Immigration Law Commons^™

Family Reunification And The Security State, Kerry Abrams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Can We Act Globally While Thinking Locally? Responding To Stella Burch Elias, The Perils And Possibilities Of Refugee Federalism, Kit Johnson

American University Law Review

In The Perils and Possibilities of Refugee Federalism, Professor Stella Burch Elias skillfully exposes both the dangers and the opportunities presented by state responses to the resettlement of refugees within their borders. She concludes that states are prohibited from excluding refugees from their territory, but she argues that states have a previously untapped opportunity to legislate at the local level in an effort to promote the integration of refugees into their communities.

This Response does not challenge those conclusions. Rather, this Response seeks to provide context to the idea of refugee federalism by further discussing the problem, acknowledged by Professor …

Unconventional Refugees, Elizabeth Keyes

American University Law Review

Refugees are a flash point for political divisions in the United States and abroad. The enormous personal, moral, and legal challenges posed by the displacement of refugees around the world reveal the dire inadequacies of our current policies toward refugee protection. Children running to border agents at the U.S. southern border are treated as a security threat to be deterred, instead of a vulnerable population needing some level of protection. The numbers of people seeking safety in the United States, while not objectively high, places further strain on an already under-resourced and heavily burdened immigration system, which at the end …

Birthright Citizenship Under Attack: How Dominican Nationality Laws May Be The Future Of U.S. Exclusion, Ediberto Roman, Ernesto Sagas

American University Law Review

Attacks on birthright citizenship periodically emerge in the United States, particularly during presidential election cycles. Indeed, blaming immigrants for the country's woes is a common strategy for conservative politicians, and the campaign leading up to the 2016 presidential election was not an exception. Several of the Republican presidential candidates raised the issue, with President Donald Trump making it the hallmark of his immigration reform platform. Trump promised that, if elected, his administration would "end birthright citizenship."

In the Dominican Republic, ending birthright citizenship and curbing immigration are now enshrined into law, resulting from a significant constitutional redefinition of Dominican citizenship …

Amicus Curaie, Submitted Susan Akram, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

Summary of Argument

Palestinian refugees fall under a legal regime that is distinct from all other refugees in the world. As such, they are covered by a series of special provisions that apply only to them and no other refugees. Their special status resulted from the decisions of the drafters of key international treaties to exclude Palestinian refugees from the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, and to conditionally exclude them from the benefits of the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees.

Three main reasons …

No Restoration, No Rehabilitation: Shadow Detention Of Mentally Incompetent Noncitizens, Sarah R. Sherman-Stokes

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the burgeoning mental competency regime in immigration removal proceedings, as well as its shortcomings. While some strides have been made in the last six years to identify noncitizen detainees who are incompetent, and to implement safeguards, including appointed counsel, to protect their rights, the current mental competency framework fails to protect some of the most vulnerable. Specifically, this article explains that mentally incompetent, noncitizen detainees for whom no adequate safeguards are available, face a kind of shadow, prolonged and potentially indefinite detention. These detainees’ continued detention is wholly without process – despite their incompetence, they are not …

Do In-State Tuition Benefits Affect The Academic Performance Of Non-Citizens? Data From Texas Public Universities, Terry K. Shaw

Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigates whether receiving in-state tuition benefits effects the academic performance of non-citizen students attending Texas public state-universities. Using data from the Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project, it examines the effect of the HB-1403 policy on contributing factors affecting academic performance of non-citizen students.

The Ever-Changing Bogeyman: How Fear Has Driven Immigration Law And Policy, Arthur L. Rizer Iii

Louisiana Law Review

The article explores the relationship between national security and immigration law in the U.S. with the legal framework of immigration law including provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the need of protecting the borders, population control, and the essence of the rule of law.

Crossing Borders, Jarrett Lyons

Capstones

The United State Supreme Court declared the right to marry for LGBT people under “equal dignity in the eyes of the law,” on June 26th, 2015. The front pages of virtually every newspaper that day highlighted that proclamation. Exactly a week prior, another United States federal agency made an official declaration that didn’t make the front pages but also affected LGBTQ politics. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a Transgender Care Memorandum, detailing policies for treatment trans migrants in detention facilities. The facilities have a noted history of mistreatment of transgender detainees.

Ishalaa Ortega is a transgender woman who …

Running For Ayotzinapa: A Father's Marathon To Find His Son, Gustavo Martínez

Capstones

People find a world of reasons to run marathons: to fight cancer, to raise money for a charity, to fulfill a promise. But Antonio Tizapa runs for the reason that has dictated his every waking moment for more than two years: finding his son. The story is presented through a written piece and a video short documentary. It follows Tizapa through events and races in the New York City area.

http://intl-clarke.2016.journalism.cuny.edu/2016/12/30/running-for-ayotzinapa-a-fathers-marathon-to-find-his-missing-son/

Catering Hall Harbors Immigrant Families Through Underground Employment, Kimberly J. Avalos

Capstones

A catering hall in Queens serves as a hub of work for immigrant families and holds a collection of Latin American migration stories and insights into illegal immigration in the United States.

The stories of the catering hall workers—younger and older, longtime residents and new arrivals—reflect the different struggles of immigration across the different generations of immigrants who work there. Their stories also show the common bonds for the different generations and the longstanding dreams of America.

immigrantworkers.kimberlyjavalos.com

Emigration, Repatriation And The Reality Of Returned Youth In El Salvador, Isabel C. Duarte Vasquez

Master's Theses

According to US Customs and Border Protection, over 59 thousand unaccompanied minors from the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) have been detained at the US border, of those 59 thousand, 17 thousand are from El Salvador. El Salvador is home to some of the most dangerous and ruthless gangs of the twenty-first century. Their ruthlessness comes from 1980s guerrilla warfare experience. In addition, El Salvador serves as a transshipment point for illicit substances from South America into Mexico. These dynamics fuel the homicide rate of the region as local gang members must protect their territory by any means …

Brief For Amici Curiae Legal Historians In Support Of Petitioners, Hernandez V. Mesa, No. 15-118 (U.S. Dec. 12, 2016), Richard L. Aynes, Michael Kent Curtis, Paul Finkelman, Stephen E. Gottlieb, Wilson R. Huhn, Rebecca E. Zietlow

Con Law Center Amicus Briefs

This case is about cross-border responsibilities of U.S. government agents. Accordingly your amici seek to explain the history and meaning of the Due Process Clauses as they apply to any “person.”

The meaning of any person affects whether there is legal responsibility for the intentional cross-border killing of a fifteen-year old boy by a government agent who had “no reason to suspect. . . had committed any crime or engaged in any conduct that justify the use of force, let alone deadly, force,” and for whose death there was “no apparent justification,” Hernandez v. United States, 785 F.3d 117, …

Homosexual Resident Alien Deportable As A Psychopathic Personality

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Deported By Marriage: Americans Forced To Choose Between Love And Country, Beth Caldwell

Brooklyn Law Review

As the fiftieth anniversary of Loving v. Virginia approaches, de jure prohibitions against interracial marriages are history. However, marriages between people of different national origins continue to be undermined by the law. The Constitution does not protect the marital rights of citizens who marry noncitizens in the same way that it protects all other marriages. Courts have consistently held that a spouse’s deportation does not implicate the rights of American citizens, and the Constitution has long been held inapplicable in protecting the substantive due process rights of noncitizens facing deportation. Given the spike in deportations over the past decade, hundreds …

The Economic Impacts Of Undocumented Immigrants In The United States, Abdulaziz Alangari

Honors Papers and Posters

There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., of which all are not granted a work permit. Thus, in order to survive, these immigrants seek jobs that do not require legal status but have wages significantly lower than minimum. In short, by having these immigrants work in low-wage jobs, the U.S. economy benefits by providing a diverse market to U.S. residents and thus creates a vast economy. My research paper will be talking about how the presence of undocumented immigrants is a significant factor in creating and shaping the diverse U.S. economy.

Who Controls Immigration Judges?: Towards A Multi-Institutional Model Of Administration Judge Behavior, Mark Richard Beougher

Dissertations

Numerous studies have shown dramatic variations in the rates that immigration judges grant asylum. What these studies have failed to adequately explain as of yet is why? In attempting to understand the behavior of immigration judges in asylum cases, scholars have generally taken one of two approaches, either examining immigration judge behavior through top-down bureaucratic models or with models developed through the study of the judiciary. From these studies we have learned that similarly situated asylum applicants have different chances of success based merely on the ideological leanings of the judge who decides their case. We also have learned that …

When Giving Birth Becomes A Liability: The Intersection Of Reproductive Oppression And The Motherhood Wage Penalty For Latinas In Texas, Dania Y. Pulido

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

Abstract forthcoming.

Catholic Social Teaching, The Right To Immigrate, And The Right To Regulate Borders: A Proposed Solution For Comprehensive Immigration Reform Based Upon Catholic Social Principles, Chad G. Marzen, William Woodyard Ii

San Diego Law Review

A number of scholars have commented on the significance of religious traditions to the debate concerning immigration policy in the United States.[1] In this Article, we contend that the Catholic legal tradition is relevant to the contemporary debate among policymakers, as it balances policy considerationsof the right to immigrate as well as the right of a nation to regulate its borders advocated on both ends of the policy debate. Section I of this Article discusses the current policy debate concerning comprehensive immigration reform and recent major legislative proposals for comprehensive immigration reform, including the plan of the “Gang of Eight” …

Transparent Review Of Agency Immigration Decisions, Kyler Mccarty

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments; Immigration And Naturalization -- Effect Of State Conviction Of Minor Drug Offense By Youthful Offenders -- Availability Of Relief From Mandatory Deportation Based On State Certificate Of Relief From Disabilities Granted As A Result Of The Conviction (Rehman V. Immigration And Naturalization Service, 2d Cir 1976), Donna R. Christie

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The New Immigration Law, John E. Mccarthy

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Policy Brief: Expanding Food Benefits For Immigrants: Charting A Policy Agenda For New York City, Anabel Perez-Jimenez, Nicholas Freudenberg

Publications and Research

This policy brief explores the eligibility of various categories of New York City’s immigrant populations, from those who have become citizens to permanent residents (Green Card holders) to those who lack legal immigration status, for SNAP, WIC and School Food, the nation’s main food benefit programs. We also examine factors that facilitate or block immigrants’ enrollment in these programs. Our larger goals are to encourage more systematic study of immigrant access to food benefits and identify opportunities for improving access. We hope to widen a public conversation among immigrants and their organizations, food security groups, food justice advocates and policy …

Should We Presume State Protection?, James C. Hathaway, Audrey Macklin

Articles

Professors Hathaway and Macklin debate the legality of the “presumption of state protection” that the Supreme Court of Canada established as a matter of Canadian refugee law in the Ward decision. Professor Hathaway argues that this presumption should be rejected because it lacks a sound empirical basis and because it conflicts with the relatively low evidentiary threshold set by the Refugee Convention’s “well-founded fear” standard. Professor Macklin contends that the Ward presumption does not in and of itself impose an unduly onerous burden on claimants, and that much of the damage wrought by the presumption comes instead from misinterpretation and …

Constitutional Citizenship Under Attack, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Disaggregating "Immigration Law", Mathew J. Lindsay

Florida Law Review

Courts and scholars have long noted the constitutional exceptionalism of the federal immigration power, decried the injustice it produces, and appealed for greater constitutional protection for noncitizens. This Article builds on this robust literature while focusing on a particularly critical conceptual and doctrinal obstacle to legal reform—the notion that laws governing the rights of noncitizens to enter and remain within the United States comprise a distinct body of “immigration laws” presumed to be part and parcel of foreign affairs and national security.

This Article argues that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent immigration jurisprudence suggests a willingness to temper, and perhaps …

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

Florida Law Review

This Article lays out a systematic, conceptual framework to better understand the relationship between federal executive action and state- level 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 …

The One-Year Bar To Asylum In The Age Of The Immigration Court Backlog, Lindsay M. Harris

Journal Articles

Imagine being forced to flee your home, separated from your children, and undergoing the perilous journey to seek safety and protection in the United States. Upon arrival, you are immediately detained and questioned about your intentions. You explain that you fear for your life and seek asylum protection. You may even undergo a detailed interview with an asylum officer, who finds that you have a significant possibility of establishing asylum eligibility. You are released from detention to pursue your asylum claim in immigration court. You diligently attend check-ins with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer for the next two years …

Pushing An End To Sanctuary Cities: Will It Happen?, Raina Bhatt

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Sanctuary jurisdictions refer to city, town, and state governments (collectively, localities or local governments) that have passed provisions to limit their enforcement of federal immigration laws. Such local governments execute limiting provisions in order to bolster community cooperation, prevent racial discrimination, focus on local priorities for enforcement, or even to a show a local policy that differs from federal policy. The provisions are in the forms of executive orders, municipal ordinances, and state resolutions. Additionally, the scope of the provisions vary by locality: some prohibit law enforcement from asking about immigration status, while others prohibit the use of state resources …

Kill The Snitch: How Henriquez-Rivas Affects Asylum Eligibility For People Who Report Serious Gang Crimes To Law Enforcement, James Carr

Washington Law Review

In 2015, El Salvador became the murder capital of the world. Like its Central American neighbors, El Salvador has experienced a significant increase in gang violence during the past decade, as evidenced by its 2015 homicide statistics showing over 6,600 registered homicides in the country despite a population of only 6.3 million people. Rising crime rates and widespread gang influence are forcing many affected Central Americans to seek asylum in the United States. Individuals may qualify for asylum if they have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social …