UHLC Nota Bene

Sarah Song knows a thing or two about immigration. Born in South Korea, she immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was six years old. After having to repeat the first grade because she didn’t speak English, she went on to earn an M.Phil in politics from Oxford and a Ph.D in political science from Yale. She is now a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Berkeley, where her work centers on issues of immigration, citizenship, and multiculturalism. Song’s second book, Immigration and Democracy , is the product of years of careful thinking about immigration and its role in democratic societies. The arguments presented here are grounded in a deep understanding of political theory, providing a necessary corrective to the crude sloganeering that too often shapes our public discourse on immigration policy. As Song states in her preface, she has written the book in the hope “that we can move beyond an ‘us versus them’ mentality and engage ...

The O'Quinn Law Library collection now includes the 5th edition of Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach by Karen Musalo, Jennifer Moore, Richard Boswell and Annie Daher. Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach is, as its title suggests, a study of refugee law.  While written for a United States audience, this book examines new legal developments affecting refugees in Europe as much as it does those in Central America.  This book is primarily aimed at law students, but there is sufficient historical analysis to make this book of interet to academic researchers and to social scientists interested in current events involving large-scale refugee movements.  Attorneys might also appreciate the examinations of standards and practices if interested in beginning a refugee law practice.  The new changes to the 5th edition include analyses of gang violence as the cause of refugee emigration as well as discussions of per...

The O'Quinn Law Library collection now includes the 4th edition of Motions to Suppress: Protecting the Consitutional Rights on Immigrants in Removal Proceedings , a manual published by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Motions to Suppress is a practitioners' guide to removal proceedings.  In addition to a practice guide to filing motions to suppress, this work also includes a discussion of the law relating to motions in removal proceedings.  This work also addresses related topics such as warrants and discovery, as well as other issues that sometimes arise in situations that inspire motions to suppress, such as detention law and the administrative complain process. Motions to Suppress is currently available on the New Books shelf at the far end of reference desk. The call number is KF4824.T68 2018.

The O'Quinn Law Library collection now includes the 4th edition of Essentials of Asylum Law , a manual published by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Essentials of Asylum Law is exactly what its title claims: a guide to the information necessary to practice asylum law.  Its focus is on the main elements of asylum law: the legal elements of an asylum claim, the five enumerated grounds for persecution, the bars to asylum, and alternative relief options for petitioners not eligible for asylum.  This book is primarily aimed at helping immigration law practitioners become effective advocates in asylum proceedings, but it contains enough discussion of legal theory and precedent rulings to be useful to legal scholars and law students as well. Essentials of Asylum Law may be located in the law library stacks under the call number KF 4836.E88 2018.

The O’Quinn Law Library recently acquired the 21st edition of A Guide for Immigration Advocates , a publication of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. This two-volume set contains a comprehensive treatment of U.S. immigration law, as well as charts, worksheets, and sample applications providing detailed guidance to attorneys in their dealings with the immigration system. Topics covered include grounds of inadmissibility, family visas, legal research for immigration practice, the removal process, asylum, naturalization, constitutional and statutory rights of immigrants, and employment-based immigration. The call number for this book is KF4819.G85 2018. It is currently on the New Books shelf by the reference desk.    

On January 27 President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order, Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States . Four days earlier, on January 24, the Congressional Research Service released its own report:   Executive Authority to Exclude Aliens: In Brief. To those unfamiliar, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a federal legislative branch agency, housed inside the Library of Congress, charged with providing the United States Congress non-partisan advice on issues that may come before Congress, including immigration. Included in the report are in-depth discussions on the operation of sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) in the context of the executive power . Discussions of sections 212(f),  214(a)(1) and 215(a)(1) report on how the sections have been used by Presidents, along with relevant case law and precedents. Most interesting is the list of executive orders excluding some groups of aliens during past presid...

The library has now acquired, Immigration Practice, 15th ed by Robert C. Divine and R. Blake Chisam . This source provides an overview of immigration law and is designed for attorneys involved in immigration practice. The first part is helpful for understanding the basics of representing and interacting with clients. There is also a discussion of the different U.S. departments that are involved in regulating immigration practice as well as the rules of practice for those agencies. Researching the sources of immigration law and obtaining government files are also explored. This practice guide also covers the immigration process and focuses on non-immigrant visas and status, permanent residence, U.S. Citizenship, inadmissibility and deportability grounds, and removal proceedings. This source also explores different paths for obtaining permanent residence such as employment, family-based petitions, and asylum. There are informative charts included throughout the book and there are anno...

Good news for number crunchers: the Administrative Office of the United States Courts recently released its annual report on the business of the federal judiciary. The report presents data and statistics for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, with separate sections for district courts, bankruptcy courts, courts of appeals, and so on. Here are some of the highlights: Defendant filings for drug crimes declined 14 percent from the previous year, while those for firearms and explosives crimes declined 10 percent. The number of defendants prosecuted for immigration crimes fell by 8 percent. Five southwestern border districts accounted for 77 percent of immigration defendant filings. Bankruptcy filings fell by 13 percent.  You can read the full report here . You can also compare this year’s numbers to those of previous reports, which can be found in the Judicial Business Archive .

Immigration law is a very important field and whether you have an interest or plan to practice in this area, the law library has access to several sources in its print and online collections such as the following titles: Statutes: See Title 8 of the United States Code (U.S.C.) ( KF62.A2 ) (available on GPO's FDsys ); United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) ( KF62.U5 ) (available on Westlaw Next ); United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.) ( KF62.U6 ) (available on Lexis Advance ) Regulations: See Title 8 of the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) ( KF70.A3 ) (available on GPO's FDsys ) Case Law: Federal Practice Digest 5th ( KF127.M63 5th ) (this source is an index to court cases and will provide listing and summary of cases) (this same is used on Westlaw Next and can be accessed by clicking "Key Numbers" from the main search page. Secondary Sources: The Immigration Law Sourcebook (ABA)( KF4819.85I46 2015 ) Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook,...

The University of Houston Law Center is taking part in addressing the ongoing immigration crisis by providing local attorneys with training on how to assist unaccompanied children. Yesterday was the first such training opportunity as the Law Center, along with the South Texas College of Law, the Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law and the Harris County Attorney’s Office, co-sponsored a CLE on the rights of unaccompanied, undocumented children crossing the Texas border.  For attorneys interested in helping but unable to enroll in the CLE due to how quickly it reached capacity, the CLE materials are available online .   The State Bar of Texas offers additional resources as well as links to other CLEs for lawyers outside of the Houston area. For more information about ongoing events and future opportunities please consult the Law Center’s media release .

In Edward Everett Hale’s story “The Man Without a Country”, the fictional protagonist Philip Nolan is tried for treason along with Aaron Burr. Nolan is convicted and proclaims “Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!” The judge grants his wish by sentencing him to live for the rest of his life on US Navy ships whose crews are instructed never to talk about the United State in Nolan’s presence.   As Nolan lives out his life moving from ship to ship, never setting foot on US soil again, he learns the painful lesson of what it means to be a “man without a country.” As he lay dying he shows a sailor the shrine he has assembled to the United States and dies happy knowing how his country has prospered. Patriotism is the obvious theme of Hale’s story. It is worth noting that the story was written in 1863, during the middle of the Civil War; its purpose to add backbone to the Union war effort. The story was written in such a realistic manner tha...