A Border Patrol agent who shot to death a fleeing suspect won’t face legal liability, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit announced last week. Mendez v. Poitevent, No. 15-50790, slip op. (5th Cir. May 19, 2016). Despite being clouded in controversy, the Fifth Circuit’s decision is crystal clear that the claims lodged by eighteen-year-old Juan Mendez’s family members won’t expose Border Patrol agent Taylor Poitevent to any legal repercussions. As recounted in detail by the Fifth Circuit, here is what happened. On October 5, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Taylor Poitevent, uniformed [...]
Policing and humanitarianism in migration control
Every day for years on end the story repeats itself. People fleeing their homelands in search of opportunity or survival lose their lives en route. The developed world—from Australia to the United States—bemoans the lost lives. We observe moments of silence, take pity on the dead, and skewer the smugglers who profit from clandestine migration. Rarely do we look inward to ask how our own policies lead to death. In Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World’s Deadliest Border (2015), anthropologist Maurizio Albahari refuses to let us sit comfortably in our condemnation of others [...]
Obama’s new DHS budget reflects security focus
President Obama released the final budget request he will make to Congress earlier this month and the pitch for DHS is peppered with costly security measures that fall in line with the department’s existing operations centered on security concerns. At almost $41 billion, the DHS budget request covers everything from FEMA operations to the nation’s principal immigration law enforcement bodies, ICE and CBP. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Security, Budget-in-Brief: Fiscal Year 2017, at 1 (2016). Combined, the budgets for ICE and CBP comprise almost one-third (30.3 percent) of DHS’ total budget, including [...]
Defining crimmigration law: Part III
A working conceptualization of crimmigration law, at least as it plays out in the United States, must start with the radical changes to substantive law that I’ve described in parts I and II of this series of essays on defining crimmigration law. But it can’t end there. As an emergent area of law, crimmigration law is highly functional. Consequently, one of its lasting—and, frankly, devastating—impacts, enforcement, merits as much attention as the substantive law previously discussed. Indeed, I give enforcement methods special attention in Part III of my book Crimmigration Law. Crimmigration [...]
Prison reform’s blind spot
By visiting a federal prison last week—the first time a sitting president has ever crossed the barbed wire threshold—President Obama amplified calls for prison reform like few others could do. His televised walk through the El Reno penitentiary illustrated the stark reality millions of people live in jails and prisons throughout the United States. Standing in front of a long row of cell doors, the President’s honest assessment of his own youthful drug use—and his vocalized assumption that many of the reporters in the press pool probably share similar criminal pasts—was a refreshing reminder [...]
Racial profiling in immigration policing lives on
Racial profiling may be out of favor within many circles, but it remains alive and well when it comes to immigration policing along the border. Yesterday Attorney General Eric Holder released the Justice Department’s latest guidance on the use of race, ethnicity, and other protected categories (gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity) by federal law enforcement officials. U.S. Department of Justice, Guidance for Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Regarding the Use of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, National Origin, Religion, Sexual Orientation, or Gender Identity [...]
Ohio students & advocates sue Border Patrol to get immigration policing records
This week students from Ohio State University’s Civil Law Clinic and the Ohio legal services group Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. (ABLE) jointly sued the Border Patrol in a continued attempt to gather documents about the agency’s immigration policing practices in northern Ohio. The students and advocates are concerned about reports of racially biased policing by the Border Patrol’s Sandusky Bay Station. Sandusky is located on the coast of Lake Erie about one hour west of Cleveland. Their suspicion is buttressed by a statistical analysis of three years of apprehension log data done [...]
Migration Myths, Detention Realities
The large number of children and families who came to the United States over the summer months seeking refuge is no longer news. After filling the front pages, taking over the blogosphere, and occupying the minds of what seemed to be every politician in the country, much of that attention has shifted to other matters. Many migrants, however, remain in a legal limbo. They are stuck in the middle-of-nowhere unsure of what the future holds; their home for now a handful of immigration detention centers in New México, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Family immigration detention was almost eradicated in [...]