An Analysis of The Reforms for U.S. Immigration Courts
Birdsong’s Refugee Law student, Christina Workman, has done outstanding work in analyzing the supposed reforms to the U.S. Immigration Court system since 2006. Read it and you will learn a lot.
A REVIEW OF THE 2006 MEASURES OF IMPROVEMENT TO THE IMMIGRATION COURTS AND BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS
Christina Workman
Refugee Law Paper
I. Introduction
Because David Ngaruri Kenney protested the Kenyan government’s inhumane treatment of tea farmers, he suffered dehumanizing torture and near execution at the hands of the Kenyan government.[1] He fled for his life and eventually applied for asylum in the United States. But his application was denied. The immigration judge found that although he had been tortured on previous occasions by governmental forces, Kenney’s two-month return to Kenya [to save his brother from impending torture] meant that he could not reasonably have a well founded fear of persecution if returned to Kenya. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed the immigration judge’s decision.[2] Kenney’s application for asylum was then rejected by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.[3] He was ordered deported back to Kenya.[4]
Some critics of the United States immigration system, however, would argue that Kenney was not denied
