🍁FALL ON LINEKIN BAY — “SHINE ON HARVEST MOON” 🌝

 

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🇺🇸 Due Process Forever & Happy Harvesting From Boothbay Harbor!

PWS

10-03-23

 

🇺🇸⛵️LABOR DAY PICTORIAL FROM LINEKIN BAY, MAINE!

Sailing vessels anchored in Linekin Bay -- Labor Day Weekend 2023
Sailing vessels anchored in Linekin Bay — Labor Day Weekend 2023
Windjammer American Eagle anchored just off the Schmidt Family Dock
American Eagle anchored just off the Schmidt Family Dock
08-31-23
First Fire
First Fire in newly refurbished historic fireplace!
08-31-23
Ready for Game Day
Ready for Game Day!
08-31-23

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“Fun facts” about the Windjammer American Eagle:

Let’s go sailing

A sailing vacation on the American Eagle is right for just about everyone—couples, friends, families with children, ages 12 and up, and independent travelers. There is an easy congeniality on board that makes for instant relaxation and great camaraderie.

Captain Tyler King has been sailing and working on boats since he was very small spending most summers sailing all around Massachusetts Bay and up beyond Penobscot Bay. He has been in the Windjamming fleet since 2013, working on quite a few of the vessels. The American Eagle sails Down East on four to six day cruises. Sometimes longer adventures of 9 to 14 days to the Canadian Maritimes or tall ship events

are planned. Spectacular scenery, wildlife, lighthouses, and wonderful meals, including an island lobster bake are part of every trip.

Each cruise is a unique adventure: exciting sailing at an affordable price. Most of our guests have sailed with us before or come on the recommendation of a friend.

Board after 6 p.m. on the trip date, settle\ in and sleep aboard that night before we sail the next morning. Pack casual, comfortable clothes, and two pair of rubber soled shoes (no high heels, flip flops, golf shoes, or dress whites, please). Rain gear, a warm sweater or jacket, a sun hat and sunscreen are musts. Bring your camera; you’ll take a lot of pictures.

You are encouraged to follow our course on the chart, take the wheel and sail the schooner. Or, kick back, bask in the sun, and read. As for the sailing—well, that’s just one reason our guests keep returning. But don’t take our word for it—try it for yourself!

A few facts to know before you sail

  • The American Eagle accommodates 26 guests and is 92 feet on deck. She’s the only National Historic Landmark vessel to meet international safety standards.
  • Single cabins are available upon request.
  • All cabins have reading lights, fresh linens, hotand cold running water, 12-volt outlets, and places

    to hang your clothes.

  • Toilets and a separate fresh hot water shower areconveniently located below deck; you can walk through

from the galley to most cabins.

  • We heat the compartments below for comfortearly and late in the season.
  • There’s no smoking below deck. Electronics may beused only with headphones.
  • There’s convenient air, van and bus servicedirectly to Rockland.
  • We offer free parking right on our own wharf.We even have room to plug in your RV!

We take MasterCard, Visa and Discover. Contact us with any questions.

Captain Tyler R. King • Schooner American Eagle P.O. Box 482, Rockland, Maine 04841

1-800-648-4544 info@schooneramericaneagle.com

🇺🇸 Happy Labor Day & Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-01-23

📷 LINEKIN BAY SUNSET — By Susanna Schmidt

Linekin Bay Sunset 1
Linekin Bay Sunset 1
Photographer: Susanna Schmidt
Green Bay, WI
08-01-23
Linekin Bay Sunset 2
Linekin Bay Sunset 2
Photographer: Susanna Schmidt
Green Bay, WI
08-01-23

**********************************

Susanna is our 16-year-old granddaughter who lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with her family. She is currently “on loan” to us in Maine, pending the arrival of the rest of her family in a few days!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-03-23

“WISCONSIN SPRING”

“Wisconsin Spring”
“Wisconsin Spring”
Green Bay
May 1, 2023

On my way to the Sharma-Crawford Clinic Litigation Trial College in Kansas City, May 4-6, 2023!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS😎

05-01-23

🎊HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023 FROM COURTSIDE — A RETROSPECTIVE — From The 12-26-16 Edition Of “Courtside” — The NDPA Has Gotten Stronger; Our Political, Judicial, & Bureaucratic Officials, Not So Much!

Starving Children
If these kids survive, what will they think about a rich nation that turned its back on the world’s most vulnerable in their hour of need?
Creative Commons License

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/newsheadlines/archive/2016/10/18/saving-child-migrants-while-saving-ourselves-hon-paul-wickham-schmidt-ret.aspx?Redirected=true

Originally published by LexisNexis Immigration Community on Oct. 18, 2016:

SAVING CHILD MIGRANTS WHILE SAVING OURSELVES 

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

They cross deserts, rivers, and territories controlled by corrupt governments, violent gangs, and drug cartels. They pass through borders, foreign countries, different languages and dialects, and changing cultures.

I meet them on the final leg of their trip where we ride the elevator together. Wide-eyed toddlers in their best clothes, elementary school students with backpacks and shy smiles, worried parents or sponsors trying to look brave and confident. Sometimes I find them wandering the parking garage or looking confused in the sterile concourse. I tell them to follow me to the second floor, the home of the United States Immigration Court at Arlington, Virginia. “Don’t worry,” I say, “our court clerks and judges love children.”

Many will find justice in Arlington, particularly if they have a lawyer. Notwithstanding the expedited scheduling ordered by the Department of Justice, which controls the Immigration Courts, in Arlington the judges and staff reset cases as many times as necessary until lawyers are obtained. In my experience, retaining a pro bono lawyer in Immigration Court can be a lengthy process, taking at least six months under the best of circumstances. With legal aid organizations now overwhelmed, merely setting up intake screening interviews with needy individuals can take many months. Under such conditions, forcing already overworked court staff to drop everything to schedule initial court hearings for women and children within 90 days from the receipt of charging papers makes little, if any, sense.

Instead of scheduling the cases at a realistic rate that would promote representation at the initial hearing, the expedited scheduling forces otherwise avoidable resetting of cases until lawyers can be located, meet with their clients (often having to work through language and cultural barriers), and prepare their cases. While the judges in Arlington value representation over “haste makes waste” attempts to force unrepresented individuals through the system, not all Immigration Courts are like Arlington.

For example, according to the Transactional Records Clearinghouse at Syracuse University (“TRAC”), only 1% of represented juveniles and 11% of all juveniles in Arlington whose cases began in 2014, the height of the so-called “Southern Border Surge,” have received final orders of removal. By contrast, for the same group of juveniles in the Georgia Immigration Courts, 43% were ordered removed, and 52% of those were unrepresented.

Having a lawyer isn’t just important – it’s everything in Immigration Court. Generally, individuals who are represented by lawyers in their asylum cases succeed in remaining in the United States at an astounding rate of five times more than those who are unrepresented. For recently arrived women with children, the representation differential is simply off the charts: at least fourteen times higher for those who are represented, according to TRAC. Contrary to the well-publicized recent opinion of a supervisory Immigration Judge who does not preside over an active docket, most Immigration Judges who deal face-to-face with minor children agree that such children categorically are incompetent to represent themselves. Yet, indigent individuals, even children of tender years, have no right to an appointed lawyer in Immigration Court.

To date, most removal orders on the expedited docket are “in absentia,” meaning that the women and children were not actually present in court. In Immigration Court, hearing notices usually are served by regular U.S. Mail, rather than by certified mail or personal delivery. Given heavily overcrowded dockets and chronic understaffing, errors by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) in providing addresses and mistakes by the Immigration Court in mailing these notices are common.

Consequently, claims by the Department of Justice and the DHS that women and children with removal orders being rounded up for deportation have received full due process ring hollow. Indeed a recent analysis by the American Immigration Council using the Immigration Court’s own data shows that children who are represented appear in court more than 95% of the time while those who are not represented appear approximately 33% of the time. Thus, concentrating on insuring representation for vulnerable individuals, instead of expediting their cases, would largely eliminate in absentia orders while promoting real, as opposed to cosmetic, due process. Moreover, as recently pointed out by an article in the New York Times, neither the DHS nor the Department of Justice can provide a rational explanation of why otherwise identically situated individuals have their cases “prioritized” or “deprioritized.”

Rather than working with overloaded charitable organizations and exhausted pro bono attorneys to schedule initial hearings at a reasonable pace, the Department of Justice orders that initial hearings in these cases be expedited. Then it spends countless hours and squanders taxpayer dollars in Federal Court defending its “right” to aggressively pursue removal of vulnerable unrepresented children to perhaps the most dangerous, corrupt, and lawless countries outside the Middle East: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), the institution responsible for enforcing fairness and due process for all who come before our Immigration Courts, could issue precedent decisions to stop this legal travesty of accelerated priority scheduling for unrepresented children who need pro bono lawyers to proceed and succeed. But, it has failed to act.

The misguided prioritization of cases of recently arrived women, children, and families further compromises due process for others seeking justice in our Immigration Courts. Cases that have been awaiting final hearings for years are “orbited” to slots in the next decade. Families often are spread over several dockets, causing confusion and generating unnecessary paperwork. Unaccompanied

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children whose cases should initially be processed in a non-adversarial system are instead immediately thrust into court.

Euphemistically named “residential centers” — actually jails — wear down and discourage those, particularly women and children, seeking to exercise their rights under U.S. and international law to seek refuge from death and torture. Regardless of the arcane nuances of our asylum laws, most of the recent arrivals need and deserve protection from potential death, torture, rape, or other abuse at the hands of gangs, drug cartels, and corrupt government officials resulting from the breakdown of civil society in their home countries.

Not surprisingly, these “deterrent policies” have failed. Individuals fleeing so-called “Northern Triangle” countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have continued to arrive at a steady pace, while dockets in Immigration Court, including “priority cases,” have mushroomed, reaching an astonishing 500,000 plus according to recent TRAC reports (notwithstanding efforts to hire additional Immigration Judges). As reported recently by the Washington Post, private detention companies, operating under highly questionable government contracts, appear to be the only real beneficiaries of the current policies.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We could save lives and short-circuit both the inconsistencies and expenses of the current case-by-case protection system, while allowing a “return to normalcy” for most already overcrowded Immigration Court dockets by using statutory Temporary Protected Status (known as “TPS”) for natives of the Northern Triangle countries. Indeed, more than 270 organizations with broad based expertise in immigration matters, as well as many members of Congress, have requested that the Administration institute such a program.

The casualty toll from the uncontrolled armed violence plaguing the Northern Triangle trails only those from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. TPS is a well- established humanitarian response to a country in crisis. Its recipients, after registration, are permitted to live and work here, but without any specific avenue for obtaining permanent residency or achieving citizenship. TPS has been extended among others to citizens of Syria and remains in effect for citizens of both Honduras who needed refuge from Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and El Salvador who needed refuge following earthquakes in 2001. Certainly, the disruption caused by a hurricane and earthquakes more than a decade ago pales in comparison with the very real and gruesome reality of rampant violence today in the Northern Triangle.

Regardless, we desperately need due-process reforms to allow the Immigration Court system to operate more fairly, efficiently, and effectively. Here are a few suggestions: place control of dockets in the local Immigration Judges, rather than bureaucrats in Washington, as is the case with most other court systems; work cooperatively with the private sector and the Government counsel to docket cases at a rate designed to maximize representation at the initial hearings; process unaccompanied children through the non-adversarial system before rather

3

than after the institution of Immigration Court proceedings; end harmful and unnecessary detention of vulnerable families; settle ongoing litigation and redirect the talent and resources to developing an effective representation program for all vulnerable individuals; and make the BIA an effective appellate court that insures due process, fairness, uniformity and protection for all who come before our Immigration Courts.

Children are the future of our world. History deals harshly with societies that mistreat and fail to protect children and other vulnerable individuals. Sadly, our great country is betraying its values in its rush to “stem the tide.” It is time to demand an immigrant justice system that lives up to its vision of “guaranteeing due process and fairness for all.” Anything less is a continuing disgrace that will haunt us forever.

The children and families riding the elevator with me are willing to put their hopes and trust in the belief that they will be treated with justice, fairness, and decency by our country. The sole mission and promise of our Immigration Courts is due process for these vulnerable individuals. We are not delivering on that promise.

The author is a recently retired U.S. Immigration Judge who served at the U.S. Immigration Court in Arlington Virginia, and previously was Chairman and Member of the Board of Immigration Appeals. He also has served as Deputy General Counsel and Acting General Counsel of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, a partner at two major law firms, and an adjunct professor at two law schools. His career in the field of immigration and refugee law spans 43 years. He has been a member of the Senior Executive Service in Administrations of both parties.

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Recently, NDPA stars have achieved important senior positions in the Congress, the judiciary, and the immigration bureaucracy. We will need many, many more in such positions to finally turn around the limping ship of state on human rights, immigration, racial justice, smart economics, and values-based practical leadership! In the end, it’s going to be up to the “newer generations” to overcome the mistakes of my generation and create a better America and a better world — one in which individual rights and human dignity are respected and everyone can achieve their fullest potential.

Here’s a New Year’s greeting from New York courtesy of Round Table leader, talented photographer, and proud new granddad, Hon. “Sir Jeffrey” Chase:

Happy New Year in NY 2023
Happy New Year in NY 2023
PHOTO: Jeffrey Chase

😎🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-01-23

😎🗽⚖️ HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM COURTSIDE & THE NDPA!

Happy Thanksgiving Vegan Turkey
Happy Thanksgiving Vegan Turkey
By Cathy Schmidt

Today’s Thanksgiving message from Elliott Kirschner & Dan Rather @ Steady: 

https://open.substack.com/pub/steady/p/happy-thanksgiving?r=330z7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Happy Thanksgiving

Gratitude for so much

Dan Rather

and

Elliot Kirschner

13 hr ago

577

241

Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving
Illustration: Daria Mikhaylova

Illustration: Daria Mikhaylova

Happy Thanksgiving

Gratitude for dreams, learning, and our diversity.

For our country’s most noble ideals.

For science.

Appreciation for the beauty of our planet.

For the wonders of music.

For the mysteries of our consciousness.

Recognition of the persistence of injustice.

Of the struggles for so many.

Of the contagion of hate.

Indebtedness to the support of friends and family.

To the inspiration of teachers.

To all those who refuse to look away from need.

Understanding that civic engagement requires ongoing effort.

That suffering should not be accepted.

That divisions induce weakness.

Praise for the poets who help us understand life, death, and everything in between.

For those whose courage protects us.

For those who came before us determined to make the world a better place.

Blessings for the children who can fix our damaged planet.

For the helpers who provide shoulders on which to lean.

For the leaders who refuse to abandon hope.

A deep and heartfelt thankfulness to all of you who have created a community of care, support, and steadiness.

Note: If you are not already a subscriber to our Steady newsletter, please consider joining us. And we always appreciate you sharing our content with others and leaving your thoughts in the comments.

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Thankful for:

  • The courage, determination, skills, and humanity of migrants of all kinds who enrich our nation with their presence;
  • Family, friends, and colleagues;
  • Pets, particularly Smokey the Cat, “Dunky Dog,” his friends   ( canines & humans) from the “7 AM, 711 Dog Club,” and the extended “Schmidt Family Menagerie;”
Duncan “Dunky Dog” Schmidt
Duncan “Dunky Dog” Schmidt
  • My wonderful colleagues @ The Round Table, AYUDA, Georgetown Law, and the rest of the NDPA for their tireless efforts to guarantee due process and fundamental fairness for all!

🇺🇸Happy Thanksgiving and Due Process Forever from Courtside!

PWS

11-24-22

😎👍🏼🖼🌅THE VIEW FROM MAINE: Boothbay Harbor Welcomes Foreign Workers!

 

Welcoming Workers @ Boothbay Congo
Scene from the Workers from Away gathering at the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor on June 27. Courtesy photo from Boothbay Register

 

From the Boothbay Register:

https://www.boothbayregister.com/article/welcoming-workers-away/162480

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF BOOTHBAY HARBOR

Welcoming workers from away

Alice Mutch

Sat, 07/02/2022 – 8:45am

Where else on the peninsula would you see in a church five young foreigners laughing and speaking in Turkish with a 96-year-old parishioner, exchanging contacts and making plans to visit again?

With love, the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor welcomed over 186 workers from away who traveled from other countries and around the USA to work in our community on June 27. This long tradition continues to “welcome strangers” and give them community support information to make their stay safer and more enjoyable.

Thirty-seven (37) of those 186 were able to get to the church to enjoy a “lunch and learn.” The remaining received gift bags from the church which were hand delivered to 149 workers by the Mission Committee.

At the “lunch meet” this shy and reticent group of 37 soon turned into an upbeat and hopeful number of workers who got to know each other and make plans to socialize together. We, the Mission Committee, learned a lot, too, about each of their homes of origin, their aspirations and fears.

There were workers from Russia, Serbia, Romania, India, Moldova, Albania, Croatia, Turkey and Montenegro as well as Texas, Maine, Washington, D.C., Silver Spring, Maryland and Kansas.

With a delicious takeaway lunch on site, they heard from our pastor, police department; Rotary and our town’s resources. They appreciated learning how to feel safe here and how to utilize our local services. Included in this event were Rotary bikes for loan with a $100 deposit.

For those who could not attend, we distributed gifts to the participating businesses’ 145 workers with gifts of information and fun food. Nearly every business that hires these folks participated and voiced their appreciation of the event.

The workers were interested in fun together in their free time and agreed to share their contact information with each other. They asked for us to arrange for a second event in September so that they might learn from each others’ experiences. One medical student asked to participate in a local community project and will be a guest at our upcoming Mission Committee meeting.

We offer a special thanks to all of the businesses which chose to participate and especially to Hannaford which donated a great deal of food.

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Workers from abroad have been an essential part of the summer economy here in Boothbay Harbor for the decades we have been coming here. They enrich everyone’s experience while learning and experiencing some “real Americana!”

And, there can be little doubt why the Boothbay Region is an international,drawing card!

S/V Believe
S/V Believe
Home Port, Bradenton FL
Anchored in Linekin Bay
Captains Rick & Julie Peterson
Lewis Cove
Lewis Cove
Go Pack — Go Badgers
Go Pack! — Go Badgers!
The Isaac H. Evans
The Isaac H. Evans
Linekin Bay
Linekin Bay
Boothbay Harbor
Boothbay Harbor from East Side — Whales Tale Pub
“Funky Dog”
“Dunky Dog”

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

97-15-22

🛡⚔️ THE LEGEND OF THE ROUND TABLE CONTINUES TO GROW! — Making A Difference Even When The Results Are Not What We Wished For! — PLUS, “BONUS COVERAGE” OF THE “SUPER MOON,” COURTESY OF “SIR JEFFREY!”

Jeffrey S. Chase
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase
Jeffrey S. Chase Blog
Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges

“Sir Jeffrey” Chase reports:

9th Circuit Decision in U.S. v. Bastide-Hernandez

Hi all:Attached please find the published, en banc decision of the 9th Circuit issued yesterday in U.S. v. Bastide-Hernandez.As expected, the court held that the absence of a date and time of hearing does not deprive the Immigration Court of jurisdiction.

However, please note the concurring opinion of Judge Friedland, stating that although the court held that the issue is not jurisdictional, “there are strong argument for the contrary position,” adding that the Supreme Court may reach a different conclusion.

Judge Friedland also quoted our Round Table’s amicus brief at length, as follows:

“An amicus brief filed by former immigration judges elaborates on why it better serves clarity, efficiency, and due process to include the time and location of the hearing in an NTA in the first instance. As amici explain, incomplete initial notice documents create uncertainty both for noncitizens, who are left in the dark as to when and where a potentially life-changing proceeding will be held, and for immigration judges, who cannot be sure if a case can proceed. Amici also note that the Government’s notice-by- installment practice creates additional fact-finding obligations for immigration judges, who may need to look to multiple documents to determine whether informational gaps in the initial notice have been filled. And amici caution that, because immigration judges are already overburdened and face pressure to complete cases, ambiguities about notice may lead immigration judges to order noncitizens removed when they fail to show up at their hearings, even if the noncitizens never received notice of those hearings at all.”

I think that this lengthy reference demonstrates the importance of our work.

Best, Jeff

US v. Bastide-Hernandez

 

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In the words of Ninth Circuit Judge Michelle Friedland (Obama appointee): “[I]t better serves clarity, efficiency, and due process to include the time and location of the hearing in an NTA in the first instance.” 

What if we had an EOIR where all judges at the trial and appellate levels and all senior administrators were unswervingly committed to due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices?

Instead, we have a dysfunctional organization where DHS’s wishes, perceived expediency, and keeping the “political bosses” happy (thus providing “job security”) triumphs over the public interest and the cause of justice. Currently, we’re “saddled” with a broken system that sees Immigration Court as a “soft deterrent” rather than a dispenser of justice could actually make our immigration, human rights, and justice system run more smoothly by applying fair procedures and “best interpretations.” That would facilitate the legal admission of many more migrants, while starting to “disempower smugglers,” cut backlog, discourage poor practices at DHS Enforcement, promote consistency, and keep many disputes that should be resolved in favor of respondents out of the Article IIIs!

Better, more reasonable administrative precedents that adhered to the proper interpretations of asylum and protection laws and provided positive guidance on how to apply them to recurring situations would also “leverage” the Asylum Office by allowing many more cases to be granted at the first level. As long as the current lousy BIA precedents prevail, far too many cases will just be denied at the AO level and referred to Immigration Court — making it a colossal waste of time. “So-called streamlining” will only work if it results in significantly more AO grants of protection!

We “win some, lose some.” But, our Round Table’s cause is justice; we’re not going to give up until this system makes the long overdue, radical personnel, procedural, attitude, and “cultural” changes necessary to become the “best that it can be!” 

That means fulfilling the Immigration Courts’ once and future vision of “through teamwork and innovation become the world’s best tribunals guaranteeing fairness and due process for all.” 

Bonus Coverage:

“Sir Jeffrey’s” skills aren’t confined to the legal arena. Here are some pictures he took from his balcony of last night’s “Super Moon:”

Super Moon
“Super Moon”
July 13, 2022
By Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

07-14-22

  

🇺🇸👍🏼🏆NEWS FROM MAINE: US OLYMPIC TEAM’S SNEAKERS MADE IN MAINE BY IMMIGRANT CRAFTSPERSONS WITH ALL-AMERICAN PRODUCTS!

Linekin Bay
Linekin Bay, Maine

Polo Ralph Lauren, Team USA’s sponsor, commissioned Rancourt & Co. in Lewiston to make the team’s sneaker for the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony.

https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/sports/olympics/team-usas-olympic-opening-ceremony-sneakers-made-by-lewiston-maine-shoemaker/97-fab1e868-9ab6-45bb-93c4-f43a11b4e616

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The folks saving this Maine industry and making America proud are mostly asylees from Africa. Something to remember and reflect upon the next time you hear GOP “magamorons” and White Nationalist racist nativists claim that legal asylum seekers are a “problem,” rather than a key part of the solution! Indeed, the “problem” appears to be with the GOP White Nationalist restrictionists and nativists!

I’ve personally seen how immigrants of all kinds from all places have rejuvenated Maine with their hard work, culture, adaptability, and energy. Whether it’s the checkout person at the local grocery store, the folks who run the best carry-out in town with the brilliant daughter, or the helpful associate at L.L. Bean, immigrants are a key part of what makes Maine a great place to visit or live.

Go USA! Go Immigrants!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

07-29-21

HISTORY: YOUNGER THEN THAN NOW! — “Sir Jeffrey” Chase & Me @ The International Association of Refugee Law Judges’ Seminar in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 1997

“Sir Jeffrey and Me
“Sir Jeffrey & Me
Nijmegen, The Netherlands 1997
PHOTO: Susan Chase

Well, we’re not as young as we were. But, we’re still working together to raise awareness and advance the principles of the U.N.Convention & Protocol on the Status of Refugees and to restore due process and fundamental fairness to the dysfunctional Immigration Courts through all of our amazing colleagues on the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges.

Jeffrey S. Chase
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase
Jeffrey S. Chase Blog
Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges
Me
Me

 

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

06-27-21

🤡☠️SOMETIMES A VIDEO SAYS IT BEST: Trumpism In Motion (It Ain’t “Poetry In Motion”): “Send In The Clowns . . . .

Trump Clown
Donald J. Trump
Famous American Clown
(Officially titled “Ass Clown”)
Artist: Scott Scheidly
Orlando, FL
Reproduced by permission
Eddie Colla

August 24 at 9:29 PM·

The montage I did for opening night of The Republican National Convention was rejected, unfortunately.

 

https://www.facebook.com/1122343656/posts/10218552451658834/

 

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“Don’t bother, they’re here!”🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

Great work, Eddie (and, of course artist Scott Scheidly for the enduring image of our “Clown Prince” reproduced, with permission, above)! Many congrats! Can’t see why the RNC rejected this masterpiece!

Another four years of Trumpism threatens not only the livelihood of hard-working professional clowns, but also is guaranteed to bring unnecessary suffering, lasting harm, and otherwise avoidable death to many. Perhaps you, your family, or your loved ones will be among the kakistocracy’s victims!

Better get out the vote for Joe, Kamala, and their better, more humane, more unifying program for America!

This November, vote like your life depends on it. Because it does!

 

PWS

08-28-20

 

 

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD: “Maine Voices: Refugees know what it means to live with uncertainty”

 Maine Daybreak
“Maine Daybreak”
Photo by Paul Wickham Schmidt

https://www.pressherald.com/2020/05/27/maine-voices-refugees-know-what-it-takes-to-live-with-uncertainty/?utm_source=Headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily&mc_cid=b954215681&mc_eid=db76bf0a33

As we all cope with the COVID crisis, we can learn a lesson in resiliency.

BY EKHLAS AHMED SPECIAL TO THE PRESS HERALD

In 2005, on my first day of school in America, I got off at the wrong bus stop. Days before, my family and I moved to Portland, having fled genocide in our native Darfur, Sudan. I was 11 years old, had never ridden a public bus before and couldn’t speak English. I walked around lost for eight hours until the Portland police finally found me. I’m now 26, and I think the most courageous thing I’ve ever done is to get back on that bus the next day.

I’ve thought about this story a lot during the pandemic. Like everyone, I feel the uncertainty and pain of this moment. But when I remember the struggles I’ve overcome as a refugee and newcomer to America, I am reminded of how resilient human beings are. You certainly don’t have to be a refugee in order to know perseverance, but take it from someone who has been displaced, lost and in fear of her life: we can get through this. Here’s how.

First, find your purpose by serving others. Given the trauma that refugees have experienced, you wouldn’t expect us to be so resilient. But we forge ahead by reaching out. It’s no surprise that healthcare is the second most common field for refugees in the U.S., according to New American Economy. A fifth of refugee healthcare workers are personal care aides, 14 percent are registered nurses and 8 percent are doctors. Refugees fill these rolls, because we want to give back to the country that welcomed us. But we also do it because selflessness eases our suffering. I became an ESOL teacher five years ago because I knew I would be in a unique position to help young newcomers. I’ve walked in their shoes and understand how to build a safe learning environment for them to thrive.

Second, find hope in community. In refugee circles, even those of us who aren’t strictly “essential” are lifting our neighbors up through mutual-aid organizing. This is a type of local support that refugee communities use to fill in the gaps after our resettlement assistance ends. In normal times, networks of neighbors might organize ride shares and translation assistance for newcomers. Now we’ve added services to meet changing demands. Before coronavirus hit Portland, there was no existing infrastructure to get groceries to the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions. To meet that need, myself and other volunteers are doing the shopping for them. I’m also hosting virtual information meetings to keep the refugee community up-to-date on the latest coronavirus guidelines and teaching people how to use services like Zoom so they can participate and keep up with friends and family.

Lastly, don’t keep your fear bottled up. Refugees know how important it is to have an outlet to express our feelings. This is true for so many of us who have experienced trauma, but especially the women who suffered sexual violence during war. That’s why my mom is a care provider at Spurwink, a Portland organization that helps individuals affected by mental health challenges and developmental disabilities. And it’s why I started hosting bi-monthly conference calls for anyone who wants to share their pandemic experiences. Given widespread job loss, food insecurity and the inability to pay the rent, it’s no wonder that experts are warning about the profound impact coronavirus will also have on our mental health. Talking to your friends and neighbors or simply lending an ear is crucial to breaking through the isolation. It reminds us that we are not alone.

If coronavirus has taught me anything, it’s that we all have far more in common than we think. As states begin to slowly reopen in the coming weeks and months, we will need each other more than ever. Refugees are used to approaching challenges day by day, because tomorrow has never been promised to us. We are proof that all Mainers—and all Americans—can persist through this crisis and adapt to our new normal. We may feel lost, but tomorrow is another day. Have courage.

Ekhlas Ahmed is a refugee, activist and educator from Darfur, Sudan.

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A message from the real America, and those who actually make it great!

The current regime has basically (without legislation) ended our compliance with domestic laws and international treaties that save refugee lives while humanizing and enriching our nation. It’s a national disgrace! Vote ‘em out, vote ‘em out!

This November, vote like your life and your humanity depend on it! Because they do! 

PWS

05-29-30

ART/PHOTOGRAPHY: “A Knight in Italy” – A Photographic Collage From Hon. Jeffrey Chase, Leading Knight of Our Round Table!

Jeffrey S. Chase
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase
Jeffrey S. Chase Blog
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase
Italy by Hon. Jeffrey Chase

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Always nice to have some beauty injected into the unrelenting ugliness of America under the Trump regime.

In a truly Hitlerian move, the “Supreme Leader” now wants to dictate that only so-called “classical” architecture can be used for future government buildings.

 

PWS

 

02-10-20

GREAT MOMENTS IN U.S. HISTORY WITH HEATHER COX RICHARDSON & AL KAMEN: Reliving The “Brooks Brothers Riots” of ‘00! — “Al Gore thought the recount was a high-minded policy debate. He didn’t understand that it was an extension of a war, of a political campaign,” Said Recently Convicted Trumpster Roger Stone!

Heather Cox Richardson
Heather Cox Richardson
Historian
Professor, Boston College

American Historian Heather Cox Richardson writes in her daily e-mail for today:

A friend read the proofs for me, and asked why I had not mentioned the Brooks Brothers Riot. I had no good answer, so today I went back to the sources.

For those of you who don’t remember everything that happened in those crazy days when we were all trying to figure out what the heck had happened in the 2000 election, the Brooks Brothers Riot was made up of a bunch of Republican operatives, many of whom had flown in from other states, who gathered on November 22, 2000 at the Miami-Dade polling station where Florida officials were attempting to recount the confusing ballots, to insist that the Democrats were trying to steal the election. Their noise and outrage helped to get the recount called off. As I was reading through the articles about the riot, the name Roger Stone jumped out at me. That name meant nothing to me in 2000, but it sure does today.

This is the same Roger Stone who advised the Trump campaign and who has just been convicted for lying to Congress about his connections to Wikileaks before the 2016 election. Wikileaks worked to hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and promote Donald Trump by dumping emails that Russia had hacked from the Democratic National Committee. Stone is a no-holds-barred political operative who got his start on the 1972 reelection campaign of Richard Nixon, whose face is tattooed on Stone’s back (no, I’m not kidding) and who, after Nixon’s fall, went on to start a political consulting firm with Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman from June to August 2016 (who is also now a convicted felon), and Lee Atwater, the man behind the viciously racist Willie Horton ad that sank Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988 (Atwater apologized for his actions as he was dying).

At the time of the Brooks Brother’s Riot, Stone claimed he was there “as a volunteer,” and “knew nothing about the protesters other than the fact I approve of Republicans expressing their First Amendment rights.”

This was a lie. In reality, Stone was a key operative, eavesdropping on the Democratic recount team with a walkie-talkie and determined to undermine the recount to get Bush in office, regardless of the popular vote or the real outcome in Florida. “What I admire about Nixon was his resilience,” he later told a reporter, “It’s attack, attack, attack. Al Gore thought the recount was a high-minded policy debate. He didn’t understand that it was an extension of a war, of a political campaign.”

That comment jumped out to me, just as Stone’s name had. That’s it, isn’t it? While the rest of us believe in the rules of democracy, people like Stone and Manafort see political engagement as a war in which winning is everything. It is worth lying, cheating, and stealing, because the goal is not better government, the goal is to win, and then to use that victory to reward your friends and hurt your enemies. After working for Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, Stone and Manafort advised dictators. Then they turned their hands to the Trump campaign. Their approach to politics appears by now to be embedded in today’s Republican Party. Jennifer Rubin, a conservative writer at the Washington Post, had a story today entitled “The Party of Lying Liars,” in which she laid out a litany of Republican whoppers, designed solely to appeal their base and thus stay in office.”

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Heather’s write-up inspired me to dig a little deeper “into the archives.” Here’s what I found:

A picture of “The Rioters” (note the diversity):

Brooks Brothers Rioters
Brooks Brothers Rioters in Action
2000

 

And a 2005 article by Al Kamen, then with the Washington Post, with a “numbered key” to “to Rioters of note:”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31074-2005Jan23.html

pastedGraphic.png

Miami ‘Riot’ Squad: Where Are They Now?

By Al Kamen

Monday, January 24, 2005; Page A13

As we begin the second Bush administration, let’s take a moment to reflect upon one of the most historic episodes of the 2000 battle for the White House — the now-legendary “Brooks Brothers Riot” at the Miami-Dade County polling headquarters.

This was when dozens of “local protesters,” actually mostly Republican House aides from Washington, chanted “Stop the fraud!” and “Let us in!” when the local election board tried to move the re-counting from an open conference room to a smaller space.

With help from their GOP colleagues and others, we identified some of these Republican heroes of yore in a photo of the event.

Some of those pictured have gone on to other things, including stints at the White House. For example, Matt Schlapp, No. 6, a former House aide and then a Bush campaign aide, has risen to be White House political director. Garry Malphrus, No. 2 in the photo, a former staff director of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice, is now deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. And Rory Cooper, No. 3, who was at the National Republican Congressional Committee, later worked at the White House Homeland Security Council and was seen last week working for the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Here’s what some of the others went on to do:

No. 1. Tom Pyle, who had worked for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), went private sector a few months later, getting a job as director of federal affairs for Koch Industries.

No. 7. Roger Morse, another House aide, moved on to the law and lobbying firm Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds. “I was also privileged to lead a team of Republicans to Florida to help in the recount fight,” he told a legal trade magazine in a 2003 interview.

No. 8. Duane Gibson, an aide on the House Resources Committee, was a solo lobbyist and formerly with the Greenberg Traurig lobby operation. He is now with the Livingston Group as a consultant.

No. 9. Chuck Royal was and still is a legislative assistant to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a former House member.

No. 10. Layna McConkey Peltier, who had been a Senate and House aide and was at Steelman Health Strategies during the effort, is now at Capital Health Group.

(We couldn’t find No. 4, Kevin Smith, a former GOP House aide who later worked with Voter.com, or No. 5, Steven Brophy, a former GOP Senate aide and then at consulting firm KPMG. If you know what they are doing these days, please e-mail shackelford@washpost.comso we can update our records.)

Sources say the “rioters” proudly note their participation on résumés and in interviews. But while the original hardy band of demonstrators numbered barely a couple of dozen, the numbers apparently have grown with the legend.

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How to build a great GOP resume!

Interestingly, “Rioter # 2,” Garry D. Malphrus (face partially obscured in the photo) went on to become a U.S. Immigration Judge and later an Appellate Immigration Judge on the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), supposedly the highest administrative tribunal in immigration (although it now functions within the Department of Justice more or less as an extension of DHS Enforcement and Stephen Miller’s White Nationalist, anti-immigrant agenda).

Judge Malphrus was recently named the Acting Chair of the BIA by Billy Barr. Although Barr is a notorious “law enforcement hard liner,” I guess his strong commitment to “law and order” only goes so far. 

Got to focus on the “real threats” to our democracy: the Dreamers and other hard working, law abiding, tax paying long-time American residents who are propping up our society and our economy so that Barr, Stone, Trump, and the former rioters can “live the good life.” And certainly, insuring the death or abuse of as many asylum applicants and kids as possible should be high on the list of worthy expenditures of our taxpayer dollars and moral capital.

The moral: Liberals get in trouble for rioting; conservatives get promoted!

Meanwhile, who knows?  Could the Supremes be the next stop for Judge Malphrus?

PWS

11-18-19 

LUNA & LAMBEAU ON A SNOW COVERED NEW YEAR’S DAY 2019 FROM GREEN BAY!

 

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

🎈 😎👍🏼🍻🏈🍾❄️☃️🥳🎊🍺🇺🇸🏀🏒🛷🏂⛷🥂🍷🍺🍸🍽

PWS

01-01-19