immigrationcourtside.com

PACKERS: Rodgers Letting His Play Do The Talking — Helping Team Win & Raising Level Of Everyone’s Play, Including His Own!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/sports/football/aaron-rodgers-green-bay-packers.html

From The NY Times:

By Mike Tanier

Sept. 30, 2020

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has a reputation as someone who always wishes to speak to the manager.

To the public he is the beer snob who turns up his nose at all 500 brewpub taps, the faultfinding co-worker whose arrival prompts everyone to politely excuse themselves from the break room with their lunches half-eaten. No pass route is ever run precisely enough for Rodgers, no game plan creative enough for his talents, and dissatisfaction radiates from him with the passive-aggressive fury of a million failed marriages.

Nevertheless, Rodgers’s 2020 season is off to an excellent start. The Packers are 3-0 after a 37-30 victory in Sunday night’s duel with Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints. Rodgers is tied for third in the N.F.L. with nine touchdown passes, ranks sixth with 887 passing yards and third with a 121.1 efficiency rating.

His success should be unsurprising for an eight-time Pro Bowl selection and former Super Bowl champion, except that 2020 was supposed to be the year that the perpetually disgruntled 36-year-old Rodgers earned his comeuppance at the hand of a rookie heir apparent, Jordan Love.

. . . .

In the wake of so much melodrama, this Packers season was expected to be part “All About Eve” and part “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” with a dash of “Sunset Boulevard.” But Rodgers has proved that he is still ready for his close-up.

He is also playing nicely with others: With his favorite receiver, Davante Adams, hobbled, Rodgers has been connecting with his secondary targets instead of heaving the ball out of bounds and lamenting his lack of weapons in postgame interviews. Rodgers is even operating comfortably within LaFleur’s system, distributing short tosses while waiting for ideal opportunities to unleash his (still magnificent) deep ball.

Perhaps Rodgers has become a model employee out of sheer spite, though if Rodgers were truly motivated by spite he might have conquered the world by now. Perhaps it took a rookie’s arrival to persuade both sides — Rodgers and the coaching staff — to work things out for the sake of a Super Bowl instead of plunging the team into free agency and a rebuilding era. Or, just maybe, Rodgers’s churlish reputation is somewhat overblown, as were observations about his deteriorating skills.

Whatever the cause of Rodgers’s resurgence, it has caught N.F.L. talk-show dramatists without a narrative arc for him. He is not yet a venerable warrior like Brees or Tom Brady. He’s certainly not a young hero like Mahomes or Lamar Jackson. He never fell far enough for comeback player of the year redemption and he won too many accolades to join Russell Wilson on a quest for validation. And he refuses to play the role of arrogant heel as cast. He is just a future Hall of Famer on the inside track toward a return to the Super Bowl.

Ho hum.

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

So far, so good.

Russell Wilson of the Seahawks, who transferred to the Wisconsin Badgers and “lit up” the Big-10 in his final season, is another grossly underrated player. Many pundits claimed Wilson was “too short” to play in the NFL. All he does is pass, run, score, win, and lead, under a variety of conditions! Seems like that should be enough to put him at or near the top of the “upper echelon” of NFL QBs.

PWS

10-01-20

MUSICAL EDITORIAL: “Weird Al Presents: ‘America Is Doomed,’ The Musical”

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

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000007370133/presidential-debate-weird-al.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

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

W. Al, always one of my favorites!

PWS

10-01-20

⚖️HON. SHIRA SCHEINDLIN👩🏻‍⚖️ @ THE GUARDIAN: Barrett Nomination Part & Parcel Of GOP Destruction Of American Democracy! 🏴‍☠️ – The Continued Erosion Of The Supremes & The Federal Judiciary Is Destroying Our Nation!👎

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/29/supreme-court-conservatives-trump-amy-coney-barrett?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

. . . .

This is no longer the case. Public confidence and public perception that the courts are non-partisan has eroded. The Republican boycott of Garland, together with Trump’s unprecedented nomination of Barrett and her likely confirmation, will seal the Republican theft of two supreme court seats, at least in the eyes of more than half the electorate, and will ensure conservative control of the court for decades to come.

If Barrett’s record is any indication, the court will soon turn its back on its most treasured precedents and turn America into a more regressive country. Before joining the bench just three years ago, she served as a law clerk to Scalia, whose judicial philosophy she has fully embraced. She has also been a longtime member of the rightwing Federalist Society.

Public confidence and public perception that the courts are non-partisan has eroded

Her short judicial record, together with her scholarly writings, reveal that she is a rock-solid conservative jurist. Like Scalia, she defines herself as an originalist and textualist, which means that the constitution must be viewed as of the time it was written. From that perspective, there is nothing in the constitution that would explicitly support abortion rights, gay marriage, mandatory school desegregation, or the right to suppress evidence that is illegally seized. By contrast, in one of her most famous opinions, United States v Virginia (1996), Ginsburg wrote that “a prime part of the history of our constitution … is the story of the extension of constitutional rights and protections to people once ignored or excluded.”

In a 2013 article, Barrett repeatedly expressed the view that the supreme court had created, through judicial fiat, a framework of abortion on demand that ignited a national controversy. In an opinion she joined with another judge, she expressed doubt that a law preventing parents from terminating a pregnancy because they did not want a child of a particular sex or one with a disability could be unconstitutional. These writings surely indicate that Barrett will do whatever she can to limit or eliminate abortion rights.

Barrett has also expressed dissatisfaction with the Affordable Care Act and support for a broad interpretation of the second amendment. She has writtenthat Chief Justice John Roberts “pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning”. She also quoted Scalia, when he wrote that “the statute known as Obamacare should be renamed ‘Scotuscare’” in “honor of the court’s willingness to ‘rewrite’ the statute in order to keep it afloat”. There is little doubt that Barrett would be inclined to find the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional and thereby deprive millions of Americans of affordable healthcare coverage. Similarly, she wrote a dissenting opinion questioning the constitutionality of a statute that prohibited ex-felons from purchasing guns. Thus, she has demonstrated her fealty to the NRA position that the more guns the better – inevitably leading to more Americans dying from gun violence.

When addressing the legal doctrine known as stare decisis, meaning respect for precedent, Barrett wrote that she “tend[ed] to agree with those who say that a justice’s duty is to the constitution and that it is thus more legitimate for her to enforce her best understanding of the constitution rather than a precedent she thinks is clearly in conflict with it”. In other words, she would overturn landmark decisions such as Brown v Board of Education or Roe v Wade if those decisions did not reflect her best understanding of the constitution.

Amy Coney Barrett: what will she mean for women’s rights?

Read more

Stunningly, in an interview in 2016, when asked whether Congress should confirm Obama’s nominee during an election year, Barrett responded that confirmation should wait until after the election because an immediate replacement would “dramatically flip the balance of power”. Given that answer, she should decline the nomination, as her confirmation would even more dramatically flip the balance of the court, entrenching a 6-3 conservative majority.

Confirming this nominee before the outcome of the national elections – which will determine both the identity of the next president and the composition of a new Senate – is unprecedented, inexcusable and a threat to many rights that the majority of Americans have embraced. This is a tragedy about to happen.

Shira A Scheindlin served as a United States district judge for the southern district of New York for 22 years. She is the co-chair of the board of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and a board member of the American Constitution Society

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

Read the rest of Judge Scheindlin’s article at the link.

As I have been saying “Better Judges For A Better America!” It starts with electing a President who will nominate them and a Senate that will confirm them. That requires “regime change” and defeat of the GOP Anti-Democracy Party at all levels.

Dems need to stop sputtering about Barrett, whom they don’t appear able to stop anyway, and get out the vote to insure that she will be the last GOP far right shill on Supremes for many years! Rebuilding and improving American democracy starts NOW, with THIS ELECTION. As Willie Nelson says: “Vote ‘Em Out, Vote ‘Em Out!”

BTW, “Moscow Mitch” and his GOP toadies have plenty of time to race through the Barrett confirmation during an election, but no time to help Americans thrown out of work or losing their health insurance because of the pandemic!🤮⚰️

PWS

10-01-20

🆘🏴‍☠️RELIGION & ETHICS: HELP: TRUMP’S CLAIMS TO SUPPORT RELIGION ARE TOTALLY BOGUS — TRUMP ICE’S ATTACKS ON GENUINE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES ARE TOTALLY REAL! — Here’s An Example Of How ICE Disparages Christ’s Humane Message!

—–Original Message—–

From: Kara Scroggins <kara@glenmontumc.org>

To: congregation@glenmontumc.org

Sent: Tue, Sep 29, 2020 4:47 pm

Subject: Updates and Actions for Siahaan Family

Good afternoon everyone,

Thank you for your prayers and support this week. In the days leading up to Binsar’s habeas hearing on Friday, we are continuing to build momentum and raise our voices to God and to the people who hold secular power.

Today we gathered at the ICE Field Office in Baltimore and held a demonstration. Three of us were able to gain entry into the building and pressed the staff until they agreed to deliver our bix box of printed petitions to the Field Office Director. The District Commander that I spoke to said he had read about the case in the papers, and we should take it to the National Headquarters in DC. So we will (see below.)

Tomorrow, we are driving calls to elected representatives. Our Maryland Congressional Delegation has said that they are on board, yet in the last two weeks they have been reluctant to speak out publicly on Binsar’s behalf. We are asking them to put their names on the line and to stand with our church, regardless of whether they personally think it will affect meaningful change. I have pasted a script below. You can pass this on to other people, as the phone number lets people enter their zip codes and connect to their own state’s congresspeople.

Thursday, we are planning a faith march from Christ UMC in Southwest DC to the ICE National Headquarters. It is a 1 mile walk. We are inviting ecumenical and multifaith people to join us as we deliver four petitions with a combined total of more than 15,000 signatures. We’ll meet at 8:30am at Christ UMC and will leave for the walk at 9am, and will conclude by 10am.

Friday, Binsar’s habeas hearing is at 2:30pm. I implore you to fast and pray with me from sundown on Thursday through the hearing time on Friday. I have invited the Bishop and other conference leaders to do the same. We cannot be there physically because of the court’s restrictions, but we can be in absolute, focused solidarity.

Thank you again, and let’s keep going.

peace,

rev. kara

CONGRESSIONAL PHONE CALL SCRIPT

Universal Phone Number for Any State: 1-844-332-6361 (you can enter your zip code without listening to the whole message)

My name is __, from ___. I’m calling to ask Senator/Representative _________ to personally and publicly intervene to support a Maryland resident. Binsar Siahaan, an asylum-seeker from Indonesia, has lived in Maryland for over 30 years with his family, including two citizen children. ICE lied to Binsar and arrested him on church grounds. This is an unprecedented attack on faith communities and immigrants of faith.

I’m asking that the Senator call ICE Director Pham and express outrage at ICE’s treatment of Binsar, and ask for his immediate release and approval of his stay of removal. I also call on the Senator/Representative to initiate an investigation into ICE’s actions in this case, and hold ICE accountable to its sensitive locations policy.

—

Rev. Kara Scroggins

she/her/hers

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

Trump adheres to no religion except that of greed and “unenlightened self-interest.” Meanwhile, communities of faith actually engaged in carrying out Christ’s message of compassion, redemption, and outreach to the most vulnerable are being attacked by Trump’s ICE to carry out a corrupt, immoral political agenda of hate, racism, and dehumanization of ”the other.”

This is just the beginning! According to recent reports, Trump’s campaign appendage ICE plans to launch attacks on communities of color and “Democratic” cities in a perverted (and totally illegal and unethical) attempt to bolster Trump’s floundering re-election campaign!

Vote ‘Em Out, Vote ‘Em Out!

Vote for Biden,Harris and Democrats for the return of human decency, morality, reasonableness, and ethics to Government!

PWS

09-30-20

PWS

09-30-20

😎⚖️👍🇺🇸 GOOD GUYS WIN AGAIN! – Federal Judge Slams Regime’s Absurdist Anti-TPS Interpretation, Reverses Matter of H-G-G-!

Brittany Bakken, Kelsey Friberg, and I are thrilled to share with you that Matter of HGG has been reversed. Of course, the government will appeal. Nevertheless, a great way to end a Monday.

Best regards,

David L. Wilson, Esq.

Managing Attorney

Wilson Law Group

Fullo demission here:

HGG – reversed!

_____________________________________________________________________________

Hats off to these fierce “Warriors of The New Due Process Army” 🏆⭐️🥇

David Wilson, Esquire
Managing Attorney
Wilson Law Group, Source: wilsonlg.com

Brittany Bakken, Esquire
Senior Attorney
Wilson Law Group
Source: wilsonlg.com

Kelsey Friberg, Esquire
Associate Attorney
Wilson Law Group
Source: wilsonlg.com

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

The case is Hernandez v. Barr, USDC D MN

Not only was the USCIS position a violation of the plain meaning of the statute, as found by Chief Judge Tunheim, it is totally stupid from a policy standpoint! With hundreds of thousands of law-abiding TPS recipients in the U.S., integrated into our society, and contributing to our economy, a rational, non-racist, non-xenophobic Administration would welcome and utilize ways of integrating them into our legal immigration system. Instead, the Trump kakistocracy, wastes time, squanders resources, and violates the law looking for bogus ways to “get to no.” How dumb and counterproductive can it get!

Due Process Forever! Kakistocracy never!

PWS

09-30-20

KAKISTOCRACY KORNER🤮👎: “WOLFMAN THE ILLEGAL” CALLED OUT AGAIN – U.S. Judge Stuffs USCIS’s Outrageously Unjustified Fee Increases – Wolfie’s “Illegality” Key To Victory For Good Guys! — ImmigrationProf Blog Reports!

Trump Regime Emoji — Trump Regime, Thieves Thrive on the Public Dole!

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Immigration fee hikes blocked by federal court

By Immigration Prof

Share

Days before they were to go into effect, a federal court in the Northern District of California issued a national injunction blocking a dramatic fee hike for appliations for naturalized citizenship, permanent residency, asylum, and access to other immigration benefits. The new fees would have made immigration benefits unattainable for many. It would have nearly doubled citizenship from $640 to $1,170; increased lawful permanent residency and related application fees from $1,125 to $2,270; and added a $50 fee for asylum applications (the first time a fee has been assessed for asylum applications). The rule would have also eliminated most fee waivers for immigrants who cannot afford to pay the fees.

Judge Jeffrey White ruled that the nonprofit organizations that had challenged the fee increases would be likely to prevail in showing that Wolf’s appointment as Acting Director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, without Senate confirmation, violated the rules of succession. As a result, the fees ordered under his stewardship cannot take effect while the litigation progresses. Similar reasoning had been used in a separate lawsuit regarding Ken Cucinelli and his asylum directives.

MHC

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

MHC = Professor Ming Hsu Chen one of the all-star ⭐️ team of bloggers at ImmigrationProf Blog. Thanks, Professor, for this timely item! These illegal and clearly punitive fee increases were scheduled to into effect at the beginning of October!

This is also a great illustration of why, totally contrary to the nonsense GOP party line and folks like GOP-owned Justices Thomas and Gorsuch, the nationwide injunction is an essential tool for achieving justice. According to the GOP’s false dogma, plaintiffs, many pro se, or appearing with pro bono or “low bono” representation, should be required to win their cases before over 650 U.S. District Judges and in 12 Circuits to get effective relief from the Trump regime’s unrelenting war on our Constitution and the rule of law.

While Trump and his GOP toadies and sycophants spout BS platitudes about “law and order” the truth is simple: This is a party of arrogant, immoral “scofflaws” from top to bottom!

This Fall, vote like your life and our future as a nation depend on it! Because they do! Vote the GOP kakistocracy out at every level! Don’t let their dark & dishonest plans become YOUR future!☠️⚰️

PWS

09-30-20

R.I.P. JUDGE JAMES P. “PHIL” MORRIS, Former BIA Member & Career DOJ Attorney – 1929 – 2020

Here’s Phil’s obit sent in by retired U.S. Immigration Judge & former senior attorney manager at the BIA Hon. Wayne Stogner. The picture credit of Phil at his desk at the BIA goes to former BIA Attorney Advisor and current contributor to The Hill Nolan Rappaport, a person of multi-talents. The obit is actually based on a summary of Phil’s career prepared by the late BIA Judge Fred W. Vacca for the occasion of Phil’s retirement from the BIA.

Obituary

PRINT

James “Phil” Morris a eight year resident of Annapolis and previously of Alexandria, VA passed away on Wednesday, September 23, 2020. Phil was born on February 4, 1929 in Asheville, NC the youngest of four children to the late Frank and Carrie Morris. Phil attended the local high school and was a young teenager when the World d War II broke out. Phil’s’ older brother, Frank, Jr was already serving in Germany as an Armored Calvary Officer and would made the ultimate sacrifice. He is buried in Belgium. Phil volunteered for military service after high school. He trained in the Army infantry and found himself on a troop carrier headed for Japan at the age of 16. After serving for 13 months in the Army of Occupation, Phil was released from active duty. Once Phil returned to Asheville he began his educational career. He later moved to Washington, DC where he completed his undergraduate studies in foreign affairs at George Washington University. A variety of transition jobs following graduation led to a career in law enforcement when Phil was appointed as a special agent with Office of Naval Intelligence, Washington, DC in 1952. Conducting criminal and security investigations by day and studying law at night at George Washington, Phil was a busy man. Nonetheless, he took time out to marry and rear two daughters, Jean and Karen. Upon graduation from law school and admission to the Bar, Phil continued his employment as a investigator for the Navy. His long-term employment with the United States Department of Justice began in 1961, as a trial attorney in the Criminal Section of the Internal Security Division. He would later become a Deputy Section Chief. In 1973 he transferred to the Criminal Division where he was responsible for the Immigration and Extradition Unit. In 1981, Phil was appointed by the Attorney General of the United States as a member of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Phil and his current wife, Margaret enjoyed many mutual interests including golf, skiing and travel. Phil also belonged to a poker group that for 50-years gathered on Friday nights to play their beloved game. In December of 2012 Phil and Margaret moved to Bay Woods in Annapolis. They enjoyed meeting new friends and their time spent together. In addition to his parents, Phil was predeceased by his siblings, Frank, Jr, Donald, and Gena Goldmon. He is survived by his wife, Margaret; daughters, Jean Wilson of Frederick, MD and Karen King of Friendswood, TX.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Monday, September 28, 2020 at 10:30 am at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 620 Bestgate Road. Interment to follow with military honors at Resurrection Cemetery, Clinton, MD.

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

I knew Phil for many years going back to my days of officing with the late BIA Judge Lauri Steven Filppu at the BIA during our years as Attorney Advisors from 1973 to 1975. The BIA then was on the top floor of the now long gone “International Safeway Building.” Phil worked for the Government Regulations & Labor Section of the DOJ Criminal Division on a floor below us. Phil was the head of the unit whose job in those days was to defend the BIA’s final decisions in the various U.S. Courts of Appeals. We used to ride the elevator and chat together. I had many future occasions to work with Phil during my time in the “Legacy INS” Office of General Counsel in the late 1970s.

Eventually, the “Gov Regs & Labor Section” “morphed” into the Office of Immigration Litigation (“OIL”) and “migrated” to the Civil Division during the “Inman-Schmidt Era” at the “Legacy INS.” By then, Phil had been appointed to the BIA. However, Lauri Filppu, then with the Criminal Division, was part of the group that transferred to OIL where he eventually became Deputy Director.

Phil had retired by the time Lauri and I were appointed to the Board in 1995. However, the three of us were “reunited” when Phil came out of retirement to serve as a Temporary Board Member for a time during my tenure as Chair.

I always remember Phil as a soft-spoken “true gentleman,” thoughtful lawyer, and a good colleague to everyone with whom he worked.

My deepest sympathies to Phil’s wife, Margaret, and their two daughters.

PWS

09-29-20

THE GIBSON REPORT – 09-29-20 – Compiled by Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group – Another Tone-Deaf, Far Right Justice; Higher Fees For Worse Service; Detained Until Dead (“DUD Policy”)☠️⚰️; Dumping On International Students; & Other Nation-Destroying 🏴‍☠️News From The Trump Regime Twilight Zone!

Reminder: Fee changes go into effect on October 2, 2020.

All applications with old fees/fee waivers must be POSTMARKED on or before October 1.

CLINIC Fee/Waiver Chart: Selected USCIS Form Fees Beginning Oct. 2, 2020

COVID-19

Note: Policies are rapidly changing, so please verify information on the relevant government websites and with colleagues on listservs as best you can.

New

Opening dates for non-detained courts: Hearings in non-detained cases at courts without an announced date are postponed through, and including, October 16, 2020. [Note: Despite the standing order about practices upon reopening, an opening date has not been announced for NYC non-detained at this time.]

EOIR Status Overview & EOIR Court Status Map/List: EOIR has reorganized its operational status website. The list of individual court statuses and standing orders can now be accessed by scrolling down on the new map page:https://www.justice.gov/eoir-operational-status/operational-status-map. This is especially important for NYC given that the 26 Fed Court website still has an incorrect link for one of three standing orders, but the links are correct on the map page.

Closures

EOIR Operational Status & Standing Orders

EOIR Case Status

ICE Updates (Including ERO and Detention)

USCIS Updates

Consular Updates

NY Courts Updates

Guidance:

IJ Email Filings

BIA Email Filings

EOIR Standing Orders

EOIR Electronic Signature Guidance

EOIR Update Regarding EOIR Practices Related to the COVID-19 Outbreak

USCIS Visitor Policy

USCIS Extends Flexibility for Responding to Agency Requests

Electronic database of COVID-19 related materials

NY Notary Guidance

TOP NEWS

Amy Coney Barrett has a years-long record of ruling against immigrants

Vox: As an appellate court judge, Barrett helped to advance one of Trump’s key immigration policies. She sided with his administration in a case over Trump’s policy imposing a wealth test on the millions of immigrants who seek to come to the US annually. In her whopping 40-page dissent in that case, she laid out why the US has the right to block people who it deems likely to become dependent on public assistance in the future — even if they have never used public assistance in the past.

Advocate Groups Challenge Legitimacy of Immigration Fee Hikes

Courthouse News: Immigration advocacy groups have challenged the rule in California, Massachusetts, and in the District of Columbia, where they asked a federal judge for an injunction in a hearing Thursday. On Friday, it was U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White’s turn to hear arguments on whether the rule should be invalidated. In addition to weighing the competing financial interests at stake, White said the fee hike “raises series issues on constitutional checks and balances and the limit to executive power.”

Trump administration reimposes “public charge” immigration wealth test following court orders

CBS: In updated guidance on its website on Tuesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said it would apply the 2019 public charge test to all future and pending green card applications filed after February 24, 2020, when the agency implemented the rule following the Supreme Court’s green light. Applications filed after Daniels’ injunction in July that have been approved will not be re-adjudicated, USCIS said.

Major Changes to Student Visa Rules Proposed

Inside Higher Ed: Trump administration proposes revamping visas so students would have to apply for an extension after fixed terms of no more than four years. Some students would have to reapply after two years, depending on their country of origin.

ICE whistleblower: Mexico investigating US immigrant ‘sterilisations’

BBC: On Monday Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his government could take legal action against the US if the allegations were confirmed, Mexican newspaper El Universal reports.

Immigrants in US custody died after ‘inadequate’ medical care, congressional investigation finds

CNN: Immigrants in US custody faced widespread failures in medical care, including some issues that resulted in death, according to a new congressional investigation released Thursday.

Even When They Lost Their Jobs, Immigrants Sent Money Home

NYT: Predictions were that immigrants would stop sending money home when the coronavirus took their jobs. But that did not take into account how determined foreign workers were to help their families.

ICE Deports 54 Immigrants From New Jersey

WNYC: Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed 54 immigrants — an extraordinarily high number — from the Essex County Correctional Facility Tuesday for deportation. The jail is the largest facility in the region that contracts with ICE to hold immigrants awaiting hearings or deportations. The population fluctuates from day to day, but it’s unusual to see 54 immigrants removed at once.

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

Attorney General Rules That the BIA Must Examine Asylum Claims De Novo

The AG ruled that, in reviewing asylum claims, the BIA must examine de novo whether facts found by the IJ meet all statutory requirements, and should review each element of the claim before affirming or independently ordering a grant of asylum. Matter of A-C-A-A-, 28 I&N Dec. 84 (A.G. 2020) AILA Doc. No. 20092530

BIA Rules on Expert Witness Testimony

The BIA ruled that in assessing whether to admit expert witness testimony, an IJ should consider whether it is sufficiently relevant and reliable, and if it is admitted, how much weight it should receive, and how probative and persuasive it is. Matter of J-G-T-, 28 I&N Dec. 97 (BIA 2020) AILA Doc. No. 20092532

USCIS Temporary Final Rule on Interpreters at Asylum Interviews

USCIS temporary final rule providing that, from 9/23/20 through 3/22/21, asylum applicants who cannot proceed with the interview in English must ordinarily use DHS-provided telephonic interpreters, due to COVID-19. (85 FR 59655, 9/23/20) AILA Doc. No. 20092202

USCIS Provides Update on Public Charge Rule Following Second Circuit Decision

USCIS announced that following the Second Circuit decision, it will apply the public charge rule and related guidance to all petitions submitted on or after 2/24/20. USCIS will not readjudicate any petitions that were approved following issuance of the 7/29/20 injunction continuing until 9/22/20. AILA Doc. No. 20092204

ICE Proposed Rule Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission for F, J, and I Nonimmigrants

ICE proposed rule to change the admission period of F, J, and I nonimmigrants from “duration of status” to an admission for a fixed time period. Comments are due 10/26/20. (85 FR 60526, 9/25/20) AILA Doc. No. 20092401

Visa Bulletin for October 2020

DOS posted the October 2020 visa bulletin. In addition to final action dates and dates for filing for family and employment-based petitions, it contains notes on the DV category, movement of the October final action and application filing dates, visa availability in the coming months, and more. AILA Doc. No. 20092400

CBP Notification of Temporary Travel Restrictions Applicable to Land Ports of Entry and Ferries Service Between the United States and Mexico

CBP issued a notification of the continuation of temporary travel restrictions limiting travel of individuals from Mexico into the United States at land ports of entry along the United States-Mexico border through 10/21/20 due to COVID-19. (85 FR 59669, 9/23/20) AILA Doc. No. 20092331

CBP Notification of Temporary Travel Restrictions Applicable to Land Ports of Entry and Ferries Service Between the United States and Canada

CBP issued a notification of the continuation of temporary travel restrictions limiting travel of individuals from Canada into the United States at land ports of entry along the United States-Canada border through 10/21/20 due to COVID-19. (85 FR 59670, 9/23/20) AILA Doc. No. 20092330

Resources for National Interest Exceptions Under Presidential Proclamations Suspending Entry of Certain Immigrants and Nonimmigrants, as Well as Individuals from Certain Countries

This page contains resources for members concerning national interest exceptions under President Trump’s June 22, 2020, proclamation (10052) and April 22, 2020, proclamation (10014), and the country-specific COVID-19 travel bans. AILA Doc. No. 20092205

DHS OIG Releases Report on Cybersecurity Incident at CBP Involving Traveler Images

DHS OIG released a report on a 2019 incident that compromised about 184,000 traveler images from CBP’s facial recognition pilot, known as the Vehicle Face System, at ports of entry. Per OIG, CBP “did not adequately safeguard sensitive data on an unencrypted device” using during the pilot program. AILA Doc. No. 20092333

DHS Ratification of Actions by Acting Secretary Chad Wolf

DHS ratification of actions taken by Acting Secretary Chad Wolf between 11/13/19 and 9/10/20, to “resolv[e] any potential defect in the validity of those actions” due to challenges to the legality of his service. (85 FR 59651, 9/23/20) AILA Doc. No. 20092137

DOJ OIG Releases Report on EOIR’s Recognition and Accreditation Program

DOJ OIG released a report on EOIR’s Recognition and Accreditation Program, finding that OLAP should improve program oversight and administration due to weakness in its controls for approving or rejecting applications, monitoring activities of accredited representatives, and investigating misconduct. AILA Doc. No. 20092233

House Committee on Homeland Security Releases Report Saying ICE Detention Facilities Fail to Meet Basic Standards of Care

The House Committee on Homeland Security released a report finding that DHS fails to effectively identify and correct deficient conditions at ICE detention facilities, and that facilities frequently fail to meet basic standards of care, including mental and physical care of the migrants in custody. AILA Doc. No. 20092201

ACTIONS

Org Sign-On: Request for 60-Day Comment Period for EOIR’s Proposal to Change Asylum Procedures and Deadlines: Deadline to sign-on: Midnight (ET) on Wed., Oct. 7, 2020.

USCIS Rejections: Report USCIS rejecting or denying cases in mid-Sept for not including new filing fees to reports@aila.org.

EOIR 30-Day Notice and Request for Comments on Proposed Revisions to Form EOIR-27: Comments are due 10/1/20.

Collection and Use of Biometrics by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Comments are due 10/13/20.

EOIR Proposed Rule on Procedures for Asylum and Withholding of Removal: Comments are due 10/23/20.

COVID MTC Listserv: Email rexchen@lsnyc.orgto join private discussion among pro-immigrant advocates about immigration court motions during Covid, including continuance motions. You can also fill out the related survey.

Amicus Invitation: Due Date: October 5, 2020: Where the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) notice and advisal sheets are not signed nor otherwise acknowledged by the respondent on the record, and the record contains no specific attestation of any kind, from either party, that the respondents received specific advisals adequate to allow them to appear at the scheduled hearing from their location in contiguous territory, is notice of the hearing adequate to satisfy due process?

New American Economy Seeking Immigrant Stories in Swing States

RESOURCES

Proposed Regulation on the Change of Admission Period of F, J, and I Nonimmigrants from Duration of Status: What You Need to Know*

CRS Issues Legal Sidebar on Asylum and Related Protections for Individuals Who Fear Gang and Domestic Violence

E-Signatures: The Technology and What to Look For

CLINIC: Summary of Immigrant Ineligibility for Federal Public Benefits

ILRC: Public Charge Timeline

ILRC: Practice Alert: Temporary Changes to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Response to COVID-19

ILRC: Blueprint for the Next Administration

Tracking Notable Executive Branch Action

Practice Pointer: Navigating Form I-129 and I-539 in Light of Public Charge Questions

Practice Alert: Impact of Recent Court Decisions on the DHS and DOS Public Charge Rules

Top 10 Things You Need to Know About the U.S.- Canada Land Border Closure

ICE Detention Facilities: Failing to Meet Basic Standards of Care

Health Insurance and Health Care Services for Immigrants in New York City

CASA de Maryland v. Wolf

EADs for Members

EADs for Non-Members

EVENTS

9/29/20 Beginner U Visa Hot Topics

9/30/20-10/14/20 3-Part Webinar Series: Integrating Technology to Improve Your Immigration Legal Services

9/30/20 2020 AILA Virtual Asylum Conference

9/30/20 Hot Topics: Changes and Updates in Practice and Policy

09/30/20 Farmworkers, vulnerability and moral economies of care/work

10/1/20 Representing Children in Immigration Matters 2020: Effective Advocacy and Best Practices

10/1/20 Webinar on FTCA Litigation for Separated Families

10/5/20 Green Light Law Training

10/07/20 Conceptualizing Migrant Farmworker Rights in Asia

10/6/20 Public Charge Updates

10/6/20-10/27/20 Webinar Series: Understanding and Preparing Waivers

10/9/20 IACHR hearing to discuss the human rights situation of migrants, refugees, and unaccompanied children

10/9/2020 Conozca Sus Derechos: Como interactuar con la migra en su casa, en las calles, en sus automóviles, y más!

10/14/20 Immigration, Healthcare, and the Coronavirus Crisis

10/14/20 Understanding Retroactivity in Immigration Matters

10/20/20 Fee Rule Implementation: Effects on Survivor Relief

10/21/20 Rule of Law Forum – Preserving the Rule of Law in an Age of Disruption

10/21/20-10/23/20 Case Management Skills & Database Functions

10/21/20 Migrations and One Health: Human, Animal, and Environmental Interactions and Emerging Diseases

10/22/20 Non-LPR Cancellation: Overview of Eligibility & Proving Continuous Presence

10/23/20 Migration as Resistance: The Underground Railroad

10/27/20 Seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status in Removal Proceedings

10/28/20 Advanced U Visa Hot Topics

10/28/20 The Ecology of State-Building: Moving Capitals in Indonesia

10/29/20-10/30/20 2020 Crimes & Immigration Seminar

10/29/20 Presenting the Case

10/29/20 Marijuana: Bridging the Divide Between State and Federal Law

11/4/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

11/11/20 Climate Change and Oceanic Migrations

11/12/20 Defying Non-Reviewability: How to Proceed After a Consular Denial

11/17/20 Make the Government Pay! Attorney fees in Immigration

11/17/20 Employment-Based Immigration Opportunities for Immigrant Youth

11/18/20 Applying for Asylum and Related Relief for Clients with Convictions

11/24/20 VAWA Self-Petitioning Fundamentals

12/2/20 Migration, Climate Change, and Human Adaptation

12/2/20 An Overview of Naturalization

12/3/20 Representing Permanent Residents in LPR Cancellation Cases

12/3/20-12/4/20 53rd Annual Immigration and Naturalization Institute

12/8/20 Litigating Your Way Out of Delay

12/9/20 Public Charge in Consular Processing

12/15/20 Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude

12/16/20 LPRs and Public Charge

12/16/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

2/4/21 Basic Immigration Law 2021: Business, Family, Naturalization and Related Areas

2/5/21 Asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Crime Victim, and Other Immigration Relief 2021

ImmProf

Monday, September 28, 2020

The Daily on Climate Migration

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Legacy on Immigration

Switzerland votes on curbing labor movement into country from EU nations

Immigration Article of the Day: Originalism and Birthright Citizenship by Michael D. Ramsey

Saturday, September 26, 2020

Your Playlist: Rage Against The Machine

From the Bookshelves: Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America by Laila Lalami

Friday, September 25, 2020

Did Italy Rig a Citizenship Test for a Soccer Star?

Citizenship and Suffrage: Race, Citizenship and Women’s Right to Vote

Amy Coney Barrett’s Immigration Rulings

Immigration Article of the Day: Sowing the Seeds of Chinese Exclusion as the Reconstruction Congress Debates Civil Rights Inclusion by Lea S. Vandervelde and Gabriel Jackson Chin

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Proposed rule to change international student visas

2020 Ainsworth lecture at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law: Hiroshi Motomura

American Dream: From immigrant to NFL veteran

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Trump administration expedites appeals to Supreme Court for exclusion of undocumented immigrants from Census 2020

NYU and LDF: Immigration, Equal Protection, and the Promise of Racial Justice The Legacy of Jean v. Nelson

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

California Transfers California Firefighter to an ICE Prison

From the Movies: The Undocumented Lawyer

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of Migrants, Refugees, and UAC

Dare to Dream Book Discussions: The Dispossessed

University of Colorado, Boulder: 2020 Jane Menken Distinguished Lecture: Rubén Rumbaut on American Nativism & Immigration Policy

Monday, September 21, 2020

ICE Detention Facilities: Failing to Meet Basic Standards of Care (U.S. House Rep. Com. on Homeland Sec. Maj. Staff Report)

CAIR-New York, New Haven Legal Assistance Immigrant Rights Clinic File Lawsuit for Muslim Uzbek Husband and Father Assaulted by ICE Agents

Public Comments due on Administrative Closure Rule

Changes to USCIS Rule for Citizenship of Children of Military Members

5 Reasons to End Immigrant Detention: New Policy Brief by NIJC

Immigrants bring talent that transforms the nation, beyond their votes

Submissions Deadline for the Yale Law Journal

Immigration Article of the Day: Immigration E-Carceration: A Faustian Bargain by Mary Holper

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

PWS

09-29-20

BILLY APPOINTS MALPHRUS AS ADDITIONAL DEPUTY CHIEF APPELLATE IMMIGRATION JUDGE (“VICE CHAIR”) @ BIA! — Hard Line, Restrictionist, Anti-Asylum, Anti-Due-Process Jurisprudence Rewarded!🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️

Billy Barr Consigliere — Bill Barr Consigliere
Artist: Pat Bagley
Salt Lake Tribune
Reproduced under license

EYORE — “Eyore In Distress”
Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”

From the EOIR website:

Garry Malphrus

Deputy Chief Appellate Immigration Judge

Attorney General William P. Barr appointed Garry Malphrus as a deputy chief appellate immigration judge in September 2020. Judge Malphrus earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1989 from the University of South Carolina and a Juris Doctor in 1993 from the University of South Carolina. From August 2008 to September 2020, he served on the Board of Immigration Appeals, Executive Office for Immigration Review, including as acting board chairman from October 2019 to May 2020. From 2005 to 2008, he served as an immigration judge at the Arlington Immigration Court. From 2001 to 2005, he served as associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. From 1997 to 2001, he worked for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which included serving as chief counsel and staff director on the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice Oversight and the Subcommittee on the Constitution. From 1995 to 1997, Garry served as a law clerk for the Honorable Dennis W. Shedd, U.S. District Judge for the District of South Carolina. From 1994 to 1995, he was a law clerk for the Honorable William W. Wilkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. From 1993 to 1994, he was a law clerk for the Honorable Larry R. Patterson, Circuit Judge for South Carolina. Judge Malphrus is a member of the South Carolina Bar.

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

No surprise here, folks, as Courtside had predicted this back in May:

https://immigrationcourtside.com/2020/05/22/%f0%9f%91%82%f0%9f%8f%bb%f0%9f%91%80%f0%9f%a4%abeoir-rumor-mill-doj-honcho-x-oiler-david-h-wetmore-reportedly-will-be-tapped-as-new-bia-chair/

This appears to be the “penultimate step” in the ongoing process of “benching” the long-time “holdover” Vice Chair Chuck Adkins-Blanch. First, he was “passed over” when Judge Malphrus became the BIA’s Acting Chair following the hasty departure of former Chair David Neal. Now, Malphrus basically has been “layered in” to be the “real Deputy,” who will faithfully continue to carry out Billy’s nativist political agenda, presumably until Adkins-Blanch reaches retirement and finally pulls the plug.

Needless to say, Judge Adkins-Blanch’s name has been conspicuously absent from the BIA’s most recent barrage of anti-immigrant, anti-asylum “precedents.” That is, of course, the “precedents” that Billy lets the BIA write as opposed to the ones that he and his fellow political hacks at “Main DOJ” issue as “AG precedents.”

More and more, the AG, whom nobody except, perhaps, a few intentionally tone-deaf Circuit Court of Appeals Judges, would mistake for an “expert” in immigration law, has taken over the BIA’s precedent setting function. That leaves the BIA basically to do the “mop-up work” of maximizing the impact of Billy’s anti-immigrant policies and insuring that just and fair results below favoring immigrants are reversed upon demand of “EOIR’s masters” at DHS Enforcement.

Talk about the need for an Article I Court with a new cast of characters selected on a merit basis for their demonstrated immigration expertise, and established commitment to due process, fundamental fairness, equal justice, human rights, and practical applied scholarship! That so many Article III judges continue to “go along to get along” with this vile legal charade says some pretty sad things about the overall state of justice and the judiciary in America!

An Article I Court requires judicial leadership that replaces “built to fail ‘Vatican Style’ (or “Legacy INS Style”) hierarchical bureaucracy” with professional court administration and a much “leaner and flatter” judicial structure. A judicial structure where most resources are devoted to actually fairly and efficiently deciding cases, establishing “best practices,” and leading by example. That would eliminate the “Mickey Mouse” demeaning “control freak supervision (“suppression”)” of supposedly senior level “judges” who, if properly selected, would need effective support, but little to no “supervision” in the normal bureaucratic sense of the term.

In the meantime, expect the backlog to grow unabated and the Article IIIs to continue to reverse and return an essentially random selection of the BIA’s reliably “one-sided” jurisprudence for “redos!” That will further increase the backlog without effectively addressing the fundamental problem of an unconstitutional system with a clearly established anti-immigrant political bias!

Just more signs of an American justice system now in the throes of institutional failure!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-29-20

BILLY’S BIA 🏴‍☠️DUMPS ON EXPERT WITNESSES — As Regime’s False Narratives & Bogus Suppression Of Truth About What Happens To Refugees Returned To Unsafe Countries Becomes Obvious, “Upper Star Chamber” Launches Yet Another Assault On Due Process! — Matter of J-G-T-, 28 I&N Dec. 97 (BIA 2020)☠️⚰️

Matter of J-G-T-, 28 I&N Dec. 97 (BIA 2020)

From the EOIR PIO:

The Board of Immigration Appeals has issued a decision in the Matter of J-G-T-, 28 I&N Dec. 97 (BIA 2020)

(1) In assessing whether to admit the testimony of a witness as an expert, an Immigration Judge should consider whether it is sufficiently relevant and reliable for the expert to offer an informed opinion, and if it is admitted, the Immigration Judge should then consider how much weight the testimony should receive.

(2) In considering how much weight to give an expert’s testimony, the Immigration Judge should assess how probative and persuasive the testimony is regarding key issues in dispute for which the testimony is being offered.

PANEL: MALPHRUS, MULLANE, and CREPPY , Appellate Immigration Judges.

OPINION BY: MALPHRUS, Appellate Immigration Judge

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

In this case, the BIA sent an asylum grant well-supported by expert opinion back to the IJ for no particular reason other than the DHS didn’t like the result.

The message: The IJ should always look for reasons to disallow, disbelieve, or diminish the weight of the asylum applicant’s persuasive evidence. The IJ should always be looking for “any reason to deny” asylum applications because that’s what Billy wants from his wholly-owned. “judges.”

To quote my friend and Round Table colleague retired IJ Jeffrey S. Chase:

[The BIA], McHenry, and Barr are engaging in tag-team destruction of asylum. So this gives the signal to ignore country experts when their opinions support grants of asylum. Which was stated more explicitly in the proposed 161-page asylum regs. And then if the IJ relies on the DOS report, the Board or AG will say the quoted passage was too vague and generalized to support a finding of social distinction or nexus.

The good news is that a number of brigades of the NDPA are hard at work on comprehensive alternative expert country reports that are much more accurate and well-documented than current DOS propaganda. A number of Courts of Appeals already have “called out” the BIA for routinely ignoring evidence and expert opinions favorable to asylum applicants.

I certainly hope they will see through and expose this rather transparent attempt to further “game the system” against asylum applicants. Actually, under the U.N. Handbook asylum seekers are supposed to receive the “benefit of the doubt.” But, not from this scofflaw regime and their toadies masquerading as “judges.”

It’s also worth noting that this case has already been pending for almost a decade. Obviously, time is no object for EOIR when it comes to looking for ways to deny asylum.

PWS

09-28-20

“TRUMP NATION” 🏴‍☠️ ALREADY LIVES IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Time For Majority Of Us To Take Our Country Back & Move On To Better Future — Robert Reich In The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/27/donald-trump-american-civil-war-joe-biden-republicans-democrats-robert-reich?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

. . . .

To Trump and his core enablers and supporters, the laws of Trump Nation authorize him to do whatever he wants. Anti-Trump Nation’s laws constrain him, but they’re illegitimate because they are made and enforced by the people who reject him.

If he loses the election, Trump will not accept the result because it would be the product of Anti-Trump Nation

So Trump’s call to the president of Ukraine seeking help with the election was “perfect”. It was fine for Russia to side with him in 2016, and it’s fine for it to do so again. And of course the justice department, postal service and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should help him win re-election. They’re all aiding Trump Nation.

By a similar twisted logic, Anti-Trump Nation is dangerous. Hence, says Trump, the armed teenager who killed two in Kenosha, Wisconsin, acted in “self-defense”, yet the suspected killer of a rightwinger in Portland deserved the “retribution” he got when federal marshals killed him.

It follows that if he loses the election, Trump will not accept the result because it would be the product of Anti-Trump Nation, and Trump isn’t the president of people who would vote against him. As he recently claimed, “The only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.”

In the warped minds of Trump and his acolytes, this could lead to civil war. Just this week he refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power. His consigliere Roger Stone urges him to declare “martial law” if he loses. Michael Caputo, assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, warns “the shooting will begin” when Trump refuses to go.

Civil war is unlikely, but the weeks and perhaps months after election day will surely be fraught. Even if Trump is ultimately forced to relinquish power, his core adherents will continue to view him as their leader. If he retains power, many if not most Americans will consider his presidency illegitimate.

So whatever happens, Trump’s megalomaniacal ego will prevail. America will have come apart over him, and Trump Nation will have seceded from Anti-Trump Nation.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a columnist for Guardian US

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

Read the full article at the link.

Perhaps ironically, the pro-democracy, pro-health care, pro-environment, pro-jobs, pro-science, more fiscally responsible Government promoted by Biden & Harris will help “Trump Nation” much more than anything in Trump’s tiny and overwhelmingly negative book of “achievements.” Even the pre-pandemic economy that Trump and his cult like to tout was as at least as much Obama as Trump.

Vote like your life and our future depend on it. Because they do!

PWS

09-28-20

KAKISTOCRACY🏴‍☠️🤮 REPORT: Many Americans Pay Taxes — “Billionaire” Trump, Not So Much, Or Not At All! — But, He’s Also Tried To Conceal It & Mislead The Public — Just Another Day At The Office For “Don The Con-Man!”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.html

The Times obtained Donald Trump’s tax information extending over more than two decades, revealing struggling properties, vast write-offs, an audit battle and hundreds of millions in debt coming due.

By Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and Mike McIntire

Sept. 27, 2020

1701

Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.

As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed. Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.

The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the I.R.S. portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes. Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president.

The New York Times has obtained tax-return data extending over more than two decades for Mr. Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his business organization, including detailed information from his first two years in office. It does not include his personal returns for 2018 or 2019. This article offers an overview of The Times’s findings; additional articles will be published in the coming weeks.

The returns are some of the most sought-after, and speculated-about, records in recent memory. In Mr. Trump’s nearly four years in office — and across his endlessly hyped decades in the public eye — journalists, prosecutors, opposition politicians and conspiracists have, with limited success, sought to excavate the enigmas of his finances. By their very nature, the filings will leave many questions unanswered, many questioners unfulfilled. They comprise information that Mr. Trump has disclosed to the I.R.S., not the findings of an independent financial examination. They report that Mr. Trump owns hundreds of millions of dollars in valuable assets, but they do not reveal his true wealth. Nor do they reveal any previously unreported connections to Russia.

. . . .

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

Read the full report at the link.

Duh! According to NBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, an American who actually worked for a living and made $18,000 would pay $760 in taxes.

Not much of a surprise to those familiar with Trump’s endemic lies, corruption, and dishonesty. You can be sure that whatever lies and misdirection Trump spews forth about this report, it will have little or nothing to do with truth.

PWS

09-28-20

LINKEDIN SAVES LIVES: NDPA Superstar Michelle Mendez Of CLINIC With Some Good News On How Litigation Success Has Saved Lives In The Face Of Regime’s Scurrilous White Nationalist Attack On Asylum Laws! — These Are The True Brilliant Minds & Courageous Heroes Of Our Legal System, Carrying On RBG’s Legacy Of Fighting Tirelessly For Equal Justice!

Aimee Mayer Salins
Staff Attorney
Defending Vulnerable Populations
CLINIC
Source: Linkedin

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

Sorry for the small print. But, well worth the read.

Compare the courage and fidelity to due process, fundamental fairness, equal justice for all, and defense of human dignity demonstrated by brilliant lawyers like Michelle Mendez, Aimee Mayer Salins (former BIA JLC), and the terrific CAIR litigators with the warped right wing, anti-constitutional, anti-humanity jurisprudence of Trump’s Supreme Court choice, Judge Amy Coney Barrett:

Faced with two plausible readings of a law, fact, or precedent, Barrett always seems to choose the harsher, stingier interpretation. Can job applicants sue employers whose policies have a disproportionately deleterious impact on older people? Barrett said no. Should courts halt the deportation of an immigrant who faced torture at home? Barrett said no. Should they protect refugees denied asylum on the basis of xenophobic prejudice? Barrett said no. Should they shield prisoners from unjustified violence by correctional officers? Barrett said no. Should minors be allowed to terminate a pregnancy without telling their parents if a judge has found that they’re mature enough to make the decision? Barrett said no. Should women be permitted to obtain an abortion upon discovering a severe fetal abnormality? Barrett said no.

There is no question that, if confirmed, Barrett would cast the fifth vote to either hollow out Roe v. Wade or overturn it altogether. Similarly, there is no doubt that Barrett would dramatically expand the Second Amendment, invalidating gun control measures around the country. It’s quite possible, perhaps even likely, that within a year of her confirmation, Americans will be forbidden from terminating a pregnancy in 21 states—but permitted to purchase assault weapons and carry firearms in public in every state.

https://immigrationcourtside.com/2020/09/21/insult-to-injury🤮☠%EF%B8%8F👎🏻-trump-to-tap-unqualified-cruel-righty-zealot-to-replace-rbg-one-leading-candidate-the-anti-rbg/

In other words, guns yes; human rights and human dignity, no! Some lawyers spend their lives saving lives and advancing humanity; others spend them pursuing and spreading anti-humanitarian, right wing dogmas. Why are commitments to cruelty, inhumanity, and a fundamentally unjust society things to “tout” in a judicial candidate? You need to look inside the deep perversity of the GOP minority who control our nation and are running it into the ground to get the answer.

There are thousands of progressive lawyers, many of them women and minorities, committed to standing up for equal justice for all who are better qualified than Judge Barrett. There is something wrong with a system that elevates the wrong people to the judiciary and other high offices.

It’s time to establish meritocracy and save our democracy. Vote to throw the GOP out of office and end the selection of far-right judges whose reactionary views and lack of empathy for the most vulnerable in society are far outside both the reality of our diverse nation and our future as a vibrant, progressive democracy that will promote equal justice and human rights at home and abroad!

Keep the future Judge Barretts where they belong — on the sidelines and in the margins of our legal system, while those with a better view of the Constitution, the rule of law, and human progress take their rightful places in positions of power and progressive influence in all there branches of our Government.

Judge Barrett parrots great admiration for RBG while aiming to trash her legacy of fairness and equality with a far-right, exclusive, intolerant agenda. In the future, we need Federal Judges who will constantly confront Judge Barrett, her soon-to-be-fellow GOP Supremes, and other righty judges bent on taking us back to the darkest corners of our past. Make them face the truly courageous and enlightened legacy of RBG and others like her. Force the “Barretts of the world” to reckon with their own smugly disingenuous jurisprudence and their lack of commmitment to humanity and true equality before the law for all persons in the U.S.! Constantly confront complicit courts for change!

Better judges for a better, fairer America!

This Fall, vote like your life and the future of humanity depend on it! Because they do!

PWS

09-27-20

“My Trials: Inside America’s Deportation Factories” — Round Table Star 🌟 Hon. Paul Grussendorf Releases Revised Edition Of His Acclaimed Book 🏆 — Help Him Self-Publish Here!

Paul Grussendorf is organizing this fundraiser.

Creative Arts, Music & Film

I am a lawyer specializing in asylum and refugee law. I have taught refugee law at George Washington University, University of San Francisco and Howard University. I have worked with the U.S. government and the UN Refugee Agency in refugee resettlement all over the world, most recently in Rwanda until COVID shut down our interviews.

In 2011 I self-published my legal memoir, My Trials: Inside America’s Deportation Factories, focusing upon the deportation system and my time as an immigration judge. It is time to update the book, given all the changes and destructive policies that have occured in recent years to our asylum system. The book received great reviews: “My Trials is both a scathing indictment of a broken immigration system that sends vulnerable immigrants back to perilous situations from which they fled, and a heartfelt call for a return to the values upon which our nation was founded.” American Immigration Lawyers Association. It was endorsed by renowned criminal defense attorney Gerry Spence.

The budget will include $2000 for editing and formatting, and $3000 for a limited publicity campaign. I am currently working with an editor to make the book available on Amazon by first week of October, so funds are essential now. It will be available on all other platforms mid-October.

This book has been a labor of love and education, and I have not profited from it. I will be tremendously grateful for assistance to make this updated book available at this critical junction in our nation’s history.

Click here it contribute to Paul’s “Go Fund Me” Campaign:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-paul-selfpublish-his-immigration-book?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1

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

Judge, educator, public servant, humanitarian, author, role model, tireless advocate for due process, fundamental fairness, and equal justice for all: Thanks, Paul, for all you have done and continue to do. It’s a total honor to serve with you on the Round Table!🛡⚔️👍🏼

PWS

09-27-20

ROUND TABLE 🛡 JOUSTS AGAIN WITH DARK KNIGHTS ☠️ OF THE REGIME ON COURT STRUCTURE REGS!

Hon. Ilyce Shugall
U.S. Immigraton Judge (Retired)
Director, Immigrant Legal Defense Program, Justice & Diversity Center of the Bar Assn. of San Francisco.

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

Judge Joan Churchill — Honorable Joan Churchill
Retired U.S. Immigration Judge
Member Round Table of Retired Judges

Cecelia M. Espenoza — Hon. Cecelia M.Espenoza
Former Appellate Immigration Judge, BIA
Source:
Denverdemocrats.org

Hon. Rebecca Jamil
U.S. Immigration Judge (Ret.)
Source: Twitter

The Round Table of Former Immigration Judges is composed of 47 former Immigration Judges and Appellate Immigration Judges of the Board of Immigration Appeals. We were appointed by and served under both Republican and Democratic administrations. We have centuries of com- bined experience adjudicating asylum applications and appeals. Our members include nation- ally-respected experts on asylum law; many regularly lecture at law schools and conferences and author articles on the topic.

Our members issued decisions encompassing wide-ranging interpretations of our asylum laws during our service on the bench. Whether or not we ultimately reached the correct result, those decisions were always exercised according to our “own understanding and conscience,”1 and not in acquiescence to the political agenda of the party or administration under which we served.

We as judges understood that whether or not we agreed with the intent of Congress, we were still bound to follow it. The same is true of the Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security, and for that matter, the President.

INTRODUCTION

Initially we note that the current practice of reducing the time for notice and comment, severely undermines the ability for the public to digest and comment on rules. The reduction of time to

1 See Accardi v. Shaughnessy, 347 U.S. 260, 266-67 (1954). 1

30 days violates the intent of Congress to give full deliberation to regulatory changes. As experi- enced adjudicators, we are in a unique position to contextualize these changes, but even with our experience, the breadth of these proposed regulations should allow for additional time to review and comment.

Next, we note that the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), contains changes that continue to diminish the role and function of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) as an independent adjudicatory body free from political pressure. For example, the granting of certification author- ity to judges who are supposed to be subject to the appellate review of the BIA, does not further the objectives of finality or due process. Further, these rules are slanted in ways that diminish actions and take away tools used by Immigration Judges and Board to manage dockets and en- sure consideration of changed circumstances that might arise for either party. Under the NPRM, the Department of Homeland Security is invited to utilize unlimited power to reopen cases for negative information, and all opportunity for respondents to obtain reopening for new infor- mation have been removed.

In our review we do not object to the clarifications and changes regarding: 1) finality; 2) the ex- pansion of the authority to grant voluntary departure to the BIA; and 3) having cases that only need security checks being placed on hold by the BIA.

However, we do object to: 1) the proposed shortened briefing schedule; 2) simultaneous briefing in non-detained cases; 3) the prohibition from receiving new evidence on appeal, remanding a case for the immigration judge to consider new evidence in the course of adjudicating an appeal, or considering a motion to remand based on new evidence; 4) the elimination of the ability of immigration judges to consider issues beyond the express scope of the remand; 5) giving Immi- gration Judges Certification Authority over BIA decisions; 5) the proposed elimination of admi- nistrative closures; 6) the proposed elimination of the delegation of sua sponte reopening author- ity; 7) removal of BIA certification authority; 8) the imposition of new deadlines and timeframes for adjudication of appeals with those failing to be adjudicated in the specified time being re- ferred to the EOIR Director for adjudication; and 9) the elimination of Immigration Judge review of transcripts.

In short, there is little in the NPRM, that furthers the interests of ensuring a fair and neutral adju- dication. We are concerned with the overall diminishment of the BIA as an appellate body.

Read the full 17-page comment with the names of all the signers here:

BIA restructure regulation comments_FINAL

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

Many thanks to Ilyce, Jeffrey, Joan, Cecelia, and Rebecca for spearheading this effort!

B/T/W, “diminishment’ is a polite term for “dumbing down!” In this case, “further dumbing down.”

Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-26-20

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Many thanks to Ilyce, Jeffrey, Joan, Cecelia, and Rebecca for spearheading this effort!

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