"The Voice of the New Due Process Army" ————– Musings on Events in U.S. Immigration Court, Immigration Law, Sports, and Other Random Topics by Retired United States Immigration Judge (Arlington, Virginia) and former Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals Paul Wickham Schmidt. To see my complete professional bio, just click on the link below.
Laura Trask
Director of Development & Communications media@ayuda.com
Washington, D.C. (February 5, 2024) – Yesterday, Senate negotiators released language for the supplemental funding bill that would dramatically alter the U.S. asylum system in exchange for foreign aid and humanitarian assistance.
Ayuda joins immigrant communities and advocacy organizations across the country in strongly condemning this proposal that would lead to more families separated, children detained, and asylum seekers sent back to face persecution and even death.
Amongst many of the draconian changes proposed, this legislation would create a new authority, with narrow exceptions, that would allow officials to summarily expel asylum seekers. It would also restrict screening standards for asylum seekers and expedite asylum claims to the extent that many will not be able to access counsel or adequately represent themselves.
Ayuda and our partner organizations believe there are far more effective solutions to immigration policy failures. We call on the Senate to reject this framework, disentangle humanitarian assistance from changes that would eviscerate U.S. asylum law, and recommit themselves to building compassionate and humane immigration system.
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About Ayuda:
Ayuda provides direct legal, social, and language access services to low-income immigrants in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Since 1973, Ayuda has served more than 150,000 immigrants throughout the region. Ayuda is the only nonprofit service provider in the area that provides a wide range of immigration and family law assistance, social services, and language access support for all immigrants – including women, men, and children – from anywhere in the world.
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FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a proud member of the AYUDA Advisory Council.
I’m pleased to be part of an organization that stands up for human rights and the right to seek asylum and opposes scofflaw proposals to “punish” legal asylum seekers for the USG’s decades-long failure to establish a fair, accessible, timely asylum screening and adjudication system as required by law.
Many thanks to Paula Fitzgerald, Laura Trask, Alicja Johnson, and the rest of the “Due Process Team” at AYUDA for issuing this statement!
The Senate finally released the full text of its long-awaited bipartisan immigration bill on Sunday evening.
If passed, the bill would:
fund military support for Ukraine and Israel while defunding UNRWA
establish new emergency powers that would allow the president to shut down the border
create a higher threshold for credible fear interviews and new asylum pathways at the US-Mexico border
provide a pathway to green cards for Afghan refugees in the United States
expands electronic monitoring and immigrant detention
and make a range of other changes to the immigration system—some good for migrants, some bad
It also provides more funding to immigration agencies, including:
$440M for IJs
$12M to combat smuggling
$7B to CBP
$8B to ICE
$4B to USCIS
I read the bill tonight twice. I am still thinking through not simply the text of the bill, but what the bill represents as a vision for immigration change. What are the values that this bill represents? How would these provisions be implemented in practice? How would we measure the effects of these various changes?
Excerpt of the Senate Immigration Bill.
But don’t feel like you need to get too into the weeds here. The likelihood that the bill will live through the night is looking slim as people from across the political spectrum fight over pillows to smother the bill in its sleep tonight.
Prominent conservatives are already up in arms over the fact that the emergency border powers don’t kick in until several thousand encounters per day. They read the text as saying that anything less than 5,000 is, therefore, “acceptable”.
Most of these talking points align closely to Donald Trump’s goal of preventing the bill from moving forward (even though is captures many classic Republican immigration goals and very few of Democrats’) so that he can run on the “immigration crisis” in the next election.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on a certain website that Shall Not Be Named:
I’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, “the border never closes.” If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival.
Prominent progressives have also rejected the viability of the bill on grounds that it eviscerates asylum. Las Americas, an immigrant rights advocacy group in El Paso, Texas, released a statement tonight that included the following bleak assessment:
“Closing the border, creating a new ‘metering’ system, and debilitating our asylum laws will do nothing to address the underlying issues that force vulnerable children and families to flee their homes, seeking safety and a better life. Although the bill contains small silver linings, they come at too high a cost. This deal will ultimately subject more families to an unsafe migratory journey. They will be forced to wait on the other side of the border for days or even weeks, which will further expose them to those who will prey upon them as they try to navigate these impossible policies.
I’ve looked for supporters and so far, the only one I can find, are the folks at the Niskanen Center who released a statement tonight praising bipartisan efforts:
We applaud the bipartisan group of Senators who have invested weeks of hard work to negotiate a border security compromise. Despite facing opposition and resistance from their parties and leaders, Senators Chris Murphy, James Lankford, and Kyrsten Sinema have continued to work towards a solution palatable to Members on both sides of the aisle while ensuring that Congress can ultimately unlock much-needed supplemental funding to aid our allies.
I’m sure we’ll see the immigration bill in the news first thing in the morning, although the coverage is likely to be mostly negative.
My suggestion is, if you read this, you’ve probably given the bill as much attention as you need to give it for now. Don’t get too excited or upset. Spend your limited emotional energy on something else, because I don’t think this is going anywhere.
To access the full text of the bill, click the link below.
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Thanks, Austin! Sounds like prudent advice for conserving energy and focusing on the battle to save lives while maintaining good emotional health regardless of whether this bill or some version of it ever becomes law!
The long-awaited bipartisan Senate deal on immigration contains no real reforms, such as a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. It’s all about “securing” the border.
Biden and Senate Democrats have caved to Senate Republican hardliners. Among other restrictions, the bill would make it much harder for people to apply for asylum.
On Friday evening Biden called the bill “the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country.”
Then Biden went further — endorsing a full border shutdown. He said the bill “would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”
I very much doubt Biden would shut the border if he signs this bill into law.
So what’s going on here? The underlying politics here has nothing to do with funding Ukraine. It doesn’t have to do with reforming immigration. It doesn’t even have much to do with the practical challenge of securing the border.
It has everything to do with the 2024 election, in which border security has become a big issue.
The nation does have to take reasonable action to stem the illegal flow of immigrants. But Trump has stoked American’s fears with lies (see below).
Trump and Biden are engaged in a giant pre-election kabuki fight over the border.
Biden wants to take the border issue away from Trump and figures this bill will do it. Which is exactly why Trump doesn’t want the bill enacted. “As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible, open-borders betrayal of America,” Trump said on Saturday. “It’s not going to happen, and I’ll fight it all the way.”
Trump says he welcomes criticism from GOP senators. “Please, blame it on me. Please, because they were getting ready to pass a very bad bill.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Trump’s lapdog-in-chief, says the bill is “dead on arrival” in the House. Besides, he now says, it isn’t needed because Biden already has all the authority he needs to close the border.
Um … just last year, Johnson argued that Congress must tighten immigration laws to strengthen the president’s hand. When he was president, Trump sought similar additional authority from Congress.
Meanwhile, House Republicans are about to begin impeachment proceedings against Alejandro Mayorkas, homeland security secretary, for allegedly being too soft on border security — even though Mayorkas worked with Senate Republicans to come up with this hardline border deal.
We need to deal with the border, but Republicans are now the ones sitting on their hands because they’re beholden to Trump. We also need to deal with immigration in a humane way by offering a broad and reasonable path to citizenship, but Democrats seem to have forgotten this basic goal.
The public, meanwhile, is utterly confused by Trump’s demagoguing. Here are Trump’s biggest lies, followed by the truth.
Trump claims Biden doesn’t want to stem illegal immigration and has created an “open border.”
Rubbish. Since he took office, Biden has consistently asked for additional funding for border control.
Republicans have just as consistently refused. They’ve voted to cut Customs and Border Protection funding in spending bills and blocked passage of Biden’s $106 billion national security supplemental that includes border funding.
Trump blames the drug crisis on illegal immigration.
Trump claims that undocumented immigrants are terrorists.
Baloney. America’s southern border has not been an entry point for terrorists. For almost a half-century, no American has been killed or injured in a terrorist attack in the United States that involved someone who crossed the border illegally.
Trump says undocumented immigrants are stealing American jobs.
Nonsense. Evidence shows immigrants are not taking jobs that American workers want. The surge across the border is not increasing unemployment. Far from it: Unemployment has been below 4 percent for roughly two years, far lower than the long-term average rate of 5.71 percent. It’s now 3.7 percent.
Trump claims undocumented immigrants are responsible for more crime in America.
More BS. In fact, a 2020 study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, cited by the Department of Justice, showed that undocumented immigrants have “substantially” lower crime rates than native-born citizens and legal immigrants. Despite the recent surge in illegal immigration, America’s homicide rate has fallen nearly 13 percent since 2022 — the largest decrease on record. Local law enforcement agencies are also reporting drops in violent crime.
Since he entered politics, Donald Trump has fanned nativist fears and bigotry.
Now he’s moving into full-throttled neofascism, using the actual language of Hitler to attack immigrants — charging that undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and saying they’re “like a military invasion. Drugs, criminals, gang members and terrorists are pouring into our country at record levels. We’ve never seen anything like it. They’re taking over our cities.” He promises to use the U.S. military to round up undocumented immigrants and put them into “camps.”
The parallels with Nazi Germany are chilling. In 1932, the canny Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels called for “a thick wall around Germany,” to protect against immigrants. “Certainly we want to build a wall, a protective wall.”
Trump and his enablers want us to forget that almost all of us are the descendants of immigrants who fled persecution, or were brought to America under duress, or simply sought better lives for themselves and their descendants.
Immigration has been good for America. As the median age of Americans continues to rise, we’ll need more young people from around the world.
The central question shouldn’t be how to secure our borders. It should be how to create an orderly and humane path to citizenship.
“Kabuki Theater” with human lives! The REAL “national security threats” — Trump, Abbott, DeSantis, and their MAGA toadies like MAGAMike — subvert our democracy in plain view! ATTRIBUTION: Creative Commons 2.0
Lost in the overheated and too often misleading media hype of this issue is a simple truth: Congress and Administrations of both parties have failed to fulfill our Government’s duties under international and domestic laws (which are based on international requirements) to establish a fair, generous, expert, timely asylum adjudication system — one that complies with due process and actually gives asylum applicants the required “benefit of the doubt.”
Now, in a show of supreme political cowardice, egged on by the White Nationalist right and their lies, politicos of both parties and in all three branches of Government seek to cover up their failure by punishing and endangering the lives of their victims! The latter are legal asylum seekers — human beings — who overwhelmingly present themselves to authorities at the border in an orderly fashion to get a fair adjudication of their claims. Our Government routinely denies them that fundamental right through ridiculous delays, bad precedents, poor quality adjudications, underfunding, deficient leadership, and coercive gimmicks like bogus prosecutions, imprisonment, denial of access to counsel, and illegal and immoral family separation.
Meanwhile, Dems are failing to stand up for the human and legal right to seek asylum, which is being violated right and left and which the “Senate compromise” promises even more scofflaw violations of human rights and basic human dignity.
We can diminish ourselves as a nation, but it won’t stop human migration — particularly forced migration!
On Friday, President Biden put out a statement that had President Ronald Reagan rolling in his grave and Lady Liberty weeping on the New York harbor. He led not with the values of an Irish Catholic whose ancestors emigrated to Seneca Falls, but rather a tyrant who he defeated in 2020: “[The bipartisan bill] would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut the border down when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”
Biden’s close cadre of advisors, just like the emperor’s tailors, convinced him he should not drape his posture with the ethos and promise of a nation of immigrants, but rather nakedly and shamelessly attempt to scare people with a “tough act.”
As an unwavering Democrat, I have never felt more ashamed to call President Biden my president. That statement was absolutely heart-breaking and goes against everything we stand as a party and country. I refuse to be a bystander in the crowd watching the naked emperor as his tailors wager this deal and statement a political win.
First, let’s start with the so-called bipartisan deal. Let’s call it for what it is: a concession of Trump-era policies in exchange for foreign aid. Yes, Ukraine is important. And yes, addressing the U.S. southern border is equally as important. But none of these two issues should have ever been tied together. But here we are. And since we’re here, what we know through reports and statements by President Biden and Senator Lankford is that the new expulsion authority and other measures in the bill would not only exacerbate the situation at the border – not actually stop people from fleeing dangerous conditions and coming to the border – but also jeopardize the lives of vulnerable children and families while setting a point-of-no-return precedent that will give Trump the keys to Pandora’s box should he be re-elected.
So who is Biden winning over with the promise of shutting the border down? Independents? Democrats? This logic is based on the theory that being equally as “tough” as Republicans is a winning strategy. Trying to out-Republican the Republican on immigration is the most asinine tactic that does nothing to galvanize the base or win over swing voters. And I get it – many pollsters and Democratic operatives are quick to show that their tough messages resonate with swing or moderate voters. It’s easy to come to that conclusion when you’ve probably gone head to head with weak “progressive” messages and dismiss how it demoralizes the base. Here’s a real life example of what happens when you actually try it on for size: check out the muted reaction Biden received when he reiterated he would shut the border down in a speech to Democrats and others.
We’ve got two major problems that Biden’s close advisors are ignoring: bad policies and bad messaging. But I’m going to focus on messaging solutions as it will take big electoral wins and a public narrative shift to deliver a major immigration overhaul in Congress, which is what we really need to address the issue in the 21st century.
Follow the formula: (1) tap into voters’ nostalgia and shared values reminding them what immigration means to them personally and the country (think Reagan’s last speech); (2) pivot to galvanizing, simple and sensible solutions (path to citizenship, orderly and humane border security, smart technology and resources, lawful pathways for those seeking refuge and to meet America’s economic demands, etc.); and (3) directly contrast against Trump and Republicans (define them on the issue as cruel (family separation), impractical (wasteful border wall) and/or unwilling to deal in bipartisan fashion).
Use Trump and Gov. Abbott as your foils. They are gifts to President Biden, his campaign and Democrats in general. These two maniacs, one of whom is openly defying the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, are standing on the wrong side of history, willing to have blood on their hands and soil the values and image of America. This is Biden’s JFK moment who with dignity and courage challenged Governor Wallace even when public sentiment was divided. Bottom line – when you honor our founding principles of freedom, opportunity and the pursuit of happiness and stand up to tyrants, you always end up on the right side of history.
Saturate: repeat, repeat, and repeat the formula in remarks, online, ads and other forms of paid communications. Trump and the GOP are outspending and out-talking Democrats on this issue and it’s why we’re starting at a deficit on the issue.
The promise and action to deliver boldly and big. Immigration will always be a challenge if Biden doesn’t start laying the groundwork and ensure creative and courageous solutions such as (1) offering a path to legal status, within his authority, to Dreamers and long-settled immigrant families in the U.S. and (2) publicly working with willing governors and mayors across the country who either need the federal government’s help or are eager to welcome new immigrants who will invigorate their towns and cities and fill labor shortages. The Biden administration needs to go on offense, publicly and loudly.
Latinos and other mixed-status families are getting a bit exasperated with waiting for a path to citizenship. Biden needs to remind them that he hasn’t forgotten them. And instead of avoiding what’s happening in Democratic-led cities, Biden should embrace it as an opportunity for more bipartisanship and creative problem-solving that’ll meet the demands of cities and states in need of workers and consumers, such as Erie, PA and Utah. It’s a chance to talk “economy” and solutions – Americans love solutions!
It’s never too late to rectify the course. Biden and his tailors need to begin sewing back the fabric that’ll bring together his coalition of progressives, moderates and all those who do not want Trump and MAGA Republicans to return to office.
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Great analysis, Beatriz! Sad, that nobody in power is paying attention. The “race to the bottom” on human rights and equal justice in America appears to be accelerating!🤮
🇺🇸🗽⚖️😎 THERE’S STILL SOME INSPIRING NEWS TO REPORT: 1) CHICAGO PASTORS WELCOME BUSSES; 2) GW LAW CLINIC STUDENTS HELP NEW ARRIVALS; 3) W&M LAW CLINIC WINS 27 CASES; 4) NDPA STAR KIM WILLIAMS, ESQ, TRIUMPHS OVER GARLAND DOJ’S “NEXUS NONSENSE” IN 1ST CIR; 5) HRF’S ROBYN BARNARD CALLS OUT BIDEN’S THREAT TO TRASH ASYLUM; 6) CEO BILL PENZY LIKES & APPRECIATES IMMIGRANTS!
Locals and migrants attend a banquet at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago on Nov. 30, 2023. (Photo by Max Li)
(RNS) — Chicago was already facing a homelessness crisis before Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, began directing thousands of migrants entering his state to Democratic bastions that had declared themselves migrant-friendly sanctuary cities.
Since the transfers began in April 2022, more than 20,000 migrants, many of them destitute Venezuelans, have arrived, and many Chicagoans have expressed concerns that the city’s resources are being drained and have accused government officials of failing to communicate about the migrants’ cost and their fates.
At the same time, advocates for the migrants, especially community organizers in more vulnerable neighborhoods, have pushed back against attempts to pit two marginalized groups against each other. These groups have stepped up to support the new arrivals and in many cases have found allies in local faith leaders.
. . . .
Black said the majority of community residents want to find a way to both support the migrants and build support for a part of Chicago that has been historically underserved and underresourced. At the banquet at First Presbyterian, a speaker from Southside Together Organizing for Power, a community organizing group, talked about what it means to have Black and brown unity.
“It’s basically founded on this idea that there’s no scarcity,” Black said. “Not only is there enough for everybody — for the asylum-seekers, and the historically disenfranchised populations of South Side Chicago.”
He added, “We have so much more to gain from our unity than from the division which is being manufactured and orchestrated by interests that don’t want these communities to get the resources they need.”
Newcomer Fair at Langdon Elementary for families who have recently arrived from Texas and Arkansas via bus
I report that today Immigration Clinic student-attorneys Raisa Shah, Jennifer Juang-Korol, and I participated in the Newcomer Fair that the District of Columbia Public Schools sponsored at Langdon Elementary for families who have recently arrived from Texas and Arkansas via bus, primarily Venezuelans living in DC shelters. We shared immigration and social services information, GW swag, and met lots of cute kids. We were the only law school that participated. Please see the attached.
Professor Alberto Benítez & GW Immigration Clinic Student-Attorneys Raisa Shah & Jennifer Juang-Korol Staff The Table @ Newcomer Fair!
3) W&M Law Clinic Wins 27 Cases
Professor J. Nicole Medved reports on LinkedIn:
Over the holidays, the Immigration Clinic received approval notices in TWENTY-SEVEN applications that we’ve filed in the last calendar year. 🎉Among those 27 approvals were approvals for #asylum, #lawfulpermanentresidency, #DACA, #TPS, and #workpermits. It has been so exciting to see–and share–the fantastic news with our clients, students, and alumni who worked on these cases!
Clinic students prepare Temporary Protected Status and work permit applications. (Spring 2023)
4) NDPA Superstar Kim Williams Triumphs Over Garland DOJ’s “Nexus Nonsense” In 1st Cir
“Ricardo Jose Pineda-Maldonado (“Pineda-Maldonado”) is a native and citizen of El Salvador. He petitions for review of the decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) that denied his application for asylum and claims for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We grant the petition, vacate the BIA’s decision, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this decision.”
[Please read the entire 31-page decision. It is a solid beat-down for the IJ and the BIA. Hats way off to Kim Williams and team! Listen to the oral argument here.]
Kim Williams, Esquire Rubin Pomerleau PC PHOTO: LinkedIn
5) HRF’s Robyn Barnard Calls Out Biden’s Threat To Trash Asylum
Robyn Barnard Associate Director of Refugee Advocacy Human Rights First PHOTO: Linkedin
Robyn writes on LinkedIn:
Have been thinking a lot about this statement & questioning how we got here. Anyone who works in this space knows just how complicated our laws & system are, the challenges global crises present, all compounded by recent attempts to totally destroy our immigration system. We know this is hard. However, the President has had at his service very smart ppl, experts, not to mention those in NGO space w decades of experience who have provided him reams of recommendation papers from before he was elected President, all wanting to help him to succeed at making the immigration system more efficient, more fair, but I’d guess most also came out of 4 yrs of Trump wanting to ensure we treat ppl w dignity & respect their basic human rights. If only he would listen.
How did the President go from vowing to “restore asylum” & “stop kids in cages” to essentially trying to out-Trump Trump? I wish we had a President who had the political courage to stand by immigrants, to stand in public & declare why detention, border walls, & summary deportations don’t work, & to invest in humane & smart solutions. The truly enraging thing about this is he will never win in his gross political posturing despite throwing migrants under the bus, or more aptly–literally to the cartels–the Right will never be satisfied & now he has put himself on record as in favor of Trump’s policies.
Shame. Shame on whoever had a hand in this hateful declaration and shame on the leader who put his name to it.
6) CEO Bill Penzy Likes & Appreciates Immigrants
Penzys Logo FROM: Facebook
Penzy, CEO of Penzy’s Spices in Wauwatosa, WI (my home town — graduated from Tosa East in ‘66) writes:
And despite all the Republican anger, it really is okay to say you like what immigrants do and have always done for this country. So much hard work. So much tasty food. What’s not to like? They need somewhere their hard work can amount to something, and we have plenty of space, and more work to do than we can do ourselves..
Immigrants give us the chance to be kind, decent humans. Let’s be kind, decent humans.
Thanks for caring enough to cook and caring about so much more.
Even in a time of “politicos’ bipartisan national fear-mongering, irresponsibility, and trashing of human rights,” courageous NDPA “freedom fighters” still stand up for human dignity and the right to asylum!
Artem Marchuk needed to escape Ukraine or die. He didn’t see any other options.
He and his wife and children had been living in Bakhmut, the site of the war’s deadliest battle. Even when they made it out of the city, nothing in Ukraine felt safe.
“My kids were very hungry,” Artem’s wife, Yana, said in an interview from the family’s home in Baltimore, where the U.S. government resettled them in 2022. “There was darkness everywhere.”
The Marchuks are among more than a million people whom the Biden administration has allowed into the United States over the past three years under an authority called humanitarian parole, which allows people without visas to live and work in the United States temporarily. Parole has been extended to Ukrainians, Afghans and thousands of people south of the U.S.-Mexico border fleeing poverty and war.
Now the program is at the heart of a battle in Congress over legislation that would unlock billions of dollars in military aid for some of President Biden’s top foreign policy priorities, such as Ukraine and Israel.
Republicans want to see a severe crackdown on immigration in exchange for their votes to approve the military aid — and restricting the number of people granted parole is one of their demands.
For Mr. Marchuk, the fact that a program that saved his family has become a bargaining chip on Capitol Hill feels wrong. Although the latest version of the deal would mostly spare Ukrainians seeking parole, he feels a deep sense of solidarity with other people — regardless of their nationality — who may be left behind if Congress imposes limits on the program.
Americans, he said, should welcome people like his family. Mr. Marchuk, a former technology in Ukraine, said he has found work helping other refugees with the advocacy organization Global Refuge, as well as driving for DoorDash, UPS and Amazon since he arrived in Baltimore.
“Refugees deliver these packages,” said Mr. Marchuk, 36. “American citizens who have an education,” he said, very often don’t want to work as drivers.
. . . .
The particulars of the deal in Congress are still being negotiated. A deal that is being discussed in the Senate seeks to reduce parole numbers by tightening immigration enforcement at the southern border.
That would not have a direct impact on the route that many Ukrainians took to America, since they generally do not arrive by the southern border. (Some Ukrainians do make it to the United States that way, however.)
But there is still deep uncertainty about whether the program will survive without changes.
Even some congressional Democrats who oppose substantially changing the parole program have acknowledged they may need to give in to some Republican demands to limit the program if they have any chance of passing the military aid package.
. . . .
As lawmakers debate the merits of the parole program, some immigrants in the United States say all the political talk glosses over the calamities in their home countries.
“People are dying left and right, being kidnapped and it’s just impossible,” said Valerie Laveus, who came to America from Haiti nearly 20 years ago and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2008. “I am concerned because I feel like a lot of times these people are having these conversations and they’re forgetting the human factor. They’re forgetting that they’re talking about lives.”
. . . .
Mr. Biden’s allies say restricting use of parole would very likely backfire.
“It means that people in desperate circumstances, who need protection, who need to leave, who need to flee, their options will be more limited, which increases the likelihood they choose the dangerous option of coming to the border,” said Cecilia Muñoz, one of Mr. Biden’s top immigration officials during the transition and co-chair of Welcome.US, an organization that helps Americans sponsor the resettlement of refugees to the United States.
Karoun Demirjian contributed reporting.
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Notably, according to this article, Congress appears ready to carve out a “White Guy Exception” for Ukrainians arriving from Europe. So much for the idea that current immigration policy by both parties isn’t “race driven” — with Hispanics and Blacks generally on the short end of the stick.
By contrast, high level politicos of the Biden Administration and Congressional Dems avoid the border like the plague, except for the few who represent border districts. They are not that much different from GOP nativists. They refuse to engage with border experts, those who have devoted their lives to assisting forced migrants at the border, and the migrants themselves, who certainly will face severe harm, even death, due to the cowardly “sellout” by Congressional Dems and the Administration.
Let’s be very clear about the documented consequences of eliminating asylum at the border:
NEW YORK – With Congress considering codifying additional policies that will trap asylum seekers in Mexico, Human Rights First today reports that it has tracked over 1,300 reports of torture, kidnapping, rape, extortion, and other violent attacks on asylum seekers and migrants stranded in Mexico since the administration’s asylum ban was enacted in May.
Basically, those pushing to appease the GOP White Nationalist restrictionists at the border are knowingly and intentionally advocating for deadly human rights violations! How is that acceptable?
Foreign-born workers consistently have a higher labor market participation rate than native-born workers. https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-immigrants-are-in-the-american-workforce/. Consequently, there is little reason to doubt that new waves of migration ultimately will benefit the U.S., particularly the many U.S. cities, large and small, in danger of depopulation and “death.” Ironically, many of the localities with the most to gain from robust migration are in “red” states.https://apple.news/AQkO0JQjKS9aXF-V-RD9-_Q
Instead of planning to avoid these “ghost towns,” using the influx of individuals who seek to help us as an opportunity, we’re “strategizing” and spending huge amounts of money expelling, “deterring,” imprisoning, rejecting, dehumanizing, and even killing those who seek refuge!
There are legitimate issues as to how to “front” services for asylum seekers until they can obtain work authorization and find jobs. THIS, is where bipartisan cooperation, creative solutions, and resources could be focused, rather than exclusively on counterproductive and expensive gimmicks to punish, deter, and deny. But, there’s no chance of that!
Instead, in an example of how far the one-sided debate has departed from reality and human decency, Biden now vows to “shut the border” if Congress will only give him the authority! https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/26/biden-vows-shut-down-an-overwhelmed-border-if-senate-deal-passes/. But, that’s apparently not enough cruelty and xenophobia for MAGAMike and his White Nationalist insurrectionists! They seek eradication of the lives and humanity of anybody with the temerity to seek refuge in the U.S.
And so it goes, ever onward and downward. The media has developed amnesia on the well-documented unmitigated disaster and cascade of human suffering that our nation’s most recent border shutdown generated. As stated by expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick on “X:”
Will the DC press (not those on the immigration beat) continue to ignore the fact that the last time we “shut down the border” under Title 42, it did not work and in fact led to 15 out of 20 of the highest months for border apprehensions in the 21st century?
We don’t know yet who the “winners” of the 2024 election will be, other than traffickers, cartels, exploiters, private prison corporations, undertakers, and body bag makers! But, we already know the “losers:” asylum seekers, Dreamers, human rights, persons of color, and those brave souls who continue to stand up for truth and equal justice for all!
Dem politicos and the Administration seem to be counting on the view that the Trump GOP is so horrible and antithetic to democracy that Dems can afford to dehumanize migrants, ignore their supporters, and break campaign promises without consequences. Just what they are getting in return isn’t obvious. From an immigrants rights’ and humanitarian standpoint, it’s “zilch.”
With Dems supposedly in charge of the Presidency and the the Senate, why are they ready to gift GOP restrictionists with what many have characterized as a “generational chance” to destroy asylum, hamstring legal immigration avenues, and squander even more money on hyper-cruel, race-driven, “sure to fail” border militarization and human rights violations?
Talk about “selling your soul!” That appears to have become the Democrats’ mantra in 2024. Whether it will prove a successful political strategy, remains to be seen!
“Thrown Under the Bus” Asylum seekers & advocates again expendable to Dems? That’s a political “strategy” as wrong as it is treacherous! Creative Commons 2.0 non-commercial license
More Than 2 in 3 Voters Support Having an Asylum System and Hiring More Immigration Judges and Asylum Officers
January 22, 2024
By Rob Todaro and Lew Blank
Members of Congress are once again engrossed in debate related to immigration and border security, issues that have seen little progress or reform in more than two decades. The current debate particularly focuses on the application process for asylum — a form of legal immigration that protects people who have faced persecution in their home country on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular political or social group.
A new Data for Progress survey asked likely voters in the U.S. about various funding measures and proposed policy changes related to the U.S. immigration system.
First, we find at least 80% of voters think reforming the legal immigration system and securing the border with Mexico should be priorities for the U.S. government. Seventy-one percent of voters also say addressing the root causes of migration from South and Central America through diplomatic relations and humanitarian aid should be a priority.
A strong majority of voters (69%) also support the U.S. having a system for asylum seekers to legally migrate to the U.S. to seek protection. When asked about potential changes to the asylum application process that would allow immigration officials to deport asylum seekers without allowing them to see a judge, voters prefer giving asylum seekers a meaningful opportunity to make their case before a judge rather than a higher standard that could lead to expedited removal.
Along these lines, a majority of voters, including 69% of Democrats and 58% of Independents, don’t think the U.S. should make it harder for asylum seekers to meet with an immigration judge.
When asylum seekers come to the U.S. and fill out an asylum application, they must wait a minimum of six months before they are able to apply for work authorization. Some lawmakers have proposed eliminating this six-month waiting period so that asylum seekers can support themselves instead of relying on others for assistance. Sixty-two percent of voters, including a majority of Democrats (73%), Independents (58%), and Republicans (54%), support eliminating the six-month waiting period for asylum seekers to apply for work authorization.
Since October, President Biden has been lobbying Congress to pass a more than $105 billion spending package for national security purposes that includes additional military aid for Ukraine and Israel, as well as roughly $14 billion for various funding measures related to immigration and border security.
Voters support many of the key immigration-related measures in this proposal, such as enhancing security at ports of entry (82%), increasing personnel and capacity to process immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border (75%), hiring new immigration judges (67%), and hiring new asylum officers (67%).
Lastly, 79% of voters, including 84% of Democrats, 78% of Independents, and 75% of Republicans, oppose separating migrant children from their parents or caregivers at the border.
These findings underscore that a strong majority of voters want the U.S. government to prioritize reforming the legal immigration system and securing the border, while also providing leniency to asylum seekers in regards to making their case before an immigration judge and being able to apply for work authorization.
Rob Todaro (@RobTodaro) is the communications director at Data for Progress.
Lew Blank (@LewBlank) is a communications strategist at Data for Progress.
Survey Methodology
From January 13 to 14, 2024, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,196 U.S. likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, geography, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±3 percentage points.
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Contrary to the myths spread by the GOP and the “scared to stand up for values” approach of the Administration and some Dem politicos, making the asylum, Immigration Court, work authorization, and resettlement systems work should have been one of the highest national priorities for the Biden Administration and Congress.
And, contrary to their misguided beliefs, throwing asylum seekers and their supporters under the bus by giving in to GOP White Nationalist demands is highly unlikely to be a “plus” for Dems going into the 2024 elections.
As of December 31, 2023, only the first quarter of FY 2024, the Biden Administration had already initiated 696,400 cases at EOIR. That’s more than the highest FULL FY (12 mo.) of the Trump Administration, 2019, in which 694,771 cases were started.
Moreover, in FY 2023, Biden filed an astounding 1,485,769 cases, more than twice the number that Trump did in FY 2019. Biden’s numbers in FY 2023 topped Trump’s other three years (278,218; 356,034; 216,589) BY MULTIPLES. In fact, Biden instituted approximately as many Immigration Court cases in FY 2023 as Trump did in his entire FOUR YEARS and is on a path to greatly exceed his 2023 total in FY 2024!
So the Trump/GOP blather about Biden not enforcing immigration laws is complete BS!
Biden’s muscular immigration enforcement efforts give lie to the GOP’s “open borders” claims, a point seldom made by the “mainstream media.” But, such over the top enforcement is NOT necessarily good news for America.
Even with more Immigration Judges under Biden — going on 700 — the annual decision-making capacity at EOIR is somewhere between 350,000 to 550,000. So, the Immigration Courts will not come close to keeping up with the flow of incoming cases, let alone reducing the backlog that has now mushroomed to more than 3,000,000.
There is no apparent plan for controlling the EOIR backlog and improving the much-criticized quality of decisions, which disproportionately harms legal asylum seekers of color while often adding to the backlog when rejected on review. That makes the Administration’s institution of new cases on a level guaranteed to create additional backlog appear irresponsible.
Moreover, it hasn’t helped that Attorney General Garland ignored pleas from most experts to make EOIR reform one of his highest, ideally his highest, national priority. Nor has Congress paid much attention to the glaring, chronic dysfunction at EOIR, despite pending legislation to create an Article I Immigration Court!
Biden is following in the footsteps of his Dem predecessors Obama and Clinton. In their initial election campaigns they “played to their base” by criticizing harsh GOP enforcement policies and extolling the benefits of immigration. Once in office, however, they became convinced that their credibility, and perhaps manhood, depended on out-enforcing and “out-crueling” their GOP predecessors.
Of course, this naive approach never produces the apparently desired result: That the GOP will acknowledge that Dems are serious about enforcement and strike the long needed “grand bargain” on immigration reform.
Predictably, that always backfires. The GOP just keeps repeating their “open borders” big lies, and the mainstream media provide little, if any, critical analysis or pushback. As long as kids aren’t being proudly exhibited in cages, the “mainstreams” quickly lose interest in the suffering, dehumanization, and death piling up on both sides of the border and in the “New American Gulag” as a result of the disastrously (and predictably) failed “enforcement-only” approach.
What Biden’s effort to “out-Trump Trump” REALLY shows is that more enforcement and attempting to use anti-immigrant legal decisions and a hopelessly backlogged adjudication system that keeps legal asylum seekers waiting indefinitely with a significant chance of wrongful denial if and when they are reached as a “deterrent,” doesn’t work, and in fact never has worked!
What’s needed is actually painfully obvious: A balanced approach that combines a properly generous asylum adjudication system, more avenues for legal immigration (both permanent and temporary), and an independent, functioning, expert, due-process oriented Immigration Court with reasonable, targeted, humane enforcement. That’s a message that both parties and the mainstream media are ignoring, to our national detriment. Too many Americans seem to have forgotten that in the process of dehumanizing and demonizing “the other” we degrade ourselves.
Or, put another way, we can diminish ourselves as a nation, but it won’t stop human migration!
That’s something for human rights activists and progressives to remember when some of these same spineless folks pelt your inbox with requests for your hard-earned dollars and your vote to help them save democracy — a democracy that they and their GOP nativist buddies don’t really believe in or defend!
Another example of truth losing out: Despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary, a substantial majority of GOP voters believe Trump’s “stolen election” lies. https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/70-percent-republicans-falsely-believe-stolen-election-trump/. And, whether or not they actually believe Trump’s falsehoods, almost no GOP office-holders, at any level, have the guts to challenge his absurdist claims.
MIAMI (AP) — Eight months after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States, a couple in their 20s sat in an immigration court in Miami with their three young children. Through an interpreter, they asked a judge to give them more time to find an attorney to file for asylum and not be deported back to Honduras, where gangs threatened them.
Judge Christina Martyak agreed to a three-month extension, referred Aarón Rodriguéz and Cindy Baneza to free legal aid provided by the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami in the same courthouse — and their case remains one of the unprecedented 3 million currently pending in immigration courts around the United States.
Fueled by record-breaking increases in migrants who seek asylum after being apprehended for crossing the border illegally, the court backlog has grown by more than 1 million over the last fiscal year and it’s now triple what it was in 2019, according to government data compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
Judges, attorneys and migrant advocates worry that’s rendering an already strained system unworkable, as it often takes several years to grant asylum-seekers a new stable life and to deport those with no right to remain in the country.
. . . .
Experts like retired judge Paul Schmidt, who also served as government immigration counsel while the last major reform was enacted nearly forty years ago, say the broken system can only be fixed with major policy changes. An example would be allowing most asylum cases to be solved administratively or through streamlined processes instead of litigated in courts.
“The situation has gotten progressively worse since the Obama administration, when it really started getting out of hand,” said Schmidt, who in 2016, his last year on the bench, was scheduling cases seven years out.
. . . .
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At the above link, read Giovanna’s excellent full article, based on interviews with those who actually are involved in trying to make this dysfunctional system function. Thanks, Giovanna, for shedding some light on the real, potentially solvable, “human rights crisis” enveloping and threatening the entire U.S. legal system. Contrary to “popular blather,” fulfilling our legal obligations to refugees is not primarily a “law enforcement” issue and won’t be solved by more border militarization and violations of individual rights of asylum seekers and other migrants!
There are lots of ways to start fixing this system!Gosh knows, most of them have been covered here on Courtside, sometimes several times, and they are all publicly available on the internet with just a few clicks. See, e.g.,
The “debate” on the Hill defines “legislative malpractice!” The voices of legal integrity, experience, and practicality aren’t being heard! Also, lots of great ideas from experts on fixing EOIR are stuffed in the “Biden Transition Team” files squirreled away in some basement cubbyhole at Garland’s DOJ.
But most politicos aren’t interested in listening to the experts, nor do they seem motivated to understand the real human problems at the border, in the broken Immigration Courts, and how many of the things they are considering will make the situation worse while empowering smugglers and cartels! Those are real human corpses piling up along the border, carried out of immigration prisons, being abused in Mexico, and floating in the river — mostly due to the brain-dead “enforcement only” policies now being given an overdose of steroids by congressional negotiators.
So, things just keep deteriorating. Many in the backlog who deserve a chance at a permanent place in our society, and the ability to contribute to their full abilities and potential, remain in limbo! That’s bad for them and for us as a society!
Amy E. Pope Director General International Organization for Migration PHOTO: IOMFilippo Grandi United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees PHOTO: UNHCR
Pope is the Director General (DG) of the International Organization for Migration; Grandi is the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
F
rom the sands of the Sahel to the waters of the Mediterranean, from the wilderness of the Darien in Central America to the Bay of Bengal, millions of refugees and migrants journey along routes that are synonymous with desperation, exploitation and lost lives. As the heads of the two U.N. agencies that protect and support people on the move, we believe this is one of the great global challenges of our time.
The loudest political response has been to claim that only tougher action can resolve it. Most recently, a number European states have announced plans to “offshore” or simply deport asylum seekers and/or make conditions around immigration and asylum more hostile.
Such plans are increasingly in vogue. They are also wrong. They overly concentrate on deterrence, control and law enforcement, and disregard the fundamental right to seek asylum. This approach is ineffective and irresponsible, leaving people stranded or compelling them to take even greater risks.
We do not want to understate the scale of the challenge created by today’s population movements. But to meet it, bigger thinking and bolder leadership are needed. The right strategy would tackle every stage of the journey, through a comprehensive and route-based approach of engagement. So, what should such a strategy look like?
First, we need to address the issues that compel people to leave home in the first place. Resolving conflicts, improving security, reinforcing human rights, providing sustained and reliable financial support to boost growth and resilience—all address the root causes of displacement and migration by investing in people’s futures. Failing to make these investments and cutting development aid are false economies.
Nonetheless, millions of people have no choice but to leave home—protracted conflicts, widescale rights abuses, intolerable poverty, and the devastating effects of climate change are just some of the causes. Yet the same point applies: offer hope and opportunity and people will take it.
. . . .
Two ingredients are essential for our proposals to succeed: cooperation and real responsibility-sharing between governments, even in these divisive times; and attention to every part of the journey. An approach focused mainly on deterrence will fail—indeed, it is already failing.
“Offer hope and opportunity and people will take it!” That’s essentially what the Supremes said 35 years ago in the landmark decision INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca requiring a suitably generous interpretation and application of the international “refugee” definition that also governs asylum.
Over the next several decades, slow but noticeable progress was made toward “realizing the full promise of Cardoza.” At one point, largely as a result of some Court of Appeals interventions, and a few positive BIA precedents granting asylum in the mid to late 1990’s, the “combined protection granted rate” for asylum, withholding, and CAT by EOIR, the primary precedent-setter and adjudicator of asylum law in the Executive Branch, exceeded 60% for those actually able to get to merits hearings in the somewhat haphazard system.
However, over the past several Administrations most of that progress has been reversed, sometimes intentionally, other times negligently. The dysfunction, mounting backlogs, poor precedents, lack of asylum expertise, endless “any reason to deny gimmicks,” and the dreaded “Aimless Docket Reshuffling” have made a mockery of justice for asylum seekers at EOIR. It has also generated a tidal wave of failure and mindless attempts by the USG to evade the rule of law and their responsibilities to fairly adjudicate asylum claims that goes far beyond our borders.
None of the nativist, restrictionist, proposals now being discussed in the Senate would help this situation! Indeed, they would undoubtedly make everything worse in the long run! They will also compromise our national security and enrich and embolden human smugglers and cartels. Nativist deterrence is definitely a “lose-lose proposition” even if many U.S. politicos are unwilling or unable to admit that!
In many ways, the “head in the sand” approach of prosperous nations to human migration reminds me of their past attempts to deny or ignore the effect of climate change — something that is directly related to forced migration and not adequately addressed by the post WW II refugee framework.
I was heartened to see among the recommendations in this article:
But this is not just about policies and strategies. It means engaging more closely with the people in mixed movements, such as offering practical and legal advice on accessing protection, to guidance on applying for third-country options. Such a chain of engagement might require new, bespoke models of collaboration but, if done strategically, would address a range of situations.\
Volunteer retired judges from various State and Federal systems could potentially assist the USG and NGOs by advance screening applicants, inside and outside the U.S., for asylum with an eye toward helping individuals make good choices and directing those unable to meet the current refugee and asylum criteria to humane alternatives. It’s exactly the type of new, creative, “model of collaboration” (and cost efficiency) that the authors recommend!
Given the current state of the world, with active wars on several fronts, and many corrupt and/or repressive governments, it’s highly likely that forced migration will continue to increase in the foreseeable future. That makes it essential that developed nations work with each other and humanitarian experts on viable, durable solutions that recognize the complexity, the opportunities, and the inevitability of human migration.
On Meet the Press today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spouted virtually every “border myth” in the book, without much effective pushback from moderator Kristen Welker. In particular, Welker continued her practice of not featuring any experts who actually work with forced migrants at the border. Meanwhile, Graham was unwilling to condemn Trump’s Hitlerian language about immigrants “poisoning the blood” despite numerous opportunities by Welker for him to do so.
What Graham didn’t do, and Welker didn’t press him on, was establish any connection between eliminating asylum and either reducing terrorist threats or fighting drug smuggling which has been shown time and again to have little or nothing to do with individuals struggling to get appointments through “CBP One” or turning themselves in to CBP upon entry to submit to asylum screening.
Additionally, Graham continued to repeat, without evidence (other than one lame anecdote), the nativist claim that almost nobody coming to the border has a legitimate fear of return. That contradicts almost all reports from those who actually work with forced migrants at the border and elsewhere. It’s also remarkable because the vast majority of those who have been allowed into the U.S. in the past year have not had an opportunity to document and present their claims in the fair merits hearing required by law. Yet the “border debate” remains largely one-sided and reality free!
That’s not to minimize the failure of the Biden Administration to heed expert advice and make major administrative, personnel, and expertise changes in the asylum adjudication system and the Immigration Courts on “Day One.” Nor does it excuse their failure to set up an organized, mutually beneficial, system for resettling those screened the into the country away from border points of entry.
Again, the absence of coherent rational discussion of asylum adjudication by experts by Meet the Press and other so-called “mainstream media” is both telling and disturbing. Certainly, internationally-recognized experts like Filippo Grande and Amy Pope must be available to Welker. Why don’t we ever hear from them?
Demand that Congress and the Biden Administration stop the toxic nonsense of “trading” the lives and rights of forced migrants for bombs and weapons to fight foreign wars. It’s time to get serious about developing immigration and refugee policies that operate in the “real world” of human migration, eschew expensive, cruel, proven to fail “deterrence only,” and give primacy to the humanity and rights of migrants and the opportunities they present for our world’s future!
Melissa Del Bosque Border Reporter PHOTO: Melissadelbosque.comCaitlyn Yates Fellow Strauss Center for International Law & Security PHOTO: Strauss Center
This podcast from Melissa Del Bosque of The Border Chronicle and Caitlyn Yates, who actually works with migrants in the Darien Gap, gives real life perspective on the humanitarian crisis and all the reasons why more cruelty, punishment, and deadly deterrence isn’t going to solve the flow of forced migrants. But, unhappily, policy makers aren’t interested in the voices of those who actually have experience with forced migrants, nor are they interested in learning from the forced migrants themselves — a logical — if constantly ignored — starting point for making sound policy decisions!
Migration and human rights experts have excelled in court and academia. Yet, they have been consigned to wander the political wilderness, their wisdom, expertise, and real world solutions are routinely ignored or mindlessly rejected by both political parties. Colmar – Unterlinden Museum – The Isenheim Altarpiece 1512-16 by Matthias Grünewald (ca 1470-1528) – Visit of Saint Anthony the Great to Saint Paul the Hermit in the Wilderness Creative Commons
Four “takeaways” on what a consensus on migration should be:
Human migration is real;
Forced migration is largely beyond the unilateral control of any one nation;
Deterrence alone won’t stop migration;
More legal pathways for migration are necessary.
We’re a long way from that needed consensus right now!
A robust asylum system is essential to national security. A closed border is as dangerous as an open border. If you close the asylum system, they will just cross illegally. Republicans need the border out of control. This is a trap!
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That’s it in a nutshell! Reality and practicality have nothing to do with it. It’s about the GOP creating chaos and fanning hate! Unhappily, Dems fall for it — every time! That’s why American democracy is on the ropes!
The Dems have ready access to the greatest “treasure trove” of real life expertise and truth about the border in history. Yet, they routinely ignore it and let themselves be “hoodwinked” by GOP nativists peddling lies, hate, and myths. It’s seriously undermining our democracy while squandering human lives and potential!
There’s deep irony in “national security” being disingenuously parroted by a party lead by a demagogue who encouraged actual insurrection against the U.S. Government! Yet Dems and the “mainstream media” fall for it! Gimmie a break!
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is taking a more active role in Senate negotiations about changes to the immigration system that Republicans are demanding in exchange for providing money to Ukraine in its fight against Russia and Israel for the war with Hamas.
The Democratic president has said he is willing to make “significant compromises on the border” as Republicans block the wartime aid in Congress. The White House is expected to get more involved in talks this week as the impasse over changes to border policy has deepened and the money remaining for Ukraine has dwindled.
Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who is leading the negotiations, pointed to the surge of people entering the U.S. from Mexico and said “it is literally spiraling out of control.”
But many immigration advocates, including some Democrats, say some of the changes being proposed would gut protections for people who desperately need help and would not really ease the chaos at the border.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democratic bargainer, said the White House would take a more active role in the talks. But he also panned Republican policy demands so far as “unreasonable.”
. . . .
Critics say the problem is that most people do not end up getting asylum when their case finally makes it to immigration court. But they say migrants know that if they claim asylum, they essentially will be allowed to stay in America for years.
“People aren’t necessarily coming to apply for asylum as much to access that asylum adjudication process,” said Andrew Arthur, a former immigration court judge and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for less immigration in the U.S.
Some of what lawmakers are discussing would raise the bar that migrants need to meet during that initial credible fear interview. Those who do not meet it would be sent home.
But Paul Schmidt, a retired immigration court judge who blogs about immigration court issues, said the credible fear interview was never intended to be so tough. Migrants are doing the interview soon after arriving at the border from an often arduous and traumatizing journey, he said. Schmidt said the interview is more of an “initial screening” to weed out those with frivolous asylum claims.
Schmidt also questioned the argument that most migrants fail their final asylum screening. He said some immigration judges apply overly restrictive standards and that the system is so backlogged that it is hard to know exactly what the most recent and reliable statistics are.
. . . .
WHAT MIGHT THESE CHANGES DO?
Much of the disagreement over these proposed changes comes down to whether people think deterrence works.
Arthur, the former immigration court judge, thinks it does. He said changes to the credible fear asylum standards and restrictions on the use of humanitarian parole would be a “game changer.” He said it would be a “costly endeavor” as the government would have to detain and deport many more migrants than today. But, he argued, eventually the numbers of people arriving would drop.
But others, like Schmidt, the retired immigration court judge, say migrants are so desperate, they will come anyway and make dangerous journeys to evade Border Patrol.
“Desperate people do desperate things,” he said.
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Ignoring both the powerful forces that drive human migration and folks who actually work with migrants at the border and in foreign countries seems like a totally insane way to “debate policy.” But, then, whoever said this “nativist-driven debate” on enhanced cruelty, dismantling the rule of law, and de-humanization is rational?
You can read Rebecca’s full article, with an “accessible” explanation of what’s at stake and what’s being proposed at the above link.
U.S. immigration law and policy, including border security and asylum, have nothing to do with Ukraine, NATO, Russia and Putin. Right?
Wrong, if you are a Republican in Congress. Here, let Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) explain: “I think … Schumer will realize we’re serious … and then the discussions will begin in earnest.”
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If you are still having trouble with the concept, I’ll translate for you: “Yes, we understand and agree that Russia cannot be allowed to take over Ukraine, and we will fund aid to Ukraine, but in exchange, we insist on fundamental changes to our immigration laws to make sure no more Brown people come to America, starting right effing now.” (“Brown,” in this context, means anyone who is poor, Latin American, Asian, African, non-Anglophone…you get the idea.)
How will this play out in the next few weeks? I see three options: 1) Biden and the Dems cave, so the 1980 Refugee Act is scrapped, Dreamers get deported, the southern border is further militarized, and the economy tanks because a good chunk of the workforce is afraid to come to work; or 2) the GOP does a Tuberville and caves; or 3) the Unknown Unknown.
Stay tuned…
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Thanks for telling it like it is, Dan! There is no validity to the GOP’s attempt to punish asylum seekers by unconscionably returning them to danger and death with no process.
The cruelty and threat to life from forcing desperate seekers to wait in dangerous conditions in Mexico, pushing them to attempt entry in ever more deadly locations along the border, detaining them in inhumane substandard prisons in the U.S., and or returning them without meaningful screening by qualified independent decision-makers is overwhelming. That Congress, the Administration, and much of the “mainstream media” choose to ignore, and often intentionally misrepresent, truth and reality about the horrible human and fiscal wastefulness of “border deterrence” doesn’t change these facts!
The Administration’s three year failure to build a functional, robust asylum system at the border with humane reception centers, access to legal assistance, a rational resettlement system, and sweeping, readily achievable, administrative reforms and leadership changes at EOIR and the Asylum Office (as laid out by experts, whose views were dismissed) is also inexcusable.
Yet, the media misrepresents this farce as a “debate.” It’s a false “debate” in which neither disingenuous “side” speaks for the endangered humans whose rights and lives they are bargaining away to mask their own failures and immorality.
