Joel Sati's research and teaching interests are in Criminal Law, Immigration Law, Crimmigration, Privacy Law, and Jurisprudence. His other interests include moral philosophy, metaethics, and non-ideal political theory. In particular, he is developing work on the concept of hypocrisy and how people pursuing upward mobility balance living our values while compelled to make decisions that oppose those values.

“Streamline: Illegality, Exception, and the Enemy Criminal Law”

This project explores initiatives such as Operation Streamline and Title 42 to illustrate the existence of an “enemy criminal law.” Operation Streamline, which started in 2005, allows the U.S. Border patrol to refer unauthorized migrants to the Department of Justice on the theory that prompt hearings and convictions would deter other migrants. Title 42 was a pandemic-era practice of removing such migrants under the government’s authority to protect public health. The enemy criminal has three defining features: first, the punishment comes well before an actual harm occurs; second, the punishment is disproportionate relative to the offense; third, the enemy criminal law suppresses procedural rights. Streamline trials and Title 42 exclusions reflect legal developments that blur the line between an offender and an enemy.