@rhamlin
Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science @ UMass Amherst. migration/refugees/displacement/colonial legacies/law/courts/administration. Author of Let Me Be a Refugee (OUP 2014) and Crossing: How We Label and React to People on the Move (SUP 2021).
Help us launch the Legal Studies Program into an independent Department at UMass by contributing to our Department Launch Fund! Every little bit helps! umass.scalefunder.com/gday/giving-...
Trump & his lawyers rely on the 14th Amendment's treatment of Native people to redefine birthright citizenship. In our Essay coming out in the NYU Law Review Online, Greg Ablavsky & I show how wrong that argument is. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Can’t wait to read this!
Abrego Garcia's wife: "I will not stop fighting until I see my husband alive. Kilmar, if you can hear me, stay strong. God hasn't forgotten about you. Our children are asking when you will come home ... they miss their dad so much."
Stephen Miller is a liar and a propagandist and while there is clear value in understanding what he's saying as a means of understanding what the administration is doing, not a single fact out of his mouth can be trusted.
Hours ago, @politico.com revealed that DOGE is working with DHS on automating mass deportation efforts — likely explaining why many US citizens, green card holders, and even a Canadian (in Canada) got threatening emails last night terminating “your parole” and telling them to leave the US in 7 days.
Email from DHS revoking parole, unnamed recipient, received by Nicole Micheroni. Part 1
Email from DHS revoking parole, unknown recipient, received by Nicole Micheroni. Part 2
Some personal news: the Department of Homeland Security has given me, an immigration lawyer born in Newton, Massachusetts, seven days to leave the U.S. Does anyone know if you can get Italian citizenship through great-grandparents?
Running to the Supreme Court now is like hiding in the basement in a slasher movie.
horrific
38. Once they finally took me to the medical center, the nurse took my temperature. She said "you need to take that thing off your head" and took off my hejab without asking my permission. I told her you can't take off my hejab and she said this is for your health. After a few minutes I put my hejab back on. But they did nothing to treat my asthma and gave me a few ibuprofen. 39. I had a third asthma attack at the Louisiana facility. Again, this happened in the cell and other woman knocked on the window to get the attention of the officers. I was told that the nurse would come to the cell to see me. She took me outside for a short bit and told me that it was all in my mind. She finally took me to the medical center but I was not treated for my difficulty breathing. The nurse left the room and didn't answer my questions 40.I had a fourth asthma attack on Wednesday March gth around noon. I used my inhaler and waited for it to pass. I was in pain and very scared but I didn't ask to go to the medical center because I don't feel that they address my medical needs. 41. I don't feel safe at the medical center because of my prior experiences there. They complain when I go there and speak to me in an insulting and condescending manner. They also write information in my medical records that is not accurate. The doctor and nurses there are rude and uncaring.
NEW: Rümeysa Öztürk says she's had 4 painful asthma attacks in ICE custody, and not only is her asthma going untreated but a nurse tore off her hijab, saying, "You need to take that thing off your head." www.aclum.org/sites/defaul...
My latest piece with Paul Collins at @theconversation.com theconversation.com/supreme-cour...
You would think that, if the President intentionally and knowingly expelled a US citizen to a foreign torture prison, they would face criminal liability for doing so.
SCOTUS: you would probably be wrong!
I fucking warned you all it would come down to immigration.
I think I’m going to be thinking about this quote from Gordon Hirabayshi on the walls of the museum for a long time.
Thrilled to finally see this event come together!
Three-fourths of the Venezuelan migrants flown from Texas to a notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador three weeks ago had no apparent criminal record, a CBS News 60 Minutes report found.
Portland OR Hands Off Rally
Oh wow: Portland Oregon is NOT KIDDING
#handsoff
This is Utah in case anyone’s wondering how pissed off people are. I have never seen anything like this.
Massive crowd at Boston’s city hall plaza for the #HandsOff protest against Trump and Musk
A photo of a large street protest in Chicago
A photo of the back end of a large street protest in Chicago
The #handsoff #april5th march in Chicago is so large the front just arrove back in Daley Plaza while the back has just started to leave.
Hands Off Protest Boston!
April 5, 2025 Boston Common
We don’t if they were gang members, only that Trump’s DOJ says they were. But they’ve had no trials. They are “accused.” They are “alleged” to be members of a gang that Trump has named. And now they are vanished.
This is an actual nightmare and we should be up in arms.
Posting tonight ti shine a light on what the Alien Enemies Act looks like IRL. Our @immdef.bsky.social client fled Venezuela last year & came to US to seek asylum. He has a strong claim. He was detained upon entry because ICE alleged his tattoos are gang related. They are absolutely not. 🧵
To invoke the Alien Enemies Act, the Trump admin has said that the Tren de Aragua gang IS the state of Venezuela and thus its members are akin to an invading army. Both things cannot be true. In fact, both are false. A gang is NOT an invading army, but ppl who flee them ARE often being persecuted.
Trump’s invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport a planeload of Venezuelans is outrageous in many ways, including from an asylum law perspective. Both Trump admins have insisted that ppl fleeing gang violence are not eligible for asylum in part bc gangs are NOT state actors, and YET…. 👇🏻
I wrote something with my colleague Paul Collins about the recent Dear Colleague letter from the Trump Administration: theconversation.com/anti-dei-gui...
I would love to be added!
Welcome new friends! I haven’t posted here much but I’m shifting more fully over from the other place now. I look forward to building community around understanding and fighting new developments in the politics of immigration and asylum here. We will need this space in the years to come.
I’d love to be added!
I just got one too! From another university. Ummmm no.
