Critical Immigration Legal Theory by Kathleen Kim, Kevin Lapp & Jennifer J. Lee

Readers may find this recent law review article with great interest.   Critical Immigration Legal Theory by 
Kathleen Kim, Kevin Lapp & Jennifer J. Lee has been published in 104 Boston University Law Review 1515 (2024).   Here is the abstract:

"U.S. immigration law has always been a place for Americans to enact their many prejudices. Often, it edifies norms that exclude and subordinate noncitizens due to their race, gender, or socioeconomic status. As a result, immigration law and policy create great human suffering through actions such as separating families, excluding refugees, and detaining noncitizens. In response, scholars are engaging in a distinctive method of interrogating immigration law. We call this analytic method Critical Immigration Legal Theory (“CILT”). Derived from critical race theory and other similar theories, CILT critiques facially colorblind immigration laws to expose their subordination of immigrants based on race and other historically oppressed identities, while challenging the fixed legal categories of alienage and citizenship by defining new ways of belonging. It also uses anti-essentialism to contest the negative stereotypes of immigrants as undesirable outsiders as well
as the positive stereotypes of deserving immigrants and “model minorities” that encourage respectability politics. Further, CILT has a central praxis dimension that aspires to transform immigration law and its treatment of noncitizens by aligning with immigrant rights movements that are mobilizing for social change and legal transformation. Our goal is to recognize the trend of CILT methodology within immigration law scholarship as a means of contestation, resistance, and praxis. CILT has emerged out of the growing cadre and diversity of immigration law scholars and the increasingly blurred lines between law scholar, lawyer, and activist. Their lived experiences—personal and professional—inform their perspectives on the systems of power that subjugate the noncitizens with whom they collaborate. By describing current CILT approaches, we hope to begin a conversation for others to connect, weigh in, and build on our description. We conclude by considering the implications of CILT, from the potential for backlash to how it changes the way that immigration law scholars teach and work with students, clients, and communities."

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 My response to the article is Response: The Meaning and Significance of Critical Immigration Legal Theory.  The abstract is below:

"Critical Immigration Legal Theory by Kathleen Kim, Kevin Lapp, and Jennifer J. Lee identifies Critical Immigration Legal Theory (“CILT”) as a distinct body of immigration scholarship bringing critical legal analysis to bear on U.S. immigration law and policy. CILT analyzes how immigration law and policy function to subordinate noncitizens of color, women, LGBTQIA+ persons, and others. As this Essay discusses, Critical Legal Immigration Theory represents a significant contribution to our understanding of immigration law scholarship and, importantly, is part of a growing body of critical scholarship analyzing the subordination of vulnerable noncitizens. In mapping the field, the authors blaze a trail for future Critical Immigration Legal Theory scholarship."

KJ