Courses

    This course surveys the legal, historical, and political considerations that shape U.S. immigration law. The course will review the constitutional basis for regulating immigration into the United States, and, to some extent, the constitutional rights of noncitizens in the country; the history of U.S. immigration law and policy; the contours of the immigration bureaucracy, including the roles played by various federal agencies in immigration decisions; the admission of nonimmigrants (i.e., temporary visitors) and immigrants into the U.S.; the deportation and exclusion of nonimmigrants and immigrants; immigration and national security law; an introduction to refugee and asylum law; administrative and judicial review; and the laws and policies governing citizenship and naturalization.

Much of the course focuses on the comprehensive immigration law, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended by numerous laws (including the 1996 Anti-Terrorist and Effective Death Penalty Act and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act, and the 2005 REAL ID Act) and its implementing regulations. The course also includes an introduction to the rapidly evolving area of immigration and national security law, and will consider the phenomenon of unauthorized migration and emerging practices of local enforcement of immigration law. Although comparisons to immigration law and policy of other countries, as well as various sources of international law, are drawn upon from time to time, the primary focus of this class is immigration law in the United States.

There will be a take-home exam.