SLR Online

Symposium - 2019 - Immigration

An empty fenced prison yard with prison behind

Symposium - 2019 - Immigration

Privatized Detention & Immigration Federalism

by  David S. Rubenstein & Pratheepan Gulasekaram  

The vast majority of detained immigrants are held in facilities operated by private corporations. Over the past decade, academics and dedicated advocates have shed critical light on the structural causes and effects of privatized immigration detention, offering a range of policy prescriptions along the way. Until now, however, federalism has been a virtual blind spot in that reformist agenda. Intervening, this Essay draws federalism into the spotlight.

Volume 71 (2018-2019)

Immigrant visa

Symposium - 2019 - Immigration

Crediting Migrants

by  Shayak Sarkar  

Credit facilitates migration, and it may also provide a theoretical framework to understand it. This Essay examines the role of credit and financing in migration by focusing on changes to the “public charge” ground of inadmissibility—American immigration law’s nearly 150-year-old test for prohibiting migration by those financially dependent on governmental assistance.

Volume 71 (2018-2019)

Symposium - 2019 - Immigration

Detention as Deterrence

by  Emily Ryo  

Does immigration detention deter unauthorized migration? The federal government has argued that “one particular individual may be civilly detained for the sake of sending a message” to others “who may be considering immigration.” Emerging empirical research, however, provides little to no evidence that detention has had the type and level of deterrent effect desired by the federal government. Why might this be so? This Essay addresses this question by examining three key “deterrence hurdles” that present challenges to detention as deterrence.

Volume 71 (2018-2019)

White Lives Matter Rally, Austin, Tx, Nov. 19, 2016

Symposium - 2019 - Immigration

White Nationalism as Immigration Policy

by  Jayashri Srikantiah & Shirin Sinnar*  

This Essay argues that legal challenges to Trump’s restrictive immigration policies should call out white nationalism as the underlying harm, both through raising equal protection claims and in presenting the overall theory of the case. Asserting these claims can frame public and political understanding of the issues at stake, support social movements challenging racialized immigration enforcement, and offer an alternative vision for immigration law that rejects both racial criteria and exceptional judicial deference.

Volume 71 (2018-2019)

Syrian children hugging in the camp

Symposium - 2019 - Immigration

Refugee Litigation in the Trump Era: Protecting Overseas Humanitarian Migrants in U.S. Courts

by  Mariko Hirose  

This Essay describes the paths available in U.S. courts for enforcing the rights of overseas humanitarian migrants, drawing on lessons learned from four cases filed by the International Refugee Assistance Project. It disentangles the confusion that often exists when analyzing standing, reviewability, and claims available to foreign nationals abroad. By examining these issues separately, it becomes clear that, despite the plenary power doctrine, U.S. courts have an important role to play in protecting overseas humanitarian migrants.

Volume 71 (2018-2019)

editorial photograph: up close arrest of homeless woman

Symposium - 2019 - Immigration

Crimmigration Beyond the Headlines: The Board of Immigration Appeals’ Quiet Expansion of the Meaning of Moral Turpitude

by  Jennifer Lee Koh  

“Crimes involving moral turpitude” (CIMTs) comprise one category of criminal convictions can lead to deportation, detention, and disqualification from immigration relief. Courts have looked to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to define the scope of moral turpitude. However, a series of recent BIA decisions suggests that the Board has expanded the definition of moral turpitude in ways that defy common sense and undermine the prevailing methodology for assessing the immigration consequences of crime.

Volume 71 (2018-2019)

Protest Sign Outside the Arrivals Terminal at San Francisco International Airport

Symposium - 2019 - Immigration

The Ban and the Borderlands Within: The Travel Ban as a Domestic War on Terror Tool

by  Khaled A. Beydoun  

The scholarly and popular focus has focused on the Muslim Ban’s impact on Muslim immigrants attempting to come into the U.S., while neglecting how the Ban imperils immigrants, lawful permanent residents, and citizens from the restricted states inside the country, namely, Muslim American communities—the heavily policed borderlands within. This Essay seeks to address this scholarly and discursive void, and, at minimum, commence scholarly investigation into the Travel Ban’s impact beyond the border.

Volume 71 (2018-2019)