December 30, 2021
The United States has long recognized the duty to protect refugees and prevent their return to persecution or torture. Indeed, the United States is a signatory to the Protocol to the Refugee Convention and the Convention Against Torture and has incorporated both treaties directly into domestic law and regulations. The Biden administration has, however, continued…
April 1, 2020
One week ago, immigrants’ rights groups filed an emergency motion seeking the release of noncitizens nationwide who are detained and vulnerable to the disease. Lawyers in the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation responded by complaining that they did not receive seven days’ notice of the motion and asking that a hearing be set no…
November 10, 2019
The Trump Administration’s targeting of immigrants is no secret. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) “announced that in fiscal year 2019 (FY19), its U.S. Attorneys’ Offices prosecuted the highest number of immigration-related offenses” in the last twenty-five years and its Executive Office for Immigration Review adjudicated 275,000 cases, the second highest number in…
July 16, 2019
Prison abolitionism has gained traction. Louisiana, for example, has taken steps recently to reduce the population of the state’s prisons. In June 2017, the “world’s prison capital” passed a series of laws designed to cut the state’s prison and community supervision populations by ten and twelve percent. The movement has been largely successful, by some…
May 26, 2019
For the past year, the Trump administration has been hard at work trying to unilaterally rewrite asylum law. Its latest attempt, the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols, informally known as Remain in Mexico, is yet another unlawful gambit. Announced in January by former Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen, Remain in Mexico requires that certain…
June 27, 2018
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Hawaii, the travel ban or Muslim ban case, it is unfortunately necessary to engage—or continue to engage—in the process of assigning blame. Starting during the presidential campaign and continuing into his presidency, Donald Trump gave much reason to fear that he had “animus,” to…
April 27, 2018
Coming out of Wednesday’s arguments in Trump v. Hawaii, the dominant view—see, for example, here, here, and here—was that the federal government was likely to prevail and the Proclamation would be upheld. I was less sure; my impression was that if the Court reached the Establishment Clause question—a big if—there was a good chance that…
April 23, 2018
The third version of the Travel Ban (“EO-3”)—also known as the Muslim Ban—added two non-Muslim countries to the list, but that by no means immunized it from legal challenge. The Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument tomorrow in Trump v. Hawaii and will ultimately determine whether the Travel Ban is a lawful exercise…
February 21, 2018
The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policy is a loose cannon, targeting noncitizens who have long been protected under prosecutorial discretion. The President has unleashed a policy that routinely targets anyone who is undocumented, not just “bad hombres.” This post examines the discretion used after a person has received a deportation (“removal”) order and how the…
January 19, 2018
In November 2016, the city of San Francisco enacted a ballot initiative that was somewhat overshadowed by other election results. It permitted noncitizens with children in the public school system to vote in school board elections. Though it is unclear whether the measure will have much practical impact on the city schools, the measure has…
October 19, 2017
Cities are once again center stage in our national debate over immigration. A decade ago, the focus was on whether cities can participate in federal immigration enforcement. Now the fight is over whether they can refuse. Given the political vitriol over “sanctuary cities” — a loaded label that remains ill-defined — one might assume that…
October 17, 2017
During the Obama administration, officials deported a record number of immigrants, immigrant detention ballooned, and immigration crimes became the majority of federal prosecutions. Since President Trump took office, these trends have only intensified. As outlined in his January 25, 2017 Executive Order, the administration intends to hire thousands of new immigration officers, deny federal funding…
