RIP Michael Olivas Immigration Scholar

Photo courtesy of the University of Houston Law Center

Last week, we lost an influential immigration scholar Professor Michael Olivas.  Besides expressing condolences in a blog post, I followed up with a post about how Michael, a music lover like no other, had become the Rock N Roll Law Professor, with a syndicated radio show and all.

Through this post, I wanted to highlight that Professor Olivas was a true immigration scholar and highlight three of his many influential books.  All cover issues at the intersection of immigration and Latina/o civil rights.  Three of Michael's (many) remarkable books offer a sense of his stature as a scholar.

Perchance to DREAM:  A Legal and Political History of the DREAM Act and DACA (NYU Press, 2020)

Perchance to DREAM is the first comprehensive history of the DREAM Act, which made its initial congressional appearance in 2001, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the discretionary program established by President Obama in 2012.  Both the DREAM Act and DACA involve the rights of immigrant students and their access to education.  The book reviews in detail the history of the DREAM Act and DACA over the course of two decades.

 

 

No Undocumented Child Left Behind:  Plyler v. Doe and the Education of Undocumented Schoolchildren (NYU Press, 2012)

The 1982 U. S. Supreme Court case of Plyler v. Doe, which made it possible for undocumented children to enroll in Texas public schools, was a watershed moment for immigrant rights in the United States. The Court struck down both a state statute denying funding for education to undocumented children and a municipal school district's attempt to charge an annual $1,000 tuition fee for each undocumented student to compensate for the lost state funding. This book tells a fascinating history of the landmark case, examining how, 30 years later, Plyler v. Doe continues to suffer from implementation issues and requires additional litigation and vigilance to enforce the ruling. He takes a comprehensive look at the legal regime it established regarding the education of undocumented school children, moves up through its implementation, including direct and indirect attacks on it, and closes with the ongoing, highly charged debates over the Development, Relief, and Education for Minors (DREAM) Act.

 

 

 

Colored Men and Hombres Aqui:   Hernandez v. Texas and the Emergence of Mexican American L:awyering (Arte Publico Press, 2006)

In this monograph, Michael Olivas collected a group of scholars to analyze Hernandez v. Texas (1954) an important civil rights case for Mexican Americans that has been overshadowed by the iconic Brown v. Board of Education.  This collection of ten essays commemorated the 50th anniversary of an important but almost forgotten U.S. Supreme Court case, Hernández v. Texas.  This landmark case, the first to be argued by Mexican American lawyers before the US Supreme Court, held that Mexican Americans were a discrete group for purposes of applying Equal Protection. 

Edited and with an introduction by Michael Olivas, Colored Men and Hombres Aquí is the first full-length book on this case. This volume contains the papers presented at the Hernández at 50 conference that took place in 2004 at the University of Houston Law Center and also contains source materials, trial briefs, and a chronology of the case.

KJ