President Trump made much of his antipathy toward migrants. From his perch at the U.S. Justice Department, Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, worked hard to operationalize the president’s racist rhetoric. In April 2017, less than three months into the Trump administration, Sessions instructed federal prosecutors to treat five primary immigration crimes as “higher priorities.” Government records about the federal prison population suggest that prosecutors heeded the attorney general’s directive, but only for a time. From fiscal year 2018, which began in October 2017, to fiscal [...]
Supreme Court delivers migrants a win on stop-time rule
The U.S. Supreme Court gave migrants a bit of breathing room when it announced this week that federal immigration law requires notice of removal proceedings to come in a single document. The court’s decision in Niz-Chavez v. Garland, No. 19-863 (U.S. April 29, 2021), brought together Justices Barrett, Breyer, Kagan, Sotomayor, and Thomas under an opinion written by Justice Gorsuch. At its most technical, the case focused on the “stop-time rule,” a provision of immigration law that stops the time that some migrants can count toward eligibility for cancellation of removal. Migrants who not [...]
Biden names pick to lead ICE
President Biden has picked Harris County Sheriff Ed González to lead the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. As head of one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the United States, Sheriff González has extensive experience running a large police force and jail network, two key features of ICE’s operations. At times, though, González has butted heads with the immigration agency and its rightwing allies in the Texas government. Most notably, in March 2017 González pulled the sheriff’s office out of a 287(g) agreement with ICE claiming that the agreement cost his department [...]
ICE prison population inching up
When President Biden entered the White House, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency counted the smallest population within its prison network in many years. Three months into the administration’s tenure, signs are beginning to point towards a reversal. Monthly population figures from ICE show that the agency’s confined population plummeted during the pandemic. Rather than being attributable to reform of ICE’s detention practices, the drop was likely caused by changes along the border and within local law enforcement agencies. During the pandemic, the federal government effectively [...]
Moving to Ohio State University
After eight years at the University of Denver, I am thrilled to announce that I will be joining the faculty at Ohio State University this summer as the Gregory Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. My partner and colleague at the University of Denver, Margaret Kwoka, will also join OSU as the Lawrence Herman Professor in Law. With my focus on the intersection between criminal and immigration law and Margaret’s focus on government secrecy, OSU’s strong contingent of stellar faculty with compatible interests across multiple departments offers an exciting new institutional [...]
Immigration, Nativism & Race in the United States
When Douglas Massey asks for an essay, it’s time to celebrate. That’s exactly what I did when he invited me to contribute to an issue of Dædalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. At the time I had no idea who else he was reaching out to. Last week, the magazine came out and I’m in awe to find myself in such company. Like Massey, these are scholars from a variety of disciplines whose work I’ve read and learned from for decades. As a group, these are the types of scholars who inspire me—hard-working, rigorous, passionate intellectuals. My essay, Criminalizing [...]
Border Patrol apprehensions, 1925-2020
With news of an increase in the number of migrants arriving at the border, I thought it useful to share historical patterns of apprehensions by Border Patrol. The chart below uses data reported by Customs and Border Protection dating back to the Border Patrol's founding. The agency's data indicate that the United States has not seen a historically unprecedented situation at the border in many years, at least not if measured by the number of people coming into the Border Patrol's custody. On the contrary, as of the last full fiscal year--2020, which ended on September 31, 2020--the Border [...]
Supreme Court says gap in conviction records hurts migrant
In a split decision issued today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that gaps in conviction records created by state courts should be treated against migrants who are required to show that they haven’t been convicted of certain types of crimes. The decision, Pereida v. Wilkinson, No. 19-438 (March 4, 2021) (previewed here), split the Court along ideological lines, with Justice Gorsuch writing the majority opinion and Justice Breyer leading Justices Sotomayor and Kagan in dissent. Justice Barrett didn’t participate in this case, resulting in a five to three vote. The majority and dissenters [...]
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