Noah Feldman, Columnist

All Immigrants Deserve a Court Hearing. Period.

How recently you've entered the country shouldn't matter.

August 31, 2016 at 9:15 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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Do undocumented mothers and children who are caught just after they’ve entered the country illegally deserve judicial review after immigration officials have decided they don’t qualify for asylum?

If you’re a foreigner denied access to the U.S., you have no right to a court hearing. If you’ve been in the country for a while, even illegally, you’re entitled to face a federal judge before being deported. But there's a constitutional gray area that applies to undocumented immigrants who are caught within two weeks of entering the country or within 100 miles of the border.