Three percent. Legal-political debates on migration control in the highest argentinean court (2019-2022)

Abstract

After twenty years of a federal law that have recognized a particular role for the Judiciary in migration control, the Argentinean Supreme Court of Justice (CSJN, for its Spanish initials) had remained mostly silent about migrant rights. In contrast to the 20 cases ruled between 2004 and 2018, the period between 2019 and 2022 saw the court decide almost 250 judicial appeals. Thus, this contribution is aimed to firstly systematize and characterize the universe of judicial appeals that, submitted by or against the Argentinean Immigration Board, arrived at the highest court during 2019-2022. Subsequently, the main debates on that appeals shall be identified as to reconstruct the standards involved, either rights-based standards or guidelines that actually pave (or may pave) the way to recognize rights. The research is based on data from two publicly-accessible databases: the Supreme Court and the Federal Courts jurisprudence databases. Following cleaning results, the paper focus on admitted appeals (since many of them are dismissed) that were directly ruled: they will be the modeling sentences. Among conclusions, some regressive interpretations shall be highlighted together with some standards that protect or may protect precarious human mobilities, with a particular focus on children and adolescents. In addition, opaque decisions, and a transversal concern about the role of the Judiciary in migration control are noticeable and will be addressed subsequently.