Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would decide whether a regulatory deadline by which motions to reopen must be filed could be bent. Mata v. Holder, 14-185, 2015 WL 213642 (Jan. 16, 2015). The Court’s decision to grant the petition for writ of certiorari last Friday was understandably clouded by news that it also agreed to hear a collection of cases involving equal marriage rights. Though less prominent, Mata is of significance to anyone involved in immigration law. This case arises from a time limit on when individuals in removal proceedings must file a motion to reopen. [...]
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, [...]
US Dist Ct: ICE agents’ lawsuit against prosecutorial discretion survives
In a decision about a politically contentious lawsuit, a federal district court struck a blow at the Department of Homeland Security’s use of prosecutorial discretion to manage its removal work. Crane v. Napolitano, No. 3:12-cv-03247-O, slip op. (N.D. Tex. April 23, 2013) (O’Connor, J.). The court strongly suggested that it will uphold the bulk of the claims brought against DHS by the ICE union challenging ICE’s prosecutorial discretion memoranda and the specific prosecutorial discretion initiative known as Deferred Action Against Childhood Arrivals (DACA). As I detailed before, the agents [...]
US Dist Ct: ICE agents have standing to pursue challenge to prosecutorial discretion policy
A U.S. District Court announced that several ICE agents challenging the Obama Administration’s prosecutorial discretion and deferred action policy initiatives may take their claims to trial. Crane v. Napolitano, No. 3:12-cv-03247-O, slip op. (N. Dist. Tex. Jan. 24, 2012) (O’Connor, J.). The court concluded that the agents have standing to pursue their claim that they may suffer adverse employment consequences as a result of doing what the INA, the federal statute that governs immigration law, requires of them. The ICE agents’ single surviving claim is that Secretary Napolitano’s deferred [...]
BIA: Illegal deportation doesn’t strip BIA of jurisdiction; says prosecutor’s report is part of record of conviction
The Board of Immigration Appeals held that an illegal deportation carried out by DHS does not deprive the Board of jurisdiction to consider the deported individual’s appeal. Matter of Diaz-Garcia, 25 I&N Dec. 794 (BIA 2012) (Pauley, Guendelsberger, and Adkins-Blanch, Board Members). In addition, in deciding that the Arkansas residential burglary offense is an aggravated felony, the Board considered a prosecutor’s report as part of the record of conviction. Board Member Pauley wrote the panel’s opinion. This case involved an LPR convicted as an accomplice to robbery, Ark. Code Ann. § [...]