Footnote Forum’s Moderated Conversation With the Authors of The Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act and Criminalized Immigrant Survivors, Assia Serrano and Nathan Yaffe

“Inherently Expressive”: BDS Organizing for Palestinian Liberation at CUNY School of Law and Beyond by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA), City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law

The Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act and Criminalized Immigrant Survivors by Assia Serrano & Nathan Yaffe

Abstract

This piece explores how New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (“DVSJA”), a law meant to grant freedom to criminalized survivors, plays out in practice for criminalized immigrant survivors. New York enacted the DVSJA to address the unjust, but common, harsh punishment of survivors for conduct that an abuser compels, coerces, or otherwise causes. When the court grants a survivor DVSJA relief, the material benefit is shortening that survivor’s sentence of incarceration.

However, for criminalized immigrant survivors, the DVSJA’s promise of freedom may amount to little more than a mirage because DVSJA relief does not expunge, vacate, or alter underlying convictions. We situate the DVSJA in its institutional, legal, and policy context: a criminalized survivor’s sentence does not exist in a vacuum. Their sentence is just one part of a broader process of criminalization. This piece fills the gap in the policy discussion, based on the experiences of the first immigrant survivor who was resentenced and released under the DVSJA. In addition to calls for changes in policy and practice, this piece urges New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who has expressed concern for the plight of domestic violence survivors—but largely has not used her clemency power to free criminalized survivors (whether facing deportation or not)—to live up to her stated values through widespread use of the clemency power.

CORONAVIRUS AID, RELIEF, AND ECONOMIC SECURITY FOR WHOM? IRS OVERREACHES IN DENYING CARES ACT ECONOMIC IMPACT PAYMENTS TO MIGRANT WORKERS AND INCARCERATED INDIVIDUALS

By: Justin Schwegel†

INTRODUCTION

 Individuals who received advance refunds under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act met the eligibility criteria in their 2019 tax filings (or 2018 filings if they had not yet filed 2019 taxes).[1] Advance refunds are treated as a refund of an overpayment of 2018 or 2019 taxes.[2] Subsequent changes in tax filing status in 2020 do not retroactively make one ineligible for an advance refund.[3] On May 6, the IRS issued guidance on its Economic Impact Payment Information Center website instructing incarcerated individuals and certain resident aliens[4]that they should return the economic impact payments (also called advance refunds or stimulus payments) they received from the IRS.[5] This guidance is not legally binding for two distinct reasons. First, it was issued without conforming to the procedural requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act. Second, the guidance exceeded the IRS’s rulemaking authority because it contradicts unambiguous statutory language.

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Footnote Forum Podcast, a CUNY Law Review Production

Recommended Citation: Footnote Forum Podcast, ​Interview with Dilley Delegation Staff, 23 CUNY L. Rev. F. 40 (2020)

Click here to view a pdf version of this article

INTERVIEW WITH DILLEY DELEGATION STAFF

Part I

Reena Novotnak: You’re listening to Footnote Forum, a production of the law review at City University of New York School of Law. I’m your editor and host, Reena Novotnak, and I’m joined by our guests, two CUNY Law students.

Joanna Lopez: My name is Jo Lopez, I’m a 3L in the full-time program.

Jacklyn Mann: Hi everyone, I’m Jackie Mann, I’m also a 3L here.

Reena Novotnak: This year, on the podcast, we focused on the Freedom of Information Act and Freedom of Information Law, or FOIA and FOIL. Jo and Jackie joined us to talk about their experience with the Dilley Delegation, and the challenges and lack of transparency they faced when preparing their clients for asylum hearings. Right now, you’re listening to part one of two of this interview. In this episode, you’ll also hear the voices of two law review staffers: Maya Kouassi and Cesar Ruiz. But it’s Jo here who’ll start us off.

Joanna Lopez: The Dilley delegation was a year-long effort initiated by three students to bring together other CUNY Law students and law professors to be able to provide much-needed on-the-ground work in Dilley, Texas.[1] In a nutshell, we spent a week at the South Texas Family Residential Center and assisted mothers and their children as they prepared for their credible fear interviews. So, much of the work that was done that week was spending 12 to 14-hour days at the detention center and working with women, and listening to their stories, and finding a way to structure their experiences in a way that was palatable to an asylum officer so that they would receive a positive interview and move forward in the asylum process, and also be released from detention, which is a really crucial part of the work that we were doing.

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