals involve non-citizens who are abroad because they have been deported as a result of losing their cases at the administrative level. Although an order overturning a deportation order ordinarily restores non-citizens to their prior status of being lawfully present in the United States, federal immigration authorities have used the fact of the non-citizen’s now-invalidated deportation to subject such non-citizens to a new and previously inapplicable set of standards that effectively prevents them from returning. Under this practice, non-citizens who seek to return …

Systemic Failure: Mental Illness, Detention, And Deportation, Bill Ong Hing

Bill Ong Hing

Our detention and deportation system failed Tatyana Mitrohina. She was born in Russia with heart defects and deformed hands. She was rejected by her parents for many years, spending her infancy in hospitals and institutions. Though she was later able to move back home, her parents abused her and then abandoned her. She immigrated to the United States as a young teen, adopted by U.S. citizens. After more than a decade, she had a child of her own, whom she abused. Tatyana was diagnosed with mental illness. Although she was convicted of child abuse, the state court recommended medication, counseling, …

Removal Of Central American Gang Members: How Immigration Laws Fail To Reflect Global Reality, Freddy Funes

Freddy R Funes

Central American gangs have created numerous difficulties for Central American nations. Some of the violence and tactics learned by these gangs came from the United States, via it's new immigration policies. This article explains the faults of the current removal policy and offers solutions to mitigate the growing violence in Central America. Part II discusses the United States’ removal policy. Part III explains the myriad problems that this removal policy produces in Central America and within the United States. Part IV discusses how the United States’ current law fails to further the United States’ interests and how courts refuse to …

Toward A True Elements Test: Taylor And The Categorical Analysis Of Crimes In Immigration Law, Rebecca Sharpless

Rebecca Sharpless

When determining the legal effect of a conviction under immigration law, adjudicators claim to apply a uniform, federal standard that prohibits fact finding regarding the underlying circumstances that gave rise to the conviction. This categorical analysis of crimes is firmly rooted in all levels of administrative and federal court case law. Yet fundamental confusion exists concerning what it means to apply a categorical approach to evaluating when a criminal conviction is of a type that triggers deportation. This article demonstrates that a source of this confusion is a misunderstanding of the nature of a conviction and the difference between a …

Detention To Deportation - Rethinking The Removal Of Cambodian Refugees, Bill Ong Hing

Bill Ong Hing

This article is part of a symposium on Immigration and Civil Rights After September 11: The Impact on California.

The United States helped to pull Cambodia into the Vietnam war, initially through secret bombings in Cambodia in 1969 and CIA support for a rightist coup in Cambodia in 1970. After the Khmer Rouge genocide of two million of its own people in Cambodia, thousands of survivors fled to refugee camps. Eventually, the United States admitted 145,000 Cambodian refugees. U.S. resettlement policies provided public assistance and job training for low-income jobs. Refugee families, however, were not provided with the tools necessary …