😎👍🏼⚖️🗽NDPA INNOVATION: Superstar Professor 🦸🏼🌟Erin Barbato & UW Law Immigration Clinic Partner With School Of Education To Help Wisconsin’s Dreamers With A Practical, Comprehensive, Interdisciplinary Approach! — Introducing The “Center For Dreamers @ UW!”

Professor Erin Barbato
Professor Erin Barbato
Director, Immigrant Justice Clinic
UW Law
Photo source: UW Law

From the Winter 2021-22 issue of the U.W. Law Gargoyle:

https://gargoyle.law.wisc.edu/2022/01/14/center-for-dreamers-provides-holistic-support-for-daca-students/.

The UW Law School launched a new center to support Wisconsin’s DREAMers, an all-encompassing term describing individuals who have lived in the United States without official lawful status since coming to the country as a minor. The Center for DREAMers was awarded a grant through the Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment, a competitive grant program that fosters public engagement and the advancement of the Wisconsin Idea.

Clinical Professor and Director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the Law School Erin Barbato, together with Erika Rosales of the School of Education, will lead the Center for DREAMers.

Erica Rosales
Erika Rosales
School of Education
University of Wisconsin, Madison
PHOTO: UW Law

The center will serve the approximately 11,000 DREAMers in Wisconsin, working with organizations to coordinate the provision of legal representation, mental and social services, and career and educational counseling to ease the burden of some of the uncertainty experienced by undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

Barbato, who teaches second- and third-year law students to represent individuals in removal proceedings and with humanitarian-based immigration relief, says the center will become an important resource for the community.

“The Center for DREAMers will bring together comprehensive resources for students that have DACA in Wisconsin,” says Barbato. “Currently, no organization in Wisconsin exists that has the capacity to serve the unique educational and legal needs of DACA recipients. We hope the center will serve this population in a manner that will allow them to fulfill their potential in a state and country they call home. We are honored to have the opportunity to serve this population so they no longer have to live in fear and one day they will have equity in educational opportunities as well as citizenship.”

As a part of its community-focused approach, the center provides outreach events and support on different campus and community locations, including the South Madison Partnership. A particular focus includes outreach to DACA communities throughout the state of Wisconsin, including bi-monthly information events.

The center’s mission also aligns with the Law School’s law-in-action tradition.

“The University of Wisconsin Law School is renowned for its law-in-action approach to legal education, and the Center for DREAMers aligns with that practical approach to learning and the pursuit of equal justice,” says Dean Dan Tokaji. “We’re grateful for the Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment’s support for the center and are thrilled by the opportunities this will provide for our students and the community.”

Located in the Law School’s Economic Justice Institute, the center opened in October and began providing office hours and counseling services. Clinical law students in the Immigrant Justice Clinic play an instrumental role in the center’s work, says Barbato. Under her guidance, the students provide direct representation to people with DACA in renewals and may provide representation to people with DACA who are eligible for pathways to citizenship through family, employment, or for humanitarian-based reasons.

Posted in News & NotesTagged Volume 44.1, Winter 2021-22

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Congratulations, Erin, my friend, on your continuing extraordinary leadership, creativity, and overwhelming commitment to achieving social justice in America. You are indeed an inspiring role model for America’s new generation of lawyers! So proud of what you and your colleagues are doing at my alma mater! Go Badgers!

Bucky Badger
Bucky Badger

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-25-22

🏴‍☠️🤮👎🏽⚰️🤯 SCOFFLAW BIA BREAKS RULES, VIOLATES OWN PRECEDENTS, HEMORRHAGES FUNDAMENTAL UNFAIRNESS IN HELPING DHS, 7TH CIR. FINDS IN LATEST REBUKE OF GARLAND’S STAR CHAMBERS — “Culture Of Denial,” Anti-Immigrant Bias Continue Unabated @ Garland’s EOIR!

Star Chamber Justice
At ICE, there’s no need to bother presenting evidence, arguments, or making a record below because we know we can “rack up” victories before our stooges at Garland’s BIA!

Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca7-slaps-the-bia-again-osmani-v-garland

CA7 Slaps the BIA Again: Osmani v. Garland

Osmani v. Garland

“In 2019, the Department of Human Services (“DHS”) sought to remove Ilir Osmani, a refugee of the Kosovo War, based on his criminal convictions and crimes of moral turpitude. An Immigration Judge (“IJ”) granted Osmani’s petition for an adjusted status under 8 U.S.C. § 1159(a) and for waiver under 8 U.S.C. § 1159(c). The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) reversed the IJ’s ruling based on new arguments the government, after failing to take any position before the IJ or to provide any notice to Osmani, raised for the first time on appeal and denied Osmani’s motion to remand for additional factfinding on the conditions in Kosovo. We find the BIA legally erred by considering arguments the government did not present to the IJ, put Osmani on notice of, or develop any record evidence to support. In denying Osmani’s motion to remand, the BIA also abused its discretion by engaging in impermissible factfinding. Accordingly, we grant Osmani’s petition for review and remand to the BIA. … Accordingly, we GRANT the petition for review; VACATE the Board’s decision in this case; and REMAND to the BIA for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

[Hats way off to pro bono publico counsel Illyana A. Green, Chuck Roth and Matthew E. Price!  Query: ICE removed Osmani in 2021…will they bring him back?  Listen to the oral argument here.]

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The outrageous errors, pro-DHS bias, gross incompetence, and lack of judicial qualifications reflected by this BIA decision is absolutely stunning, as is the Biden Administration’s:

  • Deportation of the respondent while this court challenge to this error-fest was pending (the respondent was removed based on this illegal order in April 2021, well after the Biden Administration took office and a month after Garland was sworn in as Attorney General);
  • The DOJ’s prima facie unethical defense of the BIA’s denial of due process, failure to follow precedent, clear abuse of discretion, and legally indefensible actions here;
  • Continuing abuse of scarce pro bono resources and Article III judicial time by not bringing in fair, expert, new, due–process-dedicated BIA judges who would get these right in the first place, set proper precedents, and follow them (rather than avoiding them when they spell victory for the individual);
  • Also, who at DHS authorized an improper appeal on this record? (Obviously, DHS recognized that given the BIA’s pro-DHS bias, they could “mail it in” before the IJ, take a frivolous appeal, and  STILL HAVE THE BIA HAND THEM A TOTALLY UNDESERVED VICTORY!)

Folks, this is a Democratic Administration enabling this pattern of biased, unprofessional, and illegal conduct against immigrants which should bring a smile to Stephen Miller’s face! It’s also unfair and demoralizing to Immigration Judges who take the time to get it right and grant relief only to be arbitrarily and illegally reversed by Garland’s unqualified BIA on appeal!

Garland should have replaced leadership at EOIR and OIL, and also replaced the BIA, on “day one.” Instead, more than a year into a supposedly due-process-oriented Administration, the garbage continues to flow into the Article IIIs from Garland’s EOIR unabated, while the indefensible continues to be defended by OIL, like it’s “business as usual.” This happens because Garland’s message is that “Dred Scottification” of “the other” will be tolerated, defended, and protected at his DOJ.

Why is Garland being allowed to get away with running this system into the ground, ignoring due process, “blowing off” judicial and legal ethics, treating migrants unfairly, and building the unnecessary backlog at record levels?

🇺🇸Due Process Forever! 

PWS

01-25-22

🏴‍☠️🤮👎🏽INJUSTICE IN AMERICA: TIME MAGGIE SPOTLIGHTS GARLAND’S BROKEN “COURTS,” BURGEONING BACKLOGS!

Jasmine Aguilera
Jasmine Aguilera
Staff Writer
Time Magazine
PHOTO: Twitter

Jasmine Aguilera reports for Time: 

https://time.com/6140280/immigration-court-backlog/

Roughly 1.6 million people are caught up in an ever-expanding backlog in United States immigration court, according to new data tracking cases through December 2021. Those with open immigration cases must now wait for a decision determining their legal status for an average of 58 months—nearly five years.

Though the immigration court backlog has been getting longer for more than a decade, a deluge of new cases added between October and December 2021 significantly worsened wait times, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a research institution at Syracuse University that obtained the figures through Freedom of Information Act requests. The backlog increased by nearly 140,000 during that period, the fastest growth on record and the direct result of an uptick in arrests by agencies housed under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS): Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

. . . .

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Read Jasmine’s complete article at the link!

1.6 million is just the “trip of the iceberg.” Each of those human beings potentially has family, friends, co-workers, teachers, fellow students, relatives, employers, employees, neighbors, sponsors, fellow parishioners, students, investors, etc. tied up in the trauma of their wait and the often arbitrary and capricious results once they get a final hearing. Virtually every community in America has a stake in Garland’s tragically broken “court” system.

Just applying TRAC’s math from recent studies, even in a time of inculturated anti-immigrant, anti-asylum bias and bad, skewed interpretations at EOIR, more than half of those in backlog would earn the right to stay  in America if they could get an individual hearting. But, in Garland’s broken and mis-prioritized system, “getting a merits hearing” is a “big if.” Many of those in the backlog are already doing “essential work” or have the job skills we need if their only be normalized. Garland’s failure is America’s trauma, and wasted human capital, and squandered Government resources.

 

A few other “lowlights:”

  • “Fewer than 1% of those new cases brought by ICE and CBP beginning in October 2021 involved alleged criminal activity.” So much for “new priorities.”
  • “A spokesperson for the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), which oversees the immigration court system, said courts have been relying on technology to continue operations, but blamed the on-going pandemic for the worsening backlog.” An absurdist “cop-out,” as those familiar with EOIR’s chronically bad technology and failure to adequately prepare and deal with COVID know. Poor and imperious communication with the public has also been a feature of EOIR (mis)management during the pandemic!
  • “One reason is an ever-increasing number of new immigration cases swamping the system, as both the Obama and Trump Administrations issued millions of deportation orders.” Truth is that despite DHS and EOIR attempts to shift blame to the victims, the backlog is largely self-created.
  • “But the problem cannot be solved by asking the existing immigration judges to work harder or faster, Long says.” Nor, with due respect to TRAC’s Susan Long, will it be solved by throwing more judges and resources into a biased, unfair, totally dysfunctional, anti-due-process, broken system. Fix the system first with common-sense progressive reforms, replace bad judges, hire new judges on a merit basis, with outside expert input, focusing on hiring judges with records of commitment to due process and fundamental fairness and established immigration/human rights expertise! Then, once fairness, expertise, quality, and efficiency have been established and institutionalized, decide whether the system should be expanded and, if so, how to do it. (Hint: Many experts believe that 500 completions annually is the most reasonable expectation for well-functioning, expert Immigration Judges complying with due process and “best practices.” That means the current system of approximately 560 IJ’s has a maximum capacity of 250,000 to 300,000 completions annually. DHS Enforcement must be required to work within those realistic limits in bringing new cases before the court.)
  • “While the dedicated docket was designed to address the backlog for recently-arrived families, it failed to take into account the staggering systemic failures at work, according to immigration lawyers, advocacy organizations and elected officials.” It was a “proven failure enforcement gimmick” as experts told Garland from the “git go.” A competent AG committed to due process, fundamental fairness, and the rule of law would have rejected this bad idea out of hand.
  • “There’s a long, long laundry list of things that have been tried in the past,” Long says. “It’s not going to be a quick fix.” I respectfully dissent! This isn’t rocket science! It’s a combination of cleaning out the deadwood, bringing in competence and progressive expertise in judging and administration, common sense, long overdue progressive reforms, creative thinking, appointing a BIA of expert appellate judges to issue sound legal precedents, require best practices, and hold judges, DOJ officials, and DHS personnel accountable for their often intentional undermining of justice in Immigration Court. As alluded to by Long, Garland had the incredible advantage of a laundry list of “enforcement and just pedal faster gimmicks” that are proven failures! Garland knew in advance what NOT to do and what NOT to try. He also had access to an impressive array of practical scholarship and that produced sound, straightforward recommendations on how to fix the system. He had a golden opportunity to shake up the system on “Day One,” “clean house,” and bring in the new progressive experts and dynamic leaders to fix the system. Yes, I recognize that as Long suggests, the system won’t be fixed “overnight.” But, had Garland acted promptly and timely, the system could already be showing dramatic improvements on all levels. You have to start the process of reform and improvement somewhere. Garland’s dilatory approach to EOIR has greatly increased the difficulty. But, fixing EOIR is still “low hanging fruit” for the Administration if they only had the backbone and vision to “blow up” the current failed and flailing EOIR  and bring in and empower experts to start taking names, kicking tail, and implementing due process and best practices reforms.
  • Garland apparently has operated on the false premise that fixing “Immigration Courts” isn’t a priority and that advice and assistance of progressive experts can just be “blown off” in favor of the type of politically-driven, bogus-enforcement-oriented, bureaucratic nonsense that is endemic at DOJ and DHS. Not happening! And continued aggressive litigation by the NDPA is an essential element of stopping the injustice and holding Garland and his flunkies accountable. That litigation is not going to stop either unless, and until, one way or another, Garland is forced to take notice and make the obvious progressive reforms and improvements.
Alfred E. Neumann
Garland’s management “style” and unwillingness to bring in the progressive experts necessary to radically reform EOIR has become a huge part of the problem, propelling an already broken system to new heights of dysfunction, disorder, and injustice! 
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons

I’m no fan of Virginia’s new GOP neo-fascist Attorney General Jason Miyares. But, before the end of Inauguration Day, the heads were rolling, and his message was very clear: liberalism, environmental protection, racial justice, good government, and public health are out — far-right neo-fascism is in!  Get  with the program or get out! Republicans loved it, Dems hated it. But it happened!

By sharp contrast, Garland is still running EOIR with much of the same personnel and many of the same broken and bad policies of his predecessors, Trump, and Stephen Miller. That’s a good illustration of why “Democrats can’t govern” while Republicans constantly outflank them and dismantle the system in short order. What’s the future of a party that doesn’t recognize its own self-interest, the common good, and act and govern accordingly?   

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-24-22

🤮DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO: BIDEN CLAIMS TO BE A STRONG ADVOCATE FOR RACIAL JUSTICE — BUT, HIS POLICIES SAY OTHERWISE: Biden Administration Continues One Of America’s Longest-Standing Racial Traditions: Shafting Haitian Asylum Seekers! — Nicole Narea Reports For Vox News!

Biden’s immigration polices leave Haitians stranded in Mexico

Friday, January 21, 2022

By Immigration Prof

Nicole Narea of Voxreports that the U.S. has deported nearly 14,000 Haitians to Mexico since September, according to data released by UN’s International Organization for Migration. In 2021, Mexico received more than 131,ooo asylum applications, of which an estimated 45% were Haitians and their Chilean-born children. Haitians in Mexico “face pervasive racism, and many are unable to work, have no access to medical care, and are targets for criminals,” Narea writes.

Mexico is seeing an uptick in Haitian asylum applicants.

The Biden administration continues to enforce pandemic-related border restrictions that have kept out the vast majority of asylum seekers, including Haitians.

KJ

 

Current Affairs | Permalink

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This disingenuous action by the Administration comes at a rather inopportune time, just as they are “getting heat” for failing to deliver on promises to Black voters. Additionally, the latest Pew Study shows that immigrants now make ump 10% of the U.S. Black population and that they are “more than holding their own” in terms of education and economic contributions.

https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2022/01/20/one-in-ten-black-people-living-in-the-u-s-are-immigrants/

Looks like many of the “immigrants we need” (and who also need us), according to Suzanne Clark of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have mindlessly been dumped in Mexico at great human and fiscal cost that actually results in a “negative achievement.” (That’s notwithstanding the White Nationalist myths perpetrated by the 5th Circuit and GOP AGs and not always effectively opposed by the Biden Administration. How do you purport to end “Remain in Mexico” while denying asylum seekers any right to seek refuge at the border? Not very effectively, it appears!)

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-22-22

🤯👎🏽MORE CIRCUIT REJECTS FOR GARLAND & PRELOGAR — 1st & 3rd Cirs “Just Say No” To DOJ’s Ill-Advised Positions On “Theft Offense” & Derivative Citizenship!  — It’s Part Of A Larger Leadership Failure @ Garland’s Broken DOJ!

From Dan Kowalski @ LexisNexis:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca1-on-categorical-approach-da-graca-v-garland

CA1 on Categorical Approach: Da Graca v. Garland

Da Graca v. Garland

“Aires Daniel Benros Da Graca petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (the “Board”) affirming his order of removal and denying his requests for cancellation of removal and voluntary departure. Because we find that a conviction under Rhode Island General Laws (“RIGL”) § 31-9-1 is not categorically a theft offense, we grant the petition for review, vacate the decision below, and remand for further proceedings.”

[Hats off to Randy Olen and Robert F. Weber!]

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https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca3-derivative-citizenship-victory-jaffal-v-director

CA3 Derivative Citizenship Victory: Jaffal v. Director

https://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/203148p.pdf

 

“Appellant Imad Jaffal, born in Jordan, seeks a declaration that he is entitled to derivative U.S. citizenship under former 8 U.S.C. § 1432(a). That statute provides that “a child born outside the United States automatically acquires United States citizenship if, while the child is under the age of eighteen, the parent with legal custody of the child is naturalized while that child’s parents are legally separated.” Jaffal’s father was naturalized when Jaffal was seventeen years old, and Jaffal presented evidence to the District Court that he was in the sole legal custody of his father when his father was naturalized and his parents were separated. The District Court, however, declined to accept Jaffal’s evidence of his parents’ divorce. Because we conclude that was error, we will reverse the order of the District Court and remand the matter with instructions to issue a judgment declaring Jaffal to be a national of the United States.”

[Hats way off to Alexandra Tseitlin!]

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Here’s my favorite quote from Judge Torresen’s decision in  Da Garcia v. Garland:

Despite this apparent disconnect between RIGL § 31-9-1 and the Board’s definition of theft offense, the Board in Da Graca’s case determined that to prove the statute’s overbreadth, the Petitioner was required to identify actual cases in which Rhode Island had enforced the statute against de minimis deprivations of ownership interests. Da Graca contests the Board’s imposition of an actual case requirement and argues that he “need not necessarily proffer specific examples of Rhode Island prosecutions in order to establish a ‘realistic probability’ that the state would apply its statute to conduct that falls outside the generic definition of a crime.” We agree with Da Graca.

Essentially, Garland’s BIA “makes it up as it goes along” to reach a denial, then Prelogar’s DOJ attorneys defend the illegal result. Sounds like a really bad system, lacking accountability, expertise, common sense, and, sometimes, professional responsibility. 

Lest you think that the legal nonsense being produced by Garland’s BIA and the USCIS is “below Prelogar’s radar screen” in her exulted position, that’s NOT true! Every adverse decision suffered by the USG must be reported to the SG’s Office with an analysis and recommendations from the agency’s attorneys, the litigators who handled the case, the appellate section of litigating division (here the Civil Division), and the SG’s staff. No appeal, petition for rehearing en banc, or petition for cert. can be filed without the express authorization of the SG’s Office. 

So, Prelogar is well aware of the bad positions, unfairness, and poor work product DOJ attorneys are defending (sometimes with a lack of candor or misleading the courts) and their abuses of the time of the Article IIIs. 

Even with the “real” (Article III) Federal Courts moving markedly to the right (following four years of Trump-McConnell appointments and eight years of lackadaisical performance by the Obama Administration), and rules that strongly favor the Government on judicial review, DOJ’s haphazard performance under Garland and Prelogar continues to earn a stream of avoidable “kickbacks” from the Article IIIs. The DOJ system is broken in many places — EOIR is just the most obvious, most pressing, and most easily addressed area of failure.

There is a tendency of immigration advocates, perhaps still hoping to curry favor with an Administration that largely ignores and despises them, to overemphasize the largely cosmetic and low impact “positive” changes made by the Biden Administration. See, e.g., https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/outsidenews/posts/biden-at-the-one-year-mark-a-greater-change-in-direction-on-immigration-than-is-recognized;

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2022/01/biden-keeps-trump-immigration-policiesand-stephen-miller-is-loving-it.html

At the same time they acknowledge but downplay the existential crippling effects of Garland’s failure to bring progressive reforms to EOIR, his defense of disgraceful, immoral, and inhumane “Miller Lite” positions in Federal Court, his intentional indifference to human suffering and the complete breakdown of the rule of law at our borders, and his disdain for removing the Trump enablers, deadwood, and poor lawyers from DOJ — at all levels.

I have a radically different perspective on the future of meaningful progressive immigration reforms, based on my nearly 50 years of involvement with the system on both sides and at all levels — more than most folks. 

There will be no meaningful, sustainable immigration reforms without a radically reformed, remade, Immigration Court system with a judiciary of due-process-oriented progressive experts who have the courage to “speak truth to power,” stand up for the legal, constitutional, and human right of the most vulnerable, and put integrity, humanity, and the best interests of our nation above career advancement, survival, or “ingratiation with the powers that be.” That’s NOT Garland’s DOJ — which remains largely the out of control, often ethically challenged morass that he inherited from his predecessors.

Let’s not forget that through intentional misuse of precedents, weaponization of EOIR, and White Nationalist litigation strategies, Jeff Sessions was able to largely disable the entire asylum system, including USCIS Asylum Offices, and shift USCIS Adjudications from service to “enforcement only,” in preparation for the “final eradication” of asylum and crippling of our entire legal immigration system by his crony and former subordinate, Stephen Miller. And, the folks who helped him do that and “went along to go along” with abuses are still largely on board and in key positions in Garland’s DOJ — actually operating with his apparent “stamp of approval.” Outrageous!

From a due process, human rights, progressive, good government, equal justice, racial equality standpoint, as well as from any aspect of moral leadership on fundamental values, Garland’s performance at DOJ has been unacceptable. Has Garland visited any of the camps in Mexico or gone to the “New American Gulag” to witness first-hand the human carnage for which he is responsible? Heck no! That’s a job for progressive experts whose input and advice he then shuns, ignores, and “tunes out!”

For progressive advocates to downplay the Biden Administration’s gross failures or “over-cheer” incremental progress that means little without fundamental reforms at EOIR and the DOJ only deepens the fecklessness of their own positions and furthers the disrespect and under-appreciation of their efforts, potential power, and value that has become an endemic feature of the Democratic Party. 

The Biden Administration might talk a good game, particularly around election time; but, in reality, they are governing largely in fear of and like nativist Republicans — but getting no “political return” whatsoever for betraying their supposed values and their base (see, Catherine Rampell). Advocates reward and tolerate such disgraceful and intellectually dishonest conduct at their own peril!

Meanwhile, Suzanne Clark, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, certainly no “progressive shill,” speaks truth about the need for and our ability to accept more immigrants:

Allowing more immigrants into the US would help mitigate both soaring inflation and the current labor shortage, the CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce said.

“We need more workers,” Suzanne Clark told reporters Tuesday, per CNN. “We should welcome people who want to come here, go to school, and stay.”

“That is a place the government could be particularly helpful and we do believe it would be anti-inflationary,” she said, per CNN.

https://apple.news/AT8YmOLhiTOCuUFZijTLJCQ

Those immigrants are right in front of us: rotting in camps at the border, being returned to danger or death with no process — both as a result of Garland’s failure to re-establish our legal asylum system at the border — or languishing in Garland’s mushrooming 1.6 million Immigration Court backlog! It doesn’t take a “rocket scientist” to see that instead of wasting time, money, and resources on mindless “enforcement” intended to deter and discourage those who might help us by helping themselves, we should have set up fair and timely processing systems, staffed by experts, that would identify the many individuals at the border and already in the U.S. who can qualify to remain under fair and properly generous interpretations of asylum law, withholding, CAT, U & T visas, “stateside processing waivers,” cancellation of removal” (for those already here), TPS, and other possibilities. 

This is just as much”law enforcement” and “maintaining the integrity of our system” as are the efforts to increase deportations, terrorize communities, or close borders to “deter” migrants (primarily those of color) that has been practiced to some degree by every Administration. It also makes sense, economically, practically, and ethically.

It starts with an Attorney General and DOJ with the courage and vision to end the “deterrence only” misconstruction of our laws and stand up for the legal and human rights of migrants, regardless of race, color, creed, or manner of entry. That’s not what Garland has been doing to date! Too bad, because there will be no resolution of immigration issues — nor will there be racial justice in America — without an AG who will stand up for the real rule of law rather than the parody of the law and justice purveyed by Miller and his White Nationalists and still being parroted and too often defended by Garland and his minions.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever.

PWS

01-21-22

TAL KOPAN @ SF CHRON: NO DUE PROCESS HERE☹️: GARLAND’S DESPICABLE “STAR CHAMBERS” CHEERED “ENGINEERED IN ABSENTIA” DEPORTATION ORDERS — Garland Fails To Provide Justice @ The Border Or In Biased “Courts,” But Inflicts Outrageous “Miller Lite” Anti-Due-Process “Gimmicks” On Vulnerable Migrants!🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽

Tal Kopan
Tal Kopan
Washington Reporter, SF Chronicle

Immigration court officials cheered results of fast-tracked deportation orders, emails reveal

WASHINGTON — Last June, the San Francisco Immigration Court quietly tested a new idea: Fast-track the cases of immigrants whose mail wasn’t reaching them. In the trial run, 80% of the immigrants scheduled were ordered deported for not showing up.

Top officials were effusive with praise over the results, emails obtained by The Chronicle show, and rushed to set up more hearings: “Very positive!” emailed one of the top supervising immigration judges overseeing the nation’s hundreds of courts.

The newly uncovered emails reveal that the fast-track docket for immigrants with returned mail, which was first reported by The San Francisco Chronicle last fall, was cheered at the highest levels of the courts and pursued with full awareness that scores of immigrants would likely be ordered deported as a result.

Advocates and attorneys for immigrants raised concerns about the practice as a sort of deportation conveyor belt last year, as many of the lawyer-less immigrants may have no idea they missed a court hearing, much less that they were ordered deported during it, because they didn’t know how to update their address with the court or thought that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would do so on their behalf. The immigration courts are run by the Justice Department, with judges hired and ultimately overseen by the attorney general.

The emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by a nonprofit watchdog group, American Oversight, prompted by The Chronicle’s reporting. The group shared the records with The Chronicle.

The Department of Justice declined to comment specifically on the emails, noting that removal orders for failing to appear in court are legally valid and that issuing notices with new hearing dates gives unreachable immigrants an opportunity to appear in court and avoid a deportation order.

Chronicle analysis of available data last year found that the practice significantly increased the number of immigrants who were ordered deported for not being present in court, called an “in absentia” removal order. As many as 173 people were given deportation orders because of such proceedings in August and September — a nearly ninefold increase from the 20 similar orders given the previous seven months combined.

More here:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Immigration-court-officials-cheered-results-of-16791798.php

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Star Chamber Justice
This guy doesn’t realize that he could have avoided “justice” in Garland’s Star Chambers by not appearing for his hearing!

For Garland’s “judiciary,” the object appears to be avoiding fair hearings rather than conducting them! Perhaps, that’s understandable (not justifiable) considering how poorly many of his courts’ decisions fare upon judicial review in the Article IIIs. 

For his cowardly attacks on migrants and backlog-building mismanagement and misdirection of EOIR, Garland gets “Courtside’s” coveted “Five Puke-Five Thumbs Down Award!” 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽 

While Garland is failing in his job, his concerted efforts to break apart and “alienate” key segments the Dem coalition that elected Biden is succeeding and should pay great dividends (for the GOP and Trump) in the Fall Midterms! No wonder Garland’s running the system into the ground using “Trump/Miller holdovers.”

Garland and his equally poorly performing lieutenants (Monaco, Gupta, Clarke, Prelogar) are giving us a “Master Class” in “Why Dems Can’t Govern and Blow Elections 101.” 

A party that lacks the courage to act on the values it espoused to get elected doesn’t stand for anything at all!🤮👎🏽

Maybe lots of Dems pulled the lever because they wanted more of Gauleiter Stephen Miller’s White Nationalist policies. But, I haven’t heard of any!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!  

PWS

01-20-21

🤮🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️ GARLAND’S “SHAMEFUL RECORD” GETS EVEN WORSE AS HE DEFENDS STEPHEN MILLER’S DEGRADATION OF HUMANITY AT OUR BORDERS!

Stephen Miller Monster
Biden’s “Shadow Attorney General” speaks through the likeness of Merrick Garland! Attribution: Stephen Miller Monster by Peter Kuper, PoliticalCartoons.com
Priscilla Alvarez
CNN Digital Expansion 2019, Priscilla Alvarez
Politics Reporter, CNN

Priscilla Alvarez reports for CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/title-42-biden/index.html

. . . .

“Today we heard the same unconvincing arguments from the Biden administration that we’ve been hearing for the last year about this xenophobic and baseless policy, arguments that have already been rejected in federal court. Title 42 unjustly and unnecessarily inflicts harm on families seeking asylum at our border, and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that this policy ends once and for all,” said Diana Kearney, senior legal adviser with Oxfam America, in a statement.

In a recently released report, Human Rights First found nearly 9,000 reports of kidnappings and other violent attacks against people who had been expelled to Mexico or blocked from seeking protection in the US.

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

Read Priscilla’s full story on the bottomless depths to which Garland has taken American “justice” and the Department of “Justice” at the link.

I can always count on Garland to illustrate and punctuate my points about his unfitness for the job of achieving racial equality, re-establishing the rule of law, and promoting human rights in America, not to mention his total unsuitability and inability to run a fair, impartial, due-process-oriented court system! He probably would have been right at home with the “GOP Six” on the Supremes.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-20-22

🗽⚖️HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST: BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S SHAMEFUL 🤮☠️ FIRST YEAR — Biden, Garland, Mayorkas Fail To Enforce Human Rights At The Border Or In The Federal Courts — Garland’s Abject Failure To Bring Progressive Humans Rights Reformers Into EOIR & Resulting Legal & Human Rights Disaster In His Courts A Critical Part Of Bad Governance!

Grim Reaper
A year ago, who would have thought that Biden and Garland share this guy’s vision of “justice” for migrants at the border and at EOIR? 
Image: Hernan Fednan, Creative Commons License

 

Dear Paul:

 

In this week’s First Page, we focus on the one-year anniversary of the Biden presidency — with a particular focus on policies that impact migrants and asylum seekers.

 

Our recently published report makes clear that the administration’s continuing use of Trump-era restrictions has led to escalating human rights violations and needless disorder.

 

We believe that the United States must welcome people seeking refuge with dignity, not deliver them to danger.

 

REPORTING THE RECORD

 

On Thursday, Human Rights First released a new report finding that after a year in office, the Biden administration’s continued implementation of Trump-era restrictions is sending to danger thousands of families and individuals who seek asylum protection in the United States.

 

The data assembled in our report, A Shameful Record: Biden Administration’s Use of Trump Policies Endangers People Seeking Asylum,” is a damning indictment of the U.S. government’s border policies.

pastedGraphic.png
Courtesy Adrees Latif/Reuters
Between January 2019 and January 2022, our research identified more than 10,000 reported kidnappings, rapes, acts of torture, and other grievous acts of violence against migrants and asylum seekers blocked in, returned to, or expelled to Mexico under the U.S. government’s “Remain in Mexico” and “Title 42” policies.

 

At least 8,705, or 85%, of these attacks occurred during the first year of the Biden presidency.

 

“President Biden’s first year in office has set a shameful new record on human rights as his administration continues to deliver asylum seekers to danger in Mexico,” said Kennji Kizuka, associate director for refugee protection research at Human Rights First and co-author of the report. “The Biden administration is well aware of the grave harm asylum seekers suffer when sent to Mexico and yet it has continued to use a policy condemned by public health experts, international authorities, civil rights leaders, and even departing members of President Biden’s administration.”

Courtesy ReuterS

Our report makes clear that kidnappings and rapes of returned migrants – including of children – are common.

 

Cartels and other organized criminal groups in Mexico have turned torturing asylum seekers and extorting their U.S. family members into a new and lucrative illicit enterprise. At least three asylum seekers sent to Mexico by DHS under these policies were murdered.

 

Equally frightening, our research shows that Mexican police, immigration officers, and other authorities are often complicit in – if not directly responsible for – these attacks.

Courtesy Getty
As the Biden administration restarts the inherently flawed “Remain in Mexico” program in the wake of court rulings, they have already sent asylum seekers from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and other countries to “wait” for their day in immigration court in danger in Mexico.

 

In addition to inflicting grave and systematic suffering, these policies continue to perpetuate disorder, encourage repeat entries, inflate apprehension statistics, cause family separations, and fuel cartels by putting a bullseye on the backs of people seeking U.S. asylum who are blocked in Mexico.

 

Despite the Biden administration’s earlier efforts to terminate “Remain in Mexico,” when it was ordered by a federal court to re-implement the program, the administration has now chosen to expand its scope.

 

Today the administration is defending the expulsion policy in federal court, with a hearing in a lawsuit challenging expulsions of families at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

pastedGraphic_3.png

HIRING FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

 

Reports like A Shameful Record are just one element of our critical efforts to defend the dignity of all people.

 

Human Rights First seeks passionate team members who are interested in legal, communications, development, finance, and innovation work that can change lives, impact policy, and move public opinion.

 

Please check out our careers page and apply to join us today.

 

* * * * *

Watch for more news as our work for human rights continues.  And please stay in touch on social media:

 

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

You can read the full version of “A Shameful Record” at the above link.

Not to mention that the extreme lack of expertise, humanity, and quality control in Garland’s wholly-owned Immigration Courts is corroding American justice from the “retail level” up. So unnecessary! So divisive! Such a missed opportunity for Dems to actually govern with values and in the public interest!

Wow! Think of the incredible waste: So much talent, energy, creativity, and manpower that could be working with the Administration to solve problems and make things better for everyone. Instead they are engaged in an all-out war to stop the Biden Administration’s cruel, spineless, and highly ineffective immigration and human rights blunders and, once again, be the last line of defense for American democracy against the Dems’ self-destructive policies and actions.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-2.0-21

  

🤯🤑PROFILE IN FAILURE: GARLAND’S JUDGES: “AMATEUR NIGHT AT THE BIJOU” WITH AN OVERWHELMING TRUMPIAN INFLUENCE — As Experienced Immigration Judges Leave The Bench To Join The “Round Table,” ⚔️🛡 Garland Fails To Consistently Recruit & Hire Immigration/Human Rights/Due Process/Equal Justice “A-Listers” To Replace Them!

Amateur Night
Garland’s methods for attracting, recruiting, hiring, and retaining Immigration Judges have not inspired confidence from the NDPA and other expert critics of his totally dysfunctional, wholly-owned and operated, exponentially backlogged, poorly performing Immigration “Courts.” 
PHOTO: Thomas Hawk
Creative Commons
Amateur Night

From TRAC:

More Immigration Judges Leaving the Bench

The latest judge-by-judge data from the Immigration Courts indicate that more judges are resigning and retiring. Turnover is the highest since records began in FY 1997 over two decades ago. These results are based on detailed records obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) which administers the Courts.
During FY 2019 a record number of 35 judges left the bench. This is up from the previous record set in FY 2017 when 20 judges left the bench, and 27 judges left in FY 2018. See Figure 1.

. . . .

There has also been an increase in hiring (see Table 1). The combination of elevated hiring plus a record number of judges leaving the bench means more cases are being heard by judges with quite limited experience as immigration judges.
Currently one of every three (32%) judges have only held their position since FY 2019. Half (48%) of the judges serving today were appointed in the last two and a half years. And nearly two-thirds (64%) were appointed since FY 2017[1]. See Figure 2.

. . . .

Thus, record judge turnover means the Court is losing its most experienced judges, judges whose services would be of particular value in helping mentor the large number of new immigration judges now joining the Court’s ranks. Even with mentoring, new judges appointed without any background in the intricacies of immigration law face a very steep learning curve. And without adequate mentoring, there is a heightened risk that some immigrants’ cases could be decided incorrectly.

. . . .

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

Read the complete report, with charts and graphs, at the above link.

It certainly didn’t help that Garland inexcusably wasted dozens of his “first picks” on Barr’s pipeline appointments — a group that contained few, if any, recognizable “practical scholars” in immigration/human rights/due process/equal justice.

This also shows why adding more judges under Garland’s indolent and ineffective “leadership to the bottom” is likely to aggravate, rather than alleviate, the myriad of problems and the uncontrolled mushrooming backlogs in his dysfunctional courts.

Garland’s mind-boggling failure to act on principles and make obvious, long overdue personnel and structural reforms at EOIR threatens to shred the Dem party and endanger the future of American democracy! It also underlines the hollowness of Biden’s pledge to fight for equal justice and voting rights reforms.

Faced with a wholly owned system badly in need of progressive reforms, the Biden Administration has carried on many of the scurrilous traditions of its Trump predecessors (“MillerLite policies”) while shunning and disrespecting the advice, values, and participation of progressives committed to due process and fair treatment of all persons, regardless of race, color, creed, or status.

Better options and plans have been out there since “before the git go.” See, e.g., https://immigrationcourtside.com/2021/02/04/its-not-rocket-science-🚀-greg-chen-professor-peter-markowitz-can-cut-the-immigration-court-backlog-in-half-immediately-with-no-additional-resources-and/

And, of course, it goes without saying that Garland has failed to address the glaring integrity and access problems infecting EOIR data, as outlined in the TRAC report above. With “disappearing records,” “stonewalling party lines,” and institutionalized “lack of transparency,” who really knows what the real size of Garland’s backlog is or what other problems are hidden in his EOIR morass?

It just underlines the need for an independent team of professionals to take over Garland’s broken system, “kick some tail,”and get to the bottom of its many, many, largely self-created and often hidden from the public problems and enduring failures!

Overall, a disappointing and disgraceful first-year performance by an experienced Judge and DOJ vet from whom much, much better was expected and required.

Too bad we didn’t get an Attorney General with the guts to lead and engage on progressive reforms at EOIR! One bright spot, though: Some of the “best ever” judges just leave the bench and call “Sir Jeffrey” Chase to enlist in the Round Table’s battle to advance due process and fundamental fairness! 🛡⚔️ And, they are welcomed with appreciation, respect, friendship, and love — things that few, if any, sitting judges in Garland’s dysfunctional and discombobulated system get!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever! Garland’s “Amateur Night @ The Bijou” Never!

PWS
01-20-21

GARLAND’S BIA SIDESTEPS SUPREMES AGAIN: STATUTORILY DEFECTIVE NOTICE IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR IN ABSENTIA DEPORTATION! — Matter of LAPARRA

The Board of Immigration Appeals has issued a decision in Matter of LAPARRA, 28 I&N Dec. 425 (BIA 2022).

A respondent receives sufficient written notice to support the entry of an in absentia order of removal, even if he or she was served with a noncompliant notice to appear that did not specify the time or place of the hearing, where the respondent was properly served with a statutorily compliant notice of hearing specifying this information.Niz-Chavez v. ‍Garland, 141 S. Ct. 1474 (2021), distinguished.Matter of Pena‑Mejia, 27 ‍I&N Dec. 546 (BIA 2019), and Matter of Miranda‑Cordiero, 27 I&N Dec. 551 (BIA 2019), reaffirmed.

__________________________________________

Executive Office for Immigration Review

Office of Policy

Communications and Legislative Affairs Division

PAO.EOIR@usdoj.gov

703-305-0289

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

Perhaps, contrary to the BIA and some Circuits (both with judges who haven’t had to practice immigration law), Congress had a reason for specifying the contents of a unitary “Notice to Appear” by statute.

Let’s apply that thought in the “real world” rather than the “ivory tower universe” in which most appellate judges exist. In this case, the respondent was personally served with the defective Notice to Appear (“NTA”). Had that notice been legally sufficient under the statute, the respondent would have had critical information — the date, time and place of her upcoming hearing — in her hand. 

Nearly two years later (gives you a clue about the “disorder in the Immigration Courts”), EOIR finally got around to correcting the defect by sending her “the missing piece” of the statutorily required unified notice by regular U.S. Mail. It was to the “address provided by the respondent” almost two years earlier. (Notably, the NTA gave the respondent only three weeks advance notice, although EOIR took almost two years to notify her of this date.)

Anybody out there have problems with USPS delivery? I get my neighbors’ mail — sometimes things that look like official communications or financial information — on a fairly regular basis. And, I’ll bet the mail service in our neighborhood is better than that in many of the neighborhoods where recently arrived migrants reside.

Also, we know most of our neighbors and insure that the mail is promptly taken to the correct address — even if that means us “walking it over” and knocking on the door. Think that happens in more “transient” neighborhoods?

Think that there might, just might, also be problems with “regular mail” sent by EOIR? It’s a totally dysfunctional agency suffering from the chaos of a 1.6 million case backlog, no effective automation, no competent leadership, lack of accountability, and a demoralized, underpaid, overwhelmed, and under-appreciated clerical staff! It’s a culture where “good enough for Government work” — basically the BIA approach in this precedent — has been normalized and institutionalized.

In private practice, we used to get notices from the INS of unrelated cases represented by other attorneys stuffed in the same envelope with our firm’s notices. Think today’s EOIR operates better than yesterday’s INS? I wouldn’t “bet the farm” on that!

Also, let’s think about the “address given by the respondent.” The NTA directs the respondent to file any changes of address with EOIR. But, if DHS hasn’t “filed” the NTA with EOIR, it won’t be entered into the EOIR system. 

Moreover, even when DHS has supposedly “filed” the NTA with EOIR, that doesn’t mean that it has been manually entered into the EOIR system by the overwhelmed clerks. And, it doesn’t mean that the manual data entry is accurate!

Without prompt entry of accurate information, the later EOIR notice has a good chance of misdelivery. Also, if the respondent duly files a change of address for a case that hasn’t been correctly entered into the EOIR system, that change of address won’t get linked up with the case file. Indeed, stacks of unfiled change of address forms waiting to be filed were a staple of Arlington and other Immigration Courts.

Given that both the Trump and Biden Administrations have allowed ICE to just randomly toss hundreds of thousands of “low priority cases” or cases that could be resolved within DHS into Immigration Court, this problem has only gotten worse under Garland, as shown by the dramatic increase in the EOIR backlog during his “What Me Worry” tenure.

Alfred E. Neumann
Garland’s “strategy” of allowing Trump/Miller “plants” and holdovers continue to run the Immigration Courts into the ground hasn’t worked, as backlogs grow exponentially and his system continues to careen further out  of control!
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons

Once upon a time, the Arlington Immigration Court was operating without a permanent Court Administrator. During that period, boxes of NTAs brought over by DHS were simply “warehoused” in the Court Administrator’s vacant office because the overwhelmed staff couldn’t keep up with data entry, given the other (often mindless) “priorities” imposed by the “Aimless Docket Reshuffllers” at Headquarters and the DOJ. There must have been hundreds of NTAs sitting there unentered into the EOIR manual system. Essentially they were “lost in space.” 

At one time, EOIR had established an “interactive scheduling system” that allotted a certain number of specific “nondetained Master slots” weekly to ICE and to the Asylum Office on each IJs docket. This insured that the respondents received real hearing dates on the NTA and reduced the burden on court staff to schedule initial Masters.

Additionally, and importantly, it gave EOIR control over their dockets. ICE couldn’t “flood” dockets beyond the Individual Judge Master Calendar time actually available in each court.

While I had been “exiled from the Tower” by the time this sensible system was abandoned, my impression is that it was the result of pressure from DHS Enforcement and DOJ politicos to create “new priorities” or conduct mass enforcement operations far in excess of EOIR’s capacity to actually schedule and fairly and professionally decide cases. Gradually, during my  tenure, the Master Calendar system got out of control and the court’s storage areas were literally filled with “stockpiled” cases awaiting scheduling notices.

Any semblance of discipline, order, and control by individual IJs over dockets quickly disappeared as dockets were “reshuffled” to meet the agendas of political officials at DHS and EOIR. On my final day on the bench, June 30, 2016, I was setting “second Masters” for a year later and setting Individual Merits hearings for Dec. 2022 and Jan. 2023. My colleague on the non-detained docket was even “further out.”

Out of six IJs then available, only two of us were assigned to the non-detained docket that comprised the vast majority of the Arlington Court’s work. Our other four colleagues were assigned full-time to “other priorities” designated by “Headquarters” and DOJ politicos, largely at the behest of DHS Enforcement.

Maybe Congress actually had better insights into the chronic administrative problems at EOIR than appellate judges at the BIA and the Circuits who attempt to “paper over” the problems and shift the consequences of the Government’s intentionally poor performance to hapless respondents — who have no control over the broken system. But, then, if you regularly hire appellate judges who have never practiced immigration law — even though it’s perhaps the largest and certainly the most controversial segment of Federal Civil litigation docket — you’re not likely to get either practical decisions or fair legal solutions.

The BIA and EOIR have already been “dinged” twice by the Supremes for trying to cover up the conscious choice by DHS and EOIR not to comply with the statutory requirements for an NTA. Both of those incorrect BIA decisions  have caused unjust results and created additional, preventable backlog havoc by requiring reopening and redoing of tens of thousands of cases decided under legally wrong BIA precedents! If Garland’s BIA “gets the trifecta” — going down for the third time before the Supremes — the disorder, backlog, and Aimless Docket Reshuffling (one of Garland’s specialties) will be exponentially increased— again!

EOIR’s and DHS’s choice to attempt to “sidestep” clear Congressional statutory requirements and Supreme Court decisions, to “cover up” the predictable consequences of lawless Government practices has dramatic “real life effects.” That’s why Garland’s choice not to replace the BIA and EOIR administrators with “pros” who have practiced before the courts, know the law, and understand the problems is so devastating to our justice system — at all levels! 

As my esteemed colleague “Sir Jeffrey” Chase of the Round Table said after receiving the LAPARA decision from Dan Kowalski over at LexisNexis: “Seriously.  I feel like I’ve heard this song before . . . .” 

Of course we have! And it’s going to continue until someone: 1) takes this mess away from DOJ; or 2) forces Garland to pay attention, remove the incompetents and Trump/Miller “plants” at EOIR, and bring in a high-level team of recognized experts in immigration, human rights, and administration empowered to stop the bleeding, get rid of the “problem children,” and begin the long overdue work of fixing this incredible mess! 

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-19-22

⚖️🗽NDPA OPPORTUNITY: U BALTIMORE LAW SEEKS CLINICAL DIRECTOR!

Elizabeth Keyes
Elizabeth Keyes
Associate Professor
Director, Immigrant Rights Clinic
U of Baltimore Law
Photo: U of Baltimore Law Website

Friends,

I have the best job in the legal profession. Maybe this could be your best job in the legal profession. 

I’m excited to share a hiring announcement for the director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at University of Baltimore, which has been my own beloved position for the last decade. (I’m staying at UBalt, but shifting to purely doctrinal teaching for a host of reasons that have nothing to do with how much I love our clinical program and community at UBalt).  We are looking for a dynamic junior or pre-tenure lateral person for this position.

As you probably know, UBalt is an exceptionally good place to be a clinician. We are on a unitary tenure-track, with case coverage over the breaks. Our clinicians lead the law school in all kinds of ways, from committee-leadership to scholarship and beyond. We also have a beautifully collegial clinical faculty, with weekly brown-bag lunches focused on everything from pedagogy to workshopping our own scholarship. In the next four weeks alone, we have one lunch devoted to the pedagogy of Bell Hooks, another on clinics and emergency response, and another workshopping two articles by our teaching fellows. We have a lot of independence within our clinics, but we also share the same deep roots in non-directive, client-centered pedagogy.

Please share the announcement widely with your networks.

Warmly,

Liz

Elizabeth Keyes

Associate Professor, Director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic

University of Baltimore School of Law

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

Great opportunity for an up and coming NDPA “practical scholar!”

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-18-22 

🤯🆘GARLAND’S MAJOR “ACHIEVEMENT:” BUILD BIGGER IMMIGRATION COURT BACKLOGS FASTER! — “Philly-Sized” Backup Continues To Mushroom! 🍄 

 

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse

Immigration Court Backlog Now Growing Faster Than Ever, Burying Judges in an Avalanche of Cases

The U.S. Immigration Court system is currently staring up a mountain of pending cases that at the end of December 2021 reached 1,596,193 — the largest in history. If every person with a pending immigration case were gathered together it would be larger than the population of Philadelphia, the sixth largest city in the United States. Previous administrations — all the way back through at least the George W. Bush administration — have failed when they tried to tackle the seemingly intractable problem of the Immigration Court “backlog.”

Yet a disturbing new trend has emerged during the Biden administration that demands attention: since the start of the Biden administration, the growth of the backlog has been accelerating at a breakneck pace.

Quarterly growth in the number of pending Immigration Court cases between October and December 2021 is the largest on record. In just this short period, the backlog increased by almost 140,000 cases. This far exceeds any 3-month increase during the most dramatic period of growth of the Trump administration. These findings suggest that the Immigration Courts are entering a worrying new era of even more crushing caseloads — all the more concerning since no attempt at a solution has yet been able to reverse the avalanche of cases that Immigration Judges now face.

The partial Court shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic has, of course, contributed to the backlog’s growth. However, the main contributor is the recent deluge of new cases filed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If the current pace during the first quarter of FY 2022 of newly arriving Notices to Appear (NTAs) continues, the Court will receive 800,000 new cases — at least 300,000 more than the annual total the Court has ever received during its existence.

For full details, including a review of the history leading to this juncture, read the full report at:

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/675

If you want to be sure to receive a notification whenever updated data become available, sign up at:

https://tracfed.syr.edu/cgi-bin/tracuser.pl?pub=1

Follow us on Twitter at:

https://twitter.com/tracreports

or like us on Facebook:

https://facebook.com/tracreports

TRAC is self-supporting and depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the US Federal government. To help support TRAC’s ongoing efforts, go to:

https://trac.syr.edu/cgi-bin/sponsor/sponsor.pl

David Burnham and Susan B. Long, co-directors

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse

Syracuse University Peck Hall

601 E. Genesee Street

Syracuse, NY 13202-3117

315-443-3563

trac@syr.edu

https://trac.syr.edu

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse is a nonpartisan joint research center of the Whitman School of Management (https://whitman.syr.edu) and the Newhouse School of Public Communications (https://newhouse.syr.edu) at Syracuse University.

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

What’s Garland’s next target: a backlog bigger than Chicago, New York, Los Angeles?

Garland was warned in advance about the extreme dysfunction in his courts and the urgent need to make fixing it one of his highest priorities. Instead of immediately bringing in progressive experts, replacing the BIA, hiring better judges and innovative administrators to address the backlog, attack poor judicial quality, and curb abuse of the system by DHS, Garland has simply failed to take due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices seriously. He has also compounded the disaster by using “proven to fail” enforcement and deterrence gimmicks and retaining poor quality managers and judges packed into the system by Sessions and Barr.

The worse the dysfunction gets under Garland, the harder it will be to convince the “best and brightest” to undertake the challenge of fixing it! 

Also, time’s a wasting. The first year of any Administration is the time to get things done. Garland has already squandered that precious time!

This system is totally out of control and crushing the lives and futures of those caught up in it. Sadly, nobody in power in any of the three branches seems interested, motivated, or courageous enough to fix it. That’s bad for our democracy!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-18-22

CATHERINE RAMPELL @ WASHPOST: “Biden has delivered the worst of all worlds: inhumane, immoral, potentially illegal policy — and bad-faith political blowback about “open borders” all the same.”☠️🏴‍☠️🤮🤯👎🏽⚰️🆘

 

Catherine Rampell
Catherine Rampell
Opinion Columnist
Washington Post

Catherine writes:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/17/year-into-his-presidency-biden-has-kept-some-trumps-worst-immigration-policies-place-why/

. . . .

But these are, mostly, obscure policy changes or unrealized proposals. When Miller et al. condemn Biden’s “immigration record,” they zero in on his decisions at the Southern border.

Which is, frankly, odd. You’d never know it from the right-wing hysteria about Biden’s supposedly “open borders,” or Biden’s own campaign promise to “end Trump’s detrimental asylum policies.” But Biden has continued Trump’s most restrictionist, inhumane and possibly illegal border policies.

In some cases Biden has even expanded them.

As evidence of Biden’s supposedly lax border policies, Republicans sometimes cite his attempt, on Day One of his presidency, to end the program informally known as “Remain in Mexico.” This Trump-created program forced asylum seekers to wait in dangerous camps in Mexico while their U.S. cases were processed; there, vulnerable immigrants have been frequent targets for rape, kidnappings, torture and murder.

If Biden had terminated the program, that would have been a good thing, from a human rights perspective (not a Republican priority, apparently). But Biden did not succeed. After a legal challenge, a federal judge ordered the program to be resurrected — and the Biden administration not only obeyed but also expanded the program’s scope to cover even more categories of immigrants.

[Catherine Rampell: Joe Biden is president. Why is he maintaining Trump’s immigration agenda?]

Worse, Biden has maintained Trump’s Title 42 order. This likely illegal order involves automatically expelling hundreds of thousands of people encountered at the border without ever allowing them to apply for asylum, in contravention of rights guaranteed under both U.S. and international law. Both Trump and Biden have cited a little-used public health provision as pretext for this policy, even though legions of public health experts have argued that it doesn’t protect public health.

Perversely, continuing this Trump policy has also given ammunition to the hard-right nativists, because it has the unintended consequence of inflating the count of U.S. border crossings. Many of those expelled immediately turn around and attempt another crossing; in fiscal 2021, 27 percent of individuals were apprehended multiple times by Border Patrol, nearly quadruple the share in 2019.

The disconnect between GOP claims about “open borders” and Biden’s actually-quite-Trumpy border policies, is enormous. Two of Biden’s own political appointees who resigned last fall lambasted his actions as “inhumane” on their way out the door; six other high-level immigration officials have recently announced they were leaving the administration, without much public explanation.

It’s unclear why Biden has maintained his predecessor’s policies. One possibility is politics — that these choices were intended to stave off right-wing attacks about lax enforcement. If that was the motivation, though, it failed. Instead, Biden has delivered the worst of all worlds: inhumane, immoral, potentially illegal policy — and bad-faith political blowback about “open borders” all the same.

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

Yup! It’s what “Courtside” has been saying all along!  Read her complete article at the link!

Catherine sees much more clearly than any member of the Biden Administration the ridiculous failings of their so-called “immigration policies” (actually a series of disjointed, often self-contradictory, knee-jerk responses that sometimes undermine each other and reflect a total lack of thoughtful, morally courageous, informed leadership).

And, Catherine doesn’t even highlight the single biggest failure — one that cuts across every failure she mentions and also goes to the heart of our legal system!

That’s, of course, the abject failure of Biden AG Merrick Garland to bring due process reforms and better judges to his totally dysfunctional, grotesquely unfair, wholly-owned U.S. Immigration Courts. These “courts” — that function more like 21st Century Star Chambers than anyone’s concept of a “real court” — were “weaponized” by Garland’s Trumpy predecessors, Sessions and Barr.

They filled the courts at all levels with less than well qualified judges, many with no immigration experience or prosecutorial experience only, who were intended to help carry out the White Nationalist, anti-asylum, anti-immigrant policies developed by Gauleiter Stephen Miller. Garland has not replaced these unqualified judges with better talent, selected in a open, transparent, merit-based process with “outside input.”  He has failed to make the substantive and procedural reforms necessary to bring order and some semblance of efficiency to his hopelessly backlogged “courts.”

He has declined to remove poor leaders appointed by his predecessors; nor has he tapped the large supply of progressive, expert human rights/immigration talent who could begin the process of restoring due process. He has continued to promote enforcement “gimmicks” — like “Dedicated Dockets” and the illegal use of Title 42 — that accelerate “Aimless Docket Reshuffling” and have led to even higher backlogs. 

His refusal to bring common sense, achievable reforms, and better judges to the Immigration Courts has demoralized lawyers and made pro bono representation even more difficult. 

He has ignored the pressing need for better judicial training implemented by qualified outside experts. He hasn’t bothered to engage with those like the VIISTA Villanova program turning out exceptionally well-trained potential “accredited representatives” who could help reduce the staggering representation gap in his courts. Worse yet, he has allowed EOIR bureaucrats to create entirely new backlogs in the agency process for recognizing pro bono organizations and accrediting their representatives. 

Garland’s horrible failure to energize and attract the progressive leadership and judicial talent who know how to begin solving these problems (rather than aggravating them) might eventually go down as one of the biggest “blown opportunities” for due process reforms in modern American legal history! This is the “low hanging fruit” that Garland and the Biden Administration has allowed to “rot on the tree.” What a (needless and deadly) tragedy!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-18-22

🇺🇸RACE IN AMERICA: THE REAL DR. KING WAS NOTHING LIKE TODAY’S WHITEWASHED MYTH! 

Martin & Mitch
Martin & Mitch
By John Cole
Published by license

Michael Harriot in The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/17/mlk-is-revered-today-but-the-real-king-would-make-white-people-uncomfortable?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Every year, on the third Monday in January, America hosts a Sadie Hawkins-style role-reversal where the entire country pretends to celebrate a man whose achievements and values they spent the previous 364 days ignoring, demonizing and trying to dismantle. Today, your favorite vote suppressors will take a brief respite from disenfranchising Black voters, denying history and increasing inequality to celebrate a real American hero.

That’s right, it’s MLK Day!

You might think it’s a little disrespectful to refer to a great American hero by his initials but, in this specific case, it’s perfectly fine. The actual Martin Luther King Jr who lived and breathed is not the man most people will be honoring today because that Martin Luther King is dead and gone. No, the man upon whom they will heap their performative praise with social media virtue-signaling is MLK, a caricature of a man whose likeness has been made palatable for white consumption. Like BLM, CRT and USA, the people who King fought against have now managed to flatten a three-dimensional symbol to a three-letter, chant-worthy phrase worthy of demonization or deification.

. . . .

Although, in death, he became one of the most revered figures in US history, for the entirety of the 39 years that King lived and breathed, there wasn’t a single day when the majority of white Americans approved of him. In 1966, Gallup measured his approval rating at 32% positive and 63% negative. That same year, a December Harris poll found that 50% of whites felt King was “hurting the negro cause of civil rights” while only 36% felt he was helping. By the time he died in 1968, three out of four white Americans disapproved of him. In the wake of his assassination, 31% of the country felt that he “brought it on himself”.

One does not have to reach back into the historical archives to explain why King was so despised. The sentiments that made him a villain are still prevalent in America today. When he was alive, King was a walking, talking example of everything this country despises about the quest for Black liberation. He railed against police brutality. He reminded the country of its racist past. He scolded the powers that be for income inequality and systemic racism. Not only did he condemn the openly racist opponents of equality, he reminded the legions of whites who were willing to sit idly by while their fellow countrymen were oppressed that they were also oppressors. “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it,” King said. “He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

. . . .

“The first thing I would like to mention is that there must be a recognition on the part of everybody in this nation that America is still a racist country,” said King days before a white supremacist put a bullet in his face. “Now however unpleasant that sounds, it is the truth. And we will never solve the problem of racism until there is a recognition of the fact that racism still stands at the center of so much of our nation and we must see racism for what it is.”

See how many times someone mentions that quote today.

Oh, wait … King made that speech at Grosse Pointe High School, where Michigan’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives recently passed an anti-CRT bill making it illegal to teach that the “United States is a fundamentally racist country”.

Never mind.

. . . .

**********************
Read the full article at the link.

Like the figure of Christ in Dostoyevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor, if Dr. King returned to earth today he would be imprisoned, interrogated, condemned and permanently banished by the corrupt and cowardly right-wing pols, religious bigots, disingenuous judges, pundits, and others who falsely claim to be honoring his memory and vision of racial equality!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-17-22

⚖️Erwin Chemerinsky and Jeffrey Abramson in LA Times: TEACHING LAW IN THE ERA OF SCOFFLAW SUPREMES: “One critical lesson: Fight for justice, even if victory is distant!”

 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky
UC Berkeley Law
PHOTO: law.berkeley.edu

http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=ae54659a-8b29-4c3e-b707-be24dd10b7d6

. . . .

So what should we tell our students? Many are dispirited and cynical because, as far into the future as they can see, this court appears likely to do more harm than good to democracy.

First, we shouldn’t hide the reality that judicial decisions often depend on who is on the bench. That has never been more true because the entrenched partisan Senate confirmation process now guarantees that a Supreme Court nominee will be chosen to carry out political and ideological aims. For the first time in American history, the ideology of the justices precisely corresponds to the political party of the president who appointed them. All six conservatives were appointed by Republican presidents and all three liberals were appointed by Democrats.

Until recently, there were moderate liberals, such as John Paul Stevens and David H. Souter, appointed by Republicans, and there were moderate conservatives, such as Byron White and Felix Frankfurter, who had been appointed by Democrats. Trump picked three of the most ideologically conservative judges on the federal bench.

If students are to one day become effective litigators on constitutional rights, they will need to understand the ideologies of the justices interpreting the law. In the past, we certainly discussed the ideology of the justices with our students, but we must focus on it far more now as the ideological differences between the Republican-appointed justices and judges and those appointed by Democratic presidents are greater than they have ever been.

Second, we must remind students that there have been other bleak times in constitutional law when rights were contracted. From the 1890s until 1936, a conservative Supreme Court struck down over 200 progressive federal, state and local laws protecting workers and consumers. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the court refused to stand up to the hysteria of McCarthyism. The current court will not last forever, though it may feel like that to them.

Third, we should direct focus on other avenues for change. Students need to look more to state courts and legislatures, at least in some parts of the country, as a way to advance liberty and equality. For instance, the Massachusetts Legislature passed a law known as the “Roe Act,” protecting a woman’s right to abortion under state law, no matter what the Supreme Court decides. We need to teach our students how to use the power of local governments to protect fair housing, public education and public health.

Fourth, we must encourage them to look at the sweep of history. In the early 1960s, almost half the states had Jim Crow segregation laws, there were few women going to law school, and every state had a law criminally prohibiting same-sex sexual activity. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was right when he said that the arc of the moral universe is long and it bends toward justice — if we work for it.

There really are just two choices: Give up or fight harder, even if there will be a lot of losses along the way. If we can instill in students a desire to defend justice, even if victory is distant, it will be a good semester, no matter what the Supreme Court decides.

Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law and a contributing writer to Opinion. Jeffrey Abramson is professor of law and government at the University of Texas at Austin.

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

Read the full article at the above link.

Sometimes, the best you can do is save as many lives as you can, one at a time. Eventually, it adds up. Also, as the article suggests, it’s critical to get involved and speak out on local political issues. That’s where the fascist far-right has made huge inroads.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-17-21