Title of Abstract: Uncovering Crimmigration
Names of Mentors: Sarah Chingos; Elizabeth Taufa
Mentors’ Organizations or Departments: McKeen Center, Bowdoin College; American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration, Legal Orientation Program
Research Abstract: This summer, I interned remotely at the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration’s Legal Orientation Hotline. Within this role, I facilitated client intake with detained immigrants from across all U.S. detention centers and further developed my knowledge of the immigration and criminal legal systems. From this curiosity came a side project where I would spend most of my time understanding the Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude and Aggravated Felony provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act and their real-life applications and consequences. The foundational knowledge gained from these experiences and previous internships have led me to pursue an independent study this year to understand the history of the immigration and criminal justice systems and how they have come to create the crimmigration system. This project will help me further ground myself into the studies and practice of these two disciplines of law.
Nina McKay ’21