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28 Chicana/o-Latina/o L. Rev. 19 (2009)
Race and the Shaping of U.S. Immigration Policy

handle is hein.journals/chiclat28 and id is 21 raw text is: RACE AND THE SHAPING OF U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY DONALD S. DOBKIN* INTRODUCTION The date is October 13, 2004, some 147 years after Chief Jus- tice Roger Taney and the infamous Dred Scott case. Represent- ing the United States government, Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler, stands before the United States Supreme Court and tells the Court that the nation needs to protect its borders and in doing so some noncitizens must be treated as if they have no rights to due process.1 At issue is the ultimate fate of over 1000 persons of color, Mariel Cubans held in federal custody nearly 25 years after the boatlift. Two of the Cuban detainees have been incarcerated for 19 years. A total of 33 aliens have waited in jail for more than 15 years to be deported. Justice Souter grills Solicitor General Kneedler about the le- gal fiction of pretending that Mariel Cubans, who have been here for a quarter-century, have no more rights than immigrants showing up at the border: That fiction of exclusion can't be used for constitutional purposes, can it? ... You have a due process clause that says 'persons,' not 'citizens' are entitled to constitu- tional protections? Justice John Paul Stevens continues the questioning of Kneedler by asking how far the government would carry the 'no rights' argument? Can we kill them? he asks.2 * LL.B. 1975 (Windsor), LL.M. 1976 (Northwestern), Associate Faculty, Col- lege of Graduate Studies, Central Michigan University. The author practiced immi- gration law with Dobkin & Associates, the firm he founded, Farmington Hills, Michigan, 1979-2004. He is past Chairperson of the Immigration Law Section of the Oakland County Michigan Bar Association and has lectured and presented sem- inars on immigration in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. His writings on immigration law, administrative law, constitutional law and civil liberties have been published as book chapters and in law reviews. Many thanks to Kyle Landis-Marinello, a gifted third year law student at the University of Michigan, for his research and writing assistance. Email: xgreencard@aol.com. 1. Oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court, Clark v. Martinez, 543 U. S. 371 (2005) (Oct. 13, 2004). 2. Id.

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