Immigration Article of the Day: Lawyering from a Deportation Abolition Ethic by Laila Hlass

Lawyering from a Deportation Abolition Ethic by Laila Hlass, 110 California Law Review (Forthcoming Oct. 2022)

Abstract

This Article contributes to the emerging literature on abolition within the immigration legal system by mapping deportation abolition theory onto lawyering practice. Deportation abolitionists work to end immigrant detention, enforcement and deportation, explicitly understanding immigrant justice as part of a larger racial justice fight connected to resisting white supremacy. Although a number of deportation abolition initiatives have recently emerged to challenge the racist foundations of immigration law, most of these deportation abolition organizations have few, if any, lawyers on staff. This Article surfaces tensions related to deportation abolition theory and lawyering, including goals within abolition theory to center directly-affected people and address power and privilege differentials, including the privilege of being a lawyer. Lawyers practicing a deportation abolition ethic may confront challenges with reconciling their professional role as officers of the court and duties to their individual clients as the operate within an unjust system they seek to abolish. Despite these tensions, this Article argues that immigration lawyers interested in moving towards deportation abolition can play significant support roles in efforts to radically transform the immigration legal system, as well as in complementary efforts to address the immediate needs of those entangled in the deportation system.

The National Immigration Project recently announced that Professor Hlass was the Recipient of the 2022 Elisabeth S. “Lisa” Brodyaga Award.  The award honors a NIP member doing outstanding work for immigrant rights.

KJ