President Donald Trump’s three immigration-oriented executive orders and his dispute with the former acting attorney general caused a flurry of activity among the University of Colorado’s law professors during the past week.
“It’s certainly been, in my lifetime, one of the most dramatic legal events,” Associate Dean and Professor Erik Gerding told a group of CU students at the beginning of a roundtable discussion at the Wolf Law Building on Wednesday.
On Friday, Trump signed “PROTECTING THE NATION FROM FOREIGN TERRORIST ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES,” the executive order widely referred to as a “Muslim ban.” The order temporarily suspended entry for refugees from all countries, citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and blocked Syrian refugees indefinitely.
A federal judge on Saturday issued an emergency order temporarily barring the United States from deporting people from countries that are part of the travel ban, and protests against the travel ban broke out across the country, including one at Denver International Airport.
On Monday night, Trump fired acting United States Attorney General Sally Yates after she refused to defend the executive order.
CU Associate Clinical Professor of Law Violeta Chapin — among several CU staffers who headed to DIA over the weekend to offer assistance to people coming from the countries affected by the ban — said the executive order draws on policies employed by previous presidents, including Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, but goes much further than anyone has in the past.
“This is the first time a president has used them for a ban on entire countries,” she said.
She added that the executive order appears to be causing confusion among those expected to enforce it, including whether lawful permanent residents are part of the ban.
“There has been spotty compliance with this order,” she said. “There has also been spotty compliance with who has been detained.”
CU Associate Professor of Law Ming Hsu Chen said that while the “Muslim ban” executive order has received the most airplay, Trump also signed two other orders earlier last week — one that is understood to target “sanctuary cities,” and another that starts the process of building Trump’s much-touted wall along the U.S./Mexico border.
Chen said that Trump will likely need more outside cooperation for the two orders, in part because of the large number of communities declaring themselves sanctuary cities.
The construction the wall, she said, will require funding from Congress, so she is most concerned with the Muslim ban order, because it will likely require less cooperation from others to carry out.
“That one comes closer to unilateral executive action,” she said. “That’s why you have seen the lawsuits come so fast and furious.”
CU Assistant Clinical Professor Blake Reid was among staff who ventured to DIA over the weekend to help out. He said the experience was “messy and complicated and boring in parts and not necessarily satisfying.”
“But it’s important,” he added.
Reid said it was difficult to tell if Customs and Border Protection — the branch of the Department of Homeland Security tasked with manning ports of entry — were detaining people at DIA over the weekend (there were four people detained briefly).
“They weren’t releasing any information,” he said. “We could not get anyone to come out and talk to us. We went and talked to some cops and asked them to pass a message and they said no.”
He said in spite of the lack of progress made, the interaction (or lack thereof) with CBP can come in handy during possible litigation if it is ever established that people were being detained and not given access to legal counsel.
CU Visiting Faculty Member Megan Hall said that what has happened over the past week can expose flaws in the existing immigration system, adding that there has always been a problem with access to legal counsel for people being detained on immigration matters.
Hall has spent a lot of time working with non-citizens who have been picked up and held following minor run-ins with the law — things such as busted taillights or driving without a license — but much of that stopped under the Obama Administration.
“We are going to see a huge increase in the number of people being detained,” she said. “That is one of the things I’m worried about.”
John Bear: 303-473-1355, bearj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/johnbearwithme
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