May 30, 2019
Preemption (free)
Speaker: Rick Su
Description:
Since the 1980s, cities have adopted various "sanctuary policies" setting out when and in what circumstances local officials participate in federal immigration enforcement. In recent years, however, these policies have come under unprecedented attack. As the federal government has become more dependent on local participation, federal policies have begun targeting local jurisdictions that withhold their cooperation. At the same time, states are passing laws that outright ban local sanctuary policies, with some going further to mandate local involvement in immigration enforcement efforts directly.
Eight states have adopted anti-sanctuary legislation in the last three years. Anti-sanctuary bills have been introduced in at least eighteen other states. Moreover, because of the extensive power that states have traditionally exercised over their localities, these state laws are broader, more coercive, and more punitive than those that have been pursued at the federal level.
This webinar examines anti-sanctuary efforts at both the federal and state levels, how they have fared, and the kinds of legal arguments that may be raised to challenge them.
Bio:
Rick Su is a Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo School of Law, where he writes and teaches in the areas of local government law, immigration, and federalism. His research focuses on the intersection between cities and immigration. His work has appeared in the Columbia Law Review, the William & Mary Law Review, the University Of Pennsylvania Journal Of Constitutional Law, and the Harvard Law & Policy Review.
Su received his B.A. from Dartmouth College in 2001 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2004. After graduating from law school, he clerked for The Honorable Stephen Reinhardt on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and worked in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School in 2015 and Washington University in St. Louis School of Law in 2018. In the fall of 2019, he will be joining the faculty of the University Of North Carolina School Of Law.