Mary Holper
91 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 561
There is a dire need for bail reform in the immigration detention system. Scholars have suggested a variety of recommendations to improve the manner in which immigration detention decisions are made. All of these recommendations have rested on the assumption that there is a finite pool of decisionmakers: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the immigration judge, and, in certain cases, a federal district court judge deciding detention issues in habeas corpus proceedings. In this article, the author proposes the introduction of a new decisionmaker in the immigration detention system: the criminal court judge. This proposal is a JRAD redux—instead of a judicial recommendation against deportation (“JRAD”), as previously existed in immigration law, it is a judicial recommendation against immigration detention (“JRAID”). To provide a normative defense of this proposal, the article builds off of literature examining immigration detention as punishment, procedural justice, and the relationship between states and the federal government in immigration enforcement.
