Immigration Law

Rethinking Immigration Enforcement

Peter L. Markowitz

Abstract As the nation turns the page away from the dark chapter of President Trump’s relentless assault on immigrants, it is time to take stock of the nation’s unprecedented immigration enforcement regime. During its relatively short existence, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has deported more than twice as many people as were deported […]

Dividing, Conquering — And Resisting

Kathryn Abrams

Abstract Response to Hila Keren, Divided and Conquered: The Neoliberal Roots and Emotional Consequences of the Arbitration Revolution It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to reflect on Professor Hila Keren’s article, “Divided and Conquered: The Neoliberal Roots and Emotional Consequences of the Arbitration Revolution.” This extraordinary piece reads less like a law review […]

Categorical Confusion in Asylum Law

Brian Soucek

Abstract As the Trump administration placed ever-new categorical limits on asylum, its opponents countered that asylum decisions have to be made on an individualized basis. The government, they claimed, cannot categorically exclude groups, like former gang members or victims of gender-based violence, from protection against persecution. Successful as this insistence on case-by-case adjudication has recently […]

Technological Triage of Immigration Cases

Fatma Marouf and Luz Herrera

Abstract In the medical profession, triage refers to sorting medical resources inemergency situations based on the greatest need for immediate attention.Similarly, legal service providers talk about “triaging” cases to prioritizeindividuals with the most serious problems. But in the immigration field,the concept of triage is turned on its head. Noncitizens with the riskiestcases—those facing deportation—have the […]

Rescinding Inclusion in the Administrative State: Adjudicating DACA, The Census, and the Military’s Transgender Policy

Peter Margulies

Abstract The rescission of programs, policies, and practices by an incoming administration often raises legal questions. However, answers are harder to find. That is the case with the whirlwind of rollbacks proposed andimplemented by the Trump administration in areas from transgenderpersons in the military to asking a citizenship question on the census andterminating Deferred Action […]

Should They Stay or Should They Go: Rethinking The Use of Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude in Immigration Law

Written: Sara Salem

Abstract Although absent from modern English conversation, the words moral turpitude continue to carry devastating consequences for undocumented aliens living in the United States. Under federal immigration law, an alien convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude may be deported or denied entry into the United States. Perhaps most significantly, nearly all immigration relief is […]

Response to Professor Holper’s Article, Redefining “Particularly Serious Crimes” in Refugee Law

Fatma Marouf

Abstract Response to Mary Holper, Redefining “Particularly Serious Crimes” in Refugee Law An individual who faces a significant risk of persecution in her home country is barred from asylum in the United States if she is convicted of a “particularly serious crime” (“PSC”). Despite the grave consequences of such a conviction, there is relatively little scholarship […]

Balancing Future Harms: The “Particularly Serious Crime” Bar to Refugee Protection

Rebecca Sharpless

Abstract Response to Mary Holper, Redefining “Particularly Serious Crimes” in Refugee Law The particularly serious crime (PSC) analysis in U.S. immigration law stands as a gatekeeper to protection from persecution abroad. Asylum applicants who meet the definition of a refugee are statutorily disqualified from protection and deported if they have been convicted of a crime considered […]

Pragmatics and Problems

Allison Crennen-Dunlap & César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández

Abstract Response to Mary Holper, Redefining “Particularly Serious Crimes” in Refugee Law Born of an international commitment to avoid sending migrants to countries where they face persecution on a small set of protected bases, asylum law is one aspect of U.S. immigration law that purports to serve humanitarian purposes. Its humanitarianism is thwarted, however, when migrants […]

Disaggregating "Immigration Law"

Written by: Matthew J. Lindsay

Abstract 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 […]

Pratheepan Gulasekaram & S. Karthick Ramakrishnan, The President and Immigration Federalism

Written: Pratheepan Gulasekaram & S. Karthick Ramakrishnan

Abstract 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 […]

Jennifer Lee Koh, Rethinking Removability

Removability, in the context of immigration law, refers to the government’s legal authority to seek deportation for violations of the federal immigration statute. Removability matters now more than ever before, both for individuals facing possible deportation as well as for the many governmental institutions charged with assessing removability. Using four areas of emerging law—claims to U.S. citizenship, the categorical approach to […]

Richard A. Epstein, Dunwody Distinguished Lecture in Law: The Constitutional Paradox of the Durbin Amendment: How Monopolies are Offered Constitutional Protections Denied to Competitive Firms

63 Fla. L. Rev. 1307 (2011)| | | | The Durbin Amendment is the first of the major provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act to have been implemented-but only after it withstood a constitutional challenge on the basis of the Takings Clause in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Now that the Amendment […]

Kit Johnson, The Wonderful World of Disney Visas

63 Fla. L. Rev. 915 (2011)|  | | ARTICLE :: International workers play an important role in perpetuating the carefully crafted fantasy that to visit the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida is to be transported to far-off destinations around the globe. This Article examines how Disney has filled its need for these workers in […]

Heather Reynolds, Irreconcilable Regulations: Why the Sun Has Set on the Cuban Adjustment Act in Florida

63 Fla. L. Rev. 1013 (2011)|  | | NOTE :: Just past midnight, four Cubans walked off the beach in the dark and began to wade through warm waves out into the Florida Straits. They walked nearly a mile in waist-high water, carrying all of their possessions above their heads. They knew to stop when they […]

Solangel Maldonado, Illegitimate Harm: Law, Stigma, and Discrimination Against Nonmarital Children

63 Fla. L. Rev. 345 (2011)| |  | | ABSTRACT :: No one would dispute that for most of U.S. history, nonmarital children suffered significant legal and societal discrimination. Although many individuals believe that the legal disadvantages attached to “illegitimate” status have disappeared in the last forty years, this Article demonstrates that the law continues to […]

Andres Healy, Adjudicators, Not Legislators: Eleventh Circuit Declines Opportunity to "Breathe Further Life" Into § 212(c) Deportation Relief

62 Fla. L. Rev. 559 (2010) | | | | CASE COMMENT :: As a boy, De la Rosa had come to the United States from the Dominican Republic in search of a better life. Over the next twenty years, he built that life. Now, as a man, he asked for only one thing-the opportunity […]

Sapna Kumar, The Other Patent Agency: Congressional Regulation of the ITC

61 Fla. L. Rev. 529 (2009) | | | | ABSTRACT :: The United States International Trade Commission has recently experienced a dramatic increase in patent infringement investigations under § 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. In fact, the number of patent enforcement actions submitted to the ITC has nearly doubled in the last […]

David A. Karp, Setting the "Persecutor Bar" for Political Asylum after Negusie: Negusie v. Holder, 129 S. Ct. 1159 (2009)

61 Fla. L. Rev. 933 (2009) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: After night fell in the port city of Massawra, Eritrea, Daniel Girmai Negusie slipped out of the military prison where he had been held for four years. During the day, he hid at a friend’s house; at night, he swam out to container […]

Huyen Pham, When Immigration Borders Move

61 Fla. L. Rev. 1115 (2009) | | | | ABSTRACT :: With recent immigration enforcement efforts, we have created a completely new paradigm of moving borders: laws, enacted at all levels of government, that require proof of legal immigration status in order to obtain a driver’s license, a job, rental housing, government need-based assistance, […]

Natalie Liem, Mean What You Say, Say What You Mean: Defining the Aggravated Felony Deportation Grounds to Target More than Aggravated Felons

59 Fla. L. Rev. 1071 (2007) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Jose Rodriguez is one of the lucky ones. Rodriguez, a legal permanent resident of the United States since 1990, was arrested in May 2003 for possession of less than one gram of cocaine. Rodriguez pleaded no contest and was sentenced to probation. Nearly […]

Jeffrey A. Bekiares, In Country, on Parole, out of Luck-Regulating away Alien Eligibility for Adjustment of Status Contrary to Congressional Intent and Sound Immigration Policy

58 Fla. L. Rev. 713 (2006) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Immigrants are a daily part of American life. They work in every sector of the economy and form strong social and familial bonds in the community. The legislative and cultural history of the United States has encouraged immigration as a constant source of […]