Immigration Law: Detention and Habeas Corpus

3 credits

This course introduces students to the law governing immigration detention and habeas corpus petitions brought on behalf of immigration detainees. Immigration detainees have utilized habeas corpus, the great writ, since the federal government began to regulate federal immigration law in the late 1800s. In the second Trump administration, federal district courts have faced an immigration habeas corpus deluge, deciding thousands of habeas corpus petitions brought by hundreds of pro bono lawyers on behalf of immigration detainees. Topics include statutory and constitutional challenges to immigration detention, jurisdiction-stripping statutes application to immigration detention challenges, and broader conversations about immigration detention abolition and the wisdom of proposing alternatives to detention in this context.