Oct

29

Truth and Reconciliation, Stories from the Diaspora

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | October 29, 2009 | 2 Comments

Several months ago I blogged about the situation of Liberians who fled their country for the United States (but who did not receive official status as refugees) and who have lived here for years in a “temporary” status, while it remained unsafe to return to Liberia. As I explained in those posts, these US residents face [...]

Oct

18

Who Are Our People?

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | October 18, 2009 | 17 Comments

You may have heard that the Del Rio, Texas school district is policing a bridge that crosses the border with Mexico. Children crossing the bridge to attend school in the morning have been given letters seeking verification of their residency and explaining that non-residents will be expelled.
When you live in walking distance from the US-Mexico border, Newsweek [...]

Jun

17

Immigration Enforcement at the Worksite

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | June 17, 2009 | 4 Comments

Our recent graduate Ben Crouse has a fascinating new paper on SSRN entitled “Worksite Raids and Immigration Norms: A ‘Sticky’ Problem.”  Drawing on Dan Kahan’s theory of social norms, Ben critiques the government’s use of high-profile worksite raids as a tactic to deter employers from hiring illegal immigrants.  Here is a taste:
The government’s high-profile raids may encourage an anti-enforcement [...]

Apr

22

Supreme Court Determines That Traditional Stay Continues to Be Available to Aliens Appealing from Removal Orders

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | April 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment

As I blogged about previously, in January the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case of Nken v. Holder, which raised the question of whether the 1996 amendments to judicial review provisions that removed the automatic stay of deportation pending appeal had replaced the automatic stay with a traditional stay standard or [...]

Apr

15

Brave Afghani Women Protest Law Change

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | April 15, 2009 | 2 Comments

Did you see this article in the New York Times this morning, about the 300 women protesting a new law that would give men in the Shiite minority community virtually complete control over the lives of their wives?  The NYT describes the law this way:
The law, approved by both houses of Parliament and signed by President Hamid Karzai, [...]

Mar

20

Obama Extends Protected Status for Liberians for Twelve More Months

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | March 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The AP reports that President Obama has issued an executive order extended protection (”deferred enforced departure”) for twelve more months.  Advocates for the extension are pleased.  As I wrote previously, I also support this extension, but for the reasons explained in that longer post, I hope that during this twelve months, some legislative solution can [...]

Feb

21

Failures of Refugee Law and the Inhumane Prospect of Deporting Settled Liberians from the United States

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | February 21, 2009 | 7 Comments

This semester I am teaching a seminar entitled Comparative Refugee and Asylum Law, and last week, one of my students in that course, Vintee Sawnhey, sent me a link to a news article about the thousands of Liberians who fear deportation from the United States because the “deferred enforced departure” status that President Bush extended to them in [...]

Feb

7

Seventh Circuit Week in Review: Cloak and Dagger

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | February 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The Seventh Circuit had only one new opinion in a criminal case last week: United States v. Latchin (Nos. 07-4009 & 08-1085).  Latchin emigrated from Iraq to the United States in the early 1990’s and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1998.  However, documents seized by American forces in Baghdad in 2003 revealed that Latchin [...]

Jan

22

Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument in Nken v. Filip, on Question of Standard of Review for Stays of Removal Pending Appeal

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | January 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard the argument in Nken v. Filip (formerly Nken v. Mukasey), which asks whether an alien who seeks a stay of deportation pending appeal must prove by clear and convincing evidence that his deportation is prohibited by law.  The majority of courts have held that the ordinary standard for stays pending appeal [...]

Jan

18

Seventh Circuit Week in Review, Part II: Piling on the Mandatory Minimums

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | January 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment

In addition to the two cases covered in my prior post, the Seventh Circuit had four new sentencing opinions last week.  Only one warrants any extended discussion.  And that case, United States v. Easter (Nos. 07-2433, 2435, 3118, 3203, 3540 & 3628), actually presented several different issues raised by multiple defendants.
In Easter, several codefendants appealed their [...]

Jan

8

Canada Orders U.S. Army Deserter to Return to the United States

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | January 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Private First Class Kimberly Rivera had been seeking leave to remain in Canada “on humanitarian and compassionate grounds” to avoid prosecution for deserting her post in the U.S. Army.  Her claim, like the claims of other U.S. soldiers seeking to avoid further duty in the Iraq War in Canada, has been rejected, and, unless that [...]

Dec

31

Should Immigration Service Employees Be “Looking for a Way to Approve” Petitions and Applications?

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | December 31, 2008 | 1 Comment

The answer is a resounding yes, according to this refreshingly outdated 1980 memo from INS Regional Director Durward E. Powell, Jr., regarding “Dispensing of Information and Adjudications Decision Making.”   
Powell admonishes employees that they should not consider themselves “guardians of the treasury of information on Immigration benefits, whose function is to dispense reluctantly that narrow portion of the [...]

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