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Does the Punishment Fit the Crime? Experts Examine “Proportionality” and “Discretion” in Our Immigration System
As immigration becomes an ever more controversial part of the American debate, conversations often turn to details about legislation and court battles rather than questioning whether fundamental principles of justice are being applied throughout our immigration system. Two new reports released today, however, address some of these key principles, such as the idea of proportionality (whether […]
Read MoreProsecutorial Discretion in Context: How Discretion is Exercised Throughout Our Immigration System
Discretion takes many forms throughout the immigration enforcement process. Every removal of a noncitizen from the United States, for example, reflects a series of complex choices which reflect discretion.
To understand the role of discretion fully, however, we need to examine the entire range of opportunities to exercise discretion in immigration enforcement and the cast of decision makers who make discretionary decisions, such as members of Congress who enact laws, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers who make arrests, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) trial attorneys who represent the government in removal proceedings, and immigration judges who preside over those proceedings.
This Special Report traces the role of discretion throughout the immigration enforcement process. Understanding these roles is important not only in individual cases, but also in how policymakers write regulations and draft laws. Knowing how the enforcement system anticipates and incorporates discretion is key to understanding how our immigration laws work.
Listen to Hiroshi Motomura discuss this report.
Read MoreAppellate Court Hears Arguments in Case Challenging DOMA, Bi-National Married Couples File New Suit
Same sex couples face often insurmountable hurdles when it comes to immigration status. Under the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”), lesbian and gay U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are barred from obtaining immigrant visas for their spouses. When Congress enacted DOMA in 1996, no state celebrated marriages between gay and lesbian couples. But, the […]
Read MoreDHS Inspector General Issues Disappointing Reports on ICE’s Secure Communities Program
Keeping to its tradition of releasing controversial reports on holidays and Friday afternoons, the DHS Office of Inspector General issued two reports on the controversial Secure Communities program last Friday. These reports had been anticipated for months by immigrant advocates, law enforcement officials, local elected officials, and others who hoped they would address serious concerns […]
Read MoreAlabama Lawmakers Propose Extensive Changes to State’s Immigration Law, HB 56
Yesterday evening, lawmakers in Alabama introduced a bill proposing extensive changes to HB 56, the state’s notorious immigration enforcement law. The proposed bill follows extensive criticism from civil and immigrants’ rights leaders about HB 56, as well as numerous lawsuits that prevented more than a dozen of the law’s provisions from taking effect. While passage […]
Read MoreHuman Rights Abuses Along U.S.-Mexico Border Underscore Need for Reform
U.S. immigration and border-enforcement policies have precipitated a litany of human-rights abuses along the U.S.-Mexico border, from the needless deaths of border-crossers to inhumane conditions in immigration detention to the racial profiling of entire Latino and indigenous communities. That was the principal finding of the human rights groups which presented testimony at a recent hearing […]
Read MoreUSCIS One Step Closer to Adopting Improvement to Immigration Waiver Process
A provision of the immigration law commonly known as the “3 and 10 year bars” has proven to be one of the most heart-breaking of the many draconian changes made to the immigration law at the time. Since its enactment in 1996, the provision—which imposes re-entry bars of 3 to 10 years on immigrants who […]
Read MoreMississippi Lawmaker Kills State’s Extreme Immigration Bill, Although Immigration Provisions May Loom
Today, Mississippi’s extreme immigration bill, HB 488, died after a state senate committee chairman decided not to bring the bill up for a vote. The Mississippi Senate had until today to consider HB 488, a bill that would have, among other things, allowed police officers to determine the immigration status of individuals they “reasonably suspect” […]
Read MoreICE Deported More Than 46,000 Immigrants with U.S. Citizen Children Last Year, Report Finds
Immigration enforcement and deportation have a particularly devastating impact on mixed status families, that is, families who have one or more direct members who are undocumented. When parents are deported, families face impossible decisions about whether their family will be separated or whether U.S. citizen kids will be de facto deported along with their parents. […]
Read MoreDHS Review of Immigration Cases Expands to Half Dozen New Cities
The Washington Post and Huffington Post are reporting that ICE’s ongoing review of existing deportation cases will expand to six new cities in the coming months. Initially launched in Baltimore and Denver in 2011, the initiative will soon expand to Seattle, Detroit, New Orleans and Orlando, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York […]
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