Immigration Law Commons^™

No Refuge For The Sick: How The Eu's Health-Based Non-Refoulement Standard Compounds The Exclusionary Nature Of International Refugee Law, Cassandra Baker

Washington International Law Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic poses grave threats to the life and health of asylum seekers in Europe. Many potential asylees are forced to reside in cramped, unsanitary facilities and do not have adequate access to medical treatment. On top of these dangers, many are likely to be denied asylum due to the stringency of international refugee law and European Union (“EU”) asylum procedures. As a result, a number of these asylum seekers will turn to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides broader non-refoulement protections. However, even Article 3, as currently interpreted by the European Court of …

The Surge Of Unaccompanied Minors At The U.S.-Mexico Border, Lauren Werner

Political Science Theses and Capstones

No abstract submitted.

The Right To Remain, Timothy E. Lynch

Faculty Works

Article 12.4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states, "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country." Citizens clearly enjoy Article 12.4 rights, but this article demonstrates that this right reaches beyond the citizenry. Using customary methods of treaty interpretation, including reference to the ICCPR's preparatory works and the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee, this article demonstrates that Article 12.4 also forbids States from deporting long-term resident noncitizens both documented and undocumented - except under the rarest circumstances. As a result, the ICCPR right to remain in one's own …

Domesticated: Migrant Domestic Workers In Jordan And Their Place In Jordan’S Law And Homes, Jeromel Dela Rosa Lara

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this study is to bring attention to the labor conditions for migrant women domestic workers and what agency they have in the workplace (the home of their employers) and the law in Jordan. Jordan is considered as having a model labor law for migrant workers in the region. Officials from the Ministry of Labor have claimed that this makes the Kafala System––a system of labor that puts migrant workers under the care, standards, and control of the employer––non-existent in the country. This study will look further on the extent that this is reflected to the experiences of …

Embracing Crimmigration To Curtail Immigration Detention, Pedro Gerson

Faculty Scholarship

Immigration advocates have long objected to both the constitutionality and conditions of immigration detention. However, legal challenges to the practice have been largely unsuccessful due to immigration law’s “exceptionality.” Placing recent litigation carried out against immigration detention during the COVID-19 pandemic within the context of the judiciary’s approach to immigration, this Article argues that litigation is an extremely limited strategic avenue to curtail the use of immigration detention. I then argue that anti-immigration detention advocates should attempt to incorporate their agenda into criminal legal reform and decarceration efforts. This is important for both movements. Normatively, immigration detention raises comparable issues: …

Sheriffs, State Troopers, And The Spillover Effects Of Immigration Policing, Huyen Pham, Pham Hoang Van

Faculty Scholarship

As the Biden Administration decides whether to continue the 287(g) program (the controversial program deputizing local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws), our research shows that the program has broader negative effects on policing behavior than previously identified. To date, debate about the 287(g) program has focused exclusively on the policing behavior of law enforcement agencies like sheriff’s offices that sign the agreements, and on concerns that these signatory local enforcement agencies (“LEAs”) engage in racial profiling. Our research shows that the agreements also negatively affect the behavior of nearby, nonsignatory law enforcement agencies. Using 18 million traffic …

Denmark And Sweden: The Collision Between Welfare State Politics And Immigration, Amy Elizabeth Cantrell

Student Publications

The Scandinavian welfare states of Denmark and Sweden have famously similar socio-political and cultural systems, ones which have advanced the common perception of these nations as united in a common humanitarian and progressive global position. However there exists a significant divergence within either nation’s approach to immigration, asylum and integration policy, one indicative of the deeply ingrained deviations in popular understandings of national belonging and perspectives on greater European and global integration. By contextualizing the historical progressions of either nation and juxtaposing their individual responses to both the 2015 European refugee crisis and the contemporary Ukrainian conflict and resulting refugee …

Refoulement As Pandemic Policy, Haiyun Damon-Feng

Washington International Law Journal

COVID-19 restrictions on access to asylum likely violate non-refoulement obligations under international and federal law, and while they are extreme, they are not unique. There is a small but growing body of scholarly literature that rightly argues that such policies are pretextual covers used to enact restrictive immigration policy goals, but these arguments generally arise from an ahistorical perspective. This article positions restrictive COVID immigration policies in a broader historical context and argues that the United States has a long history of weaponizing fear of disease and contagion from migrants to justify restrictive immigration policies. The article offers a historical …

Reimagining Sovereignty To Protect Migrants, Pooja R. Dadhania

Faculty Scholarship

The concept of sovereignty in international law allows states to exclude and expel most categories of migrants, subject only to very narrow exceptions from international human rights and refugee law. Inverting the state sovereignty paradigm traditionally used to exclude migrants, this Essay reimagines sovereignty to protect migrants by drawing on the international law doctrine of state responsibility. The doctrine of state responsibility requires states to remedy the consequences of their actions in violation of international law. States that violate the sovereignty of other states, more specifically their territorial integrity or political independence, and thereby cause forced migration should have an …

Private And Public Sector Models For Entrepreneur, Small Business Owner, And Investor Immigration Pathways, Shane Dizon

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Non-State Actors "Under Color Of Law": Closing A Gap In Protection Under The Convention Against Torture, Anna R. Welch, Sangyeob Kim

Faculty Publications

The world is experiencing a global restructuring that poses a serious threat to international efforts to prevent and protect against torture. The rise of powerful transnational non-state actors such as gangs, drug cartels, militias, and terrorist organizations is challenging states’ authority to control and govern torture committed within their territory.

In the United States, those seeking protection against deportation under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) must establish a likelihood of torture at the instigation of or by consent or acquiescence of a public official acting in an official capacity or other person acting in an official capacity. However, what is …

Rejecting Citizenship, Rose Cuison-Villazor

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era. By Ming Hsu Chen.

A Comparative Perspective On Safe Third And First Country Of Asylum Policies In The United Kingdom And North America: Legal Norms, Principles And Lessons Learned, Susan M. Akram, Elizabeth Ruddick

Faculty Scholarship

Wealthy refugee-receiving countries across the global north have recently been experimenting with systems that they believe will allow them lawfully to remove or turn back asylum-seekers reaching their borders, without considering their claims for international protection. These include the Trump administration's Asylum Cooperation Agreements (ACAs), the United Kingdom's Nationality and Borders Act, and the recent amendments to Denmark's Aliens Act that will allow asylum-seekers to be transferred to third countries for processing. Although these systems have many important differences, they rest on a shared premise that neither the Refugee Convention nor international, regional or domestic human rights laws prohibit such …

Immigration Policy And Covid-19, Daniel Hostetter

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

No abstract provided.

Public Charge Grounds For Inadmissibility: Impact On Noncitizen Health Insurance Coverage, Madeline M. Culbreth

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The public charge rule is an ongoing barrier to health insurance for lawfully

present immigrants and ought to be removed. Healthcare coverage for

immigrants is a critical aspect of the country’s health care scheme. Recent

changes to the United States’ immigration policy are contributing to growing

fears among immigrant families about participating in Medicaid and CHIP.

The most effective solution is to permanently alter the Immigration and Nationality

Act. Congress should expressly exclude health insurance from being

considered in the public charge grounds for inadmissibility.

The Migrant Protection Protocols: Two Administrations, One Outcome, Alexandria Doty

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Immigrants have long seen the southern border of the United States as the last stop before they are able to enter the land of the free. The Department of Homeland Security, however, strives to make the southern border as inhospitable as possible to those hoping to cross. The Migrant Protect Protocols is the latest attempt from Washington to block access to the United States to immigrants who are detained by forcibly returning them to Mexico to await their deportation proceedings. While Americans have read stories of families being torn apart at the border or listened to interviews of politicians promising …

Taking Arlington To New Heights: The Carrillo-Lopez Decision, Caroline Henneman

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Former President Trump campaigned on a promise to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. Though President Trump did not fulfill this promise, he highlighted the amount of unchecked power his administration had over immigration law through policy enactments. Throughout the centuries, various Presidents and sessions of Congress utilized this unbridled power to discriminate against migrants on the basis of race. In 1952, Congress enacted the Immigration and Nationality Act, which repealed several explicitly racist requirements but overlooked other racially charged laws from prior statutes, such as criminally punishing unlawful re-entry found in 8 U.S.C. §1326. On August …

Immigration And Naturalization, Kevin J. Fandl, Sabrina Damast, Mayra C. Artiles, Poorvi Chothani, Cliodhna Murphy

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Strengthening Immigration Support For Agricultural Labor Migration And Ending Modern Day “Harvest Of Shame” A Comparative Study Of The American And Australian Approaches, Dr. Ying Chen

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Prosecutorial Discretion In The Constitutionality Of Daca, Olivia Dixon

SLU Law Journal Online

DACA has been a controversial immigration program for almost a decade, as it winds its way through the United States's court system. In this article, Olivia Dixon argues that federal judge Andrew Hanen's most recent holding, that DACA is unconstitutional, is wrong, specifically looking at the role prosecutorial discretion plays in the program's constitutionality.

Expanding Immigrant Justice By Training Professionals, Michele R. Pistone

Faculty Publications

As a law professor at Villanova University, I headed a clinic that helps hundreds of asylum seekers gain protection in the United States. On good days, I would remember the Talmudic saying, “whoever saves one life saves the world entire,” and take great pride in what my students and I were able to accomplish. On bad days, however, the fruits of our work could seem but a drop in the bucket, for every visit to immigration court demonstrated anew that our clients were the exception. Most immigrants face the immigration system without legal representation of any sort. This unfortunate and …

Taking The "Fam" Out Of Family: Adjudicating The State Department's Discriminatory Treatment Of Same-Sex Parents On The Merits, Camrin M. Rivera

Maine Law Review

Cisgender same-sex male married couples, unlike cisgender opposite-sex married couples, will always require artificial reproductive technology (ART) for at least one of the spouses to attain biological parenthood. Due to legal and financial barriers to ART, many of these couples turn to international ART services to grow their families. In doing so, these families may face immigration battles when they apply for recognition of their child’s United States citizenship. For example, a prior State Department policy sparked three lawsuits after the State Department refused to recognize children as United States citizens from birth because the children were not biologically related …

Latinxs Reshaping Law & Policy In The U.S. South, Luz E. Herrera, Pilar M. Hernández-Escontrías

Faculty Scholarship

This article addresses the key law and policy levers affecting Latinxs in what the U.S. Census Bureau designates as the South. Since the rise of the Latinx population from the 1980s onward, few legal scholars and researchers have participated in a sustained dialogue about how law and policy affects Latinxs living in the South. In response to this gap in legal research, this article provides an overview of the major law and policy challenges and opportunities for Latinxs in this U.S. region. Part II examines the geopolitical landscape of the South with special focus on the enduring legacy of Jim …

Decitizenizing Asian Pacific American Women, Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Margaret Hu

Faculty Publications

The Page Act of 1875 excluded Asian women immigrants from entering the United States, presuming they were prostitutes. This presumption was tragically replicated in the 2021 Atlanta Massacre of six Asian and Asian American women, reinforcing the same harmful prejudices. This Article seeks to illuminate how the Atlanta Massacre is symbolic of larger forms of discrimination, including the harms of decitizenship. These harms include limited access to full citizenship rights due to legal barriers, restricted cultural and political power, and a lack of belonging. The Article concludes that these harms result from the structure of past and present immigration laws …

Fee Retrenchment In Immigration Habeas, Seth Katsuya Endo

Fordham Law Review

For noncitizens facing removal, habeas corpus provides one of very few avenues for Article III review. For decades, habeas proceedings have been interpreted as falling under the ambit of the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), which provides for the award of attorneys’ fees to prevailing parties in suits against the federal government. But this understanding is being challenged, threatening the judicial backstop to executive and legislative overreach in immigration. Reducing the ability of lawyers to recover their fees in these circumstances will reduce the number and quality of habeas challenges by individuals being detained while they await removal—a particularly …

Immigration Federalism In The United States: Constructing A Contemporary Institutional Framework Centered On Local Communities Through A Case Study Approach, Sara Kuehlhorn Friedman

Dissertations and Theses

This research study presents a new model of immigration federalism which integrates existing theories into a framework that emphasizes agency at the local level. Unlike dominant models of federalism that observe the cascading effect of higher-level policy on lower levels of government, this research focuses on empirical evidence at the local level to understand its relation to policy at higher levels. Immigration federalism is receiving substantial interest in scholarly work and in practice, but it lacks a cohesive and comprehensive theory explaining variation at the community level. There is little reason to expect sweeping changes in immigration policy at the …

An Ngo Input For The Special Rapporteur For The Human Rights Of Migrants To The Office Of The United Nations High Commissioner For Human Rights Report On Human Rights Violations At International Borders: Trends, Prevention, And Accountability, Katherine Kaufka Walts, Sarah J. Diaz, Abigail Mitchell

Center for the Human Rights of Children

The Center for the Human Rights of Children, in collaboration with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights (“Young Center”) submits this input in response to the call for submissions made by the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants to inform the forthcoming report to the 50th session of the Human Rights Council regarding the United States’ current border management policies that aim to prevent migration atthe southern border. This input will focus on United States’ push back methods, namely the recently reimplemented Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) otherwise known as “Remain …

Cruel And Unusual Punishment: The Eighth Amendment And Ice Detainees In The Covid-19 Crisis, Nechelle Nicholas

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Lineage Of Family Separation, Anita Sinha

Brooklyn Law Review

Family separation is a practice rooted in US history. In order to comprehensively examine the most recent execution of separating children from their parents under the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, we need to follow and understand this history. That is what this Article does. Examining the separation histories of enslaved, Indigenous, and immigrant families, it offers critical context of a reoccurring practice that has had devastating effects largely on communities of color, and across generations. By contextualizing the separation of migrant families crossing the US-Mexico border under zero tolerance, this Article identifies narratives that consistently rely on xenophobia and …

Understanding The Nansen Passport: A System Of Manipulation, Kacey Bengel

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The aftermath of World War I, the "war to end all wars," left the world with as many new problems as it did resolutions. State powers tested and expanded the boundaries and interpretations of international law; in the end, there were the triumphant Allied Powers, the heavily wounded Central Powers, and millions of displaced individuals left adrift in the wake. Never before had the international community attempted to address the issue of refugees, and the product of the postwar efforts did not provide a complete solution. This paper will analyze the international community's] response to the massive refugee crisis and …