AALS 2021: New Voices in Immigration Law

It was more than a little surreal to begin our New Voices in Immigration Law session on Wednesday at 4:15PM Eastern, smack in the middle of “Coup Wednesday,” as one attendee called it. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful and welcome distraction from the craziness of the world for us to come together and support junior colleagues as they try to actively change the world for the better!

First, we discussed Eliminating Fugitive (Alien) Disentitlement by Tania N. Valdez (Denver). This paper describes how the fugitive disentitlement doctrine migrated from criminal proceedings to civil immigration proceedings, works through the justifications raised for allowing this migration, and ultimately argues that the doctrine should not extend to the immigration context. I have to give props to Tania for introducing me to a doctrine that I had no idea existed and certainly would never have guessed was being applied to migrants IN CUSTODY. (Yeah, you’re hooked now, aren’t you!)

Second, we discussed Unenforced Split-Enforcement in Immigration Agencies by Beth K. Zilberman. This paper analyzes USCIS’s shift in mission away from the “service” of fair and efficient adjudication of immigration and citizenship applications towards enforcement of draconian immigration laws that make millions of people vulnerable to deportation. Her piece uses an administrative law framework (which brought cheers from the imm/admin law geeks in the room), specifically the institutional and agency design choices that have enabled and encouraged USCIS to contravene congressional separation of enforcement functions. Beth, too, deserves mad props. I wrote all over the margins of her paper while reading it: “MUST address this in next Immigration course!” I routinely describe USCIS to my students as the “service” branch without qualification. Beth’s paper made me (and attendee Stella Burch Elias who raised a very similar point despite not seeing my very insightful margin notes) realize that we must provide a more nuanced description in the future.

All in all, a great event. There’s nowhere else I’d rather have spent a coup.

Keep your eyes peeled for when these two excellent papers make it into a law review journal near you!

-KitJ