Benched Justice: How Judges Decide Asylum Claims and Asylum Rights of Unaccompanied Minors

by Claire Nolasco Braaten, Daniel Braaten

Overview

This book delves into the complex and often politicized world of asylum claims and asylum rights of children seeking sanctuary in the United States. This eye-opening book asks two vital questions: do immigration judges base their asylum decisions on more than just the law, and how have federal courts responded to executive policies and programs that significantly affect the rights of these minors? With over 12,000 immigration court decisions and 200 federal court cases as its backbone, this book uncovers how both legal and political factors shape the fate of children seeking asylum. The findings reveal that while political factors do influence the decision-making process, courts still strive to protect the legal rights of unaccompanied minors, pushing back against some of the more harmful and legally dubious immigration policies pursued by various Presidential administration This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the intricacies of asylum claims and asylum rights of unaccompanied minors in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666934465
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/12/2023
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Claire Nolasco Braaten is associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Political Science at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

Daniel Braaten is associate professor of Political Science in the Department of Criminology and Political Science at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

Table of Contents

Contents

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1: Legal Background of U.S. Asylum Proceedings Involving Unaccompanied Alien Children

Part I

Chapter 2: Judicial Decision Making at the Macro-Level: How do Immigration Judges Decide?

Chapter 3: Judicial Decision Making at The Macro-Level: How Does the Board of Immigration Appeals Decide?

Part II

Chapter 4: Judicial Decision Making at the Micro-Level: Federal Courts’ Decision Making on Procedural Rights and Procedural Due Process of Unaccompanied Minors in the U.S.

Chapter 5: Judicial Decision Making at the Micro-Level: Federal Court Decisions on Substantive Law and Rights

Conclusion

Bibliography

About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

Braaten and Braaten provide an eye-opening exposé of the highly important but mostly misunderstood topic of asylum for unaccompanied children. The U.S. asylum process overlaps the subfields of public administration, judicial process, and traditional American politics. This book covers the topic from all three angles, while empirically examining thousands of cases over multiple presidencies. While the asylum process is cold and bureaucratic, the narrative descriptions provided by the authors help readers to never lose compassion for the children who unfortunately get caught in our system’s administrative quagmire.

Daniel E. Chand