Professor Chin Interviewed on Immigration by Bloomberg Law
Professor Gabriel "Jack" Chin was interviewed at length for a Bloomberg Law podcast regarding current issues in immigration law.
Speaking on the recent U.S. Supreme Court order that let stand a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling requiring Arizona to issue drivers licenses to young immigrants spared deportation under President Obama's recent executive action, Chin said that the federal government's authority to set immigration policy trumps Arizona's ability to restrict drivers licenses for immigrants.
"Basically the rationale of the Ninth Circuit was that it's really up to the federal government to decide who's legally here and who's not legally here, and once the federal government decides they're legally here, then the state has no role," he said. "They're not allowed to say, for example, ‘we don't want to issue drivers licenses to people who are only here on student visas, we only want to issue licenses to people here permanently.' That would clearly be unconstitutional. They can't pick and choose in that way."
Professor Chin also commented on a ruling by U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab of Pennsylvania that found Obama's executive order to be unconstitutional. Professor Chin pointed out that the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the authority of the president to set law enforcement priorities.
Gabriel "Jack" Chin, who joined the King Hall faculty in 2011, is a prolific and much-cited criminal and immigration law scholar whose work has addressed many of the most pressing social issues of our time.