Immigration Lawyers Research Articles

Lawyers' Perspectives on Surveillance in U.S. Immigration Enforcement

ABSTRACTIncreasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data in surveillance by the U.S. immigration enforcement has led to important ethical considerations. This paper aims to explore the extent to which immigration lawyers are aware of surveillance technologies in their work with immigrants and the lawyers' potential concerns about surveillance technologies. Through a thematic analysis of six semi‐structured interviews with U.S. immigration lawyers and legal practitioners, this research reveals three overarching themes that describe lawyers' perspectives on surveillance: surveillance knowledge, surveillance assemblage, and surveillance implications. These themes are rooted in lawyers' understandings, experiences, and encounters with surveillance in their daily work with immigrant communities and contribute to existing work at the intersection of surveillance, information studies, and immigration. This work calls on information scholars to explore and expand on understandings of surveillance within U.S. immigration enforcement.

Humanitarian Parole to the United States: The Case of a Gay Man Fleeing Afghanistan

This article will discuss my experience as an immigration attorney representing a gay man from Afghanistan fleeing the Taliban. First, it will give an overview of the Taliban’s role in Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover in August 2021. It will then discuss the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in Afghanistan. Next, the article will discuss how I became involved in representing individuals fleeing Afghanistan and the humanitarian parole process.

Apples and Oranges: Refugees’ Right to Work versus Economic Migrants’ Privilege to Work

The nationalistic and xenophobic movement Operation Dudula has been leading demonstrations throughout South Africa claiming that foreigners are taking South African jobs and that there are ‘no wars in Africa’ to warrant African immigrants’ special treatment. This xenophobic movement blames immigrants (an umbrella term for immigrants, cross-border migrants, economic migrants, asylum seekers and refugees) for societal collapse and challenges the legality of their border crossings. The movement calls the immigrants ‘criminals’ and pressures domestic government officials to deny them the right to work. The conflation of economic migrants with asylum seekers continues in the South African landscape, confusing employers, the general public, and officials at the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). The notion that ‘no foreigner must be employed ahead of a South African’ is at the crux of the debates about immigrants’ right to employment. Yet, there is not a clear demarcation between asylum seekers’ right to work versus the economic migrants’ privilege to work. This confusion of legal categories has led to apples and oranges debates in immigration law domestically and internationally. Through interviews with non-governmental (non-profit) organisations (NGOs/NPOs), employers, industry associations, government officials, and immigration attorneys, and an examination of international and domestic laws and norms, this paper suggests a reframing of how the right to work is analysed and how the employers respond.

Trauma-Informed Legal Advocacy: Medicolegal Approaches & Best Practices for Immigration Attorneys

Trauma-informed legal advocacy is a compelling approach to utilize when attorneys represent traumatized individuals. Trauma-informed legacy advocacy in partnership with medicolegal approaches is a growing field within the medical and legal professions with theoretical underpinnings still developing. Excessive conflicts, trauma, persecution, human rights violations, and war across the globe are associated with an increased efflux of individuals and families from affected areas and an increased influx of people in host countries that are largely developed countries including North America, Australia, and Europe, making the role of immigration attorneys challenging. The traumatic experiences of these immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers with psychological or neuropsychiatric symptoms not only stem from past traumatic experiences but also are associated with potential fears of being deported, separated from family, legal ramifications, and residential uncertainties in host countries while harboring memories of suffering from fear of persecution due to nationality, race, religion, political opinion, affiliation in a social group, and sexual orientation in countries of origins. Though much of the literature on trauma-informed practice focuses on the secondary traumatic stress of medical professionals, little attention has been geared toward the secondary traumatic effects on attorneys. While the increasing demand for an immigration psychological evaluation may be beneficial for an immigration case and helps create an avenue for immigration attorneys to understand their clients’ traumatic experience, there is a gap in knowledge about how to limit attorneys’ exposure to secondary trauma when providing trauma-informed legal advocacy, how to identify malingering among clients, and how a client’s trauma and memory lapse interplay. This article discusses the importance of immigration attorneys understanding and utilizing trauma-informed legal advocacy, recognizing the re-traumatization of victims during legal appearances, the importance of an immigration psychological evaluation of a client, and developing routine self-care practices.

Constructing Anthropological Expertise: Community Support and Legal Partnership in Transgender Cases

ABSTRACT Anthropologists working with marginalised populations in need of legal representation have faced challenges spanning epistemological, methodological and ethical questions. In the provision of evidence to legal-administrative processes, how do we overcome some of the obstacles in solving these problems? In this paper, we discuss our experience working through the case of a transgender asylum seeker from Mexico in the United States and the case of socio-cultural and legal concerns of a transgender youth in Los Angeles. The three partners in this paper are a socio-cultural anthropologist (Ngin), an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles (Yeh) and a community professional who works extensively with undocumented college students (Borjon). In Ngin’s preparation of the cultural argument for the asylum case of the transgender person, it was Borjon’s network of community contacts that provided the additional evidence for the case. As the case was delayed in the legal process, Attorney Yeh’s legal insight explains the best course of action for the petitioner. In the second case of the young transgender youth, we discussed the precarity of the youth’s situation and the possibility of socio-legal protection. In our analysis of these two cases, we discussed how we arrived at legally sound concepts with evidence supported by anthropological analytical methods while ensuring transparency of the provenance of evidence to meet ethical principles. Through these consultations in the construction of anthropological expertise, we also hope to decolonise expertise.

Misrecognitions of Victimhood: Discretionary Power of Street-level Bureaucrats in Humanitarian Visas

Humanitarian visas provide one of few potential pathways to citizenship for foreign nationals victimized within the United States and are an important aspect of immigration law. Yet one form of humanitarian visas—T nonimmigrant status (T visa)—has received scant attention in the socio-legal studies literature. “T visas” were designed to aid survivors of human trafficking and, though the US government estimates that tens of thousands of individuals are trafficked in the United States every year, only 15 percent of the five thousand T visas available annually have been granted since the program’s inception in 2002. Why are T visas such an underutilized form of immigration relief? Drawing on twenty in-depth interviews with immigration lawyers, law enforcement personnel, and non-governmental organization service providers routinely involved in T visa applications, we find that the low rate of applications and approvals is driven by a combination of structural barriers and expansive discretion of key actors in the legal process to interpret and apply the law, which results in a narrow and often misinformed construction of victimhood. We add to the literature on the discretionary power of street-level bureaucrats to shape the law and determine how it is applied with considerable consequences for survivors of trafficking.

A “good fit”: Client sorting among nonprofit, private, and pro bono immigration attorneys

AbstractExisting scholarship finds that having an attorney in immigration legal proceedings increases the chances of a favorable outcome. This work, however, often acknowledges that the representation effect is underexplained: selection may explain outcomes, and variation among attorneys is difficult to assess. Through 103 interviews with attorneys who practice immigration law in three organizational environments (nonprofit legal services, private firms, and corporate law firm pro bono programs) in two East Coast areas, this paper argues that attorneys' sorting of clients between different types of legal organizations helps explain the representation effect. Attorneys define what type of case is a “good fit” for their representation, selecting cases they think they can help increase the probability of a favorable outcome. However, what they define as a “good fit” varies by attorneys' practice environments, and centers not only on the facts or characteristics of a client and their case, but also attorneys' organizational constraints. By documenting the central role of practice environment variation and its organizational constraints on attorneys' case selection, this paper helps explain the representation effect and its implications for increasing vulnerable immigrants' access to legal representation in the United States.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AS IM/MOBILITY: PRE-LIMIRARY THOUGHTS ON UNDERSTANDING THE USE OF AI IN IMMIGRATION SYSTEMS

Technology, including artificial intelligence in im/migration service delivery and migration management have been widely deployed in EuroAmerica (Mongia, 2018; Walia, 2021). In Canada, Immigration Refugee Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has, in the past few years, secretly piloted an in-house built AI system for triaging im/migrant applications from China, India and the Philippines (Molnar & Gill, 2018). The 2 million immigration applications backlog in part caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been used as a justification to accelerate the push for the adoption of AI in im/migration affairs stating the need to modernize, optimize and expedite immigration affairs. Building on AoIR 2022’s theme, I take a decolonial approach to the study of AI and im/migration issues. I follow the claim made by decolonial scholars (El-Nany, 2020) that it is necessary to go back in history in order to better understand current power relations, systemic racism and patriarchy, the ongoing dispossession and forced im/mobility of racialized populations located in the global South. I conceptualize the use of AI as immobility to show how populations become testing grounds to decide who is worthy of im/mobility. Methodologically, this conference paper is informed by access to information requests made to the government of Canada to shed light on the use of AI systems within the IRCC. In addition, this paper relies on desk research including newspaper articles, blog posts and podcasts by and with immigration lawyers, and parliamentary hearings.

The Gory Details: Asylum, Sexual Assault, and Traumatic Memory

For asylum seekers to be granted asylum, they must convince immigration officials that they have been persecuted or that they fear they will be persecuted if returned to their home country. This article discusses the reluctance of asylum seekers to be forthcoming about sexual assault as a form of persecution and the ways in which traumatic memory can affect narratives of persecution for rape survivors. Many asylum seekers, particularly those who have been sexually assaulted, show symptoms consistent with trauma survivors. Consequently, their narratives of persecution are often shaped by partial and incomplete memory recall. The result is that how asylum seekers who have been sexually assaulted tell their stories of persecution is the antithesis of the expectations of credibility. This article is based on qualitative research in Los Angeles, California, and New York City, New York, in the United States. It includes interviews with asylum seekers, immigration attorneys, immigrant service providers, asylum officers, and immigration judges; observations of immigration court hearings; and content analysis of asylum applications. I use these sources to argue that the harm of rape and its long-lasting effects evidenced by symptoms of traumatic memory impacts how asylum seekers articulate stories of persecution. How these stories are told can have devastating effects for asylum seekers that may jeopardize their ability to gain asylum if immigration officials do not view them as credible applicants.

Cinema’s Cosmic Shifts

Cinema’s Cosmic Shifts

Individuals’ experiences in U.S. immigration detention during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications

BackgroundIndividuals held in carceral settings were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, limited research exists of the direct experiences of individuals detained by the United States (U.S.) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This study illustrates the major challenges described by individuals held in ICE’s immigration detention centers during the initial spread of COVID-19.MethodsWe interviewed 50 individuals who were released from ICE detention between March 15, 2020 until August 31, 2020. Participants were recruited through immigration attorneys. Responses to a semi-structured interview were documented. Quotes from these interviews were thematically analyzed.ResultsStudy participants were detained in 22 different ICE detention centers, which were located across 12 states, in both county (41%) and privately-contracted facilities (59%). The major themes that emerged from interviews included inadequate protections against COVID-19, denial of physical and mental healthcare, and experiences of retaliation in response to self-advocacy. These issues perpetuated emotions of fear, distrust, and helplessness in individuals in immigration detention centers.ConclusionsThis study represents the largest analysis of experiences of ICE-detained immigrants during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure the rights to health and wellbeing for this population, further actions should include improving public health conditions, protecting against human rights violations, addressing barriers to healthcare access, ensuring transparency about conditions in detention centers, and moving toward decarceration.

“Everything From That Era Was Kind of a Blur”: Improving Humanitarian Immigration Systems’ Resilience in the Wake of the NTA Memo

ABSTRACT This study sought to explore the impact of the 2018 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy memorandum generally referred to as the “NTA Memo” on the humanitarian immigration system in the United States. Key informant interviews were conducted with “policy agents” including immigration attorneys and social service providers who worked with trafficking survivors pursuing T nonimmigrant status (T Visas) in the Upper Midwest. Results of thematic analysis suggest that the NTA Memo effectively wore down the humanitarian immigration system while it was in place, and now that it has been lifted, distrust among policy agents remains, imperiling gains of the anti-human trafficking movement in encouraging survivors to come forward to report their traffickers and seek protections. Writing denied applicant confidentiality protections into law to protect the information of survivors of trafficking and other crimes and strengthening humanitarian immigration system infrastructure would begin to mend the harm caused by the NTA Memo and its contemporary anti-immigrant policies. Strengthening protections for immigrant survivors of crime is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development goal 16: promoting just, peaceful, and inclusive societies.

Immigration-related Legal Collaboration in Primary Care: Evaluating Impact on Knowledge and Well-being.

To evaluate the impact of embedding an immigration attorney in a primary care clinic to address immigration-related legal needs. We conducted a mixed-methods study of 42 legal clinic participants from May 2019-February 2020. Measures included psychological distress, understanding of legal options, and self-rated general health collected prior to, following, and 60-90 days after consultation. There was significant improvement in participants' understanding of their legal immigration options pre- (4.9, SD 2.9) and post-consult (8.6, SD 2.1), and 60 days later (7.0, SD 2.8) (F=11.0, p<.05), but self-rated health scores and distress did not significantly improve, although there was a high loss-to-follow up rate at 60 days (42.8%). Qualitative results underscored the interconnectedness of immigration status and health. Embedding immigration legal services in primary care improved patients' understanding of immigration-related legal options, although successfully mitigating the health impacts of vulnerable immigration status may take broader societal interventions.

Pediatric Perspectives and Tools for Attorneys Representing Immigrant Children: Conducting Trauma-Informed Interviews of Children from Mexico and Central America

Pediatric health and mental health professionals with expertise in the physical and emotional needs of immigrant children seeking humanitarian protection are trained to understand and address the sometimes deeply traumatic nature of their experience. This expertise plays an important role in collaborating with immigration attorneys to provide compassionate, trauma-informed representation that centers on children’s best interests. In medicine, we say that “children are not small adults,” such that meeting a child’s needs requires consideration of their developmental stage and the unique impacts of child trauma exposure. This also holds true for legal professionals dedicated to protecting the rights of children in migration. This article aims to (1) review the principles of trauma-informed care in the context of child development, (2) understand the traumatic nature of the migration paradigm for children from Mexico and Central America seeking safety and protection, and (3) suggest ways that healthcare, mental health and legal professionals can inform one another’s efforts to optimize the wellbeing of children and improve legal outcomes. The application of this knowledge in practice can advance legal goals, reduce risk for child re-traumatization during interviews, and reinforce child strengths while also reducing vicarious trauma and burnout for legal professionals.

Formal and informal support networks as sources of resilience and sources of oppression for temporary foreign workers in Canada

AbstractIn this article, we explore temporary foreign workers’ (TFWs) access to and experiences with formal and informal supports in Canada. Our study utilized a participatory action research design and four overlapping phases of data collection: individual interviews with current and former TFWs, focus groups, individual interviews with settlement service agencies, and a cross-sectional survey with current and former TFWs. We used an intersectional theoretical framework to analyze these data and explore ways that TFWs interact with formal and informal sources of support for navigating their precarious immigration status and integration in Canada. Our findings show these supports have the potential to both benefit and harm TFWs, depending on their social positioning and availability of institutional resources. The benefits include information that aids settlement and integration processes in Canada, while the harms include misinformation that contributes to status loss. Future research and policy should recognize the complexity of informal and formal support networks available to TFWs. An absence of government support is apparent, as is the need for increased funding for settlement service agencies that serve these workers. In addition, Canada should better monitor employers, immigration consultants, and immigration lawyers to ensure these agents support rather than oppress TFWs.

Trans migrations: Seeking refuge in “safe haven” Toronto

Trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people who make refugee claims in Canada negotiate a complex nexus of identity, belonging, and citizenship. Drawing on insights from TGNC refugees, immigration lawyers, and frontline workers, in this paper we examine the ways the state controls the trans body through the refugee claims process and in the process of integration into life in Canada, while also highlighting trans refugee methods of survival and resistance. What emerges is an understanding of the ways that refugees navigate the tension between gender, sexuality, and homecoming as both intimately felt and geopolitically managed. We convey TGNC refugee narratives to demonstrate how they both confirm and expand upon the existing literature on Canadian LGBTQ+ refugees. TGNC refugees' experiences at the Immigration and Refugee Board confirm insights from existing LGBTQ+ refugee studies. However, TGNC refugees' day‐to‐day lives differ significantly from LGB refugee lives as recounted in the literature. In TGNC refugees' attempts to access gender‐affirming documentation, healthcare, housing, and income, they confront distinct systems of transgender exceptionalism, border imperialism, and racial and heteropatriarchal capitalism that limit their access to basic necessities and impact how they build home both conceptually and materially.

Mentoring First-Generation and Underrepresented in Medicine Physician-Scientists by Expanding Conversations.

Mentoring First-Generation and Underrepresented in Medicine Physician-Scientists by Expanding Conversations.

Engaging with the State. Illegalized migrants, welfare institutions and the law in French-Speaking Belgium

By highlighting informal strategies and solidarities on the one hand, and protests on the other, current studies of citizenship and illegalized migration describe two main forms of political subjectivities among illegalized migrants: ‘without’ the state or ‘against’ it. In contrast, this article unpacks how migrants make use of state laws and institutions, voice expectations, and pursue their claims using official venues – in short, how they act ‘with’ the state. It builds on ethnographic fieldwork on illegalized migrants’ welfare requests in French-speaking Belgium and the various sets of actors involved in assessing or furthering their cases. Migrants’ discourses and expectations of the welfare office provide insights into their understandings of the state, highlight the crucial role of immigration lawyers in brokering cases, and ultimately allow for a more nuanced reading of the idea that welfare dependency leads to deportability. On a theoretical level, this article contributes to ongoing debates in the study of statehood and in migration studies, showing how procedural fairness can be a central aspect of migrants’ relationship to and expectations of the state, and how migrants’ strategies leading towards inclusion can be formal ones, based on existing state laws and institutions.

Making noncitizens' rights real: Evidence from immigration scam complaints

AbstractNoncitizens seeking to make sense of US immigration systems encounter a labyrinth of information and deception. This paper is the first national study of scams targeting noncitizens seeking immigration legal services. I construct a county‐year database (N = 3135 over a four‐year time period, 2011–2014) across secondary data sources to analyze the correlates of immigration scam complaints submitted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). I find that welcoming counties have more immigration scam complaints, while counties with exclusionary contexts tend to have fewer complaints. The results do not suggest that scams are more prevalent in welcoming contexts, because the actual number of scams is unknown. Instead, we can conclude that noncitizens tend to come forward to report immigration scams in welcoming contexts of reception, even after accounting for exclusionary policies. A robust safety net proved the most reliable predictor of immigration scams reported to the FTC. The concentration of immigration attorneys, legal aid services, and language access was also positively associated with the number of FTC scam reports. Taken together, these results suggest that immigrant‐serving capacity and access to key services support noncitizens who report immigration scams, while hostility toward immigrants may deter them from exercising those same rights.

Conceptual contours of migration studies in and from Asia

Conceptual contours of migration studies in and from Asia