On September 30, 1996, crimmigration law became firmly embedded in the modern United States. That day, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) took effect. Adopted by a Republican Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton, IIRIRA stands as an example of bipartisan willingness to ratchet up the severity of violating immigration law. With Friday’s twentieth anniversary on my mind, I thought it worthwhile to revisit IIRIRA’s specific provisions and contextualize it within a larger string of strong-armed legislation that launched the crimmigration era. First [...]
Pretrial immigration prisoner trends, part 2
Last week I wrote about the enormous number of migrants who face confinement while they are prosecuted for federal immigration crimes. The absolute numbers are astonishing. Almost 100,000 people suspected of engaging in nothing worse than an immigration crime were held in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in fiscal year 2013 alone. Today I remain focused on the federal government’s pretrial immigration prison population, but I take a slight different approach. To provide some context with which to understand the number of pretrial immigration crime defendants who are confined, today [...]
Pretrial immigration prisoner trends, part 1
It is no surprise to regular readers of crimmigration.com that prosecutions for immigration crimes occupy the time and attention of prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges in federal courts nationwide. Even among those of us who follow these developments, what is often overlooked is the reality of confinement that goes along with criminal cases. Pre-trial detention, of course, is a standard feature of criminal prosecutions in the United States. Immigration crimes are no exception. In recent years, the U.S. Marshals Service, the entity responsible for holding onto everyone charged with [...]
Judge Dana Marks on immigration court independence
The Honorable Dana Leigh Marks, President of the National Association of Immigration Judges, will speak at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law today at 5:30 p.m. Mountain Time. Judge Marks will discuss the merits of moving the immigration courts out of the Justice Department and into an independent entity. Her remarks will be streamed live online here at crimmigration.com. [...]
Fed govt misrepresentations about detention data matter
Last week we learned that the federal government provided the Supreme Court with bad data about the length of time migrants remain in detention. When? In 2002 as the Court geared up to consider what has become an enormously important decision, Demore v. Kim, 538 U.S. 510 (2002). In Demore, the Court held that the Immigration and Nationality Act’s so-called mandatory detention provision, § 236(c), is constitutionally permissible. For fourteen years, lower courts have dutifully followed the Court’s instruction. Now we know that the Court’s reasoning turned on wrong statistics. In its 2002 [...]
If private prisons close…
When the Justice Department announced two weeks ago that it would soon limit its reliance on private prison corporations, the news didn’t take long to reverberate. Advocates rightfully cheered a major step toward ending an egregious moral failure of a policy: Private prisons represent a base commodification of human bondage. For their part, the private prison corporations tried to put on a calm look, but had a tough time succeeding. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), one of the two largest private prison operators in the United States, issued a statement the same day as the Justice [...]
Immigration judge leader to discuss merits of independent immigration courts at Denver Law
Should Congress move the immigration courts out of the Justice Department and create independent courts under Article I of the U.S. Constitution? The National Association of Immigration Judges thinks so. As the union representing many of the nation’s approximately 250 immigration judges, the NAIJ is the sole official means through which the public and policymakers hear from the front-line adjudicators who decide hundreds of thousands of cases every year. Despite being critical components of the immigration law system, the immigration courts are notoriously understaffed. As anyone who has [...]
Utah v. Strieff and the Exclusionary Rule’s Future in Immigration Court – Part II
By Katie Tinto The availability of the exclusionary rule as a remedy for unconstitutional police conduct was recently further restricted by the Supreme Court in Utah v. Strieff, ___ S. Ct. ___, No. 14-1373 (June 20, 2016). In a prior blog post, I warned of the potential of Strieff to seriously limit the availability of the suppression remedy in immigration court. Although the exclusionary rule in immigration court may not be directly impacted, the decision will likely have a detrimental effect on our immigrant communities and the manner in which they are policed. To quickly summarize the [...]
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