EOIR, PRO BONO REPRESENTATION: U.S. District Judge Richard M. Jones Rips EOIR’s Violation Of 1st Amendment, Common Sense — NWIRP v. Sessions, WD WA

Key excerpt from Judge Jones’s order granting the plaintiffs request for a preliminary injunction:

“NWIRP is a non-profit organization that provides education to the community, advances its cause through systemic advocacy, and provides legal assistance to immigrants navigating the legal system, often in the context of removal proceedings. Dkt. ## 1 (Complaint) at ¶¶ 1.1, 3.1-3.3; 37 at 12. NWIRP is the primary non-profit legal services provider in Washington State, making it essential to low-income and indigent immigrants. Dkt. # 37 at 12. The Government agrees that the work done by NWIRP and similar non-profit organizations is crucial and admirable. Dkt. ## 36 (Transcript of TRO Hearing) at 37-38, 45; 47 at 11-13 (explaining EOIR’s commitment to ensuring that immigrants have available quality representation). Moreover, the Government does not dispute NWIRP’s contention that the Regulation would deprive this “vulnerable population” of representation, essentially leading to an increase in avoidable deportations. Dkt. ## 47 at 11; 39-35 (Murray Decl.) at ¶ 4. The dichotomy between the Government’s recognition of the importance of legal representation and acknowledgment that the Regulation will result in decreased services lays bare an uncomfortable reality. The effect of the Regulation as interpreted by the Government will be the inevitable chipping away at attorneys’ fundamental rights. Under the circumstances of this case, EOIR is blindly seeking to impose its rules and regulations and spin precedent in a manner inconsistent with fairness. As W.E.B. DuBois once wrote, “[r]ule-following, legal precedence, and political consistency are not more important than right, justice and plain common-sense.”

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EOIR and their handlers at the DOJ often “talk” due process, but act otherwise (although these days the Sessions’ DOJ doesn’t even make a pretense of being concerned about Constitutional Due Process — it’s a “removal factory.”) Almost every day brings cogent examples of why the U.S. Immigration Courts must be removed from the highly politicized USDOJ and reconstituted as a truly independent judiciary committed to “guaranteeing fairness and due process for all.”

The case is NWIRP v. Sessions, 2017 WL 3189032 (WD WA 07-27-17).

PWS

07-28-17

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