Immigration Law Commons^™

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 …

Sanctuary Networks, Pratheepan Gulasekaram, Rose Cuison Villazor

Publications

No abstract provided.

Privatized Detention & Immigration Federalism, Pratheepan Gulasekaram

Publications

No abstract provided.

Leveraging Social Science Expertise In Immigration Policymaking, Ming H. Chen

Publications

The longstanding uncertainty about how policymakers should grapple with social science demonstrating racism persists in the modern administrative state. This Essay examines the uses and misuses of social science and expertise in immigration policymaking. More specifically, it highlights three immigration policies that dismiss social scientific findings and expertise as part of presidential and agency decision-making: border control, crime control, and extreme vetting of refugees to prevent terrorism. The Essay claims that these rejections of expertise undermine both substantive and procedural protections for immigrants and undermine important functions of the administrative state as a curb on irrationality in policymaking. It concludes …

Sanctuary Networks And Integrative Enforcement, Ming Hsu Chen

Publications

My intended focus is on the widespread response--in cities, churches, campuses, and corporations that together comprise "sanctuary networks"--to the Trump Administration's Executive Order 13768 Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States as an instance of the changing relationship between federal, local, and private organizations in the regulation of immigration. After briefly covering the legal background of the Trump Interior E.O., the focus of the Article shifts to the institutional dynamics arising in communities. These institutional dynamics exemplify the beginnings of a reimagined immigration enforcement policy with a more integrative flavor.

Administrator-In-Chief: The President And Executive Action In Immigration Law, Ming H. Chen

Publications

This Article provides a framework for understanding the role of the President as the Administrator-in-Chief of the executive branch. Recent presidents, in the face of heated controversy and political division, have relied on executive action to advance their immigration policies. Which of these policies are legitimate, and which are vulnerable to challenge, will determine their legacy. This Article posits that the extent to which the President enhances the procedural legitimacy of agency actions strengthens the legacy of the policies when confronted regarding their substance. This emphasis on shoring up administrative procedure is a form of expertise that should be counted …

The President And Immigration Federalism, Pratheepan Gulasekaram, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan

Publications

This Article lays out a systematic, conceptual framework to better understand the relationship between federal executive action and statelevel legislation in immigration. Prior immigration law scholarship has focused on structural power questions between the U.S. federal government-as a unitary entity-and the states, while newer scholarship has examined separation of powers concerns between the President and Congress. This Article builds on both of these traditions, focusing on the intersectional relationship between the federal Executive and subfederal lawmaking, which is an important yet overlooked dynamic in the resurgence of immigration federalism. First, this Article explains the relationship between presidential action and state …

The President And Immigration Federalism, Pratheepan Gulasekaram, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan

Publications

This Article lays out a systematic, conceptual framework to better understand the relationship between federal executive action and statelevel legislation in immigration. Prior immigration law scholarship has focused on structural power questions between the U.S. federal government-as a unitary entity-and the states, while newer scholarship has examined separation of powers concerns between the President and Congress. This Article builds on both of these traditions, focusing on the intersectional relationship between the federal Executive and subfederal lawmaking, which is an important yet overlooked dynamic in the resurgence of immigration federalism. First, this Article explains the relationship between presidential action and state …

Beyond Legality: The Legitimacy Of Executive Action In Immigration Law, Ming H. Chen

Publications

Recent uses of executive action in immigration law have triggered accusations that the President is acting imperially, like a king, or as a lawbreaker. President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) programs, which provide protection from deportation and a work permit during a temporary period of lawful presence, serve as the lightning rod for these accusations. But even as legislative and litigation challenges to DACA proceed, many states appear to accept and comply with it, including nearly all of the states that have joined the Texas v United States lawsuit that challenges …

Trust In Immigration Enforcement: State Noncooperation And Sanctuary Cities After Secure Communities, Ming H. Chen

Publications

The conventional wisdom, backed by legitimacy research, is that most people obey most of the laws, most of the time. This turns out to not be the case in a study of state-local participation in immigration law enforcement. Two enforcement programs involving the use of immigration detainers, a vehicle by which the federal government (through ICE) requests that local law enforcement agencies (LEAs) detain immigrants beyond their scheduled release upon suspicion that they are removable, demonstrate the breakdown of conventional wisdom. In the five years following initiation of the Secure Communities program, a significant and growing number of states and …

Did Multicultural America Result From A Mistake? The 1965 Immigration Act And Evidence From Roll Call Votes, Gabriel J. Chin, Douglas M. Spencer

Publications

Between July 1964 and October 1965, Congress enacted the three most important civil rights laws since Reconstruction: The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965. As we approach the 50th anniversary of these laws, it is clear that all three have fundamentally remade the United States; education, employment, housing, politics, and the population itself have irreversibly changed.

Arguably the least celebrated yet most consequential of these laws was the 1965 Immigration Act, which set the United States on the path to become a "majority minority" nation. In …

Looking Inward: Domestic Policy For Climate Change Refugees In The United States And Beyond, Carey Degenaro

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Avetisyan's Limited Improvements Within The Overburdened Immigration Court System, Kristin Bohman

University of Colorado Law Review

In early 2012, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decided Matter of Avetisyan, overturning precedent that prohibited immigration judges from administratively closing an immigrant's case over the objection of either party. Avetisyan enables immigration judges to administratively close a case and remove it from their active dockets, subject to later re-calendaring by either party for final resolution. By giving judges the authority to administratively close cases, Avetisyan reaffirms the independent decision-making authority of immigration judges and allows them to reallocate some of their limited time to more pressing cases. But Avetisyan's break from precedent cannot reach the roots of the …

The New Nexus, Anjum Gupta

University of Colorado Law Review

United States asylum law provides protection to individuals fleeing their home countries due to "persecution or a well founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion." While significant scholarly and judicial attention has been paid to the interpretations of the five grounds-in particular to the 'olitical opinion" and 'particular social group" categories as they pertain to gender based claims and claims involving private harms-relatively little debate has focused on the proper formulation of the "on account of," or "nexus," requirement. Yet, scant guidance exists (whether by statute, regulation, or …

Immigration And Cooperative Federalism: Toward A Doctrinal Framework, Ming H. Chen

Publications

What can the new federalism teach us about what is happening in immigration law? The changing relationship of federal-state government in the regulation of immigrants has led to the creation of “immigration federalism” as a field of scholarship. Most of this scholarly attention has been directed at resisting restrictionist legislation that encourages vigorous law enforcement against undocumented immigrants. The scholarly tilt is especially pronounced since the Supreme Court recently struck down several provisions of S.B. 1070, Arizona’s restrictive law enforcement legislation. However, law enforcement is only one type of regulation, and the overwhelming focus on it skews the broader debate …

Governing By Guidance: Civil Rights Agencies And The Emergence Of Language Rights, Ming Hsu Chen

Publications

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this Article asks how federal civil rights laws evolved to incorporate the needs of non-English speakers following landmark immigration reform (the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act) that led to unprecedented migration from Asia and Latin America. Based on a comparative study of the emergence of language rights in schools and workplaces from 1965 to 1980, the Article demonstrates that regulatory agencies used nonbinding guidances to interpret the undefined statutory term "national origin discrimination" during their implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Their efforts facilitated the creation of language rights, …

Language Rights As A Legacy Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Ming Hsu Chen

Publications

The fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 offers an important opportunity to reflect on an earlier moment when civil rights evolved to accommodate new waves of immigration. This essay seeks to explain how civil rights laws evolved to include rights for immigrants and non-English speakers. More specifically, it seeks to explain how policy entrepreneurs in agencies read an affirmative right to language access.

Immigration Federalism: A Reappraisal, Pratheepan Gulasekaram, Karthick Ramakrishnan

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No abstract provided.

Panel Discussion Iii: Recognizing And Addressing Immigration Concerns In The Criminal Process, Violeta Chapin, Dan Kesselbrenner, Christina Kleiser

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No abstract provided.

Why A Wall, Pratheepan Gulasekaram

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No abstract provided.

Homely, Cultured Brahmin Woman Seeks Particular Social Group: Must Be Immutable, Particulara, Nd Socially Visible, Sarah Kathryn French

University of Colorado Law Review

This Note examines whether Brahmin women constitute a particular social group under United States asylum law. The domestic violence victims in immigration court-who are predominately Latin American-have thus far failed to establish, in a precedential decision, that they are part of a particular social group or that their perpetrators' violence was on account of their membership in a particular social group. Orthodox Brahmin women in India, however, may be able to meet the elements of asylum where other victims have failed. This Note examines whether Brahmin women can meet the elements of a particular social group, whether the Indian government …

Restrictive State And Local Immigration Laws: Solutions In Search Of Problems, Pratheepan Gulasekaram, Karthick Ramakrishnan

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No abstract provided.

Where You Stand Depends On Where You Sit: Bureaucratic Politics In Federal Workplace Agencies Serving Undocumented Workers, Ming H. Chen

Publications

This Article integrates social science theory about immigrant incorporation and administrative agencies with empirical data about immigrant-serving federal workplace agencies to illuminate the role of bureaucracies in the construction of rights. More specifically, it contends that immigrants' rights can be protected when workplace agencies incorporate immigrants into labor law enforcement in accordance with the agencies' professional ethos and organizational mandates. Building on Miles' Law that "where you stand depends on where you sit," this Article argues that agencies exercise discretion in the face of contested law and in contravention to a political climate hostile to undocumented immigrants for the purpose …

The Importance Of The Political In Immigration Federalism, Pratheepan Gulasekaram, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan

Publications

This Article provides a systematic, empirical investigation of the genesis of state and local immigration regulations, discrediting the popular notion that they are caused by uneven demographic pressures across the country. It also proffers a novel theory to explain the proliferation of these policies and queries the implications of this new model for federalism analysis. The story we tell in this paper is both political and legal; understanding immigration politics uncovers vital truths about the recent rise of subnational involvement in a policy arena that courts and commentators have traditionally ascribed to the federal government. Thus, this article connects the …

Denying Formalism's Apologists: Reforming Immigration Law's Cimt Analysis, Jeremiah J. Farrelly

University of Colorado Law Review

Congress has long favored the "crime involving moral turpitude" as a statutory device to remove "undesirable" aliens from the United States. Unfortunately, Congress never bothered to define this important phrase. The judicial standard developed to address this shortfall has long been seen as unnecessarily formalistic, arbitrary, and both over- and under-inclusive. Until recently, however, these issues were ignored. In 2008, the Board of Immigration Appealsrightly deferred to by the Seventh Circuit-and the Attorney General finally addressed these issues, making significant revisions to the traditional standard. The Third Circuit, rather than following the Seventh Circuit in allowing the reform of an …

No Exception To The Rule: The Unconstitutionality Of State Immigration Enforcement Laws, Pratheepan Gulasekaram

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No abstract provided.

¡Silencio! Undocumented Immigrant Witnesses And The Right To Silence, Violeta R. Chapin

Publications

At a time referred to as "an unprecedented era of immigration enforcement," undocumented immigrants who have the misfortune to witness a crime in this country face a terrible decision. Calling the police to report that crime will likely lead to questions that reveal a witness's immigration status, resulting in detention and deportation for the undocumented immigrant witness. Programs like Secure Communities and 287(g) partnerships evidence an increase in local immigration enforcement, and this Article argues that undocumented witnesses' only logical response to these programs is silence. Silence, in the form of a complete refusal to call the police to report …

Alienated: A Reworking Of The Racialization Thesis After September 11, Ming H. Chen

Publications

This article revises widespread application of the racialization thesis to Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians following September 11. It suggests in its place an “alienation thesis” to describe the formation of an alien identity for those perceived and treated as noncitizens. This thesis draws on Asian American and critical race scholarship to re-interpret sociological understandings of the post-September 11 response to Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians. The article concludes that shifting conceptions of this phenomenon is critical to reforming “alienating” practices that function not only to cause harm to their intended targets, but also to distort the legal requirements of …

The Rocky Path From Section 601 Of The Iirira To Issue- Specific Asylum Legislation Protecting The Parents Of Fgm-Vulnerable Children, Andy Rottman

University of Colorado Law Review

Political asylum in the United States is intended to protect those who fear persecution if they are returned to their country of origin. Arguably, the United States asylum system works reasonably well when the asylum seeker fits neatly within the statutory asylum scheme. If, however, asylum seekers' claims fall outside the statute, the asylum system can work inhumane results. In these situations, Congress can use issue-specific legislation to protect a group facing a discrete humanitarian crisis. This was done in section 601 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 ("IIRIRA"), which explicitly provided asylum protection to …

Sub-National Immigration Regulation And The Pursuit Of Cultural Cohesion, Pratheepan Gulasekaram

Publications

The past several years have witnessed a significant increase in the volume of state and local laws related to immigration, many of them attempting to increase law enforcement efforts, and deny residency, public benefits, and employment to undocumented immigrants. Ostensibly erected for resource-guarding reasons, these sub-national regulations act as legally constructed walls, closing off local communities to migrants. Proponents of such measures also contend that sub-national closure-especially in the shadow of lax national border control-is critical to cultural stability and preservation. This Article maintains that resource-guarding rationales are proxies for culture-based exclusion. As such, this Article argues that policymakers at …