Congratulations to Eva Bitran ’14, HIRC alumna and former co-President of the Harvard Immigration Project (HIP)! Her note for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, “Boumedine at the Border? The Constitution and Foreign Nationals at the U.S.-Mexico Border,” was cited in an important ruling released yesterday from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In Hernandez v. United States, the court allowed the family of a Mexican child shot and killed on the Mexican side of the border to proceed with a Bivens lawsuit against the Customs and Border Patrol agent who shot him from the U.S. side. In arriving at this ruling, the majority opinion, authored by Judge Edward Prado, held that noncitizens interacting with law enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border are entitled to Fifth Amendment due process protections. Bitran’s note was cited to illustrate “the long history of United States involvement beyond the U.S.-Mexico border”—a fact crucial to the majority’s determination that government agents are responsible for respecting the Fifth Amendment rights of foreign nationals occupying areas abroad that are nevertheless under the de facto control of the United States.
Eva will be clerking for Judge Prado next year. Congratulations from HIRC, and best of luck!