Stephen Legomsky

Stephen Legomsky, the John S. Lehmann University Professor Emeritus at Washington University, testified at a March 15 hearing before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee about identifying and removing barriers to legal migration.

Attorney General William Barr announced July 15 a new Trump Administration plan, effective the next day, barring Central American immigrants from seeking asylum in the United States unless they seek it first in other Central American countries, a move that a Washington University in St. Louis immigration expert says “violates the clear language of the law.”

Stephen Legomsky, an immigration law expert at Washington University in St. Louis, comments on the Feb. 15 announcement of a state of emergency by President Donald Trump. “This much is crystal clear,” he said. “There is no national security emergency at the southern border.”

The U.S. cannot singlehandedly eradicate all violence against women and girls — even here at home. But we can at least avoid being an accomplice. When women and girls arrive at our shores asking only that they not be beaten, raped or murdered, delivering them to their tormentors is not an option.

The legality, let alone the wisdom, of closing the southern border amid a partial government shutdown is called into question by Stephen Legomsky, an immigration-law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

President Donald Trump’s plan to sign an executive order that would eliminate birthright citizenship for children born to non-citizens or unauthorized immigrants is “flatly wrong,” says an expert on immigration law at Washington University in St. Louis.

President Donald Trump on June 20 directed his administration to detain migrant families together instead of separating parents from their children, but one of the nation’s leading immigration experts argues that jailing migrant families is still “cruel and unnecessary” under U.S. law.

The absurdity of condemning an entire group because of the actions of a single member seems self-evident. If a left-handed immigrant commits a crime, no one would propose banning all left-handed immigrants. The real question is whether there is a causal link between the commission of the crime and either the substantive criteria or the processes of the particular program. No such link exists.

The Trump administration on Sept. 4 announced plans to end DACA, which protects nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. The president’s decision is not only regrettable, it was entirely unnecessary, says Stephen Legomsky, the John S. Lehmann University Professor Emeritus and renowned expert on immigration law.

Stephen Legomsky, the John S. Lehmann University Professor Emeritus and noted expert on immigration law, urges the new Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Stephen Legomsky, renowned expert on immigration policy and former chief counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, says that while Trump’s immigration policies will be more hard line, comprehensive immigration reform is still possible.

By a 4-4 vote, a short-handed U.S. Supreme Court today let stand a lower court’s 2-1 decision to block President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration. The decision is “deeply regrettable,” said Stephen Legomsky, a noted expert on immigration law at Washington University in St. Louis.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Jan. 19 to hear United States v. Texas, the challenge brought by 26 states to President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration. The stakes could not be larger, and they are not limited to immigration, said immigration law expert Stephen Legomsky.

At least two dozen American governors have expressed concern over allowing Syrian refugees to relocate in their states. While state governments often do play a small role in helping to resettle refugees, the governors don’t have much choice in this case, said immigration expert Stephen Legomsky.

The Obama Administration announced Nov. 10 it will seek United States Supreme Court review of a ruling blocking President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration. Timing is crucial, says Stephen H. Legomsky, JD, DPhil, an expert on immigration law at Washington University in St. Louis.

This week, a federal appeals court panel decided against allowing President Barack Obama’s controversial immigration plan to go into effect immediately, pending a review of the merits of the plan in July. While the court’s decision is a temporary setback, it’s still possible that the government could win the overall appeal, said Washington University in St. Louis immigration expert Stephen H. Legomsky.

With Republicans gaining control of Congress after the midterm elections, Speaker of the House John Boehner insists that President Barack Obama could get “burned” if he uses executive action to move forward on immigration reform during the remainder of his presidency. Obama is well within his rights to proceed with the temporary measures he is considering, says an immigration law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Steven Legomsky staunchly defends the legality of DACA and of the similar initiatives that the President Barack Obama is reportedly considering.

“The House leadership’s procedural excuses for blocking a vote on critical immigration reform make little sense,” says Stephen Legomsky, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and the recent Chief Counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security. In that position he worked intensively with White House and DHS officials and played a major role on comprehensive immigration reform. “It’s now been 7 months since the Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill. Speaker Boehner should allow the people’s elected representatives in the House to consider it without further delay,” Legomsky argues.

Stephen H. Legomsky, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chief counsel, plans to discuss the evolving topic of immigration law at Washington University in St. Louis on Thursday, April 11. Legomsky will present the 2012-13 Tyrrell Williams Lecture, “Immigration and the Role of the Government Attorney.”​

Stephen H. Legomsky, JD, DPhil, the John S. Lehmann University Professor at the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, has been appointed chief counsel for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), effective Oct. 24, 2011, announced Ivan Fong, general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security.

Anyone who cares about the rule of law has to acknowledge that illegal immigration has serious social costs that cannot be casually dismissed, says immigration law expert Stephen Legomsky, JD, DPhil, the John S. Lehmann University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. “When millions of individuals violate any law — whether it’s immigration, taxes or exceeding the posted speed limit — the rule of law takes a hit. But sometimes, mass violations reveal flaws in the law itself. At any rate, the rule of law also means that the penalties should not be disproportionate to the wrongdoing.”

The U.S. Justice Department lawsuit filed July 6 against Arizona’s controversial new immigration law will likely see partial success, according to a Washington University in St. Louis law professor. But he predicts the legal battle will extend beyond Arizona.

LegomskyA recent academic study confirmed empirically what many immigration experts had already suspected: The chance of winning an asylum case often hinges as much on the luck of the draw as on the merits of the case. Some adjudicators grant asylum liberally while others grant it only rarely, and the disparities are dramatic. The Stanford Law Review asked Stephen Legomsky, J.D., D.Phil., leading immigration and asylum law expert and John S. Lehmann University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, to write an article analyzing the policy implications of this study. Legomsky offers a controversial conclusion: “There are times when we simply have to learn to live with unequal justice because the alternatives are worse.”

Immigration law expert Stephen H. Legomsky says that an easy way to put a serious dent in illegal immigration is to exempt the spouses and young children of legal immigrants from numerical ceilings, just as we now exempt the spouses and children of U.S. citizens. Legomsky is the author of America’s leading law school textbook on immigration law and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. He has advised both Republican and Democratic administrations and several foreign governments on immigration, refugee and citizenship issues. More…

Stephen H. Legomsky, J.D., D.Phil., has been named the John S. Lehmann University Professor. The new professorship was created through a charitable trust established by the late John Lehmann, a distinguished alumnus, lawyer and University trustee for more than 20 years.

Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photo”Beefing up enforcement will never put a serious dent in illegal immigration unless it goes hand in hand with major reforms of our legal immigration criteria,” says Stephen Legomsky, an internationally renowned immigration law expert at Washington University in St. Louis. He gets frustrated when he hears people suggest that undocumented immigrants are “jumping the queue,” or that undocumented immigrants “should just wait their turns like everyone else.” More…

Stephen H. Legomsky, J.D., D.Phil, the Charles F. Nagel Professor of International and Comparative Law, has received a Fulbright Senior Specialist grant for a two-week human rights project in Suriname. The grant and project were at the initiative of the U.S. State Department.Legomsky will be in Suriname from October 22 through November 4, 2003. While there, he will give a series of lectures to students at the Anton de Kom University in Paramaribo, faculty members, government officials, judges, and NGO representatives, on the subject of the United Nations human rights protection system. The U.S. Embassy will also schedule meetings with the U.S. ambassador to Suriname, Surinamese government officials and judges, NGO representatives, and the national media.