Seminar Series on
POVERTY AND PUBLIC POLICY, FALL 2017

ABSTRACT: This essay examines the current impasse over courthouse immigration arrests. Part I briefly describes the “crimmigration” crisis that has been ongoing for three decades, and Part II situates the courthouse-arrest issue in that context, as the latest front in the federalism battle brought on by federal efforts to coopt local criminal justice systems to serve the immigration enforcement mission. Part III examines a longstanding common-law doctrine establishing a privilege against courthouse arrests, and Part IV suggests this common-law privilege gives states and localities the authority needed to break the current impasse.

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The WCPC is a member of the US Collaborative of Poverty Centers, led by the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. In addition to core funding from the UW School of Social Work, WCPC activities have also been supported by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Seattle Foundation, WSECU, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, United Way of King County, and the Housing Development Consortium.

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