After a few years out of the limelight, Arizona legislators appear on the verge of reigniting the state’s notorious climate toward migrants. A subtle change to the state’s criminal sentencing statutes promises to substantially increase the amount of time in prison certain migrants face. The proposal, Senate Bill 1377, targets migrants who are in the country in violation of a small number of federal immigration crimes, most notably Immigration and Nationality Act § 275 and 276, illegal entry and illegal reentry respectively. SB 1377 would limit a sentencing judge’s power to tailor the [...]
Defining crimmigration law: Part II
Last week I began constructing a working definition of “crimmigration law.” For all its currency in recent years, the reality is that the phrase largely goes undefined—as if we’re supposed to know it when we see it. In the six years that I’ve been writing about crimmigration law, I have been as guilty of doing this as anyone so I’m certainly not pointing fingers. Instead, I’m trying to bring some theoretical coherence to doctrine that evolves rapidly across jurisdictions. As I wrote last week, one major aspect of crimmigration law as I see it is the frequency with which criminal [...]
Illegal Entry Convictions Interrupt Continuous Physical Presence
By Sarah Flinn The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) recently affirmed an immigration judge’s decision to deny an application for cancellation of removal due to a break in the necessary ten year continuous physical presence requirement. Matter of Velasquez-Cruz, 26 I&N Dec. 458 (BIA 2014). The migrant in this case, Ms. Rosa Isela Velasquez-Cruz, was apprehended in the United States twice within just a few days. Subsequent to apprehensions on August 9, 2004 and August 11, 2004, Ms. Velasquez-Cruz pled guilty to illegal entry in violation of section 275(a)(1) of the Immigration and [...]
Naturalizing Immigration Imprisonment
Every day, roughly 33,000 people spend the night imprisoned while waiting to learn whether they will be allowed to remain in the United States. Thousands more are confined on charges of having committed an immigration crime. Others are behind bars because they were already convicted. The substantive law that applies to people in each of these categories differs: civil law governed by the Immigration and Naturalization Act for those in removal proceedings, and criminal law governed by the federal penal code (and, to a smaller degree, its state counterparts). That is largely where the [...]
Immigration detention population drops in FY ‘13, while removals increase to all-time high
The Department of Homeland Security detained a remarkably large number of migrants in fiscal year 2013—440,557—but not as many as the record high reached the previous year. DHS, Immigration Enforcement Actions: 2013 Annual Report 6 (September 2014). Removals, meanwhile, increased to what the department calls an all-time high of 438,421. Id. People convicted of nothing more serious than an immigration offense continue to face removal in increasing numbers. The number of migrants detained over the course of FY 2013 was 36,966 fewer than the 477,523 detained the previous year. To contextualize [...]
Border Patrol’s “Consequence Delivery System” Casts Doubt on President’s Immigration Priorities
By Geoffrey Boyce On February 11, articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post focused attention on Operation Streamline, the federal program under which as many as 80 unauthorized border crossers may be charged, convicted and sentenced in a hearing lasting as little as half an hour. Those convicted under Streamline face sentences of up to 180 days for “illegal entry,” INA § 275, or 2 to 20 years for “illegal reentry,” INA § 276, depending on whether they have a previous “aggravated felony” conviction in the United States. Readers of crImmigration.com are likely familiar with [...]
5 Cir: You can’t make up constitutional provisions
In a harsh rebuke to roughly thirty-five years of government practice, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit exposed the government’s repeated reliance on a non-existing constitutional provision to deny U.S. citizenship claims by children born out of wedlock in México. Saldana Iracheta v. Holder, No. 12-60087, slip op. (5th Cir. September 11, 2013) (Reavley, Elrod, and Graves, JJ.). Judge Graves wrote the panel’s decision. This case involved an individual who was born in México to a U.S. citizen father and Mexican citizen mother who were not married to each other. As an adult, [...]
9 Cir: Operation Streamline proceeding violates Rule 11; vacates conviction
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a criminal conviction obtained through Operation Streamline violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and vacated the noncitizen defendant’s conviction. United States v. Arqueta-Ramos, No. 10-10618, slip op. (9th Cir. September 20, 2013) (Fernandez, Paez, and Berzon, JJ.). Judge Paez wrote the panel’s opinion. This case involved a woman who pleaded guilty to illegally entering the United States, a misdemeanor violation of INA § 275(a). The Arizona federal district court, where this occurred, accepted Arqueta-Ramos’ [...]