Searching for Humanitarian Discretion in Immigration Enforcement: Reflections on a Year as an Immigration Attorney in the Trump Era

This Article describes one of the most striking features of the Trump Administration’s immigration policy: the shift in the way discretion operates in the legal immigration system. Unlike other high-profile immigration policies that have been the focus of class action lawsuits and public outcry, the changes to the role of discretion have attracted little attention, in part because they are implemented through low-visibility individualized decisions that are difficult to identify, let alone challenge systemically. After providing historical context regarding the role of discretion in the immigration system before the Trump Administration, I offer four case studies from my immigration practice in Arizona that illustrate discretion’s new role. The cases highlight three key trends that result from the way discretion currently operates in the immigration system: (1) the ever-widening enforcement net; (2) the emboldening of front-line bureaucrats; and (3) the changing bureaucratic culture within United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency that previously had seen its mission as one of integration, but has now shifted to an aggressive enforcement orientation. I close with a final section reflecting on the important role that individual direct representation can play in fighting against the current enforcement regime

Disappearing Parents: Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System

This Article presents original empirical research that documents systemic failures of the federal immigration enforcement and state child welfare systems when immigrant parents in detention and deportation proceedings have children in state custody. The intertwined but uncoordinated workings of the federal and state systems result in severe family disruptions and raise concerns regarding parental rights of constitutional magnitude. This Article documents this phenomenon in two ways. First, it presents an anatomy of a deportation, providing a case study of an actual parent whose detention and eventual deportation has separated her from her four young children for over two years and threatens her with the permanent termination of her parental rights. Next, it presents the results of empirical research conducted on the child welfare system to demonstrate that the case study is not an isolated occurrence. On the contrary, the analysis of the results of over fifty surveys and twenty interviews with attorneys, caseworkers, and judges in the juvenile court system in one Arizona county makes clear the concerns identified in the case study occur with alarming frequency. The analysis section of this Article provides a discussion of the constitutional and structural concerns raised by the case study and data presented. Finally, the Article concludes with reforms that can be adopted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, child protective services agencies, and Congress to address the systemic failures described

Searching for Humanitarian Discretion in Immigration Enforcement: Reflections on a Year as an Immigration Attorney in the Trump Era

This Article describes one of the most striking features of the Trump Administration’s immigration policy: the shift in the way discretion operates in the legal immigration system. Unlike other high-profile immigration policies that have been the focus of class action lawsuits and public outcry, the changes to the role of discretion have attracted little attention, in part because they are implemented through low-visibility individualized decisions that are difficult to identify, let alone challenge systemically. After providing historical context regarding the role of discretion in the immigration system before the Trump Administration, I offer four case studies from my immigration practice in Arizona that illustrate discretion’s new role. The cases highlight three key trends that result from the way discretion currently operates in the immigration system: (1) the ever-widening enforcement net; (2) the emboldening of front-line bureaucrats; and (3) the changing bureaucratic culture within United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency that previously had seen its mission as one of integration, but has now shifted to an aggressive enforcement orientation. I close with a final section reflecting on the important role that individual direct representation can play in fighting against the current enforcement regime

Disappearing Parents: Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System

This Article presents original empirical research that documents systemic failures of the federal immigration enforcement and state child welfare systems when immigrant parents in detention and deportation proceedings have children in state custody. The intertwined but uncoordinated workings of the federal and state systems result in severe family disruptions and raise concerns regarding parental rights of constitutional magnitude. This Article documents this phenomenon in two ways. First, it presents an anatomy of a deportation, providing a case study of an actual parent whose detention and eventual deportation has separated her from her four young children for over two years and threatens her with the permanent termination of her parental rights. Next, it presents the results of empirical research conducted on the child welfare system to demonstrate that the case study is not an isolated occurrence. On the contrary, the analysis of the results of over fifty surveys and twenty interviews with attorneys, caseworkers, and judges in the juvenile court system in one Arizona county makes clear the concerns identified in the case study occur with alarming frequency. The analysis section of this Article provides a discussion of the constitutional and structural concerns raised by the case study and data presented. Finally, the Article concludes with reforms that can be adopted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, child protective services agencies, and Congress to address the systemic failures described