Advancing Immigrant Legal Representation: The Next Fifteen Years

As a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Robert A. Katzmann found that immigration matters represented a severe and growing bottleneck of the cases at the court. Instead of treating this phenomenon purely as a case management problem, he chose to delve deeper to understand the underlying cause for the high level of appeals from immigration agency determinations. Judge Katzmann concluded that lack of effective counsel was a major factor, and he turned that understanding into a cause. In his 2007 clarion call, he implored the enlightened members of the legal community to rise to the occasion and address the critical and unmet need for legal representation for indigent immigrants facing deportation, including those seeking the humanitarian protection of asylum. He followed the call with earnest and sustained action. Using his gravitas and considerable persuasive power, he mobilized scholars, leaders in philanthropy, the legal community, and the corps of immigration judges to support an idea that birthed the Immigrant Justice Corps—an innovative approach to addressing the immigration legal representation challenge

IRCA in Retrospect: Guideposts for Immigration Reform

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) was an important milestone in the immigration history of the United States, representing the first and most comprehensive legislation to take on the issue of illegal immigration to the United States with a mix of enforcement mechanisms to deter new unauthorized entries and legalization to regularize unauthorized immigrants already in the country. Contemporary policymakers are fortunate to have the experience of IRCA, documented in a rich research literature, to offer guideposts for crafting a new immigration law. The would do well to heed the lessons of 1986 - both positive and negative - to maximize the potential promise of immigration reform and avoid repeating past mistakes or sparking consequences that, while unintended, could have been foreseen

Advancing Immigrant Legal Representation: The Next Fifteen Years

As a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Robert A. Katzmann found that immigration matters represented a severe and growing bottleneck of the cases at the court. Instead of treating this phenomenon purely as a case management problem, he chose to delve deeper to understand the underlying cause for the high level of appeals from immigration agency determinations. Judge Katzmann concluded that lack of effective counsel was a major factor, and he turned that understanding into a cause. In his 2007 clarion call, he implored the enlightened members of the legal community to rise to the occasion and address the critical and unmet need for legal representation for indigent immigrants facing deportation, including those seeking the humanitarian protection of asylum. He followed the call with earnest and sustained action. Using his gravitas and considerable persuasive power, he mobilized scholars, leaders in philanthropy, the legal community, and the corps of immigration judges to support an idea that birthed the Immigrant Justice Corps—an innovative approach to addressing the immigration legal representation challenge

Seeing Difference: The Effect of Economic Disparity on Black Attitudes Toward Latinos

Rapid growth in the size of the Latino population has increased the ethnic diversity of urban neighborhoods, transforming the residential experiences of many black Americans. The competition for scarce resources is considered a central force in black-Latino relations and a source of anti-Latino sentiment among blacks. This article examines how the level and the distribution of economic resources within diverse areas affect black attitudes toward Latinos. Drawing on a multilevel dataset of individual racial attitudes and neighborhood characteristics, the analysis reveals that the relative economic status of racial groups is an important influence on black attitudes. In environments where Latinos are economically advantaged relative to their black neighbors, blacks are more likely to harbor negative stereotypes about Latinos, to be reluctant to extend to Latinos the same policy benefits they themselves enjoy, and to view black and Latino economic and political interests as incompatible. While the results suggest that diversity without conflict is possible, they make clear that the prospects for intergroup comity depend on some resolution of blacks' economic insecurities.African and African American StudiesGovernmen