Immigration Law

Scalia Dissent Decries Court’s ‘Blue Pencil’ in Immigration Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-4 decision that an alien who requested a voluntary departure may withdraw the motion. The decision (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog) prompted an accusation by dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia that the court had used a “blue pencil” to remedy a dilemma posed by…

Jun 16, 2008 3:26 PM CDT

Major N.Y. Immigration Law Firm Investigated by Dept. of Labor

A 250-lawyer New York-based international law firm known for its immigration work is the subject of a preliminary investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, which says it may have improperly advised clients about labor certification applications. The applications are used to get “green cards,” which authorize the American residency…

Jun 4, 2008 7:38 PM CDT

Illegal Aliens on I.C.E.

Tougher immigration enforcement tactics spur challenges

Jun 1, 2008 1:10 PM CDT

Lawyer’s Quest to Marry Results in Nashville Policy Change on Immigrants

A county clerk in Nashville is allowing illegal immigrants to marry after a state attorney general’s opinion last week that sided with a lawyer seeking to marry a man without a Social Security number. The lawyer, Vanessa Saenz, had filed a suit in federal court saying she was denied the…

May 27, 2008 12:53 PM CDT

Tenn. Judge Slapped for Harsh Treatment of Immigrant Juvies

Tennessee disciplinary authorities have censured a Tennessee judge for his conduct in cases involving children of illegal immigrants and children he thought might be in U.S. illegally. Dickson County Juvenile Court Judge A. Andrew Jackson faced discipline over his handling of three hearings in 2007, the Tennessean reports. In each…

May 19, 2008 4:30 PM CDT

Hundreds of Deported Foreigners Drugged for Flight Home

A Washington Post investigation has found the government injected more than 250 deported foreigners with psychiatric drugs to keep them sedated for their flights home. In dozens of cases the deportees were so incapacitated by the drugs they had to be taken onto the planes in wheelchairs. A medical note…

May 14, 2008 3:14 PM CDT

Largest-Ever ICE Raid Nets 390 at Iowa Meatpacking Plant

What officials say is the largest immigration raid ever conducted in the U.S. resulted in the arrest of 390 people yesterday at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa. The raid, which was sparked by claims of rampant identity fraud, was led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and involved 16…

May 13, 2008 5:29 PM CDT

Judge Refers Lawyer to Ethics Panel for Dropping Appeal Pending Fee Payment

A federal appeals judge has referred a lawyer to a grievance panel for stopping work on his client’s appeal because his fees had not been fully paid. Senior Judge Jon O. Newman said lawyer Douglas Rosenthal failed to file a form that resulted in dismissal of an appeal for his…

May 13, 2008 11:14 AM CDT

Citizenship Request Backlog Spurs Lawsuits

An increasing number of immigrants waiting for action on their citizenship applications are suing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for failing to act by the deadline. Applicants are facing increasing backlogs as the agency spends more time vetting applicants’ backgrounds in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the Washington Post…

May 7, 2008 6:02 PM CDT

Worse than Prison Inmate Medical Care: Detained Immigrants’ Medical Care

News media throughout the country have focused in recent years on the issue of substandard health care for prison inmates. Some 65 deaths annually in California, for instance, reportedly could be prevented by better medical treatment. But the situation is apparently even worse for individuals held as illegal immigrants, who…

May 5, 2008 10:08 PM CDT

Posner Blasts Asylum Courts, Calls for Judicial Conference

Long a critic of “inadequate” and “ill-trained” asylum courts, the 7th Circuit’s Richard Posner reportedly offered up some remedies in a speech Monday. “This is a system of adjudication that is clearly inadequate,” Posner told a Chicago Bar Association audience. The National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports that Posner called…

Apr 22, 2008 2:59 PM CDT

‘Preposterous’ Immigration Caseloads Create Problems for 2nd Circuit

The federal appeals court based in New York City is struggling to handle immigration appeals from small law firms ill-equipped to devote substantial resources to the matters. The number of immigration appeals has recently quintupled because of changes in the process, Adam Liptak writes in his Sidebar column for the…

Apr 15, 2008 12:50 PM CDT

Entrepreneur Pays $200K for Bail Money for 40 Immigrants

A former high-school history teacher who made a fortune trading Latin American bonds during the 1980s anted up a highly unusual $200,000 to bail 40 strangers out of jail last year. Bob Hildreth’s generosity, which has just become known, was sparked by a well-publicized immigration raid in the Boston area…

Mar 19, 2008 6:59 PM CDT

Supreme Court Accepts African Prison Guard’s Asylum Appeal

A former prison camp guard who says he was forced to persecute others in Africa will get a chance to press his case for asylum with the U.S. Supreme Court. Daniel Girmai Negusie was denied asylum because he helped operate a prison camp in Eritrea during a war with Ethiopia,…

Mar 17, 2008 5:11 PM CDT

Judge Blasts Failure to Treat Cancer as ‘Most Egregious’ Lesson in Cruelty

A federal judge in Los Angeles has blasted immigration officials for failing to authorize treatment for a detainee’s penile cancer. For 11 months the officials had ignored several physicians’ recommendations to permit them to biopsy a growing lesion that eventually led to the death of the detainee, Francisco Castaneda, the…

Mar 13, 2008 12:34 PM CDT