Ira Kurzban and Cheryl Little on Alito

The views of two prominent Florida immigrant rights advocates:

Immigration advocates in South Florida are voicing concerns about President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Alito, because a recent study showed that as an appellate judge in Philadelphia he generally sided with the government against immigrants.

”Judge Alito’s opinions on immigration demonstrate a willingness to grant extremely broad deference to immigration authorities in making what may be life-and-death decisions on asylum,” said Ira Kurzban, a Miami immigration attorney who is considered an authority on immigration law.

Cheryl Little, executive director of the Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, echoed those views.

”Given recent reports that immigration judges often engage in a pattern of biased and incoherent decision-making in asylum cases, Alito’s clear deference to such decisionmakers is troubling,” Little said.

A Congressional Research Service Report for Congress analyzed 10 immigration-related cases that Alito helped review at the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals where he served since 1990.

The report was given to Congress earlier this month in advance of Alito’s confirmation hearings, and its contents were first reported by Immigration Daily website, www.ilw.com.

In all but three cases, Alito generally came down against the immigrant, partly on the premise that immigration courts were owed deference by federal judges.

The three exceptions were cases related to abortion and religion.

source: Miami Herald, Jan. 21, 2006

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