Understanding Immigration Law

The second edition of Understanding Immigration Law lays out the basics of U.S. immigration law in an accessible way to newcomers to the field. It offers background about the intellectual, historical, and constitutional foundations of U.S. immigration law. The book also identifies the factors that have historically fueled migration to the United States, including the economic "pull" of jobs and family in the United States and the "push" of economic hardship, political instability, and other facts of life in the sending country. In the middle chapters, the authors provide a capsule summary of the law concerning the admissions and removal procedures and criteria in the Immigration and Nationality Act. The book ends with a chapter speculating about the future of U.S. immigration law and the challenges and opportunities facing the nation.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of U.S. immigration law. It has been designed to supplement the most widely adopted immigration law casebooks. The co-authors of Understanding Immigration Law provide up-to-date immigration law news and analysis on the ImmigrationProf blog, which can be used to ensure that teachers and students are up-to-date on recent developments in immigration law.

Highlights of the Second Edition:

• Includes a new chapter on Crimmigration (Chapter 15, The Criminalization of Immigration and Crimmigration Law)
• Includes a new and separate chapter (Chapter 10) on Refugee Admissions and Asylum
• Includes a new and revamped chapter on state and local involvement in immigration and immigration policy (Chapter 4), with a lengthy analysis of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Arizona v. United States (2012)
• Includes a discussion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and subsequent executive actions of the President
• Integrates into the chapters analysis of the Secure Communities program, the signature immigration enforcement initiative of the Obama administration that resulted in about 400,000 removals a year
• Up to date analysis of the latest Supreme Court decisions on immigration, including Padilla v. Kentucky 2009), Moncrieffe v. Holder (2013), and Scialabba v. Cuellar de Osorio (2014)
• Up to date analysis of the "surge" of Central American women and children migrants in 2014
• A new section on citizenship based on military service and a discussion of the new Naturalization form in the Citizenship chapter