Shalini Bhargava Ray on “Shadow Sanctions for Immigration Violations” in Lawfare

In a recent blog post for Lawfare, Professor Shalini Bhargava Ray of the University of Alabama School of Law writes about the problem of “shadow sanctions” in immigration law. As she explains in the blog, which is available in full here:

[T]he immigration bureaucracy uses a host of “shadow sanctions” that offer a penalty less than deportation. These sanctions include deferred action (apart from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA), administrative closure based on low-priority status, and post-order stays of removal that allow noncitizens to remain indefinitely in the U. S., if they check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) periodically. None of these tools resolves the immigrant’s underlying deportability, but they offer forbearance from removal. . . . In this post, I explore the specific problems with shadow sanctions described . . . [and] summarize my suggestions for how the immigration bureaucracy can move forward with a few key reforms.

Check it out! And, for a more in-depth discussion of these issues, Professor Ray’s recent Article in the Columbia Law Review offers further analysis.

IE