Immigration Law Commons^™

Involuntary Sterilization Among Hiv-Positive Garifuna Women From Honduras Seeking Asylum In The United States: Two Case Reports, Holly G. Atkinson, Deborah Ottenheimer

Publications and Research

Voluntary sterilization is one of the most widely used forms of contraception by women worldwide; however, involuntary sterilization is considered a violation of multiple human rights and grounds for asylum in the United States. Women have been disproportionately affected by this practice. We report two cases of involuntary sterilization in HIV-positive Garifuna women from Honduras who sought asylum in America and were medically evaluated at the request of their attorneys. Key lessons can be drawn from these cases with regard to the importance of medical evaluations in establishing persecution. These include the need for a detailed account of the events …

Getting It Righted: Access To Counsel In Rapid Removals, Stephen Manning, Kari Hong

Marquette Law Review

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Why Guidance From The Supreme Court Is Required In Redefining The Particular Social Group Definition In Refugee Law, Liliya Paraketsova

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

One of the most debated topics in refugee law has been the meaning of particular social group (PSG)—one of the five categories used to claim refugee status. In 2006, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) adopted a narrower PSG definition. Since that adoption, a circuit split has persisted over the meaning of PSG. Two circuits in particular have continually refused to adopt this definition—even when the BIA attempted to revise the definition in response to their criticism. This Note proposes a reform that would include a compromise between the two current definitions of PSG by rejecting the BIA’s particularity requirement …

Special Feature: Eighth Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway

Michigan Journal of International Law

It is our hope that, as in the case of earlier Michigan Guidelines on the International Protection of Refugees, these unanimously agreed standards will inspire a thoughtful and principled debate among scholars, officials, and judicial and other refugee law decision-makers committed to the legally accurate and contextually sound application of international refugee law norms.

The Michigan Guidelines On Refugee Freedom Of Movement

Michigan Journal of International Law

Despite the clear legal foundation of refugee freedom of movement at international law, states are also committed to the deterrence of human smuggling and trafficking, to the maintenance of effective general border controls, to safeguarding the critical interests of receiving communities, and to effectuating safe and dignified repatriation when refugee status comes to an end. Legal obligations to respect refugee freedom of movement therefore co-exist with, and must be reconciled to, other important commitments.

Refugees And The Right To Freedom Of Movement: From Flight To Return, Marjoleine Zieck

Michigan Journal of International Law

This background study focuses on the right to freedom of movement of refugees. It reviews the law pertaining to this freedom from the perspective of the spatial journey of refugees. This focus on the law means that extralegal considerations will not be taken into consideration. The analysis will not proceed from any perceived need for limits that should be accepted as “a product of realism about the strains that migration, especially high-volume migration or sudden influxes, can bring to a society.”

Corporate Liability For Human Rights Violations: The Future Of The Alien Tort Claims Act, Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This paper addresses complex legal issues in light of and in the context of Jesner v. Arab Bank, a case involving the scope of corporate liability for human rights abuses under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA). Part I provides a brief overview of the Jesner case. Part II outlines the case Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. and its holding. Part III discusses Kiobel's shortcomings, including the vagueness of its "touch and concern" test and its failure to specify which law—international or domestic—applies to the issue of corporate liability under the ATCA. Part IV then proposes other …

Finding The Forum That Fits: Child Immigrants And Fair Process, Lenni Benson

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

“Heal Thyself.”—An Argument For Granting Asylum To Healthcare Workers Persecuted During The 2014 West African Ebola Crisis, Bethany Echols

SMU Law Review

This article argues for a change in United States asylum policy at a time when change is needed most. Those seeking asylum must prove that they fear persecution in their home country based on one of five protected categories and that their government is the persecutor or is unable to control the actions of the persecutors. Multiple articles have recognized that the “particular social group” is the most difficult category of asylum seeker to analyze. Not only do the standards for particular social groups (PSGs) vary among circuit courts, but judicial consistency is lacking.

This article focuses on a particular …

Dialog About A New Asylum System, James C. Hathaway

Articles

The mechanisms for implementing the obligations under the Refugee Convention are fiawed in ways that too often lead States to act against their own values and interests, and which produce needless suffering amongst refugees. A five-point plan could revitalize the Refugee Convention. A managed and collectivized approach to the implementation of refugee protection obligations would include planning for refugee movements, embracing common but differentiated State responsibility and international administration of refugee protection.

The End Of Special Treatment For Cubans In The U.S. Immigration System: Consequences And Solutions For Cubans With Final Orders Of Removal, Lindsay Daniels

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In January 2016, former President Obama announced the end of the “Wet-Foot, Dry-Foot” Policy, which granted special immigration benefits to Cuban migrants. As part of the agreement to end this policy, the Cuban government agreed to take back its citizens with final orders of removal for criminal convictions, an action that it had refused to take for decades. This Comment will begin by exploring past and present immigration policies between the United States and Cuba, including recent developments like the normalization of relations and the impact of President Trump’s immigration policies.

This Comment will then explore possible avenues of relief …

Universities As “Sanctuaries”, Maryam Ahranjani

Scholarly Works

When Donald Trump, a businessman and reality television personality with antiimmigrant views, was elected President of the United States in November 2016, thousands of students, faculty and staff at many colleges and universities around the country implored their institutions to affirmatively declare themselves sanctuaries for undocumented students. Enjoying support both from the estimated 200,000 undocumented university students and other stakeholders, the movement gained quite a bit of momentum, but many contentious battles also have occurred. According to the author's empirical analysis, only twenty of the more than 5,000 institutions of higher education in the United States have adopted the sanctuary …

What We Talk About When We Talk About Sanctuary Cities, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

In this Essay, Professor Michael Kagan asserts when immigrant rights advocates ask their local, state and university leaders to become "sanctuary cities," "sanctuary states," "sanctuary campuses," and so on, they carelessly hurt immigrants in places like Nevada, Texas, and Arizona. And there are a lot of immigrants in those states. People who mean to help immigrants are hurting them. He first sets out assumptions he makes about the semantics and politics of "sanctuary" debates. These assumptions include setting out the kind of actual policies that are usually under consideration when people invoke the sanctuary label, and a way of understanding …

Plata O Plomo: Effect Of Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations On The American Criminal Justice System, Mark M. Mcpherson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Sky Is The Limit: Protecting Unaccompanied Minors By Not Subjecting Them To Numerical Limitations, Deborah Gonzalez

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Separate But (Un)Equal: Why Institutionalized Anti-Racism Is The Answer To The Never-Ending Cycle Of Plessy V. Ferguson, Maureen Johnson

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Administrative Chaos: Responding To Child Refugees - U.S. Immigration Process In Crisis, Lenni Benson

Articles & Chapters

The Immigration court is the wrong forum to consider the protection needs of migrant children. Worse still, our multiple agencies that adjudicate parts of children’s cases combined with the rapidly shifting policies are causing administrative chaos for the children and the system.

Finding The Forum That Fits: Child Immigrants And Fair Process, Lenni Benson

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Undocumented Citizens Of The United States: The Repercussions Of Denying Birth Certificates, Anna L. Lichtenberger

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Alternative Spring Break 2018 Report, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Finality Of A Conviction: A Noncitizen's Right To Procedural Due Process, Daniela Mondragon

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Central Issues In The Protection Of Child Migrants, Mary Crock, Lenni Benson

Articles & Chapters

In this introductory chapter we identify themes that will be carried throughout the book. We begin in section 2 with a discussion of the human rights challenges presented by children on the move, posing questions that our contributors will address as they build on the themes we identify. This is followed by an examination ofobstacles that have been created to recognising child migrants as rights bearers. After setting out in section 4 a brief outline of the book’s structure, the chapter concludes with some comments on global initiatives that have been made to address the challenges associated with mass migration …

Brief Of International Law Scholars And Non-Governmental Organizations As Amici Curiae In Support Of Appellees In International Refugee Assistance Project V. Trump, 2017 U.S. 4th Cir., Amanda Frost

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

No abstract provided.

Invisible Women: Syrian Victims Of Gender-Based Violence As A Particular Social Group In U.S. Asylum Law, Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In the midst of the worst humanitarian crisis of our time, in Syria, we have seen extreme suffering by millions who have been summarily executed, tortured, imprisoned, raped, starved, and bombed with chemical weapons. Specifically, we have seen that women have been the target of gender-based violence in the conflict by and with the acquiescence of the Assad regime forces and by opposition groups.

Women have been human shields; hostages for the bargaining of prisoner release; and victims of sexual violence and exploitation, forced marriage, and other forms of violence such as honor killings.

This gender-based violence has rendered women …

Mass Displacement Of Destitute People: A Trigger For Non-Refoulement Protection?, Bernardo De Souza Dantas Fico, Leticia Machado Haertel

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper focuses on two problems around the mass displacement of people in extreme poverty: the characterization of such people as refugees and the application of the non-refoulement principle to mass displacements.

Extreme poverty is causal to grave human rights violations such as deprivation of water, of food, and of an adequate standard of living. These circumstances may reach a degree in which life in a country is unbearable — forcing people to move in order to enhance their likelihood of survival.

The classic understanding of the non-refoulement obligation, as enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, forbids states from returning …

Refugees And Internally Displaced: A Challenge To Nation-Building, Rebecca M.M. Wallace, Diego Quiroz

Maine Law Review

Recent statistics published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicate that there are at least 32.9 million people who are “persons of concern to UNHCR.” This growing population includes “refugees, returnees, [and] stateless and internally displaced persons (IDPs).” Furthermore, it is estimated that there are some “[thirty] states in the world . . . that are at some stage or another along the road to possible failure.” These are weak states beset by invasion, civil war, ethnic rivalry and tribal warfare, or struggling in the wake of any of these catastrophes. Given that 2006 saw a fifty-six …

Examining The Board Of Immigration Appeals' Social Visibility Requirement For Victims Of Gang Violence Seeking Asylum, Elyse B. Wilkinson

Maine Law Review

Since the late 1990s, Latin America has been plagued by gang violence. The increasingly organized and progressively larger gangs are known as the Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) and the 18th Street Gang (collectively referred to as the “Mara” in this Comment). These gangs are ubiquitous within certain Latin American countries and pose a serious threat to the economic and social stability of the region. The targets of the Mara are mostly youth between the ages of fifteen and eighteen (but as young as eight), women, and those who decry the gang's violence. Resistance to the Mara has resulted in death …

Femmes, Migration, Et Prostitution En Europe: Il N’Est Pas Question De “Travail De Sexe”, Anna Zobnina

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

The Path Of Most Resistance: Resisting Gang Recruitment As A Political Opinion In Central America’S Join-Or-Die Gang Culture, Ericka Welsh

Pepperdine Law Review

In recent years, increasing numbers of asylum-seekers from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador crossed into the United States, fleeing gang violence that has driven homicide rates to record levels. These countries, known collectively as the “Northern Triangle,” now make up one of the most violent regions in the world. Transcending petty crime, gangs control entire communities in the Northern Triangle where they operate as de facto governments beyond law enforcement’s control. Gangs practice forced recruitment in these communities, creating a join-or-die gang culture where resisting recruitment is tantamount to opposition. Opposition, in turn, is met with brutal retaliation. The young …

Alternatives To Immigration Detention, Fatma E. Marouf

Cardozo Law Review

The United States places over 440,000 people each year in immigration detention, far more than any other country in the world. This Article argues that there are compelling humanitarian and financial reasons to utilize more alternatives to detention. It examines the strengths and limitations of existing alternatives, including the need to develop more community-based case management programs and to rely less on electronic monitoring. The Article then sets forth several legal arguments under the Constitution, Rehabilitation Act, and international human rights law for requiring greater consideration of alternatives to detention.