Border Patrol shoots, Supreme Court punts

Seven years ago, Border Patrol agent Jesús Mesa shot and killed fifteen-year-old Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca. On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to tell us whether Hernández’s parents can successfully sue agent Mesa. The aggrieved parents sued Mesa claiming that the officer violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution when he killed Hernández. They wanted Mesa to financially pay for violating their son’s constitutional rights, a claim brought under Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), which recognizes an implied right to sue federal [...]

Time for Denver to haul ICE into court

Under President Trump, ICE has displayed an unprecedented aggressiveness towards migrants. ICE agents have tackled a man in the doorway of Denver’s Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse. They have arrested someone at a home next to a public school during the morning drop-off window. Last week they opened fire on a man in a Denver street. Denver officials have complained. So far, they have been rebuffed. In a letter published last week by the Denver Post, ICE told Mayor Michael Hancock that it will continue its single-minded focus on arresting people it thinks might be in the United States without the [...]

Gianforte heads to Congress while immigrants are deported for much less

Greg Gianforte body-slammed a reporter. After pleading guilty to assault this week and receiving a sentence of community service and anger management classes, he will soon become the newest member of Congress. For doing much less, tens of thousands of immigrants are deported every year. Gianforte’s assault of a reporter illustrates a double-standard that runs through immigration law: immigrants are held to a higher standard than citizens. Yet politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, regularly tout schemes to separate the good from the bad immigrants. Gianforte’s experience illustrates [...]

Detainer without probable cause of crime violates 4th Amendment

Adding to the growing caselaw about the constitutional infirmities of immigration detainers, a federal district court in Texas concluded this week that a detainer lacking probable cause of criminal activity violates the Fourth Amendment. Trujillo Santoyo v. United States, No. 5:16-cv-00855-OLG, slip op. (W.D. Tex. June 5, 2017). This case involved an individual arrested on criminal charges that were dismissed without a conviction. While lawfully jailed in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center during the pendency of the criminal case, ICE issued an immigration detainer against Trujillo [...]

Criminalizing unlawful presence

It’s been more than a decade since the massive immigrants’ rights marches of 2006, but the images remain palpable. Millions of immigrants and their allies took to the streets in the country’s major urban centers and small towns alike. Had it been enacted, Representative James Sensenbrenner’s infamous bill, H.R. 4437, would have criminalized presence in the United States in violation of immigration law. Today, the House Judiciary Committee takes up a bill that revives Sensenbrenner’s failed attempt. The Michael Davis, Jr. and Danny Oliver in Honor of State and Local Law Enforcement Act, H.R. [...]

With SB 4, Texas faces legal and public safety climb

By Joshua Mitson Since President Trump’s inauguration a wave of “anti-sanctuary city” bills have been proposed by state legislatures across the country. Last Thursday, one of the most extreme variations of these bills was approved by the Texas state legislature and on Sunday, Governor Greg Abbott signed it into law. Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) is, in many ways, a standard anti-sanctuary policy – it compels local law enforcement agencies to honor ICE detainers, it forbids campus peace officers from obstructing local police from inquiring into immigration status of arrestees and compels [...]

Systemic indifference in ICE detention leads to unnecessary deaths

In a prison population of roughly 400,000, someone is bound to die. But it doesn’t have to happen because of sheer indifference as a report released today found sometimes occurs in ICE detention. Advocacy groups Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) teamed up to take an in-depth look of medical records for eighteen deaths in ICE custody. The organizations tasked two independent experts with extensive experience in inmate medical care delivery with reviewing records of deaths from 2012 to 2015. Based on those analyses plus interviews [...]

Congress finds more money for immigration imprisonment

The budget bill making its way through Congress and expected to receive the president’s signature offers plenty of money for immigration imprisonment. If enacted, the bill would fund federal government operations through September 30, 2017. The nation’s immigration imprisonment regime is delegated among various agencies. Some agencies hold migrants under civil law authority and others use criminal confinement powers. All hold people who are not United States citizens because of the federal government’s claims that they violated some provision of immigration law. The Immigration and [...]