Immigration Law

This lesson will provide students with some general background on U.S. immigration law and on basic immigration law research. Students should have a fundamental knowledge of legal research tools but do not need to have any background in immigration law to proceed with the lesson. The lesson would work best while also taking a class about immigration law.

This title is designed to serve as a textbook supplement for an advanced course in immigration law in law schools in the United States or in other countries seeking to introduce comparative and international perspectives to the study of immigration law and policy. Topics include an introductory discussion of comparative versus international law and the relevance of both to U.S. Jurisprudence; a comprehensive overview of international migration multilateral and bilateral regimes; glimpses into the immigration law and practices of Mexico, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, France, and Spain; and a final part that examines international norms on freedom of movement, the right to nationality, policing, living conditions, immigrant workers and anti-terrorism law.

This compact, comprehensive title offers a thorough overview of the history, constitutional basis, statutory structure, regulatory provisions, administrative procedure, and ethical principles related to immigration law and practice. Updated to reflect developments since the 2016 Presidential election, it is valuable both as a teaching and a practice reference.

This publication includes cases that depict the Supreme Court’s broad deference to the political branches in the immigration realm, the so-called “plenary power doctrine.” Selected cases are presented in chronological order, beginning with the Supreme Court’s consideration of the Chinese Exclusion Acts of the 1880s and 1890s. The book then examines how the Cold War tested the constitutional limits of the government’s plenary power over immigration, and how “phantom constitutional norms” were later used to defeat the government’s broadest claims. Other cases explore the immigration enforcement system and the difficulty of balancing the demands of enforcement against other societal goals.

“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.” – Yogi Berra Immigration law changes quickly and often. Not just small changes, but sweeping changes to substance and procedure that often require practitioners to adapt to and re-learn entire categories of law. Written as a novel and guided by directed questions and assignments, this book immerses students in the stories of real-life clients to provide a birds-eye view of the lawyering skills and substantive law involved in the practice of immigration law. The text follows two primary real-life client stories, designed to provide the experience of working a case from beginning to end. Several shorter, real-life client scenarios highlight particularly challenging aspects of substantive and procedural immigration practice as it stood at the beginning of 2018. Students develop strategies and advise clients on potential courses of action in a diverse range of situations, using real case documents. Rather than working with a set of predetermined facts extracted from a legal opinion, students learn to cut through the noise and identify information to frame and develop cases. The engaging material also lends itself to classroom exploration and discussion.

This audio lecture provides a comprehensive survey of immigration law from a nationally recognized immigration law expert. It explores immigration and the Constitution, the grounds for entering the United States, the grounds for exclusion, the process of admission, the grounds for deportation, relief from deportability, the process of deportation, asylum and refugee law, the convention against torture, workplace enforcement of immigration laws, and the law of citizenship.