All content tagged with: Undocumented

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  • Forced Sterilizations in ICE Detention Facilities and Possible Recourse for Undocumented Victims

    By Alexandra van DorenAssociate Editor,  Vol. 26 In September of 2020, many reacted with equal parts shock and disgust at the headlines that began to emerge detailing the unauthorized hysterectomies being performed in the Irwin County immigration detention facility in Georgia.[1] That shock, while understandable, is unfounded.

  • Updates on the Separation and Reunification of Families at the Border

    by Edith Lerner Associate Editor, Vol. 25 It might seem odd for me to be writing a blog post about family separation in February 2020. For many Americans, the “family separation crisis” defined the summer of 2018. It was more than just one of the many outrage provoking…

  • In the News: Undocumented Immigrants Admissible to California State Bar

    Last fall, the California Legislature passed a law that permits the state supreme court “to admit to the practice of law an applicant who is not lawfully present in the United States . . . .” The law was prompted by the case of…

  • Race Discourse and Proposition 187

    Proposition 187 inspired a visceral public discourse. Proponents and opponents of the measure discussed several themes important to contemporary political theory, particularly themes related to sovereignty and civil rights. This Note shows how participants in that debate-including people of color-spoke of "rights" in a way that denied the possibility for undocumented aliens to have rights. When citizens spoke, they did so in a way that implicitly linked rights to citizenship; in other words, they assumed that without citizenship, persons were not entitled to rights or rights-based claims. Ironically, the debate about Proposition 187 pointed to the achievements of a "civil rights" vision, even as that debate reduced undocumented aliens to "nonpersons," without rights and without a legitimate place in society. California citizens talked, instead, about how useless or useful undocumented aliens were and about how society should best manage them as a resource. The debate raised serious questions about the limits of a civil rights discourse, and about its potential to divide people of color against themselves.