Law and Society Commons^™

Opening Borders: African Americans And Latinos Through The Lens Of Immigration, Maritza I. Reyes

Journal Publications

African-American and Latino voter turnout during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections hit record numbers. Polls show that the immigration debate influenced Latino voter turnout and preference. Presidential candidate Barack Obama's voiced support of comprehensive immigration reform strengthened his lead among Latino voters in 2008 and, once in office, his executive policy of granting temporary protection to DREAMers solidified his lead among Latino voters in 2012. Both elections showed the power that minority groups can exert when they vote in support of the candidate. If the demographic changes continue as currently estimated, African Americans and Latinos will contribute in large …

Alienating Sham Marriages For Tougher Immigration Penalties: Congress Enacts The Marriage Fraud Act, Karen L. Rae

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Municipal And State Sanctuary Declarations: Innocuous Symbolism Or Improper Dictates?, Jorge L. Carro

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Enforcing Masculinities At The Borders, Jamie R. Abrams

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Of Civil Wrongs And Rights: Kiyemba V. Obama And The Meaning Of Freedom, Separation Of Powers, And The Rule Of Law Ten Years After 9/11, Katherine L. Vaughns, Heather L. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

This article is about the rise and fall of continued adherence to the rule of law, proper application of the separation of powers doctrine, and the meaning of freedom for a group of seventeen Uighurs—a Turkic Muslim ethnic minority whose members reside in the Xinjiang province of China—who had been held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base since 2002. Most scholars regard the trilogy of Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, and Boumediene v. Bush as demonstrating the Supreme Court’s willingness to uphold the rule of law during the war on terror. The recent experience of the Uighurs …

Constitutionalizing Immigration Law: The Vital Role Of Judicial Discretion In The Removal Of Lawful Permanent Residents, Maritza I. Reyes

Journal Publications

For decades, scholars and advocates criticized the harsh, mandatory nature of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. They argued that federal district court judges should have discretion to authorize a punishment that fits the facts and circumstances of the crime and the defendant. Similarly, immigration scholars and advocates criticize the harsh laws that categorically remove lawful permanent residents, even after minor crimes, from the United States. In 2005, in United States v. Booker, the Supreme Court "constitutionalized" the Sentencing Guidelines by rendering them advisory, and returning judicial discretion to federal judges. This Article argues that the similar constitutional, historical, theoretical, societal, and …

Perpetuating The Marginalization Of Latinos: A Collateral Consequence Of The Incorporation Of Immigration Law Into The Criminal Justice System, Yolanda Vazquez

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Latinos currently represent the largest minority in the United States. In 2009, we witnessed the first Latina appointment to the United States Supreme Court. Despite these events, Latinos continue to endure racial discrimination and social marginalization in the United States. The inability of Latinos to gain political acceptance and legitimacy in the United States can be attributed to the social construct of Latinos as threats to national security and the cause of criminal activity.

Exploiting this pretense, American government, society and nationalists are able to legitimize the subordination and social marginalization of Latinos, specifically Mexicans and Central Americans, much to …

Go West Young Woman!: The Mercer Girls And Legal Historiography, Kristin Collins

Faculty Scholarship

This essay is a response to Professor Kerry Abrams’s article The Hidden Dimension of Nineteenth-Century Immigration Law, published in Vanderbilt Law Review. The Hidden Dimension tells the story of Washington Territory’s entrepreneurial Asa Shinn Mercer, who endeavored to bring hundreds of young women from the East Coast to the tiny frontier town of Seattle as prospective brides for white men who had settled there. Abrams locates the story of the Mercer Girls, as they were called, in the history of American immigration law. My response locates The Hidden Dimension in American legal historiography, both that branch of American legal historiography …

Recognizing The Problem Of Solidarity: Immigration In The Post-Welfare State, David Abraham

Articles

No abstract provided.

Bah V. Mukasey, Sandrine Dehaeze

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Perspective On Immigration Law For Same-Sex Couples: How The United States Compares To Other Industrialized Democracies, James D. Wilets

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Save America: Stop Illegal Immigration, Hon. Virgil H. Goode Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

Security is an overriding issue confronting the United States, and if we want enhanced security, illegal immigration must be stopped. In fact, illegal immigration is an addiction that the United States must break, or it will break the United States.

Selecting By Origin: Ethnic Migration In The Liberal State By Christian Joppke (Book Review), David Abraham

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Immigrant Rights Marches (Las Marchas): Did The “Gigante” (Giant) Wake Up Or Does It Still Sleep Tonight?, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

This article documents the genesis of the March 2006 immigrant rights protests and analyzes their impact. Las Marchas were truly spontaneous grassroots protests, the largest massive civil rights mobilization effort for a single event in the United States to date. This paper provides a macro- and micro-analysis of the forces that account for this success. First, the catalyst, HR 4437, a bill that was successfully approved by the House of Representatives would have criminalized illegal presence. This law was perceived as unjust, and engendered a debate around immigrant rights debate in terms with universal and simple appeal, human dignity, the …

Emerging Latina/O Nation And Anti- Immigrant Backlash, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

This foreword is an introduction to the LatCrit XI, Working and Living in the Global Playground: Frontstage and Backstage symposium, convened at William S. Boyd School of Law, in Las Vegas Nevada, during October 2006 and called upon over 150 academics to focus on the impacts of globalization and immigration. At no time has LatCrit's critical approach of interconnecting the structures of inequality, the market forces of globalization, and the cultural hostility towards outsider groups been more relevant.

Backlash against immigrants, particularly Latina/o “illegals,” is on the rise. This Introduction seeks to outline the challenges that the current immigration quandary …

Driving Down The Wrong Road: The Fifth Circuit's Definition Of Unauthorized Use Of A Motor Vehicle As A Crime Of Violence In The Immigration Context., Heather Harrison Volik

St. Mary's Law Journal

Individuals who are not United States citizens and participate in violent or severe criminal activity are likely to be deported and become inadmissible for life. But noncitizens can also be deported for minor criminal activity which does not cause harm or serious damage. In such cases, deportation is an extreme punishment out of proportion to the offense. Unauthorized use of a motor vehicle (UUMV) is an example of a crime which can be committed without serious harm or damage. The Fifth Circuit regularly sustains decisions of lifetime reentry ban for noncitizens convicted of UUMV. Under immigration law, “aliens” who are …

Any Place For Ethnicity? The Liberal State And Immigration, David Abraham

ExpressO

When it comes to immigration, almost all liberal states are faced with the contradiction between their universalist principles and the real affinities they feel for ethnic kinsmen. This review essay (4000 words) addresses the different ways a number of liberal democracies have handled this dilemma.

Race And The California Recall Election: A Top Ten List Of Ironies, Sylvia R. Lazos, Keith Aoki, Steven Bender

Scholarly Works

Arnold Schwarzenegger's election as governor of California in the 2003 recall campaign is rife with cruel ironies. An immigrant himself, he beat the grandson of Mexican immigrants, Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, by playing the race card, and managed to dodge allegations of his praise for Hitler as a strong leader. While the pundits say that the California recall was about angry voters lashing back at faithless, self-dealing politicians, more lurks beneath the surface. In California, racial and ethnic minorities now comprise a majority of the population, and the recall election brought barely concealed and seething schisms to the surface. Californians, …

Critical Race Theory – The Last Voyage, Dan Subotnik

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

America's Preoccupation With Ethics In Government Essay., Vincent R. Johnson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Many Americans today expect that the law can, should, and will be used to ensure a level playing field in public life. Americans expect the law to eliminate, insofar as possible, any unfair advantage that might be gained through the use of special connections to those who exercise the power of government. There are numerous rules applicable to judges, lawyers, and public officials that each seek to promote equal treatment for all persons by limiting the ability of persons to use special connections and privileged relationships to gain an advantage in public affairs. There were two threads of development in …

The World Refugee Regime In Crisis: A Failure To Fulfill The Burden-Sharing And Humanitarian Requirements Of The 1951 Refugee Convention, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Musarat-Akram provided several examples which illustrate the crisis of the international refugee regime. Specifically, they illustrate, first, that the protections offered so generously in the language and purpose of the 1951 Refugee Convention⁷ are more European and-Western-centered than ever before.

Second, they illustrate some of the restrictionist policies by which Western and industrialized states have succeeded in confining huge refugee flows to the most impoverished and least developed states in the world.

Third, they illustrate that the initial limitations inherent in the 1951 Refugee Convention have now been exacerbated by state practice which interprets the Convention language and …

Global Rights, Local Wrongs, And Legal Fixes: An International Human Rights Critique Of Immigration And Welfare "Reform", Berta E. Hernández-Truyol, Kimberly A. Johns

UF Law Faculty Publications

The United States enjoys a lofty reputation worldwide as the land of opportunity and dreams, the welcoming home to all who want to be free, the brave new world that embraces huddled masses and offers them limitless possibilities to find freedom, liberty, and happiness. In marked juxtaposition to this welcomeness narrative is the counter-narrative of historic exclusion evidenced by the harsh description of these "huddled masses, yearning to breathe free" as "wretched refuse." Indeed, to describe some immigrants as "wretched refuse" manifests that Lady Liberty's welcome is, at best, highly selective and, at worst, patently discriminatory. The irony, of course, …

A Tortured Construction: The Illegal Immigration Reform And Immigrant Responsibility Act's Express Bar Denying Criminal Aliens Withholding Of Deportation Defies The Principles Of International Law Comment., Bobbie Marie Guerra

St. Mary's Law Journal

The United States has never fully complied with international agreements concerning refugee’s rights to not be returned to a country where he or she faces certain threats of torture. This lack of compliance by the United States is exacerbated by two conflicting interests: the growing insistence on keeping aliens outside the nation’s borders and protecting international refugees who endure gross violations of their human rights. The recent amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provide a contemporary example of the volatility and inconsistency of the United States’ immigration policy. In April 1996, Congress enacted the Antiterrorism and Effective Death …

Distinguishing Fong Yue Ting: Why The Inclusion Of Perjury As An Aggravated Felony Subjecting Legal Aliens To Deportation Under The Antiterrorism And Effective Death Penalty Act Violates The Eighth Amendment Comment., Gregory L. Ryan

St. Mary's Law Journal

Responding to the terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City, Congress spent several months researching and discussing the best ways to strengthen the United States’ ability to deter and punish terrorism. In 1996, Congress sent a bill to the President designed to make the country safer, and President Clinton signed the bill into law: The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). The AEDPA mandates a foreign national convicted of perjury be deported. Tucked away in the middle of the AEDPA, strict sanctions are imposed on noncitizens who commit perjury or subordination of perjury. In an attempt to strengthen the …

Immigration Reform: Seeking The Right Reasons., Lamar Smith, Edward R. Grant

St. Mary's Law Journal

The legacy of immigration to the United States permeates the debate over current immigration policy. Because our self-definition as a nation is at stake in this debate, the issue of immigration arouses our deepest sentiments regarding the communities in which we live. We do not need to search far back in our history to find examples of imprudent law-making. Both the 1924 and 1925 immigration laws were motivated in large part by purposes which eventually undermined the principles on which they rested. These acts serve as prime examples of how employing erroneous reasons to enact even well-intentioned laws can be …

Critical Race Theory And Proposition 187: The Racial Politics Of Immigration Law, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

Immigration law and politics have been historically intertwined with racial prejudice. Many of those who have called for immigration restrictions have also sought an end to the racial and cultural diversity brought by immigrants. With the end of legally sanctioned race discrimination in the 1960s, immigration rhetoric has lost some of its overt racist overtones. However, in the 1990s, many politicians and lawmakers have emphasized the difference between “legal” and “illegal” immigration. This change begs a central question: Have the racist motivations of past immigration law and policy been completely displaced by a concern for law and order? This Comment …

In Re Oluloro: Risk Of Female Genital Mutilation As Extreme Hardship In Immigration Proceedings Symposium - Human Rights In The Americas - Recent Development., Patricia Dysart Rudloff

St. Mary's Law Journal

On March 23, 1994, in In re Oluloro, Immigration Judge Kendall Warren’s decision indicated the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) should consider human rights abuses directed at women. The overriding concern was the possibility that two young U.S. girls would suffer female genital mutilation (FGM) if the INS deported their mother to Nigeria. In reaching the decision to suspend the mother’s deportation, Judge Warren condemned FGM as “cruel and serv[ing] no known medical purpose.” Judge Warren ruled the practice presented an extreme hardship for the girls. Unfortunately, the court’s ruling has no precedential value because the INS did …

Book Review. Belonging To America, Lauren K. Robel

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Aliens - Deportation - Activity Consituting Membership In Communist Party, Mark Shaevsky

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner, an alien who had resided in the United States since 1914, joined the Communist Party in 1935 and during that year paid dues, attended meetings, and worked briefly at an official outlet for communist literature. He terminated his relationship with the party after approximately one year. At a hearing to consider his possible deportation, the petitioner disclaimed that he had held any belief in the forcible overthrow of government, stating that he had regarded the Communist Party solely as an instrument for securing economic necessities. The Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the hearing officer's finding that petitioner had been …