Nolo

Before having any sort of meaningful discussion of how to treat people who seek asylum at the southern U.S. border, we need to understand how someone can—and can’t—apply for asylum in the first place. In most cases, one has to violate immigration laws in order to get to the United States—and in the end, that’s legally okay. It’s almost expected. Which means that any bright-line analysis of who is “illegal” or not is almost nonsensical in this context. Let’s imagine…

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Proving a negative is notoriously difficult, including trying to prove that a law that’s been alluded to numerous times doesn’t exist. Cynics might speculate that that’s exactly what the Trump Administration is counting on when it issues statements justifying its new (yes, new) policy of separating children from parents encountered at, or after having crossed, the southern U.S. border. Trump himself tweeted, “Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents once…

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The White House seems to have it in for what it calls “chain migration.” Its website pronounces: “Most green cards … are awarded based on an antiquated system … of Chain Migration—whereby one immigrant can bring in their entire extended families, who can bring in their families and so on … familial relations are all that is required to obtain a green card and, in turn, become a voting U.S. Citizen within a short period of time . . ….

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Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions wasn’t short on opinions regarding people who apply for asylum in the United States, as set forth in an October, 2017 speech to the Executive Office for Immigration Review (commonly known as U.S. Immigration Court). Unfortunately, much of the information he presented was baseless or wrong. Let’s start with Sessions’s assertion that the immigration court system is becoming “overloaded with fake claims.” Mr. Sessions provided no source for this information. Indeed, finding statistics on fake claims…

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I was tempted to put this entire title in capital letters, as hysterical as that might look. But for thousands of people in the United States today, the recently announced ending of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) feels like a true emergency. And indeed, the decision will eventually mean that huge numbers of undocumented young people, students, and workers—who came forward, were vetted, and applied for a temporary work permit—may (unless Congress acts) see that grant stripped…

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