Immigration Law

Lawyer who challenged border cellphone searches isn’t entitled to injunction, 5th Circuit says

A Texas immigration lawyer whose cellphone was searched at least five times when he entered the United States isn’t entitled to a preliminary injunction preventing such searches without a warrant, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Jun 22, 2023 9:18 AM CDT

Is the word ‘alien’ objectionable? Federal appeals judge sees ‘no need to bowdlerize’ decisions and laws

A federal appeals judge who announced plans to boycott Yale Law School students for clerkships is taking aim at his colleagues for using the word “noncitizen” instead of “alien."

Jun 5, 2023 12:21 PM CDT

Weekly Briefs: ‘Zero matrimonial knowledge’ judge gets reprimand; judge adopts AI policy

Judge sanctioned after disclaiming family law knowledge The New Jersey Supreme Court publicly reprimanded Judge Michael J. Kassel of the Camden County Superior Court in New Jersey on Wednesday for telling litigants that he was unfamiliar with their cases and with matrimonial law. In one case, he said he has…

Jun 2, 2023 3:16 PM CDT

From Undocumented to Attorney at Law: A journey of hope and resilience

There was room for only two of us on our tiny raft, yet three of my siblings and I managed to cling onto its surface as my father waded through the Rio Grande, pulling the raft behind him. In front of us was the promised land: America. It promised an education and a better life.

Jun 1, 2023 1:30 AM CDT

Tsion Gurmu calls on personal experience to support Black immigrants

Tsion Gurmu traces her interest in law back to the Buford Highway community in Atlanta, where she grew up among a large number of asylum-seekers from Africa who struggled to navigate the immigration system.

Jun 1, 2023 12:40 AM CDT

9th Circuit rejects claim that illegal reentry law violated defendant’s right to equal protection

A federal appeals court on Monday rejected a defendant’s claim that his Fifth Amendment equal protection rights were violated by a law making it a crime to reenter the United States after deportation.

May 23, 2023 11:38 AM CDT

Gorsuch’s Title 42 statement is ‘a remarkable jeremiad against COVID mitigation policies,’ law prof says

Justice Neil Gorsuch issued a lengthy statement criticizing “rule by indefinite emergency edict” Thursday, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order related to a COVID-19-pandemic-era immigration policy.

May 22, 2023 2:40 PM CDT

Policy allowing migrants to be expelled during COVID-19 emergency has ended; what will be its legacy?

A federal policy used to expel migrants expired May 11, when the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency ended. The government’s authority to invoke the public health policy had been used to expel migrants without evaluating their potential asylum claims. Legal analysts are now turning their attention to the longer-term influence of the policy and potential precedents.

May 17, 2023 2:04 PM CDT

ABE’s annual grant program sends $300K to 12 innovative projects

Low-income clients overburdened by debt, transgender and nonbinary people who need help changing their names, and youths experiencing homelessness are among the groups supported this year by the American Bar Endowment’s Opportunity Grant Program.

Apr 26, 2023 11:50 AM CDT

How can lawyers use AI to improve their practice?

As cool as it is that artificial intelligence can generate text, that’s not what will matter most to the practice of law in the coming months and years, said Pablo Arredondo, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Casetext, a legal technology company that aims to improve access to legal research.

Mar 3, 2023 12:37 PM CST

Legal advocates compare proposed asylum rules to Trump-era restrictions

President Joe Biden proposed new asylum restrictions Tuesday that some legal advocates are condemning for being too similar to measures imposed under the former Trump administration.

Feb 23, 2023 10:57 AM CST

Weekly Briefs: SCOTUS nixes immigration arguments; decapitation defendant attacks her lawyer

SCOTUS drops arguments in immigration case The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday removed a case from its argument calendar in which 19 states sought to keep in place an immigrant expulsion policy. The policy, based on Title 42 of the U.S. Code, quickly expelled asylum seekers on the ground they…

Feb 17, 2023 3:45 PM CST

Chemerinsky: When can state governments sue the United States?

A recurring issue before the Supreme Court this term, including in two cases to be argued in the next month, concerns when state governments have standing to sue the United States. Over the last decade, there has been an explosion of such suits.

Feb 1, 2023 11:49 AM CST

Legal community supports Ukrainians displaced by Russia’s war against Ukraine

The Ukrainian Mothers and Children Transport initiative, or UMACT, is a collaboration of lawyers, professors and law students that helps Ukrainian families secure travel visas. Its name aims to evoke the Kindertransport, which brought 10,000 Jewish children to the United Kingdom as World War II loomed, says law professor Michael Bazyler, a former refugee from Poland of Ukrainian descent.

Feb 1, 2023 1:10 AM CST

Asylum-seekers entering US illegally would be subject to rebuttable presumption under Biden border proposal

President Joe Biden announced a new border policy Thursday that will admit up to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Jan 6, 2023 10:33 AM CST