Immigration Law Commons^™

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 …

Gambian And Senegalese Refugee Policies As A Potential Means Towards Regional Stability, Amy Armata

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Can “Asians” Truly Be Americans?, Vinay Harpalani

Faculty Scholarship

Recent, tragic events have brought more attention to hate and bias crimes against Asian Americans. It is important to address these crimes and prevent them in the future, but the discourse on Asian Americans should not end there. Many non-Asian Americans are unaware or only superficially aware of the vast diversity that exists among us, along with the challenges posed by that diversity. Some have basic knowledge of the immigration and exclusion of Asian Americans, the internment of Japanese Americans which was upheld in Korematsu v. United States, and the “model minority stereotype”, but these are Asian Americans 101. This …

Can “Asians” Truly Be Americans?, Vinay Harpalani

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Recent, tragic events have brought more attention to hate and bias crimes against Asian Americans. It is important to address these crimes and prevent them in the future, but the discourse on Asian Americans should not end there. Many non-Asian Americans are unaware or only superficially aware of the vast diversity that exists among us, along with the challenges posed by that diversity. Some have basic knowledge of the immigration and exclusion of Asian Americans, the internment of Japanese Americans which was upheld in Korematsu v. United States, and the “model minority stereotype”, but these are Asian Americans 101. This …

Persistent Inequalities, The Pandemic, And The Opportunity To Compete, Rachel F. Moran

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Even before the recent coronavirus pandemic, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status played a powerful role in allocating opportunity—in the public schools and elsewhere. The pandemic has laid bare the dimensions of this inequality with a new and alarming clarity. In this essay, I first will focus on the landscape of educational inequity that existed before the coronavirus forced public schools to shut down. In particular, I will explore patterns of racial and ethnic segregation in America’s schools and how those patterns are linked to additional challenges based on socioeconomic isolation. In addition, I will consider the role of language and …

It’S My Party, And I’Ll Do What I Want To: Making The Case For Judicial Review Of National Interest Waiver Denials, M. Hunter Rush

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Politics and personal beliefs have become increasingly intertwined since the founding of the United States. Few issues have divided Americans more than immigration laws and policies. This Note advances the argument that when a noncitizen’s application for a National Interest Waiver is denied, there must be some recourse. The current problem is exacerbated when the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, on behalf of the Secretary of Homeland Security, denies a waiver for what appears to be racially or religiously motivated purposes. Judicial review in an Article III court is the most neutral forum of review that a noncitizen residing …

Preventing A Permanent Underclass: Why In-State Tuition For Daca Students Just Makes Sense, Christian Bowcutt, Eliza Allen

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

In the landmark 1982 Supreme Court Case "Plyler v. Doe", the right to a free education was guaranteed to undocumented students. One of the reasons for this was to "prevent a permanent underclass". Today, we have a similar opportunity to lift our fellow peers by passing legislation to guarantee in-state tuition to DACA recipients. DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is a program that grants temporary citizenship to qualifying children and youth who are brought to the United States with their parent(s) or guardian(s). Currently, the majority of states have not guaranteed this right to DACA students. With tuition rates …

Left At The Borders: Addressing The Issue Of Inclusivity For Female Immigrants, Elizabeth S. Castillo, Brooklyn Bird, Abby Forrest, Editor

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The United States laws, regulations, and political discourse surrounding migration is rife with varying sensitivities. These include but are not limited to the physically, emotionally, and mentally exigent circumstances that cause women and girls of many ages and nationalities to flee their home countries for the United States. Because of the structure of American immigration law and the impactful measures taken by the Trump administration, we argue the language found in the Immigration and Nationality Act neglects to address gender-specific persecution, which renders the already difficult process of seeking asylum still more challenging for women hoping to migrate to the …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Immigration Detention, Fatma Marouf

Faculty Scholarship

COVID-19 has spread quickly through immigration detention facilities in the United States. As of December 2, 2020, there have been over 7,500 confirmed COVID-19 cases among detained noncitizens. This Article examines why COVID-19 spread rapidly in immigration detention facilities, how it has transformed detention and deportation proceedings, and what can be done to improve the situation for detained noncitizens. Part I identifies key factors that contributed to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in immigration detention. While these factors are not an exhaustive list, they highlight important weaknesses in the immigration detention system. Part II then examines how the pandemic changed …

Rwu Law News: The Newsletter Of Roger Williams University School Of Law 04-2021, Michael M. Bowden, Barry Bridges, Political Roundtable

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Here Stood My Dreaming Tree: A Proposal To Reform Non-Lpr Cancellation Of Removal To Bring Undocumented Immigrants Out Of The Shadows, Andrea Barrientos

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note advocates for expanding nonLPR (non-Lawful Permanent Resident) cancellation of removal as a pathway to lawful status for undocumented immigrants. It critiques the current system’s restrictive eligibility criteria, annual caps, and high hardship standards, arguing that these limitations exclude many deserving applicants. The proposed reforms aim to eliminate the 4,000-person cap, convert the relief into an affirmative process, and lower the hardship standard to align immigration policy with U.S. values of fairness and inclusion. By doing so, the reforms would stabilize families, reduce marginalization, and bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows.

The Boston Medical Center Immigrant Task Force: An Alternative To Teaching Immigration Law To Health Care Providers, Sondra S. Crosby, Lily Sonis, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

As healthcare providers engage in the politics of reforming and humanizing our immigration and asylum “system” it is critical that they are able to refer their patients whose health is directly impacted by our immigration laws and policies to experts who can help them navigate the system and obtain the healthcare they need.

Strangers In A Strange Land: Problems With The Recent Influx Of Ice Detainees Into Louisiana, And What To Do About It, Danielle Grote

Louisiana Law Review

The article examines the challenges posed by and solutions to the influx of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees into Louisiana.

2020 Annual Report, University Of Maine School Of Law

Clinic Annual Report

• Program Overview 3
• General Practice Clinic 5
• Prisoner Assistance Clinic 6
• Juvenile Justice Clinic 7
• Refugee and Human Rights Clinic 9
• Protection From Abuse Program 10
• Staffing 11

"De-Americanization" During The Trump Administration: Derivative Citizenship And Deceased Parents In The United States, Katheryn J. Maldonado

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The Trump Administration’s war on immigration will be marked in history as one replete with white supremacy and terror. Much attention has been focused in the realm of undocumented immigrants, detention centers, and family separations because of the pervasiveness of those issues and the gravity of the human rights violations occurring in the United States. However, little focus has been given to immigrants who are lawful permanent residents or naturalized citizens at risk of denaturalization and deprivation of their constitutional rights. This Note highlights the effects of the Trump Administration’s war on immigration on citizens and green card holders in …

Relentless Pursuits: Reflections Of An Immigration And Human Rights Clinician On The Past Four Years, Sarah H. Paoletti

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Deconstructing Invisible Walls: Sotomayor's Dissents In An Era Of Immigration Exceptionalism, Karla Mckanders

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Family In The Balance: Barton V. Barr And The Systematic Violation Of The Right To Family Life In U.S. Immigration Enforcement, David Baluarte

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The United States systematically violates the international human right to family life in its system of removal of noncitizens. Cancellation of removal provides a means for noncitizens to challenge their removal based on family ties in the United States, but Congress has placed draconian limits on the discretion of immigration courts to cancel removal where noncitizens have committed certain crimes. The recently issued U.S. Supreme Court decision in Barton v. Barr illustrates the troubling trend of affording less discretion for immigration courts to balance family life in removal decisions that involve underlying criminal conduct. At issue was the “stop-time rule” …

The Continuing Legacy Of The National Origin Quotas, Angela M. Banks

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Learning From The Past: Using Korematsu And Other Japanese Internment Cases To Provide Protections Against Immigration Detentions, Caleb Ward

Arkansas Law Review

One of the darkest periods in modern United States history is reoccurring with mixed public approval. During World War II, the United States government enacted executive orders creating a curfew, proscribing living areas, and forcing the exclusion and detention of all Japanese descendants from the West Coast. The United States justified these grievous freedom and equality violations through an increased need for national security “because we [were] at war with [Japan].” However, this perceived increased need for national security came from a fraudulent assessment showing any Japanese-American could be planning espionage or sabotage of the United States. After the war, …

The Rights Of Refugees Under International Law, James C. Hathaway

Book Chapters

The universal rights of refugees are today derived from two primary sources - general standards of international human rights law, and the Refugee Convention itself. As the analysis in Chapter 1 makes clear, the obligations derived from the Refugee Convention remain highly relevant, despite the development since 1951 of a broad-ranging system of international human rights law. In particular, general human rights norms do not address many refugee-specific concerns; general economic rights are defined as duties of progressive implementation and may legitimately be denied to non-citizens by less developed countries; not all civil rights are guaranteed to non-citizens, and most …

Let Indians Decide: How Restricting Border Passage By Blood Quantum Infringes On Tribal Sovereignty, Rebekah Ross

Washington Law Review

American immigration laws have been explicitly racial throughout most of the country’s history. For decades, only White foreign nationals could become naturalized citizens. All racial criteria have since vanished from the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)—all but one. Section 289 of the INA allows “American Indians born in Canada” to freely cross into the United States if they possess at least 50% blood “of the American Indian race.” Such American Indians cannot be prohibited from entering the United States and can obtain lawful permanent residence status—if they meet the blood quantum requirement. Such racialized immigration controls arbitrarily restrict cross-border Indigenous …

Cruelty Was The Point: Theories Of Recovery For Family Separation Anddetention Abuses, Sarah Rogerson

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Authority Of International Refugee Law, Evan J. Criddle, Evan Fox-Decent

William & Mary Law Review

As COVID-19 has spread around the world, many states have suspended their compliance with a core requirement of international refugee law: the duty to refrain from returning refugees to territories where they face a serious risk of persecution (the duty of non-refoulement). These measures have prompted some observers to question whether non-refoulement will survive the pandemic as a nonderogable legal duty. This Article explains why the international community should embrace non-refoulement as a peremptory norm of general international law (jus cogens) that applies even during public emergencies, such as the coronavirus pandemic. Viewed from a global justice perspective, the …

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 …

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, …

The Wall That Trumps Environmental Law: A Review Of The Environmental And Legal Implications Of The U.S.-Mexico Border Wall, Olivia Merritt

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Making The Extraordinary Ordinary: Examining The Impact Of Shifting Immigration Policies On Professional Athletics In The United States, Rachel Insalaco

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

“We Are Asking Why You Treat Us This Way. Is It Because We Are Negroes?” A Reparations-Based Approach To Remedying The Trump Administration’S Cancellation Of Tps Protections For Haitians, Sarah E. Baranik De Alarcón, David H. Secor, Norma Fuentes-Mayorga

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article places the Trump Administration’s decision to cancel TPS for Haitians within the longer history of U.S. racism and exclusion against Haiti and Haitians, observes the legal challenges against this decision and their limitations, and imagines a future that repairs the harms caused by past and current racist policies. First, this Article briefly outlines the history of exclusionary, race-based immigration laws in the United States, and specifically how this legal framework, coupled with existing anti-Black ideologies in the United States, directly impacted Haitians and Haitian immigrants arriving in the United States. Next, the Article provides an overview of the …

Thirteenth Amendment Litigation In The Immigration Detention Context, Jennifer Safstrom

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article analyzes how the Thirteenth Amendment has been used to prevent forced labor practices in immigration detention. The Article assesses the effectiveness of Thirteenth Amendment litigation by dissecting cases where detainees have challenged the legality of labor requirements under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Given the expansion in immigration detention, the increasing privatization of detention, and the significant human rights implications of this issue, the arguments advanced in this Article are not only currently relevant but have the potential to shape ongoing dialogue on this subject.