Law Commons^™

The Immigration Court System: Unconstitutionality At The Hands Of The Executive To Push Nativism, Chloe Wigul

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

The United States’ immigration court system is located within the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review and operated under the power of the attorney general. Consequently, the attorney general can review and overrule decisions made by the Board of Immigration Appeals, the immigration appellate body. If the attorney general uses this authority, his decision cannot be reconsidered, and his opinion becomes precedent. Immigration courts are unique in that no other court system is located within or controlled by the executive branch. Focusing on key historical eras, this Comment compares the development of immigration law and policy with …

The Immigration Implications Of Presidential Pot Pardons, Jason A. Cade

Scholarly Works

This Essay examines the immigration implications of President Joe Biden’s Proclamation on October 6, 2022, pardoning most federal and D.C. offenders who committed the offense of simple marijuana possession. A late twentieth century interpretive shift by the Board of Immigration Appeals holds that pardons only prevent deportation for certain criminal history categories, which do not include controlled substance offenses, and thus far lower federal courts have deferred to the agency’s approach.Nevertheless, according to the analysis I offer, President Biden’s cannabis pardons should be deemed fully effective to eliminate all immigration penalties. All of the immigrant pardon cases to reach the …

Disposable Immigrants: The Reality Of Sexual Assault In Immigration Detention Centers, Valerie Gisel Zarate

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

A Weaponized Process: The Deterioration Of Asylum Administration Under Trump, David C. Portillo Jr.

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Under the Trump Administration, a series of Attorney General decisions increased Executive Branch scrutiny over decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). This scrutiny serves to advance an anti-immigration policy at the cost of denying entry of valid asylum seekers. These decisions are due to tension between the politically directed executive power of Attorneys General and the Judicial nature of the BIA. This internal contradiction results in Attorney General decisions that are arbitrary, inconsistent, employ poor reasoning, deviate from precedent, and cause inhumane effects. The structure of asylum administration, as laid out in the Immigration and Naturalization Act and …

If Not Now, When? Finding Jurisdiction To Review Immigration Enforcement Action In The Trump Era, Elizabeth L. Jackson

Et Cetera

The Trump Presidency left an indelible mark on the U.S. immigration system. From extreme enforcement practices to unconstitutional policies, the vast power of the executive branch and the underutilized strength of the judicial branch was thrust into a harsh light. The failure of lower courts to adequately understand and apply the narrow construction of jurisdiction-limiting statutes created unjust and absurd results on a number of issues, from the targeting of immigration activists for enforcement actions to the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols. The consistent application of Supreme Court precedent allowing for Federal jurisdiction in this area remains absolutely necessary to right …

Empathy For The Vulnerable? The Fourth Circuit's Internal Struggle To Grapple With The Trump Administration's Immigration Policies: Part I, Anne Marie Lofaso, Isabella Anderson, Anna Filatova, Blake Humphrey, Mckenna Meadows, Brice Phillips

West Virginia Law Review Online

The Trump Administration’s immigration policies consistently targeted immigrants, refugees, children, victims of gang violence, and individuals classified as “public charges.” For example, one of former President Trump’s first Executive Orders increased detention of immigrants at the border, including women and children, and limited access to asylum nationwide by expanding expedited removal. Another Order issued the very same day cut federal funding to “sanctuary cities” —jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws for the sake of protecting immigrant communities. And still another originally suspended the issuance of visas to nationals from Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, …

Empathy For The Vulnerable? The Fourth Circuit's Internal Struggle To Grapple With The Trump Administration's Immigration Policies: Part Ii, Anne Marie Lofaso, Isabella Anderson, Anna Filatova, Blake Humphrey, Mckenna Meadows, Brice Phillips

West Virginia Law Review Online

Part I of this article described and analyzed Portillo-Flores v. Barr, a case in which the Fourth Circuit, over Judge Stephanie Thacker’s dissent, upheld the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) denial of asylum to a Salvadorian asylum seeker who, as a child, was beaten nearly to death by MS-13 because his sister fled the country to avoid becoming a gang leader’s girlfriend. It contends not only that Portillo-Flores is inconsistent with general immigration standards, but also that the Fourth Circuit committed two main legal errors. First, the Fourth Circuit erred in requiring that Portillo-Flores should have reported the persecution …

Asylum Under Attack: Restoring Asylum Protections In The United States, Lindsay M. Harris

Journal Articles

The U.S. asylum system has endured four years of systematic attack. The Trump Administration attempted to dismantle the United States’ system to protect asylum seekers through changes to case law, executive orders, presidential proclamations, internal agency guidance and sweeping regulatory changes, among other measures. The system largely ground to a halt after the Trump Administration co-opted the coronavirus public health crisis to effectively close the southern border to asylum seekers with its March 2020 Centers for Disease Control order. This catastrophic order was not even the last in a long line of the Trump Administration’s efforts since assuming power to …

It Is Time To Get Back To Basics On The Border, Donna Coltharp

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

The Supreme Court Rules That Trump’S Daca Rescission Doesn’T Pass Muster, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Trump’S Coronavirus Immigration Order Is A Restriction In Search Of A Rationale, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Donald Trump, Twitter, And Islamophobia: The End Of Dignity In Presidential Rhetoric About Terrorism, Gabriel Rubin

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Donald Trump’s rhetoric is markedly different than that of just about every other American president. Trump’s speeches on terrorism and his related Islamophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric are examined in this chapter. Trump’s use of Twitter and view of the presidency as a “permanent campaign” keep his followers in a state of near-permanent mobilization. Trump uses the rhetoric of fear to push his followers against Muslims and immigrants by linking terrorism to both groups. As Jeffrey Tulis opines, Trump is America’s first demagogue. This chapter highlights how Trump’s demagoguery and novel method for communicating with his followers has framed the terror …

Making Litigating Citizenship More Fair, Ming H. Chen

Publications

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Tough Talk On Asylum 11/22/2019, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

New Homeland Security Asylum Rule Allows Removal To Central American Countries That Have Signed Agreements With The U.S., Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against Proclamation Barring Uninsured Immigrants, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Enter At Your Own Risk: Criminalizing Asylum-Seekers, Thomas M. Mcdonnell, Vanessa H. Merton

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In nearly three years in office, President Donald J. Trump’s war against immigrants and the foreign-born seems only to have intensified. Through a series of Executive Branch actions and policies rather than legislation, the Trump Administration has targeted immigrants and visitors from Muslim-majority countries, imposed quotas on and drastically reduced the independence of Immigration Court Judges, cut the number of refugees admitted by more than 80%, cancelled DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and stationed Immigration Customs and Enforcement (“ICE”) agents at state courtrooms to arrest unauthorized immigrants, intimidating them from participating as witnesses and litigants. Although initially saying that …

President Trump Bars Uninsured Immigrants From The U.S., Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Stays Asylum Injunction: Signal On The Merits Or Procedural Snag?, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Concerns About Ice Detainee Treatment And Care At Four Detention Facilities, John V. Kelly

Department of Homeland Security

In response to concerns raised by immigrant rights groups and complaints to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) Hotline about conditions for detainees held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, we conducted unannounced inspections of four detention facilities to evaluate their compliance with ICE detention standards.

Overall, our inspections of four detention facilities revealed violations of ICE’s 2011 Performance-Based National Detention Standards, which set requirements for facilities housing detainees. This report summarizes findings on our latest round of unannounced inspections at four detention facilities housing ICE detainees. Although the conditions varied among the facilities and not every problem …

New Asylum Limits: A Balancing Act For The Homeland Security Secretary, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, And Immigration Policy: How 9/11 Transformed The Debate Over Illegal Immigration, Robert Nelsen

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans have been at war against some form of terrorism both at home and abroad. This includes abuses of federal immigration laws and policies that relate to legal and illegal immigration with Mexico. It is easily substantiated that thousands of Americans have died at the hands of illegal immigrants from Mexico through criminal activity in the United States or through illegal drug trafficking. This thesis considers whether the immigration policies of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were at fault for not properly securing the border prior to these attacks. Specifically, …

Trump V. International Refugee Assistance Program, Jeremy Martin

Ohio Northern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Immigration Detention: Perspectives From Maine Law Students Working On The Ground At The Laredo Detention Center In Texas, Joann Bautista, Katie J. Bressler, Nora R. Bosworth

Maine Law Review

Since 2017, students enrolled in the University of Maine School of Law Refugee and Human Rights Clinic have traveled to Laredo, Texas to participate in a program, sponsored and run by the law firm Jones Day in collaboration with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, to provide representation for women in the Laredo Detention Center. Alongside Jones Day attorneys, the students conduct client intake interviews, draft memos detailing each woman’s experiences and any potential legal claims, and assist in the representation of clients. This article will provide a glimpse into the experiences of three Maine Law student attorneys during their time in …

Silence And The Second Wall, Ming H. Chen, Zachary New

Publications

The Trump administration has made its clarion call “build the wall.” From the start of the presidential campaign to the government shutdown to the declaration of a national emergency, he has made the wall the centerpiece of his immigration enforcement strategy. While the public attention has been riveted on these dramatic episodes at the southern border of the U.S., many more subtle challenges to legal migration have been introduced and implemented. Collectively, these constitute a second wall – one that is invisible to all but the few who have noticed it. This essay explores the distinctive challenges being posed to …

Manufactured Emergencies, Robert Tsai

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Emergencies are presumed to be unusual affairs, but the United States has been in one state of emergency or another for the last forty years. That is a problem. The erosion of democratic norms has led to not simply the collapse of the traditional conceptual boundary between ordinary rule and emergency governance, but also the emergence of an even graver problem: the manufactured crisis. In an age characterized by extreme partisanship, institutional gridlock, and technological manipulation of information, it has become exceedingly easy and far more tempting for a President to invoke extraordinary power by ginning up exigencies. To reduce …

Immigration Unilateralism And American Ethnonationalism, Robert L. Tsai

Faculty Scholarship

This paper arose from an invited symposium on "Democracy in America: The Promise and the Perils," held at Loyola University Chicago School of Law in Spring 2019. The essay places the Trump administration’s immigration and refugee policy in the context of a resurgent ethnonationalist movement in America as well as the constitutional politics of the past. In particular, it argues that Trumpism’s suspicion of foreigners who are Hispanic or Muslim, its move toward indefinite detention and separation of families, and its disdain for so-called “chain migration” are best understood as part of an assault on the political settlement of the …

The Sanctuary Of Prosecutorial Nullification, Zohra Ahmed

Faculty Scholarship

In the aftermath of the 2016 election, the shortcomings of existing sanctuary protections came sharply into focus.¹ Historically, cities enacted sanctuary protections to extricate their law enforcement agencies from activities related to federal immigration enforcement. In sanctuary cities, local government agencies are typically restricted from sharing information with federal immigration authorities or from cooperating in apprehending individuals targeted for removal. ² After the White House issued an Executive Order (EO) in late January 2017, many immigrant rights advocates recognized that external facing policies that proscribed direct cooperation would not suffice. ³ The EO announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement …

Asylum Ban Litigation: Supreme Court Declines To Stay Injunction, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Barring Asylum Claims: The President Versus The Statute, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.