Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”
March 20, 2020
The Hon. Christopher A. Santoro Chief Immigration Judge
Office of the Chief Immigration Judge 5107 Leesburg Pike, Suite 2500
Falls Church, VA 22041
Via Email
Dear Chief Immigration Judge Santoro:
We are law school professors who teach immigration clinics that provide pro bono representation in immigration courts around the country. We write to urge you to immediately develop and implement proactive plans for the prevention and management of COVID-19 at all United States immigration courts. In this letter, we offer several recommendations for such protective measures.
. . . .
Read the full letter here:
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I’m repeating myself. I’ve always found Acting Chief Judge Santoro to be an advocate for “good government” and “doing the right thing” for the people he works with and for the public. For a number of years, he was “our” Assistant Chief Judge in Arlington. I enjoyed working with him and found him consistently concerned with the well-being of our employees and the efficient operation of our court. He also went to great lengths to insure that we were always informed about what was happening, particularly in the (normal) absence of much meaningful communication from “on high.” Even then, though, some areas and directives were “outside his portfolio.”
I’m relatively sure that his “hands are tied” in this situation and that the “strings at EOIR are being pulled” by others above him in the “food chain.” The latter are driven by political and ideological agendas often quite different from the overall public interest and usually have little, if any, demonstrated concern for he the safety and welfare of EOIR’s “captive clientele.” Indeed, the DOJ politicos don’t seem to have much concern for their own employees either, leaving them largely to “twist in the wind” in a time of national crisis.
PWS
03-22-20