Immigration Litigation: Admin Law Challenges to Immigration Policy

Catalog description

The objectives of the course are to learn how to apply principles of administrative law in the immigration context, in both individual immigration cases and systemic challenges to the immigration system. As to individual claims, students will learn about the numerous limits on judicial review and will study recent Supreme Court decisions that implicate federal court jurisdiction over immigration matters. As to systemic claims, students will learn about how to apply the Administrative Procedure Act to immigration policies, arguing for example that a particular policy is arbitrary and capricious and/or contrary to law, Finally, students will come away with an additional understanding of the pragmatic concerns regarding client standing and the availability of various remedies in the immigration context. The course will use a real world immigration policy as the foundation for this learning. Students will learn about a contemporary immigration policy and develop arguments to challenge or defend it. The principle assignments will be to draft a motion for summary judgment as well as a legal memorandum that addresses the issues that would likely be raised by opposition and potential responses to those arguments. During the classroom sessions, students will read and discuss recent cases challenging administrative policy changes in the immigration space in anticipation of the application of those cases in their final paper.