Interview: Attorney and Professor Lucas Guttentag (Fall 2023)

In this interview, civil rights lawyer and law professor Lucas Guttentag discusses his background and career trajectory, which has included senior policy positions at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, as well as his work as founder and director of the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project. The interview focuses, in particular, on cases that Professor Guttentag litigated during his time with the Immigrant Rights Project, including lawsuits challenging legislation eliminating judicial review of removal orders, combatting indefinite detention of Haitian refugees at Guantanamo Naval Base, and reshaping asylum adjudications for Central American refugees.  

View the full interview with Professor Guttentag:  

Professor Guttentag discusses several cases that he worked on during his time with the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project, including: 

a lawsuit challenging the Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendments of 1986, Anetekhai v. INS;

American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh, which challenged prosecutions for harboring undocumented persons and resulted in a settlement agreement providing de novo asylum adjudications;

a lawsuit challenging procedures of the Coast Guard interdiction program with respect to Haitian refugees, Haitian Centers Council Inc. v. McNary; 

INS v. St. Cyr and Calcano-Martinez v. INS, lawsuits challenging the so-called court-stripping provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996; 

Ali v. Rumsfeld, which challenged torture and other inhumane conditions at U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan; 

cases addressing local anti-immigrant laws and practices, including Melendres v. Arpaio and Lozano v. City of Hazelton.