Another Limit on Federal Court Jurisdiction - Immigrant Access to Class-Wide Injunctive Relief

By analyzing both the text of 8 U.S.C. § 1252(f)(1) and relevant Supreme Court precedent, this article attempts to decipher the meaning of § 1252(f)(1). If a federal court were to interpret § 1252(f)(1) to be a broad bar against class-wide injunctive relief, such an interpretation would raise constitutional concerns, as the Supreme Court has ruled that individual actions based on the administrative record of a single hearing are an ineffective means to challenge an immigration pattern or practice of the federal government. The analysis in this article leads to the conclusion that the text of § 1252(f)(1) does not, in fact, demand a broad bar against the issuance of class-wide injunctive relief. This article also considers whether habeas jurisdiction is a viable alternative method to obtain class-wide injunctive relief if § 1252(f)(1) bars such relief.