Document Type
Article
Publication
Administrative Law Review
Year
2017
Citation Information
Ming H. Chen, Administrator-in-Chief: The President and Executive Action in Immigration Law, 69 Admin. L. Rev. 347 (2017), available at https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/faculty-articles/726.
Abstract
This Article provides a framework for understanding the role of the President as the Administrator-in-Chief of the executive branch. Recent presidents, in the face of heated controversy and political division, have relied on executive action to advance their immigration policies. Which of these policies are legitimate, and which are vulnerable to challenge, will determine their legacy. This Article posits that the extent to which the President enhances the procedural legitimacy of agency actions strengthens the legacy of the policies when confronted regarding their substance. This emphasis on shoring up administrative procedure is a form of expertise that should be counted alongside traditional normative criteria such as political accountability, democratic participation, and efficiency. Institutional analysis of three of President Obama's immigration policies serve as case studies of a presidential attempt to strengthen the procedural legitimacy of substantively contentious policies: deferred action for long-term undocumented immigrants; immigration detention for immigrants with criminal histories; and priority docketing of recently-arrived immigrants seeking asylum. Interviews with Department of Homeland Security officials and other policymakers shed light on the internal dynamics of agency policies.
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Included in
Administrative Law Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Immigration Law Commons, President/Executive Department Commons
Comments
"© 2017 by the American Bar Association. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any or portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association."