Scholars Sidebar

Op-ed: House bill would put many immigrants in prison unnecessarily

Note: I published this op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch on August 20, 2011. Government coffers are empty and crime rates are at their lowest in 40 years, yet Congress is considering a vast expansion of the nation’s prison system that is unnecessary, expensive and likely unconstitutional. A proposal by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, approved by the House Judiciary Committee and its two Ohio members, Reps. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, and Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, would drastically expand the number of immigrants imprisoned pending a deportation decision or awaiting a deportation that may never occur [...]

Scholars Sidebar: AR & TX immigration consequences of criminal offense guides

Two articles recently posted on SSRN promise to help attorneys in Arkansas and Texas represent noncitizen clients facing criminal charges or in removal proceedings as a result of criminal history. Elizabeth L. Young, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law, published a useful guide geared toward Arkansas criminal defense attorneys with limited understanding of immigration law. Elizabeth L. Young, How Arkansas Convictions are Treated for Immigration Purposes, Arkansas Law Notes (2010), at 159. Young begins by explaining the INA’s definition of conviction then [...]

Scholars Sidebar: Pretrial diversion could lead to removal proceedings

In an article that Carlos Moctezuma García and I coauthored for the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association’s newsletter, Voice for the Defense, we explain the possible immigration ramifications of a recent change to pretrial diversion in Hidalgo County, Texas. César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández & Carlos Moctezuma García, Change to Pretrial Diversion Policy Could Lead to Deportation 32-33 (June 2011) (the article is available online also). Rather than allow defendants to pursue pretrial diversion without pleading, the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s office recently began requiring [...]

Scholars Sidebar: When State Courts Meet Padilla

In my most recent article, When State Courts Meet Padilla: A Concerted Effort is Needed to Bring State Courts Up to Speed on Crime-Based Immigration Law Provisions, 12 Loyola J. of Public Interest Law 299 (2011), I argue that state courts face a steep crimmigration learning curve thanks to Padilla v. Kentucky. Here’s the abstract: Padilla v. Kentucky’s recognition of deportation consequences as a component of the Sixth Amendment effective assistance of counsel guarantee promised dramatic impact on criminal proceedings involving noncitizen defendants. Realizing this promise depends on courts’ [...]

Scholars Sidebar: 1986 amnesty reduced crime

In a paper recently posted to the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), Scott Baker argues that individuals who received amnesty pursuant to the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 committed less crime after amnesty than before. Scott Baker, Effects of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act on Crime: Preliminary Version, SSRN (Apr. 2011). As many as 320,000 fewer crimes might have been committed thanks to IRCA, Baker explains, a result possibly attributable to the fact that people with lawful status are able to lawfully work, therefore economic incentives to engage in [...]

Scholars Sidebar: Advising Noncitizen Defendants on the Immigration Consequences of Criminal Convictions

In Advising Noncitizen Defendants on the Immigration Consequences of Criminal Convictions: The Ethical Answer for the Criminal Defense Lawyer, the Court, and the Sixth Amendment, Yolanda Vázquez presciently argued in the days before Padilla v. Kentucky that “an attorney’s ethical and moral duty is to advise his client about the immigration consequences of a criminal conviction.” 20 Berkeley La Raza Law Journal 31 (2010). Despite the fact that part of the discussion Vázquez presents (especially parts II and III) has been affected by Padilla, this article should be of interest to [...]

Scholars Sidebar: Due Process & Immigrant Detainee Prison Transfers

I’m finally making time to start a project long in waiting—Scholars Sidebar, a (hopefully) regular focus on scholarly writings of special relevance to crimmigrationistas. And, in admittedly sin verguenza style, I’m starting with my latest article—a hot-off-the-press piece from the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal titled Due Process and Immigrant Detainee Prison Transfers: Moving LPRs to Isolated Prisons Violates Their Right to Counsel, 20 Berkeley La Raza L.J. 17 (2011). I argue that moving LPRs in immigration detention to prisons located in isolated locations (as most are) violates their Fifth [...]