Local Fragmentation as Immigration Regulation
Immigration scholars have traditionally focused on the role of national borders and the significance of nation-state citizenship. At the same time, local government scholars have called attention to the significance of local boundaries, the consequence of municipal residency, and the influence of the two on the fragmentation of American society. This paper explores the interplay between these two mechanisms of spatial and community controls. Emphasizing their doctrinal and historic commonalities, this article suggests that the legal structure responsible for local fragmentation can be understood as second-order immigration regulation. It is a mechanism that allows for finer regulatory control than the crude boundary and membership regulations at the national level. It also serves as a means by which, in the absence of a national consensus, the competing interests surrounding immigration can still be negotiated and reconciled on the ground. Not only does this framework provide a conceptual bridge that unifies boundary and membership controls that, until now, have been perceived as disparate and unconnected areas of law, but it also raises important questions about policies at the heart of today’s immigration debates.
The Forgotten Repatriation of Persons of Mexican Ancestry and Lessons for the War on Terror
This paper was prepared for the Fifteenth Annual Dyson Distinguished Lecture at Pace Law School on March, 2005. It begins with a forgotten historical incident that spanned a decade and end with the time in which we live. I refer to the "forgotten 'repatriation'" because many Americans have not heard of the forced removal of approximately one million persons - U.S. citizens as well as noncitizens - of Mexican ancestry from the United States during the Great Depression. The invisibility of the repatriation is entirely consistent with the general invisibility of Latina/o civil rights deprivations throughout much of U.S. history. The United States should acknowledge the repatriation campaign of the 1930s and its long and enduring impact on Mexican-Americans in this country. In a time of severe national economic crisis, the deportation campaign sought to save jobs for true "Americans" and reduce the welfare rolls, by encouraging Mexicans to "voluntarily" leave the country. An economic threat had placed the nation's future in jeopardy, caused severe economic distress for many U.S. citizens, and effectively compelled government to act. A discrete and insular minority, the most available and vulnerable target, suffered from the government's policy choices. This tragic episode is well worth remembering as the United States continues to engage in a "war on terror" in response to the horrible loss of life on September 11, 2001. This "war" has targeted Arab and Muslim noncitizens suspected of no crime and subjected them to special immigration procedures, arrest, detention, and deportation from the United States. In criticism of the government's responses to the tragic events of September 11, the specter of the internment of the persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II has often been invoked. The analogy is apt in important ways, with racial profiling based on statistical probabilities at the core of the government policies adopted in both incidents. At least in my estimation, however, the repatriation of the 1930s also has modern relevance in evaluating the measures taken by the U.S. government in the name of national security after September 11. This paper draws out the historic and legal parallels between these two episodes in U.S. legal history and suggests that the nation should pay heed to the excesses of the past in considering its practices and policies in the "war on terror."
Teaching self-care to delinquent adolescents.
Adolescent delinquency is an ever-increasing societal concern. Certain health problems are concentrated in the delinquent population. Families of delinquent youths often fail to reinforce self-care. Therefore health care providers need to focus on ways to teach delinquent adolescents to care for themselves. This article reviews delinquency and characteristics of juvenile delinquents and their families. A model is presented to guide health care providers to assess delinquent adolescents' abilities to care for themselves and to teach them strategies for self-care.