President Biden’s immigration bill is now available.  In my first look at the bill, I was searching for provisions that would ease the massive problems facing immigration removal adjudication.  There is desperate need for reform of the immigration courts, which adjudicate charges of removal brought by the government against non-citizens.  The bill avoids major structural […]

The Trump Administration built an invisible border wall that lowered the amount of legal immigration to the United States in the absence of statutory change.  Following White House direction, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the main immigration benefits granting agency, created self-described “workarounds” to the Immigration and Nationality Act.  Internal administrative law failed […]

Ten years ago, I wrote about how the problems with immigration adjudication were even worse than previously acknowledged.  Today, the problems are even worse than the even worse of ten years ago.  Substantive immigration law remains harsh as it continues to limit immigration adjudicators from dispensing proportional consequences.  What is even worse:  further diminishment of […]

This American Life has produced a broad look at the state of immigration adjudication, from asylum applications to criminal border crossing prosecutions and from applications for legal status to refugee admissions. The discussion about the notebook— a hand-written list of people waiting in line in Mexico to even approach the border– is especially intriguing.  The […]

This letter expresses alarm at the Department of Justice’s new performance metrics for immigration judges.  The metrics include case completion quotas which affect conditions of employment.    

This week the Supreme Court voided a federal statute for vagueness.   In his concurring opinion, Justice Gorsuch agreed that the statute is unconstitutionally vague.  To support this conclusion, he emphasized his concerns about separation of powers principles. His use of separation of powers concerns in an immigration law case is a signal that Justice Gorsuch […]

The balance of power in immigration law is heavily tilted toward the government.  As the Supreme Court’s decision this week in Jennings v. Rodriguez shows, the exact constitutional limits to the government’s power are still unclear.  Foreign nationals do have some rights, but they often feel the weight of government power to an exceptional extent.  Individuals […]

The Department of Justice is developing a new strategy to reduce a huge backlog in the immigration courts. A recent report of this plan contains this sentence: “DOJ officials criticized immigration lawyers, saying they ‘have purposely used tactics designed to delay’ immigration cases.” Raising claims of delay tactics is a recurring theme in certain efforts […]

[This post is co-authored by Jill Family and Lenni Benson, Professor of Law, New York Law School] Our legal system should not provide fair process in name only. On paper, our immigration system provides procedural protections in an administrative hearing where the outcome defines lives. For those facing the full weight of government power in […]

With the deluge of immigration law news, it is hard for every development to get the attention it deserves. Here I hope to draw some attention to a lawsuit filed on September 19, 2017 that challenges the Trump Administration’s delay of a start date of an Obama-era notice and comment rule. Days before President Trump […]

Immigration law is tasked with determining who should be removed (deported) from the United States. Theoretically, that adjudication takes place before an immigration judge, who works for the Department of Justice. A lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security represents the government. There is a good chance the foreign national has no attorney, especially if […]

The Immigration Law Section has out two calls for papers for AALS 2018.  San Diego!  In January!  Both calls are posted below.  One is for works in progress, the other is for the section’s main program at the conference. AALS Immigration Law Section Call for Papers for Works-in-Progress Session at AALS San Diego, CA Saturday, […]

The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment to help it identify “regulations that may be appropriate for repeal, replacement, or modification” in response to President Trump’s executive order directing agencies to conduct such inquiries.  The EPA notice made me wonder if we will see a similar notice from the immigration agencies seeking similar input. […]

The Trump Administration’s immigration law policies are shining new light on the due process gaps in immigration law. In addition to the due process issues raised by his travel ban, President Trump’s new policies on expedited removal raise legal questions about the absence of process in immigration law. There is another due process gap that […]

[2/21 3:10PM Update: The final signed versions of the Kelly guidance memos are available here. The final version of the relevant memo includes the same rationale about immigration court backlogs discussed in this post.] Are these the actual guidance memos? Two guidance memos signed by Secretary of Homeland Security Kelly recently surfaced that appear to […]