Focusing its sights squarely on criminal law’s intersection with immigration law, a federal appellate court concluded that judges can’t deny bail to migrant defendants simply because ICE threatens to deport them. The court’s opinion, in a case involving an illegal reentry prosecution, is an important reminder of the presumption of liberty in United States criminal law—and an equally stark example of ICE’s persistent efforts to pierce holes in that presumption. Mario Ailon-Ailon, a resident of Dodge City, Kansas for seven years, was arrested by ICE and handed over to the U.S. Marshals [...]
Detention and removal numbers down in FY 17
The number of people detained and removed by DHS during the 2017 fiscal year dropped when compared to 2016, the last full fiscal year under President Obama. Government data released Tuesday show that DHS detained 323,591 people and removed 226,119 people in FY 2017, most of which elapsed under President Trump’s watch. ICE’s detention network famously reached a massive scale under President Obama. Tuesday’s release indicates that ICE held about 30,000 fewer people over the course of 2017. Described as an “initial book-in,” ICE took into its custody 352,882 people in FY 2016 and 307,342 [...]
From probation to ICE
The Trump administration has made much of its wide immigration enforcement priorities. Every migrant who comes across the criminal justice system has reason to worry about being placed into the immigration detention and deportation pipeline. While this risk always existed under President Obama, the last ten months have seen many elected officials prominently announce their intent to defy the Trump administration by proactively helping migrants steer clear of ICE’s broad gaze. Even in nominally migrant-friendly communities, a palpable risk remains that mundane encounters with the criminal [...]
Florida steps into anti-migrant fray
A bill making its way through the Florida legislature would push the state to the front of the anti-migrant pack if enacted. House Bill 9, titled the Rule of Law Adherence Act, bears the hallmarks of past attempts by other states to make life more difficult for migrants. If approved by the state’s Republican dominated legislature, Florida would rip the anti-migrant spotlight from Texas where its Senate Bill 4 is currently mired in litigation before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Introduced by Republican Larry Metz, Florida’s bill targets so-called sanctuary cities through [...]
Colorado Supreme Court nixes anti-smuggling crime
In a long due decision, a divided Colorado Supreme Court held the state’s human smuggling crime unconstitutional. The court’s decision in Fuentes-Espinoza v. People, No. 13SC128 (Colo. October 10, 2017), returns public attention to 2006 when the state legislature enacted a host of anti-migrant legislation. In Fuentes-Espinoza, the court concluded that the state legislator overstepped its authority that year when it criminalized conduct already regulated by federal immigration law. The U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause commands that state law must give way anytime it affects the same [...]
Padilla should apply to all migrants
Of all the protections guaranteed by the United States Constitution, the right to counsel is arguably the most important. As the Supreme Court famously declared in Gideon v. Wainright, a criminal defendant simply cannot be “assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him.” Subsequent holdings also established that the right to counsel does not merely afford criminal defendants the euphemistic “warm body with a law degree.” Instead, the Sixth Amendment guarantees defendants the right to “the effective assistance” of counsel as well—both during trial and in pre-trial plea [...]
Immigration prison population since 1990s
Immigration imprisonment is a common feature of the United States legal system’s regulation of migration. On the civil side, ICE’s routine confinement of people suspected of violating immigration law is well-known. Often overlooked, however, are ICE’s partners on the criminal end of the immigration imprisonment spectrum. Though most immigration law violations are civil infractions that result, at most, in removal from the United States, some features of federal immigration law are undeniably criminal offenses. Indeed, in recent years, prosecutions for immigration offense now constitute the [...]
Immigration offenders lead list of criminal removals in 2015 & 2016
ICE successfully used its massive enforcement resources to target migrants with criminal histories in President Obama’s last two fiscal years in office. Most of those, however, had been convicted of nothing more serious than an immigration crime. Government data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request casts doubt on the Obama administration’s frequent claim that it targeted dangerous individuals. Of the 235,413 people removed by ICE in fiscal year 2015, fifty-nine percent (139,368) had been convicted of a crime. Leading the list of types of crime were immigration [...]
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