Sharing Secrets: Examining Deferred Action and Transparency in Immigration Law

[Excerpt] “This Article is about deferred action and transparency in related immigration cases falling under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). While scholars from other genres have written extensively on the topic of prosecutorial discretion, the subject is largely absent from immigration scholarship, with the exception of early research conducted by Leon Wildes in the late 1970s and early 2000s, and a law review article I published in 2010 outlining the origins of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law and related lessons that can be drawn from administrative law and criminal law. That article ends with specific recommendations for the agency, such as codifying deferred action into a regulation and recognizing it as a formal benefit as opposed to a matter of “administrative convenience,” and streamlining the array of existing memoranda of prosecutorial discretion floating within each DHS agency. An additional recommendation included increasing oversight of prosecutorial discretion to ensure that officers and agencies that fail to exercise prosecutorial discretion by targeting and enforcing the laws against low-priority individuals are held accountable. In this Article, and building upon recommendations published in The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Law, I describe the state of prosecutorial discretion and deferred action in particular by surveying the political climate, public reaction, and advocacy efforts in the last two years. I also chronicle my repeated Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to DHS for information about deferred action, and the stumbling blocks I encountered during this 19-month journey. The Article will show that while deferred action is one of the very few discretionary remedies available for noncitizens with compelling equities, it currently operates as a secret program accessible only to elite lawyers and advocates. Moreover, the secrecy of the program has created the (mis)perception by some, that deferred action can be used as a tool to legalize the undocumented immigrant population or ignore congressional will. This Article explains why transparency about deferred action is important and makes related recommendations that include, but are not limited to, subjecting the program to rulemaking under the Administrative Procedures Act, issuing written decisions when deferred action is denied, posting information about the application process, and maintaining statistics about deferred action decisions. Without these remedies, noncitizens that possess similarly relevant equities will face unequal hardships.

From art to engineering

This paper describes work which emerged through a need to understand more about the potential of laser surface engineering for use in the creative industries. The method of creation of contemporary jewellery pieces and the resultant ‘Ocular’ jewellery series are described from the points of view of an artist and an engineer. The work demonstrates how laser controlled oxide growth on commercially pure titanium under ambient conditions can be used as an artistic tool by producing even, defined colours or by reproducing a simulation of freehand drawings on a titanium surface. It also asks the question: how different are artists from scientists and engineers

Faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kemerosotan disiplin di kalangan pelajar sekolah menengah di Johor

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kemerosotan disiplin pelajar dari persepsi guru-guru disiplin dari 20 buah sekolah menengah di Johor. Seramai 200 orang responden yang terdiri daripada guru-guru disiplin dari 20 buah sekolah menengah di Johor telah dipilih secara kelompok atas kelompok. Soal selidik digunakan sebagai instrumen kajian yang telah diubahsuai daripada penyelidik-penyelidik lepas seperti Azhar (2003), Foziah (1999) dan Jumail (1999). Instrumen soal selidik yang diubahsuai telah mendapat pengesahan daripada dua orang pensyarah UTM. Instrumen soal selidik ini digunakan untuk membuat kajian rintis bagi menguji kebolehpercayaan/ analisis kesahihan. Darjah kebolehpercayaan (alfa cronbach) bagi instrumen yang digunakan dalam kajian ini ialah 0.949. Kajian ini dianalisis menggunakan Perisian Statistical Packages For the Social Science (SPSS) For Windows (Version 15.0) berbentuk statistik deskriptif iaitu peratusan, kekerapan, sisihan piawai dan min serta statistik inferensi iaitu Ujian t dan analisis varians (ANOVA). Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa jenis masalah-masalah disiplin iaitu rosakkan harta benda, buli, ponteng dan kurang sopan berada pada tahap yang tinggi. Kemahiran dalam mengurus disiplin dari persepsi guru disiplin pun berada pada tahap yang tinggi. Manakala dari persepsi guru disiplin keperluan latihan untuk guru disiplin dalam menangani disiplin pelajar dan faktor kemerosotan disiplin pelajar dari segi sikap pelajar, rakan sebaya, keluarga dan suasana sekolah berada pada tahap yang sederhana. Oleh yang demikian, Kementerian Pelajaran bekerjasama dengan pihak sekolah bagi mengurangkan kemerosotan disiplin pelajar. Peranan dan kerjasama media massa dengan pihak berkuasa penting dalam membantu menangani masalah disiplin pelajar

Global South perspectives on social justice

This paper draws on two studies that utilised an occupational science lens in understanding daily-life issues for Global South communities. International communities are experiencing fragmentation due to oppressive and unjust policies at home, or forced migration to safer and more just contexts. Studying the communal daily experiences of groups struggling against social injustice has become a key theme within occupational science, which is attempting to become a more inclusive and relevant field of study, by moving beyond the individual as a unit of study to focus on communal everyday experiences, including groups in the Global South. Boaventura de Sousa Santos described an ‘Epistemology of the South’ – a movement of thought and praxis from communities in the Global South who were struggling against socio-political phenomena related to colonialism, patriarchy, and globalised neoliberal capitalism. This movement is based on the need to learn from how communities resist such oppression in their daily lives to create social justice and ‘cognitive justice’ that would enable scholarly work to move beyond what Edward Said termed the ‘Epistemology of Imperialism’ – resulting from ignoring, or ‘othering’/’essentialising’, the experiences of marginalised groups in the process of knowledge production. Two processes are needed: ‘inter-cultural translation’ – the comparing and contrasting of ideas and practices of different communities; and the ‘ecologies of knowledge’, which involves stepping back from Eurocentric traditions to allow other analytical spaces that can explain reality to be involved in producing appropriate knowledge and theories that will contribute to social justice (Santos, 2014). The first study is a de-colonial ethnography in which the researcher’s “ability to shuttle between contrasting worlds of experience” was pivotal in researching olive growing as a daily form of resistance in Palestine (Zureik, 2014: 20). What emerged was a group of daily practices that were founded on historical, socio-political, cultural and spiritual principles. Olive growers in Palestine were observed to experience ‘occupational injustice’, or more specifically ‘occupational apartheid’, that is a particular form of social injustice based on restrictions on their daily lives imposed because of who they were (their belonging to Palestinian communities). Yet, rather than passively accept this situation, and despite all odds, they have continued this ancient, highly meaningful, and communal activity. This resilience was enabled by their need to survive and be dignified (Sutra/doing-being), to express solidarity and collaboration (‘Awna/belonging) and to aspire for a better shared future (Sumud/belonging-becoming) – and by their insistence upon meeting these collective needs. The second study addresses what is considered an increasingly prevalent social issue - the burden of older immigrants on host societies (Angel, 2003). This grounded theory study explored how Indian, Chinese and Korean older migrants to New Zealand sought to engage in everyday occupations, such as gardening, singing and caring for grandchildren, and thereby make valued contributions to their new community. Using an occupational science lens to critically examine the data revealed that these older immigrants were conscious of what New Zealand had to offer them and were determined not to take these opportunities for granted. Rather, through a social process of ‘strengthening community’, these elders worked to actively give back to their new homeland. However, coming to this understanding required further developing grounded theory methodology to encompass ‘inter-cultural translations’, as well as advance ‘ecologies of knowledge’. A willingness to employ new methods and ways of researching what may be framed as social problems from Global South perspectives is critical if we are to advance global understandings of the contributions that marginalised groups within society have to offer

All about My Skills, not Me or Mine: Vignettes of Precarity among Skilled Indian Professionals in the UK

Indian migrants form a significant proportion of UK’s skilled labour force. In migration related discourses, mobility is viewed as an asset, capital or value attributed to the migrant individual self. This study captures vignettes of migrant experiences of Indian professions across various economic domains in the UK, illuminating the simultaneity of precariousness and resilience. Their lived experiences do not fit neatly into the traditional concept of skilled worker-citizen relationship as policy shifts and broader ideological changes fostered by an anti-immigration climate produce discursive patterns of alignments between the labour market and work practices disrupting professional, personal and familial arrangements

Immigration Litigation in the Time of Trump

A number of immigration policies have been announced, implemented, or challenged in courts during the first half of Donald J. Trump\u27s presidency. This Essay provides an update on ongoing litigation on a handful of these policies and was inspired by keynote remarks delivered at the Emerging Immigration Scholars Conference at Brigham Young University in June 2019. The topics covered by this Essay include: litigation affecting those covered by the travel or Muslim Ban, asylum policy changes, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ( DACA ), unlawful presence rules, and the border wall. This Essay also discusses lessons and common themes emerging from the litigation brought in the first half of the Trump administration, including the nature of the legal claims, the limitations of litigation, and the human costs of the policies despite these issues

Science News Services on the Internet

Science is the design or conduct of reproducible experiments to test how nature works, or formulation of theories that can themselves be tested by such experiments. It is the research that makes science so powerful and exciting. Science adds to our store of knowledge. It is the seeking that makes science what it is. Research is the very important component of science. Scholarly journals report the results of research, but only months after the fact. Given the high and increasing costs of paper publishing, they are expensive. This puts them virtually out of reach for many individuals and even many institutions, especially those in less developed nations. Even the appearance of Ejournals have not solved the problem, because of the high cost of subscription. So, there is a need for a faster and cheaper medium of communication of science news. This paper, discusses about the fast and cheaper mode of communications of science news, i.e. ‘Science news on the web’. Bits move virtually instantaneously; a news release sent by e-mail can be on any World Wide Web news page within minutes. These are the forces that come together to make a science news service on the web a virtual necessity. Many of the sites in the Internet have been dedicated for Science and Technology news. They are discussed in detail. These include Scinews, Eurekalert, Scicentral, Unisci, Scilink, Sciencedaily, etc