Archive

2019

Annual Meeting - San Francisco, California

• 121A
  • Recommends that the Executive Office for Immigration Review amend 8 C.F.R. §1003.1(h) and establish, through rulemaking, standards and procedures for the Attorney General certification process. (video)
• 121B
  • Recommends that the Executive Office for Immigration Review create a presumption to extend the filing of an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) for pro se applicants. (video)
    
• 121C
  • Recommends that the Executive Office for Immigration Review continue the implementation of an integrated, system-wide electronic filing and case management system nationwide, with adequate funding from Congress. (video)
    
• 121D
  • Recommends that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) codify the core requirements of the 2009 Parole Directive into regulation. (video)
    
• 121E
  • Recommends that the Circuit Court of Appeals establish or expand pro bono programs to provide pro bono representation to pro se appellants to help efficiently resolve immigration cases.
    
• 121F
  • Recommends that the Executive Office for Immigration Review amend  regulations to eliminate the automatic termination of voluntary departure when an applicant petitions for judicial review under 8 C.F.R. §1240.26(i) and also to implement an automatic stay of removal or deportation pending judicial review by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or the pendency of the appeal period. (video)
    

Midyear Meeting - Las Vegas, Nevada

• 109A
  • Urges the Attorney General to rescind the “Zero Tolerance” and “Operation Streamline" immigration policies and allow for individualized determination on whether to file criminal charges.

2017

Midyear Meeting - Miami, Florida

• 10B
  
  • Reaffirms policies with respect to admittance of refugees and asylum seekers.
    
• 10C
  • Urges the Executive Branch to observe certain provisions with respect to border security.
    
• 113
  • Urges the United States Department of State to interpret the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1401, to recognize those children born to intended parents, even if those legally recognized parents do not have a biological (genetic or gestational) relationship to the child, so long as at least one of the intended parents is a U.S. citizen who is legally recognized as the child’s parent by the country of birth or the intended parents state of domicile and the relevant resident or physical presence requirements are met.
    
• 301
  • Urges Congress to protect due process and provide safeguards for immigrant, asylum-seeking children who entered the United States without parents
    

2010

Annual Meeting - San Francisco, California

• 100c
  
  • Urges federal, state, territorial, tribal and local governments to provide funding to state and federal public defender offices and legal aid programs specifically for the provision of immigration advice about the immigration consequences of criminal proceedings to indigent non-U.S. citizen defendants, and about any available relief from such consequences.
    
• 104
  
  • Adopts the ABA Model Access Act, dated August 2010, which is a model statute for implementing jurisdictions to establish and administer a civil right to counsel, consistent with ABA policy adopted in August 2006.
    
• 300
  
  • Supports full implementation of legislation by Congress to provide for the creation of Start-up visa (by way of the creation of the EB-6 Visa Program, the reformation of the EB-5 Visa Program or similar creation, reformation and/or restructuring of the current U.S. immigration regime) to provide for a mechanism whereby immigrant-founders of businesses can obtain legal status in the U.S.

Midyear Meeting - Orlando, Florida

• 104a
  • Urges the United States, state and territorial governments to work to ensure that the fundamental protections of Article 36 to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (“Article 36”) are extended fully and without obstacle to foreign nationals within United States borders.
    
• 114a
  • Urges the Department of Homeland Security to implement specific policies and procedures within the immigration removal adjudication system and urges Congress to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act regarding the removal of noncitizens convicted of certain crimes.   
    
• 114b
  • Supports measures to improve immigration courts and create a more professional, independent and accountable immigration judiciary, including a provision to increase the number of immigration judges by at least 100, increase the number of law clerks to a ratio of one clerk per judge, increase the number of support personnel and increase the number of Assistant Chief Immigration Judges, and expand their deployment to regional courts. 
    
• 114c
  • Supports improving the efficiency, transparency and fairness of administrative review by the Board of Immigration Appeals through increasing the resources available to the Board, including additional staff attorneys and additional Board members.    
    
• 114d
  • Supports the restoration of federal judicial review of immigration decisions and urges Congress to enact legislation to ensure that noncitizens are treated fairly in the adjudication process and also to provide oversight for the government’s decision making process.
    
• 114f
  • Supports the creation of an Article I court, with both trial and appellate divisions, to adjudicate immigration cases, which should have features substantially consistent with specific guidelines, or as an alternative to an Article I court, supports the creation of an independent agency for both trial and appellate functions.
    

2006

Midyear Meeting

• 300 (Criminal Justice Section, Commission on Immigration)
  
  • RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges Congress to restore authority to state and federal sentencing courts to waive a non-citizen’s deportation or removal based upon conviction of a crime, by making a “judicial recommendation against deportation” upon a finding at sentencing that removal is unwarranted in the particular case; or, alternatively, to give such waiver authority to an administrative court or agency.  Read more...