PACIFIC STANDARD: The Call For An Independent Article I U.S. Immigration Court Gets Louder! — Systemic Failure Of Due Process “At The Retail Level” Threatens Our Entire Justice System! — “Just one day observing in immigration court would highlight how inherently unfair the system can really be for someone fighting for their case.”

https://apple.news/Ai3XNRy5DTI2o3SbYAJuS_A

Massoud Hayoun reports for Pacific Standard:

Is It Time to Bring the Nation’s Immigration Courts Under the Judicial Branch?

U.S. immigration courts face an “existential crisis.” The American Bar Association says it has a solution.

The American Bar Association is renewing calls for lawmakers to overhaul the nation’s overwrought immigration court system by making the courts independent from the Department of Justice, and therefore from the Trump administration. The association is joined by a broad array of legal workers in accusing the administration of enacting policies that pressure immigration judges to ramp up deportations, with no apparent concern for due process or the rule of law.

The United States immigration court system is not part of the judicial branch, but rather is governed by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. The office was created to oversee the courts in 1983; previously they were under the control of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, also under the Department of Justice. Last week, the ABA identified an “existential crisis” within this system, finding it subject to “political interference,” to “policies and practices that threaten due process,” and to “longstanding and widespread under-resourcing.” It calls for a Congressional vote to establish the courts as an independent entity per Article I of the Constitution—also known as an Article I Court.

Shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, his administration told the press that it would work to slash an overwhelming backlog of immigration court cases, restoring an overburdened, sclerotic system to working shape. What followed were a series of policies—among which were quotas on case closures—that observers blame for threatening due process in an effort to facilitate mass-deportation of immigrants, and for exacerbating the immigration court backlog by funneling unprecedented numbers of immigrants into the system.

The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

Ashley Tabaddor, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, expresses her organization’s support for an independent immigration court. The ABA, NAIJ, and other organizations, including the Federal Bar Association, began to call for an independent immigration court system long before the Trump administration, during the presidency of Barack Obama.

“We hope that this administration and those mindful of a reasonable approach realize this isn’t a right-wing or left-wing answer; it’s an American answer that protects both efficiency and integrity of the courts,” Tabaddor says. “It hasn’t only been this administration that has pushed back on the idea of an independent [immigration court system]. Unfortunately, part of human nature is it resists what it perceives as giving up power. It means the executive branch would lose direct influence over how [the courts are] used.”

Although the Trump administration has repeatedly acknowledged the backlog and overwhelming challenges faced by immigration judges, it has also opposed an independent immigration court system. James McHenry, director of the Department of Justice office that oversees the courts, told a Senate committee in April that independent courts would not “address any of the core challenges facing the immigration courts.” McHenry repeatedly maintained that all immigrants are afforded due process.

Legal analysts argue, by contrast, that the current status of immigration courts as under the purview of the Department of Justice has politicized their work. “Our current system permits the political branches of government to yield tremendous power over immigration enforcement policies and practices,” says Kathleen Kim, an immigration law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “Without an independent judiciary, our system of government provides no check on abuse of that power and immigration court decisions suffer from the taint of impartiality.”

And with a court beholden to the president’s political agenda, immigrant lives—and the Constitution’s guarantees of fair trials—hang in the balance. “As we have seen in the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the Trump administration, the rights of immigrants have become a political football,” says Margaret Russell, a constitutional law professor at Santa Clara University. “Only independent immigration courts can provide a fair forum, as free from partisan politics as possible.”

“Just one day observing in immigration court would highlight how inherently unfair the system can really be for someone fighting for their case,” says Julia I. Vázquez, an immigrant rights professor at Los Angeles’ Southwestern Law School.

Late last year, Pacific Standard reported the story of a Guatemalan woman whose asylum petition had been denied even before a judge had an opportunity to review documents in support of her case, including her initial asylum declaration.

Despite the administration’s promises to help improve the immigration court system, analysts have decried a number of policies that they say have undermined the courts. In April of 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions required that immigration judges close at least 700 cases a year—with a low rate of appeal—in order to receive a favorable performance review. The move, ostensibly aimed at reducing the backlog, pressured the judges to plow through their caseloads, analysts have said, threatening due process for immigrants. And the move backfired: Rushed rulings are frequently appealed, further compounding the backlog.

In another similar measure in May, Sessions stopped the use of administrative closures, in which immigration judges withhold judgment on a case while immigrants make formal petitions for legal status. Administrative closures had helped judges to prioritize their dockets and avoid getting bogged down with lower-urgency cases.

Coupled with the administration’s unprecedented push to arrest undocumented immigrants with no criminal record, these decisions have made the court’s backlog grow nearly 50 percent under the Trump administration, according to the Syracuse University non-profit data research center, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. In November, there were over 768,000 outstanding cases.

Even with overwhelming concerns over backlog and broader questions about due process, it remains highly improbable that the immigration courts will become independent under a divided Congress and the Trump administration. “Keeping immigration courts within the executive branch will ensure adherence to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policy objectives,” Kim says.

What’s more, control of the immigration courts will enable the Trump administration to continue to ramp up deportations without the approval of a split Congress. “The opposition [to independent courts] is likely to defend executive branch oversight of immigration courts as the best antidote to Congressional inaction,” Russell says.

NAIJ’s Tabaddor says that, while it is not likely that immigration courts will be made independent anytime soon, there’s growing awareness among lawmakers from both parties of the problems with the system.

“As we see the expansion of the groundswell of support [for independence], it’ll be difficult for Congress not to act,” she says. “Of course, you always have to have hope in life, otherwise it’s not worth it.”

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EOIR’s “no problem” response to the unfolding disaster which, under DOJ political direction, its own bureaucrats have helped engineer “doesn’t pass the straight face test.”

Of course, giving control of Immigration Court dockets back to the judges who actually have to hear and decide cases is the necessary first step in rationalizing the system, ending the DOJ/EOIR’s “Aimless Docket Reshuffling,” and establishing priorities based on fundamental fairness to all parties and overall judicial efficiency, not solely the “DHS enforcement priority of the day.”

Nobody can solve overnight all the problems in our Immigration Courts that have built up and been allowed to fester over decades. But, placing the courts under apolitical, professional judicial control, like all other successful courts, would be a necessary first step from which “best practices” and other efficiencies that are consistent with Due Process would flow.

PWS

03-27-19

“DUE PROCESS DIES IN DARKNESS” — BIA “STONEWALLS” REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON CRITERIA FOR LIFE OR DEATH “EMERGENCY STAY” DECISIONS — Lawsuit Follows!

https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-government-has-not-revealed-how-deportation-decisions-are-made

Arvind Dilawar reports for Pacific Standard:

Imagine: You are living in the United States without documentation. Years ago, you were in danger of deportation but were allowed to stay by the federal government through prosecutorial discretion. Suddenly, you are caught in a surprise mass raid of your community by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Your family and lawyer bring your case to the Department of Justice’s Board of Immigration Appeals, petitioning board members to recognize that you should be allowed to stay in the U.S. But in as little as 24 hours, ICE has already deported you back to a country where you have not been in years, where you may have no family or friends, where you may even be in danger from the local government or paramilitary forces. The BIA has yet to make a decision about your case—or, perhaps worse, the board has decided that you should not have been deported in the first place. How do you return to your family and your home in the U.S. now?

It is scenarios like this—which affect a portion of the 256,085 peopledeported each year—that a new lawsuit filed against the BIA hopes to avert by bringing transparency to the procedures, timelines, and other aspects of the board’s inner workings. The American Immigration Council, a non-profit that protects immigrants’ rights, and the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic, which represents indigent immigrants facing deportation, brought the suit after the BIA failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests about their process for granting stays of removal. Such stays allow non-citizens to avoid deportation before their cases are heard by immigration courts.

Pacific Standard recently interviewed representatives from both the American Immigration Council and Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic—Claudia Valenzuela and Rikke Bukh, respectively—about the motivation behind their suit against the BIA, its aims, and its importance.

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Was there a specific incident or general trend that inspired you to file suit against the BIA?

Valenzuela: Both the Council and the Clinic have heard via reports, and experienced via clients, that individuals facing speedy deportation were not getting their motions for a stay of removal decided in time to avoid their physical removal. As we outlined in our complaint to the federal district court, this scenario is quite problematic as it is extremely difficult for individuals to fight their immigration cases once deported.

The stay of removal mechanism was intended to serve as a critical, potentially life-saving safeguard, and it should protect many of these people. However, the BIA’s deficient practices surrounding stays have made it ineffective, and the devastating consequences have emerged particularly sharply in the wake of these enforcement actions.

What specific information are you hoping to get out of the BIA?

Valenzuela: We are looking for all policies and procedures regarding stays of deportation filed in conjunction with motions to reopen or reconsider—and in particular how these requests are processed and tracked, timelines for deciding these requests, and how decisions on stays of deportation are communicated to individuals who request them and/or their attorneys. We also requested statistical data on the numbers of stays requested in conjunction with motions to reopen or reconsider, and rates of grants or denials in deciding those motions.

Bukh: We are seeking information that would give us insight into how the BIA makes these decisions, including guidance on adjudicating stay motions and other internal materials, as well as data to show how they make these types of decisions and the impact of current procedures and standards. It is necessary to make this information public so that courts, attorneys, and, most importantly, individuals who do not have representation can meaningfully access and utilize these mechanisms to prevent unlawful deportations.

On what grounds is the BIA refusing to share the information you’re requesting?

Valenzuela: The board claims that its information is protected on law-enforcement and national-security grounds. However, it is our position that the BIA has incorrectly invoked these exemptions.

Bukh: The agency has failed to respond in any substance regarding a significant category of information that we requested. It has also said that it does not track “non-emergency” requests for stays in its system and refused to locate such information in its files because, in its view, it would be “burdensome.”

How do you anticipate the case will proceed? If the BIA prevails, what then?

Bukh: We hope and expect that the court will see the important need for this information and require the agency to produce it expeditiously. However, the agency may recognize that its responses have been deficient and begin producing these records even before a court order. The important thing is that the public has access to this information. If the BIA were to prevail, we would review the basis for a decision and consider next steps from there.

Valenzuela: We are hopeful that the court will agree that the records we have requested are subject to public disclosure and order the BIA to release all records and statistics. Our requests address precisely the type of information that the BIA should make available to the public because it governs procedural due process for individuals in the most dire of circumstances: imminent deportation.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

USCIS Nominee Apparently Has Strong Anti-Immigrant Views!

https://psmag.com/news/trumps-uscis-pick-harsh-on-undocument-immigrants

Pacific Standard reports:

“Lee Francis Cissna, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the federal agency that handles applications for visas, refugee status, and citizenship, has put little on the public record in his 20 years as a lawyer, government employee, diplomat, and Capitol Hill aide.

But it turns out he has left many clues about how he could reverse Obama-era policies if he becomes director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, a non-enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

On Wednesday, May 24th, Cissna, 50, who has worked on immigration policy at Homeland Security for much of his career, is scheduled to appear at a confirmation hearing chaired by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley. From 2015 until earlier this year, Cissna worked for Grassley on immigration issues, having been detailed to his staff by Homeland Security. During that time, he remained on the agency’s payroll.

While there, he drafted dozens of letters under the senator’s name to Homeland Security officials, helping Grassley, an Iowa Republican, to intensify his oversight of immigration and creating a blueprint for dismantling President Barack Obama’s initiatives, according to a dozen current and former agency and congressional staff members.

ProPublica reviewed more than 60 of the letters sent by Grassley during the time Cissna worked in his office. Among the policies they criticized were:

An emergency program for Central American children to reunite with parents in the U.S. The system “unquestionably circumvents the refugee program established by Congress,” according to a November of 2015 letter.
The system for granting asylum to people claiming persecution in their home countries. A November of 2016 letter claimed thousands of immigrants were “amassing” in Mexican border cities with the intention of “asserting dubious claims of asylum, which will practically guarantee their entry.”
Giving so-called “Dreamers”—undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children—the chance to obtain travel documents on top of work permits. This program would “open the door to undocumented immigrants to gain U.S. citizenship,” a March of 2016 letter said.
A program allowing undocumented immigrants who are victims of crime to stay in the U.S. even if there are no visa slots available. A December of 2016 letter said the policy is “being exploited by those wishing to defraud the system and avoid deportation.”

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Dude seems to oppose many of the best things that USCIS has done to improve the immigration situation. Also appears that like Senator Grassley he has a habit of repeating largely “fact free” restrictionist, white nationalist dogma. Grassley is right on a few things (allowing cameras in court is one of them) but none of the items mentioned in this article.

PWS

05-25-17