Compounded Disadvantage: Race, Criminal Record, and Access to Justice in Immigration Courts

对于移民来说，即使是与执法部门的轻微和相对常规的互动--比如交通拦截--也会极大地增加被拘留和驱逐出境的可能性。即使是合法永久居民和那些与美国有着深厚社会关系的人也是如此。拘留和驱逐出境被广泛认为是毁灭性的生活事件，不仅对个人，而且对他们的家人和周围社区都有持久的负面后果。然而，由于在驱逐程序中没有为移民提供政府指定律师的权利，大多数移民缺乏法律代表。因此，在驱逐程序中的移民是我们司法系统中最脆弱、但受法律保护最少的群体之一。这个项目调查这些移民一旦进入移民裁决程序，他们在我们的移民法院系统中的情况。这样的调查对于制定促进更公平和公平的司法系统的政策至关重要，以确保美国所有个人都能诉诸司法。这个项目将解决三个关键问题。首先，对有犯罪历史的移民进行遣送程序的案件结果是否存在种族/族裔差异？第二，在这些案件的结果中，司法偏见在造成种族和民族差异方面起到了什么作用？第三，有色人种移民在这些诉讼中不太可能有法律代表，即使他们有代表，法律代表对他们的好处也更小吗？为了解决这些问题，该项目将收集和分析美国移民法院案件和移民法官的几个主要数据集。这一独特的数据集将广泛扩展移民裁决的研究，涉及多个学科，包括法律、公共政策、社会学、政治学、犯罪学和其他相关领域。此外，这项研究的结果将产生新的见解，即多个法律机构之间的种族差异如何产生相互加强的影响，从而对边缘化社区产生复杂的不利影响。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

For immigrants, even minor and relatively routine interactions with law enforcement—such as a traffic stop—can dramatically increase the chances of detention and deportation. This is true even for lawful permanent residents and those with deep social ties to the United States. Detention and deportation are widely recognized as devastating life events with enduring negative consequences not only for the individuals, but also for their families and surrounding communities. Yet because there is no right to government-appointed counsel for immigrants in removal proceedings, most immigrants lack legal representation. As a result, immigrants in removal proceedings are one of the most vulnerable, yet least legally protected groups in our justice system. This project investigates how these immigrants fare in our immigration court system once they enter the immigration adjudication process. Such an investigation is critical to developing policies that promote a more fair and equitable justice system that ensures access to justice for all individuals in the United States.This project will address three key questions. First, are there racial/ethnic disparities in case outcomes in removal proceedings for immigrants with criminal history? Second, what is the role of judicial bias in generating racial and ethnic disparities in these case outcomes? Third, are immigrants of color less likely to have legal representation in these proceedings, and are the benefits of legal representation smaller for them even when they are represented? To address these questions, this project will collect and analyze several major datasets on immigration court cases and immigration judges in the United States. This unique dataset will widely expand the study of immigration adjudication across multiple disciplines including law, public policy, sociology, political science, criminology, and other related fields. In addition, findings from this research will generate new insights about how racial disparities across multiple legal institutions can have mutually reinforcing effects that generate compounded disadvantage for marginalized communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.