Saturday, December 10, 2011

June 2006

Friday, June 30, 2006

Legalizing Moves


Writing Assignment #2 – Law and personhood
Chpt. 4 – How do community organizations and advocacy groups aid the process of legalization? What are some of the considerations in diagnosing specific cases and what are some of the key procedures in preparing a case? What do we learn about the relationship between law and justice from these examples?
The author tentatively defines “legal workers” as something more than a notary public who’s forging documents, yet something less than a full fledged attorney practicing law. These legal workers are the persons who help the immigrant file paperwork and form the basis of a legal presence in the United States. They work closely with the community organizations and advocacy groups to help negotiate the differences between being an illegal, unauthorized immigrant; and a legal, political asylum seeker.
The law is a formalized, codified version of cultural knowledge. Therefore law, like all cultural knowledge, is shared, arbitrary, and agreed upon. Well, almost, it’s not entirely agreed upon, in fact it’s something that is the site of much conflict and disagreement. The finalized laws that are recorded and implemented though are agreed upon as much as they are accepted as being the legitimate and enforceable laws of a place, time, and peoples. Coutin makes a good point that the law seems to be entirely arbitrary to the Salvadorian refugee [who’s legal when they’re a refugee, but illegal as an immigrant].
When diagnosing a case the legal worker looks for signs of obvious political oppression, something that would help build a strong case for the individual seeking political asylum. Importance is given to such details as about whether they were beaten, tortured, arrested, etc. Even if they were just unemployed or displaced due to civil war they may still be included in the class action suit which attempts to define all of the ABC class citizens as political refugees. The workers do not touch cases that revolve entirely around the topic of economic hardship. If the person fled to the United States for financial gain that is not grounds for granting political asylum, even if they faced grinding poverty in their homeland. When a “legal worker” dismisses a case simply because they cannot find grounds to file for political refugee status or to include them in the class action suit, this is in effect the final judgment of the courts. Case dismissed, you’re illegal!
Coutin really works the angle here that these Salvadorians are illegal people trying to obtain legal status. Once the immigrant has ten years of documented residency in the United States they may apply for naturalization status. The problem seems to be in that the ten years they are here they are illegal immigrants and can be subjected to detainment and deportation. Helping the illegal immigrant document their continued residence seems to be part and parcel of the work of the “legal worker”. Effectively the position is to provide legal assistance to a person who is defined by law as having an illegal status. Interestingly, the scope of legal assistance that they provide to the illegal immigrant could actually be interpreted to mean they are practicing law without the required license. It seems odd that one person could become de facto the judge, prosecutor, legal representative, etc. all at once without having even a law degree is interesting. I would almost be willing to bet that if really serious consideration were given to the matter, perhaps a class action lawsuit could be formed against the “legal workers” who are providing legal assistance to the illegal immigrants. For one, they are violating the nonexistence rights of the illegal immigrant by denying them due process rights when they dismiss a case without an actual legal hearing. For another they are illegally practicing law without the required license, and with peoples lives at stake no less. Finally, they are aiding and abetting known criminals as illegal immigration is a misdemeanor crime, and repeated offense is a felony.
Parallels are drawn between the treatment of the oppressed Salvadorian immigrant in their home country, and the treatment they receive in the United States at the hands of the INS. The department of Immigration and Naturalization Services approaches illegal immigrants as criminals who have broken the laws of the United States. The Salvadorian conflict was a violent civil war in which civilians often had good reason to fear being dragged from their homes in the middle of the night to be beaten and jailed. The INS welcomes these refugees to the United States with a similar policy of detainment, deportation, and heck sometimes they even throw in a beating for good measure. The fact that these immigrants are being received by the United States with the same treatment they received in their homeland that they fled for fear of political prosecution should be lost on nobody. Alas, they are treated as criminals and welcomed only as second class citizens at best.
The message of chapter four is clearly that there is a difference between law and social justice. If you are wondering what made me interested in the study of law, I will tell you that it actually came about sometime after I took Introductory Anthropology with Professor Jennifer Alvey. From the materials I found in her lectures, text book, and required reading (Standing in the Meatpacking Line: Iowa Beef Packing) I began to challenge my notions about society. The study of law might not be intuitively deduced from the desire to learn more about U.S. society and social structures, but I would argue that with my aspirations, and in the context of American culture, assuming the "role of authority" might in fact be the surest route to gain the influence need to bring about some level of social reform.
Phillips, Scott; Rodriguez, Nestor; Hagan, Jacqueline. “Brutality at the border? Use of
force in the arrest of immigrants in the United States”. International Journal of
the Sociology of Law, vol. 30, no. 4 (2002): 285-306.
Wilson, Mitria. “Rights Without Remedies And Judgments Without Effect: The
Relationship Between § 1252(f)(1) Of The Immigration And Nationality Act,
Class Actions, And Standing Under Article III Of The Constitution”.
Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, vol. 18, no. 4 (2004): 745-787.
Higgs, Erica. “Specialized High Schools for Immigrant Students: A Promising New
Idea”. Journal of Law & Education, vol. 34, no. 2 (2005): 331-340.
Sprengelmeyer, M.E. “Guest-worker talk gives rise to fraud”. Rocky Mountain News
April 17, 2006.
posted by pre-blawger at 6/30/2006 03:52:00 AM | 0 comments

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