ATTN “COURTSIDERS” WHO ARE CURRENT GOV. EMPLOYEES: Assistant Chief Counsel Marcia Gottesman Needs Your Help

Many of us at the Arlington, Miami, and Charlotte Immigration Courts worked with Assistant Chief Counsel Marcia Gottesman over the years. In addition to being an outstanding professional, Marcia is a very dedicated single parent and an all around good person.

I recently learned that Marcia has developed serious health issues relating to heart disease that prevent her from working. She has been approved by ICE as a recipient for the donation of annual leave. Employees of other federal agencies can donate annual leave by using OPM Form 630-B. 

All donations are completely anonymous so neither Marcia nor anyone else would know if someone donated leave, unless the donor were to say something. Thus, if someone at EOIR or any other agency were to donate leave, it is my understanding that would be no conflict of interest or even an appearance of bias or impropriety because the program is so anonymous. However, those outside DHS who do business with DHS should, of course, check with their Ethics Officer as I am not purporting to give legal or ethical advice.

Marcia has given me permission to make this information and request for assistance public on “Courtside.” While those of us who have left Government are no longer eligible to participate in leave donations, I hope that those readers who are still in Federal Service will consider Marcia’s humanitarian predicament.

For those who would like to communicate directly with Marcia, I have permission to release her contact information if you contact me through immigrationcourtside.com.

Regardless of whether you personally know Marcia, I hope that you will join me in thinking of her and her family during this challenging time.

Also, please feel free to share this information with others who know Marcia or might be in a position to assist her during her time of need.

Thanks!

PWS

07-16-19

APPARENTLY, (LIKE TRUMP) HE JUST CAN’T HELP HIMSELF: SESSIONS CONTINUES TO PEDDLE FALSE NARRATIVE ON MIGRANT CRIME WHILE THREATENING TO IMPEDE EFFECTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-makes-sweeping-attack-on-chicagos-sanctuary-city-policy/2017/08/16/aa1b76f8-82b4-11e7-b359-15a3617c767b_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-more-top-stories_sessions606pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.a88227d68507

Sari Horwitz and Mark Berman report in the Washington Post:

“On Wednesday, in response to Sessions’s latest comments, Emanuel invoked the controversy that has enveloped the White House over President Trump’s responses to the violence that erupted in Charlottesville this past weekend.

“In a week in which the Trump administration is being forced to answer questions about ­neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the KKK, they could not have picked a worse time to resume their attack on the immigrants who see America as a beacon of hope,” Emanuel said in a statement. “Chicago will continue to stand up proudly as a welcoming city, and we will not cave to the Trump administration’s pressure because they are wrong morally, wrong factually and wrong legally.”

While Sessions attacked Chicago, he praised Miami-Dade County for “complying with federal immigration law.”

“Americans — all Americans — have a right to full and equal protection under law,” Sessions said. “No one understands this better than the Cuban Americans here in Miami-Dade. . . . They understand that no single person — whether a dictator or a mayor — should determine whose rights are protected and whose are not.”

Sessions said that the county’s homicides were a third of what they were in the 1980s. But, according to the county’s police statistics, murders, rapes and assaults are up in Miami-Dade from where they were at this point last year.

Chicago has also been combating a surge in violent crime, an issue that Trump repeatedly cited during his presidential campaign and since taking office. The city had 762 homicides in 2016, more than the combined total reported by New York and Los Angeles, the only two American cities with larger populations.

There have been 428 murders in Chicago so far this year, down from 440 at the same point in 2016, according to police data. The city has also seen 1,811 shootings, down from 2,149 at this time a year ago, the data show.

Trump has been critical of the response by officials in Chicago, saying that “they’re not doing the job” and suggesting in a television interview this year that perhaps the police were being “overly politically correct.”

Sessions took aim at a city that federal officials have pledged to help. Police have pointed to illegal guns and gang activity as explanations for the increase in crime and have called for harsher sentencing for people convicted of gun crimes. In June, Chicago police and federal authorities announced a new partnership aimed at cracking down on illegal guns.

The top police official in Chicago sharply disputed Sessions’s comments seemingly connecting the violent-crime increase with illegal immigration.

“I have said it before and I will say it again, undocumented immigrants are not driving violence in Chicago and that’s why I want our officers focused on community policing and not trying to be the immigration police,” Eddie Johnson, the Chicago police superintendent, said in a statement.

Rather than helping combat crime, Johnson said, “the federal government’s plans will hamper community policing and undermine the work our men and women have done to reduce shootings by 16 percent so far this year.”

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Read the complete article at the link.

Sessions is so steeped in White Nationalist, xenophobic propaganda that he just keeps on lying and misrepresenting with shocking regularity. This dude has no more interest in effective law enforcement and protecting civil rights (including the rights of undocumented individuals to fair treatment under the law) than the man in the moon (or Donald Trump). And he is the guy who is going to protect us from White Supremacists? Com’ on, Man! Liz was right on!

Now, some folks might think it strange that a supposed defender of “states rights” would be threatening to have the Feds roll over the needs and policies of local law enforcement. But, when the overriding agenda is driven by White Nationalism and xenophobia, consistency is beside the point.

PWS

08-16-17