Letter from the Editor-in-chief: Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia

• Publication year: 2019

Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia

The AILA Law Journal provides readers with high-quality content on the rapidly changing immigration law landscape. We are very excited to debut the first of many issues.

The inaugural issue of the AILA Law Journal features seven articles from legal minds from across the country. Jillian Blake's piece "Americans, But Not Citizens: An Argument for Nationality-Based Asylum Protection," provides an innovative analysis on how individuals who identify as "American" may qualify for asylum because of "nationality," one of the five grounds for seeking asylum protection. Blake's contribution has the potential to reach people currently at risk of losing immigration status, including holders of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and certain Temporary Protected Status recipients. Ted R. Bromund and Sandra A. Grossman's article, "Challenging a Red Notice: What Immigration Attorneys Need to Know About INTERPOL," describes the International Criminal Police Organization, commonly known as "Interpol," and provides tools for attorneys whose clients are faced with Interpol issues. In their piece "How Much Blood to Cross the Northern Border? Reconsidering the Blood Quantum Requirement of INA §289," Taymoor M. Pilehvar and Lory D. Rosenberg examine a section of the immigration statute pertaining to American Indians born in Canada and compare it to a specific section of the Jay Treaty, a treaty between the United States and Great Britain that was intended to stabilize post-war relations between the two countries. Pilehvar and Rosenberg conclude that §289 of the immigration statute is based on racial factors, inconsistent with the Jay Treaty and most likely discriminatory.

Our inaugural issue also includes articles authored by our editorial board. Looking at the employment-based category for those seeking green cards based on "extraordinary ability" Cyrus D. Mehta critiques the government's creation of a new "final merits" standard in his piece "The Curse of Kazarian v. USCIS in Extraordinary Ability Adjudications Under the Employment-Based First Preference." In "USCIS's Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate: Less Legitimate Than Inspector Clouseau, But Without the...