Immigration Article of the Day: The President’s Immigration Courts by Catherine Y. Kim
The President’s Immigration Courts by Catherine Y. Kim, University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill – School of Law, Emory Law Journal, Forthcoming UNC Legal Studies Research Paper
Abstract
Scholars have long documented the expansion of White House influence over agency decision making; for at least the past quarter-century, presidential control has become the central feature of federal regulatory governance. Until recently, such influence was understood to target the performance of purely executive and legislative functions by agencies; commentators generally assumed that political operatives refrained from interfering in agencies’ performance of adjudicative functions. The Trump Administration has cast doubt on that assumption, deploying a series of reforms designed to reshape administrative adjudication in our nation’s immigration courts. This Essay evaluates these emerging tools of political influence and their implications for the ongoing debate over the legitimacy of presidential administration.
KJ