🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️🤮CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: ICE Contractor Operates “Gulag Within A Gulag” Near Seattle

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/secret-prison-within-a-prison-report-details-solitary-confinement-practices-at-northwest-detention-center-in-tacoma/

Joseph O’ Sullivan reports for the Seattle Times:

OLYMPIA — The Northwest detention center in Tacoma holds people in solitary confinement on average more than any other dedicated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, according to a new watchdog report.

The report by the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights also contends that the center — in violation of ICE’s own policies — imposes solitary confinement on inmates with mental-health issues, or who are exercising their First Amendment rights by going on hunger strikes.

The report is based on federal government records and documents by the company that operates the prison, GEO Group, which were obtained by the Center for Human Rights after years of litigation.

The privately run detention center holds as many as 1,575 immigrants accused by the government of living illegally in the U.S. and facing deportation proceedings.

In an interview, Angelina Godoy, director for UW’s Center for Human Rights, said the report “speaks to this existence of a secret prison within a prison.”

“There’s essentially no effective oversight of the practice” of solitary confinement, Godoy added. “And from the data that we were able to gather, there’s really disturbing conclusions about just flagrant violation of international human-rights norms.”

. . . .

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Read the full article at the link.

The Biden-Harris Administration must eliminate the “New American Gulag” (NAG”). The money could be “repurposed” for grants to encourage legal representation of migrants and to train more and better Accredited Representatives (non-attorneys) to represent individuals in immigration proceedings. 

Contrary to the bogus narratives spread by DHS and White Nationalist restrictionists, reputable research and studies show that individuals with legal representation appear for hearings at an extraordinarily high level. Thus, punitive private “faux civil” detention in the NAG should, in a rational, properly operating system, be unnecessary.

In those relatively few cases where detention is necessary because the DHS demonstrates a danger to the community or high risk of failure to appear, the Government should provide it in humane, professionally run, closely monitored, and accountable non-punitive facilities.

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-30-20

JEFFREY S. CHASE BLOG:  In 1996, The BIA Was Functioning Like A Court & Trying To Develop & Apply Asylum Law In The Rational, Generous Way It Was Intended, Properly Giving The Applicant “The Benefit Of the Doubt” — Today,  The BIA Is A Deadly ☠️☠️⚰️ Clown Show 🤡 Asylum Denial Factory!

EYORE
“Eyore In Distress”
Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”
Star Chamber Justice
“Justice”
Star Chamber
Style
Kangaroos
BIA Members: “Hey, let’s celebrate! We just sent a refugee to death for not being able to describe some obscure insignia irrelevant to the case. But, the big thing is we found ‘any reason to deny’ asylum making our handler ‘Billy the Bigot’ happy! He’s out to set new killing records before Jan. 20! Maybe he’ll find us jobs at Breitbart then!”
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Jeffrey S. Chase
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase
Jeffrey S. Chase Blog
Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges

https://www.jeffreyschase.com/blog/2020/11/29/facts-reason-and-benefit-of-the-doubt

Contact

Facts, Reason, and Benefit of the Doubt

On November 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an unpublished decision in Malonda v. Barr.  In that case, the asylum-seeker was attacked by armed soldiers when they raided his family’s home in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The soldiers raped and killed three of his sisters, and abducted his father and brother, all due to the father’s membership in an opposition political party.

The Immigration Judge acknowledged the voluminous documentation and detailed testimony in support of the claim.  However, asylum was denied because Malonda couldn’t identify the soldiers’ uniforms with absolute certainty, although he stated “they were working for the government, I can say.”  And because he did not credit the attackers as working for the government, the judge did not find that the attack was necessarily motivated by the family’s political opinion, but could have simply been an act of random violence not protected under asylum law.

Malonda was not the only recent agency decision to employ this thought pattern.  In the BIA’s precedent decision in Matter of O-F-A-S-, an applicant for protection under the Convention Against Torture testified that he was beaten, robbed, and threatened by five men wearing police uniforms bearing the insignia of a government law enforcement agency, who were armed with high-caliber weapons and handcuffs.  The Immigration Judge determined that the respondent had not met his burden of establishing that the five were police officers, as the uniforms could have been fake, and criminals also carry weapons.  The IJ further noted that the five did not arrive in an official police car, and immediately departed when they heard that a police car was en route in response to the disturbance.  Of course, real police officers engaging in extracurricular criminal activity would behave the same way.  Nevertheless, the BIA found no clear error on appeal.

In another recent decision presently pending at the Second Circuit, asylum was denied because the applicant was unable to state with certainty from the details of the uniform he wore that one of his persecutors was certainly a police officer, although he believed that he was.  The IJ therefore did not conclude that police were involved, instead considering the persecutors to be non-state actors, from whom the respondent hadn’t proven that the police were unwilling or unable to protect him.  The BIA affirmed in an unpublished decision.  Obviously, a finding that a police officer participated in the persecution of the asylum applicant could well have led to a different finding as to the government’s willingness to protect.

In each of the above cases, the respondent was found to be a credible witness.  There are only two types of witnesses in court proceedings: fact (or “lay”) witnesses and experts.  Asylum applicants are fact witnesses, describing what they experienced.  Although the Federal Rules of Evidence are not binding on immigration judges, they provide the best guidance available, as the Immigration Courts have no such evidentiary rules of their own.  Rule 701 of the FRE allows a lay witness to express an opinion provided that it is (1) rationally based on their own perception; (2) helpful to clearly understand the testimony or to determine a fact in issue; and (3) not based on scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge reserved for expert witnesses.  In the above cases, the asylum seekers’ opinions that the uniformed, armed attackers were government officials fit clearly within the parameters of Rule 701.

Of course, asylum applicants are not experts on uniforms worn by the various government forces in their home countries.  I doubt most country experts who testify in asylum cases would possess such specific expertise.  Even if they did, those experts weren’t present to witness the event in question to be able to affirm that the uniform was in fact the official government issue.  So what is the solution in cases in which the Immigration Judge harbors doubt regarding the attackers?

The UNHCR Handbook at para. 196 advises that despite all efforts, “there may also be statements that are not susceptible of proof. In such cases, if the applicant’s account appears credible, he should, unless there are good reasons to the contrary, be given the benefit of the doubt.”  The following paragraph adds that evidentiary requirements should not be applied too strictly to asylum seekers.  But the Handbook sets limits on this practice, adding that  “[a]llowance for such possible lack of evidence does not, however, mean that unsupported statements must necessarily be accepted as true if they are inconsistent with the general account put forward by the applicant.”1

It would seem that requiring absolute confirmation of the authenticity of the attacker’s uniform (which psychologists have testified is not one’s focus during a traumatic experience) places an insurmountable burden on asylum applicants.  Given the purpose of asylum laws, where an asylum applicant expresses the reasonable opinion that attackers who look and behave like government officials are in fact government officials, in the absence of the type of inconsistencies flagged by the Handbook, the benefit of the doubt should be allowed to carry the day.

Addressing this issue in Malonda, the Second Circuit  focused on the fact that the identity issue was tied to the question of political opinion.  The court referenced its decision from earlier this year in Hernandez-Chacon v. Barr, in which it cited language from the BIA’s excellent 1996 decision in Matter of S-P- holding that  political opinion is established by direct or circumstantial evidence.

The Second Circuit pointed to circumstantial evidence in Malonda’s testimony that the attackers were government soldiers motivated by the family’s political opinion.  Such evidence included the facts that Malonda’s home was the only one attacked, and his father was the only resident of the street who was an active opposition party member.  Furthermore, the likelihood of the attackers being anti-government rebels was undermined by Malonda’s testimony that the rebels ability to reach his neighborhood was impeded by the presence of state security forces, and that his brother, who was abducted by the attackers, was brought to a camp where he was trained to fight against (rather than for) the rebels.

In a footnote, the court noted that the BIA had added its own insinuation to the contrary by referencing general reports of rebel involvement in “widespread violence and civil strife” in the country.  But the Second Circuit pointed out that such general information failed to consider that Malonda’s own region was protected by the government, and “more importantly, does not explain why the rebels would have targeted only Malonda’s house for such violence.”

The Second Circuit’s opinion in Malonda emphasizes the starkly different approaches of the 1996 BIA and its current iteration.  In Matter of S-P- (an en banc decision which remains binding precedent on immigration judges and the BIA), the Board noted the difficulty in determining motive where “harm may have been inflicted for reasons related to government intelligence gathering, for political views imputed to the applicant, or for some combination of these reasons.”  But the Board emphasized the importance of keeping “in mind the fundamental humanitarian concerns of asylum law,” which are “designed to afford a generous standard for protection in cases of doubt.”2

S-P- also included a reminder that a grant of asylum “is not a judgment about the country involved, but a judgment about the reasonableness of the applicant’s belief that persecution was based on a protected ground.”  As the scholar Deborah Anker has emphasized, such reasonableness determinations require “that the adjudicator view the evidence as the applicant – or a reasonable person in his or her circumstances – would and does not simply substitute the adjudicator’s own experience as the vantage point.”3  In its decision in Sotelo-Aquije v. Slattery, the Second Circuit similarly emphasized the importance of vantage point by describing the standard as what a reasonable person would find credible “based on what that person has experienced and witnessed.”

Applying this standard, what reasonable person who had experienced and witnessed what Malonda did would say: “You know, I was pretty certain the attackers were government soldiers punishing us for my father’s political activities.  But since you pointed out that I’m not completely certain about the uniforms, I guess I was mistaken.  It was probably just a random incident.  In which case, I can’t see any reason to fear return?”

Remarkably, that appears to have been the  BIA’s approach in Malonda.  Its decision lacked any indication of adopting the asylum applicant’s vantage point or applying the benefit of the doubt as described above.  And while Matter of S-P- set out a rather complex set of elements for identifying motive through the types of circumstantial evidence pointed to by the Second Circuit, the present BIA pointed instead to whatever generalized information it could find in the record to justify affirming the asylum denial.

Although an unpublished decision involving a pro se petitioner that could easily evade our attention,4 Malonda underscores the need for a uniform application of the principles emphasized in the BIA’s decision in Matter of S-P-, instead of a “uniform” approach based on the ability to identify uniforms.

Notes:

  1. Although not binding, the Supreme Court has recognized that “the Handbook provides significant guidance in construing the Protocol, to which Congress sought to conform [and] has been widely considered useful in giving content to the obligations that the Protocol establishes.” INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 439 n. 22 (1987). The BIA reached a similar conclusion in Matter of Acosta, 19 I&N Dec. 211 (BIA 1985) (finding the Handbook to be a useful tool “in construing our obligations under the Protocol”).
  2. The majority opinion in Matter of S-P- was authored by now retired Board Member John Guendelsberger. Three current members of the Round Table of Immigration Judges, Paul W. Schmidt (the BIA Chairperson at the time), Lory D. Rosenberg, and Gustavo Villageliu, joined in Judge Guendelsberger’s opinion.
  3. Deborah E. Anker, Law of Asylum in the United States (2020 Edition) (Thomson Reuters) at 76.
  4. Thanks to attorney Raymond Fasano for bringing this decision to my notice.

Copyright 2020, Jeffrey S. Chase.  All rights reserved.

Reprinted With Permission.

 

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

Obviously, the BIA could resume court-like functions, provide scholarly, rational guidance and enforce uniformity for Immigration Judges (too many of whom lack true expertise in asylum laws), help cut backlogs, increase efficiency, and put an end to frivolous litigation by DHS which too often these days seeks to encourage IJs to deny cases where asylum grants clearly are warranted. (There was a time, at least in Arlington, when DHS Counsel actually worked cooperatively with the private bar and the Immigration Judges to promote fairness and use court time wisely on asylum cases. Those days are now long gone as the system has regressed horribly and disgracefully under the maliciously incompetent, White Nationalist, nativist, leadership of the current regime at DHS and DOJ).

But, due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices, can’t and won’t happen until the current “BIA Clown Court” 🤡 is replaced with a new group of expert Appellate Judges ⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️ from the NDPA who are “practical scholars” in immigration and human rights laws.

EOIR clown Show Must Go T-Shirt
“EOIR Clown Show Must Go” T-Shirt Custom Design Concept

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-30-20 

☠️⚰️✈️DEATH FLIGHTS: 🏴‍☠️ DHS RACISTS RAMP WRONGFUL REFUGEE REMOVALS, ILLEGALLY TARGETING BLACKS IN WANING DAYS OF KAKISTOCRACY!🤮  — “Christmas Death Spree” Among Final Acts Of Hypocrisy For Regime After Four Years Of Hate Mongering, Dehumanization, Lies, Illegality, & Disdain For Human Life! — “It’s a death plane. Even if there was a means to make that plane crash that day, we would’ve done it.”

Molly O’Toole
Molly O’Toole
Immigration Reporter
LA Times
Source: LA Times website
Andrea Castillo
Andrea Castillo
Immigration Reporter
LA Times
Source: LA Times website

Molly O’Toole & Andrea Castillo report for the LA Times:

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-11-27/black-asylym-seekers-trump-officials-push-deportations

By MOLLY O’TOOLEANDREA CASTILLO

NOV. 27, 20204 AM

WASHINGTON —  Owning a small business in Cameroon selling French products was enough to trap the young man between the English-speaking minority and French-speaking majority government in the warring West African nation.

In July 2019, he was kidnapped by armed rebels, who tortured him for months in the jungle, demanding $10,000 ransom from his family, he said. Then, shortly after they paid, government forces arrested and tortured him for another month — for “financing” the separatists.

But what shocked him most, he said, was that after he escaped through a dozen countries and claimed asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, American officials detained him for almost a year, then threatened and assaulted him and put him in solitary confinement before deporting him back to Cameroon in late October.

“At that point, it’s like the end of the world,” he said, requesting anonymity because he is in hiding. “It’s a death plane. Even if there was a means to make that plane crash that day, we would’ve done it.”

During President Trump’s last weeks in office, Black and African asylum seekers say, the administration is ramping up deportations using assault and coercion, forcing them back to countries where they face harm, according to interviews with the immigrants, lawyers, lawmakers, advocates and a review of legal complaints by The Times.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security headquarters did not respond to requests for comment.

The allegations have shed light on a group of immigrants that has been targeted by the president’s rhetoric and his policies to restrict asylum, but that is often overlooked. Relative to Mexicans and Central Americans, asylum seekers from Africa and the Caribbean make up a small but fast-growing proportion of the more than 16,000immigrants in detention today across the United States, particularly in the for-profit prison archipelago in the American South that has proliferated under Trump.

Despite Trump’s all-out assault on asylum, explicit bias against Black asylum seekers, and border closures under the pretext of the pandemic, some 20,000 Haitians and Africans have journeyed from South America, largely on foot, to claim protection at the U.S.-Mexico border during Trump’s time in office, according to Mexico’s migration statistics.

President-elect Joe Biden has said he will end the use of for-profit immigration detention, reverse many of Trump’s policies that restrict asylum, and reform the U.S. immigration system. But Trump has left his successor with decades-long private-prison contracts; more than 400 executive actions on immigration; a record immigration court backlog of more than 1.2 million cases; and record-high asylum denial rates, reaching around 70% last month.

Since October, lawyers have filed multiple complaints with the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Inspector General’s Office documenting the cases of at least 14 Cameroonian asylum seekers at four detention facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi who say ICE subjected them to coercion and physical abuse to force their deportations.

The complaints call for investigations and an immediate halt to the deportations, arguing that officials are violating U.S. and international law, including due process rights and the Convention Against Torture.

In that time, more than 100 asylum seekers also have reported ICE using or threatening force to put them on deportation flights, in particular to Haiti and West Africa, according to lawyers and calls received on a national immigration detention hotline run by the nonprofit Freedom for Immigrants.

The Times has interviewed nine asylum seekers, most from Cameroon, others from Haiti or Ethiopia, many of whom requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. Five have been deported in the last month, and three remain detained after ICE attempted to remove them in recent weeks. One Cameroonian was released Monday after roughly 20 months in immigration detention.

They include teachers, law students, mothers, fathers, a 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, who have fled corrupt governments, political persecution, gang rape, torture by security forces, assassination attempts and arbitrary detention.

For many, deportation from the United States is a death sentence.

“I came to U.S. because I need to save my life because my life is in danger,” said a high school teacher who fled Ethiopia in 2017 after being jailed and beaten for supporting an opposition political party and student protests.

The teacher claimed asylum at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on the California-Mexico border in 2018. But last month, while being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility, after he refused to sign deportation papers, six ICE officers assaulted and forcibly fingerprinted him, he said, then sent him to the medical clinic.

His asylum case had been denied but was pending an appeal. Two days after the assault, he said, officers told him he’d be transferred. Instead, they took him to Los Angeles International Airport and deported him to Ethiopia, where he was immediately rearrested and now awaits a court hearing.

“ICE is something like racist because they are doing excessive force,” the teacher said. “In [a free] country I don’t expect these things.”

Many asylum seekers are well aware of Trump’s disparagement of Black immigrants. And many believe that ICE officials and detention guards share his prejudices.

As Trump leaves office, the “pattern and practice of physical and verbal coercion” by ICE officers and guards to force Black asylum seekers to sign deportation papers is worsening, according to the complaints filed to Homeland Security’s Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Inspector General’s offices.

Beyond threats, the tactics include shackling the immigrants, stripping them naked, holding them down and choking them, resulting in injuries, according to the complaints. Officials often committed the assaults out of sight of facility cameras, and in several instances filmed the assaults themselves, the complaints state.

Immigration detention is civil, not criminal, and ICE has the discretion to release detainees at any time. Most of the asylum seekers have family in the United States, and all have exercised their right to seek protection under U.S. law — meaning that many are being detained for years even though they have U.S. sponsors and haven’t committed a crime.

Of the deportation flights to West Africa in October and November, at least a dozen on board had pending cases, according to lawyers.

In interviews with The Times, the asylum seekers said they sought protection in the United States because they believed it was the only place where they could be safe and free.

“We believe in freedom and in this country as a country that provides protection for people who are running for their lives — and instead upon arrival, for us to be imprisoned and caged?” said a Haitian mother detained with her husband and 2-year-old son at a Pennsylvania ICE facility.

Police officers in Haiti had targeted her and her husband for their involvement with the political opposition, beating and sexually assaulting her while she was pregnant, according to sworn legal statements. She miscarried before she fled.

Despite many countries shutting their borders amid the COVID-19 pandemic, ICE has recently increased the pace of deportations, including sending a flight to West Africa just days after the Nov. 3 election. In October, there were nearly 500 ICE Air Operations flights, a more than 10% increase since September, according to Witness at the Border. More than 1,300 Haitians were deported, said Guerline Jozef, president of the Haitian Bridge Alliance in California.

In recent years, Cameroonians have increasingly accounted for one of the largest groups of what U.S. officials call “extracontinental” migrants, as the conflict in Cameroon has widened.

One man, going by the initials K.S., said he fled because officials in Cameroon had asked him to work with them to capture Anglophone people. He refused; his wife and three children are from the English-speaking side.

He had been detained at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility east of San Diego for over two years when the final appeal on his asylum claim was denied — making him so depressed that he spent a week under medical observation.

He said the ICE officer assigned to his case advised him to sign paperwork agreeing to be deported. The officer said that if the Cameroonian government didn’t accept ICE’s request to take him back, as was likely, he would be released to his U.S. sponsor after 90 days.

On Oct. 6, after 97 days had passed, six guards stood by as K.S. was ordered to pack up his things to leave.

“I didn’t think about deportation,” he said. “It was the last thought on my mind. They lied to me.”

ICE officers put him on a flight to Louisiana that picked up other Cameroonian deportees and then dropped the group off at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Texas. On Oct. 13, K.S. said, he was cuffed and taken to the airport, where he boarded a flight with about 100 other African migrants.

He watched as ICE officers strapped in three men from their shoulders to their ankles to restrict their movement and covered their heads with bags, then laid them across rows of seats in the plane.

Just as the flight was about to take off, K.S. and three other men were removed and taken back to Prairieland, without explanation.

Three weeks later, on Nov. 11, K.S. was back on a deportation flight with 27 other men. One, who was known to have heart problems, began crying that his chest was burning, K.S. said, an account confirmed to The Times by another passenger.

ICE ultimately removed the man and put him in an ambulance.

In contrast to Central Americans largely fleeing a lethal combination of gang violence, corruption, poverty and climate change, many Haitians and Africans have more traditional asylum claims that, at least in theory, better fit the categories outlined by an outdated U.S. asylum system largely conceived in the post-World War II era: persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or social group.

Yet Black and African asylum seekers are less likely than other immigrants to be released on parole or bond, or to win their asylum cases — a racial disparity that has worsened under Trump, according to lawyers and government data.

From September 2019 to May 2020, comparing hundreds of release requests from detained Cubans, Venezuelans, Cameroonians and Eritreans, the non-Africans had grant rates roughly twice as high, said Mich Gonzalez, senior staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Fewer than 4% of Cameroonian parole requests were granted.

ICE is also increasingly blanket-denying Black immigrants’ release for clearly bogus reasons, said Anne Rios, a supervising attorney in San Diego with the nonprofit Al Otro Lado.

For example, ICE rejected one request by claiming an applicant’s identity hadn’t been established, when the agency had the applicant and his identification documents in its custody, according to parole applications and denials provided by Rios and reviewed by The Times.

U.S. officials have faced more impediments to deporting Haitian and African asylum seekers due to limited diplomatic relationships with their homelands and more complicated deportation logistics exacerbated by coronavirus closures abroad.

But that hasn’t stopped them. The Trump administration has at times put enforcement before its own stated foreign policy, contradicting the State Department and U.S. law barring officials from returning people to harm or death.

Take Cameroon. Last year, the U.S. pulled back some military assistance amid reports of atrocities committed by security forces trained and supplied by the U.S. military for counterterrorism. The State Department travel advisory for Cameroon warns of “crime,” “kidnapping,” “terrorism” and “armed conflict.”

Rather than obtaining valid Cameroonian passports, ICE officials have issued Cameroonian deportees “laissez-passer” travel documents that are invalid, or even signed by individuals in the United States purporting to be Cameroonian officials, according to the October complaint.

. . . .

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

Read the rest of the article at the link.

I understand the incoming Biden-Harris Administration’s desire to avoid getting entangled in the muck of the overt corruption, racism, and countless crimes of the outgoing regime. 

Nevertheless, I doubt that institutional racism can be eliminated, equal justice under law achieved, and racial harmony realized without dealing in some way with the many crimes against humanity committed in the name of racism, hate, and “Dred Scottification” by the regime and their cronies, toadies, and enablers at DHS, DOJ, DOS, and elsewhere in government. 

Also, to state the obvious, the types of cases described by Molly and Andrea could have been rapidly granted at the Asylum Office level in a functioning system. That’s a critical first step in eliminating the largely self-created backlog in the Immigration Courts, ending counterproductive litigation by the Government, and largely “zeroing out” the unnecessary and wasteful “New American Gulag” (“NAG”) of bogus “civil” detention largely abusively applied for illegal punishment and deterrence.

Fair and rational application of immigration laws and sane policies also make for efficient, fiscally responsible government. Compare that with the current kakistocracy which has run up record deficits, created endless backlogs, and left behind far, far more problems than they solved. Indeed, never has a gang of empowered malicious incompetents showed so little ability to recognize, promote, or govern in the common good.

Due Process Forever! Complicity in Crimes Against Humanity, Never!

PWS

11-29-20

🗽⚖️🇺🇸YAEL SCHACHER @ REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL FILES AMICUS BRIEF ON WHY “REMAIN IN MEXICO” IS A “CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY” — “When I wasn’t visiting border, I was trying to understand how the U.S. government could put in place a policy that seemed the very antithesis of what seeking asylum was supposed to be, as articulated in Refugee Act of 1980.”

Yael Schacher
Yael Schacher
Historian
Senior U.S. Advocate
Refugees International

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports/2020/11/25/le4a9nihwqnhgcn0q2l5fufa8fah6v&source=gmail-imap&ust=1606928318000000&usg=AOvVaw0Fc_OTkc3MFgBm5dijso0i

. . . .

When I wasn’t visiting border, I was trying to understand how the U.S. government could put in place a policy that seemed the very antithesis of what seeking asylum was supposed to be, as articulated in Refugee Act of 1980. I had spent my time before coming to Refugees International researching the writing and passage of that law and the development of the contemporary asylum system since 1980. The Remain in Mexico policy is unprecedented. The U.S. government claims the authority for it lies in a provision of the 1996 immigration law that allows for the return of certain applicants for admission to contiguous territory to await processing.  I began researching this provision and it became clear that it was not intended to apply to asylum seekers.

In support of a challenge to the Remain in Mexico program in California federal court, Refugees International and I, with attorneys from Sidley Austin LLP, submitted this brief describing why the Refugee Act forbids the program, a reality that the 1996 law does not change. The argument of the brief is that, when the 1980 Refugee Act was enacted, it was intended to establish a uniform process for consideration of asylum claims that would preclude this return to Mexico approach. A lynchpin in the argument is that there were two versions of the asylum provision of the Refugee Act—one proposed by Congresswoman Holtzman and one by Senator Edward Kennedy. Only the House version provided that asylum seekers at a land border be accorded the same ability to seek asylum as those already in the country. When, in conference, Holtzman’s version was accepted, Congress made a conscious choice in pursuit of uniformity in consideration of asylum requests: that the United States would treat asylum seekers at the border the same as it would all others. And the language mandating uniform treatment of asylum seekers in the 1980 Refugee Act was reiterated in the 1996 immigration law.

. . . .

 

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

The case is Immigrant Defenders Law Center v. Wolf, USDC, C.D. CA.

Read Yael’s intro, her outstanding brief prepared by Sidley Austin LLP, and the “Holtzman Papers” at the above link.  Notably, Sidley Austin is one of the great firms that have helped our Round Table with amicus briefs! It’s what happens when you connect the dots among history, research, social justice, and the law. It’s why the Liberal Arts are the wave of a better future and a better Federal Judiciary! It’s all about perspective and problem solving!


Thanks Yael for all that you, Refugees International, and great pro bono lawyers like Sidley Austin do for justice and humanity.

The real problem here: A disgraceful Supremes’ majority 🏴‍☠️ that improperly “greenlighted” this totally illegal, racist-inspired, “crime against humanity,” cooked up by neo-Nazi hate monger Stephen Miller ☠️🤮, after it had properly and timely been enjoined by lower Federal courts. And, a complicit EOIR that consistently fails to provide due process and justice to asylum seekers is a huge part of the problem. 

Unlike the Supremes, the EOIR Clown Show 🤡 can be removed and justice at all levels improved just by a putting the right experts from the NDPA in charge right off the bat.

Democratic Administrations, particularly the Obama Administration, have a history of not getting the job done when it comes to achievable immigration reforms within the bureaucracy. If you don’t want four more years of needless death, disorder, demeaning of humanity, and deterioration of the most important “retail level” of our justice system, let the incoming Biden Administration know: Throw out the EOIR Clown Show and bring in the experts from the NDPA to turn the Immigration Courts into real, independent courts of equal justice and humanity that will be a source of pride, not a deadly and dangerous national embarrassment! 

Contrary to all the mindless “woe is me” suggestions that it will take decades to undo Stephen Miller’s (is he really that much smarter than any Democrat politico?) racist nonsense, EOIR is totally fixable — BUT ONLY WITH THE RIGHT FOLKS FROM THE NDPA IN CHARGE!  

It’s only “mission impossible” if the Biden-Harris Administration approaches EOIR with the same indifference, lack of urgency, and disregard for expertise and leadership at the DOJ that has plagued past Dem Administrations on immigration, human rights, and social justice.

It won’t take decades, nor will it take zillions of taxpayer dollars! With the right folks in leadership positions at EOIR, support for independent problem solving (not mindless micromanagement) from the AG & DOJ, and a completely new BIA selected from the ranks of the NDPA, we will see drastic improvements in the delivery of justice at EOIR by this time next year. And, that will just be the beginning!

No more clueless politicos, go along to get along bureaucrats, toadies, and restrictionist holdovers calling the shots at EOIR, America’s most important, least understood, and “most fixable” court system! No more abuse of migrants and their representatives! No more ridiculous, “Aimless Docket Reshuffling” generating self-created backlogs! No more vile and stupid White Nationalist enforcement gimmicks being passed off as “policies!” No more “Amateur Night at The Bijou” when it comes to administration of the immigrant justice system at the DOJ under Dems!

Get mad!  Get angry! Stop the nonsense! Tell every Democrat in Congress and the Biden Administration to bring in the NDPA experts to fix EOIR! Now! Before more lives are lost and futures ruined! It won’t get done if we don’t speak out and demand to be heard!

This is our time! Don’t let it pass with the wrong people being put in charge — yet again! Don’t be “left at the station” as the train of immigrant justice at Justice pulls out with the best engineers left standing on the platform and the wrong folks at the controls! Some “train wrecks” aren’t survivable! 🚂☠️⚰️

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-28-20

THANKSGIVING 🙏🏼 UPDATE ON ROUND TABLE 🛡⚔️ BATTLES FROM SIR JEFFREY! — Mostly Wins, One Disappointment!

Jeffrey S. Chase
Hon. “Sir”  Jeffrey S. Chase
Jeffrey S. Chase Blog
Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges
Knightess
Knightess of the Round Table

Hi all:  A few outcomes right before the holiday (two good, one bad):

(1) The Fourth Circuit just granted the motion for rehearing en banc in Portillo-Flores v. Barr, in which the Round Table filed an amicus brief.  This was a decision with a very problematic unwilling/unable determination by two judges (the petitioner, who was 14 when the events occurred, stated on the third time he was asked that it was possible the police might have taken some action), and a very strongly worded dissent.

(2) In a bond case in the Second Circuit in which we also filed an amicus brief in a case represented by Legal Aid., Arana v. Barr, the petitioner was released from custody today after having two prior requests denied.  Legal Aid believes our brief was helpful in achieving that result.  Counsel is expecting a stipulation for dismissal without prejudice.

(3) The bad news: in a petition to the 4th Circuit in support of CAIR Coalition involving Matter of A-B- issues, the 4th Cir. denied the petition for review, but did so in an unpublished decision.

Wishing everyone a very safe and happy Thanksgiving!

All my best, Jeff

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

Thanks, Sir Jeffrey!

I’m so thankful for all of the fantastic work that you and our other knightesses and knights of the Round Table do to keep due process and best practices on the forefront and spread truth in the face of tyranny, lies, and false narratives. While we often focus on the weekly amicus briefs we file with tribunals across the nation, the work also goes on in analysis, public speaking, media interviews, teaching, political involvement, video appearances, and grass roots pro bono and community work.

For example, our amazing colleague Judge Charlie Pazar of Tennessee just reported that he was featured on a CLE panel entirely devoted to the work and impact of our Round Table! Way to go Charlie! You are one of those who tirelessly works to improve American justice on all levels and you are certainly “super generous” in sharing your time, knowledge, expertise, and perspective!

Just recently, Sir Jeffrey, along with Round Table knightesses Judge Denise Slavin and Judge Sue Roy, in addition to yours truly and our friend NAIJ President Judge Ashley Tabaddor, were quoted by Suzanne Monyak in a Law360 article about the future of the NAIJ and the Immigration Court in a Biden Administration. Sadly, the article is “hidden behind the pay wall,” but those with access can read it in its entirety.  

Compare these unselfish, teamwork-oriented, effective, expert professional activities aimed at improving the justice system and access to it for everyone with the disgraceful, ignorant, divisive, counterproductive, and often downright racist and illegal actions of the current regime’s immigration kakistocracy, starting, but by no means ending, with the deadly ☠️⚰️🏴‍☠️ “EOIR Clown Show” 🤡!  

Think what a “Better EOIR” and a “better bureaucracy,” led by members of the NDPA could do to solve problems, promote the rule of law and best practices, and make “equal justice for all” a reality rather than a false promise that is intentionally never fulfilled! It isn’t rocket science. But, it does take replacing the kakistocracy, on all levels, throughout Government with experts from the NDPA committed to achieving “good government in the public interest.”

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-27-20

☠️THANKSGIVING TRAVESTY! — TURKEYS @ EOIR 🦃 LAUNCH ALL-OUT REGULATORY ASSAULT ON ASYLUM, DUE PROCESS, HUMANITY IN WANING DAYS OF KAKISTOCRACY, GIVE “BIG MIDDLE FINGER” TO IMMIGRATION, HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES!🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️ — Time For The NDPA To Speak Up and Speak Out To The Biden Team! — Don’t Let The Clown Show Get Away With Murder!⚰️ — NDPA Call To Action!

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

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-25912.pdf&source=gmail-imap&ust=1606947460000000&usg=AOvVaw0xn0oNVGuPF_KlGCjBrdQJ

We at CLINIC read this today. The terrible aspects of this proposed rule include seeking to:

 

  • Overrule Arrabally
  • Require motions to reopen/reconsider to include a statement concerning whether the noncitizen has complied with their duty to surrender for removal. If the noncitizen has not done so, that will be considered a very serious unfavorable discretionary factor.
  • Disallow reopening based on a pending USCIS application, stating that if a motion to reopen or reconsider is premised upon relief that the immigration judge or the BIA lacks authority to grant, the judge or the BIA may only grant the motion if another agency has first granted the underlying relief. Neither an immigration judge nor the BIA may reopen proceedings due to a pending application for relief with another agency if the judge or the BIA would not have authority to grant the relief in the first instance.
  • Allow immigration judges and the BIA to not automatically grant a motion to reopen or reconsider that is jointly filed, that is unopposed, or that is deemed unopposed because a response was not timely filed.
  • Define termination and explains that termination includes both the termination and the dismissal of proceedings, wherever those terms are used in the regulations.
  • Assess that assertions made in the motions context that are “contradicted, unsupported, conclusory, ambiguous, or otherwise unreliable” do not have to be accepted as true.
  • Clarify that an adjudicator is not required to accept the legal arguments of either party in a motion to reopen or motion to reconsider as correct.
  • Codify that assertions made in a filing by counsel, such as a motion to reopen or motion to reconsider, are not evidence and should not be treated as such.
  • Prohibit the Board or an immigration judge from granting a motion to reopen or reconsider unless the respondent has provided appropriate contact information for further notification or hearing.
  • Specify that neither an immigration judge nor the BIA may grant a motion to reopen or reconsider for the purpose of terminating or dismissing the proceeding, unless the motion satisfies the standards for both the motion, including the new prima facie requirement of this proposed rule, and the requested termination or dismissal. (citing to S-O-G- & F-D-B-, 27 I&N Dec. 462 (A.G. 2019) (holding that the authority to dismiss or terminate proceedings is constrained by the regulations and is not a “free-floating power”)).
  • Codify Matter of Lozada requirements and makes clear that “substantial compliance” is insufficient, plus adds additional onerous requirements (e.g. state bar complaint AND a complaint to EOIR disciplinary counsel is required).
  • Require respondents to first file a stay request with DHS and have DHS deny it before they can file a stay request with EOIR.

 

A few bright spots:

  • It mostly gets rid of the departure bar, though it does still contain a withdrawal provision based on a noncitizen’s volitional physical departure from the United States while a motion is pending.
  • It makes it clearer that you can file an IAC claim based on the ineffective assistance of a notario.
  • Considers the that new asylum application would be considered filed as of the date the immigration court grants the motion to reopen.

 

Thank you,

 

Michelle N. Mendez (she/her/ella/elle)

Director, Defending Vulnerable Populations Program

Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC)

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

Peter Margulies writes:

Apart from the modest bright spots you mention, this is a pernicious rule that would curb noncitizens’ access to  precious relief. It’s sobering to see the single-mindedness with which the current administration has attacked the precious remedy of asylum, such as the horrific asylum bars enjoined by ND CA Judge Susan Illston. H/t to profs who signed the amicus in Pangea Leg. Servs. v. DHS on which Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia of Penn State, Susan Krumplitsch of DLA Piper & I served as co-counsel–we’ll be reaching out again soon for the CA9 round on that case & Nat’l Ass’n of Manufacturers v. DHS (the nonimmigrant visa ban challenge). 

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

Thanks, Michelle and Peter, for the continuing excellence of your work!

But, let’s face it, this problem isn’t going to be solved by commenting and even suing. It will only be solved if, and when, the Biden Administration evicts the dangerous, scofflaw, deadly Clown Show 🤡 @ EOIR HQ, including the entire BIA, and replaces it with folks like you and your NDPA fellow experts and fearless fighters for justice!

I watched this show before, to lesser degrees! Far, far too many times!

Don’t miss the point here, friends! Briefs, comments, law suits, and op-eds are nice. But, without effective total outrage and actual political intervention directed at the incoming “powers that be” in the Biden Administration, it’s going to be be a repeat of 2008!

The deadly EOIR Clown Show happily and arrogantly march on killing folks, distorting the law, and implementing the Miller agenda, giving the middle finger to due process, and we (mostly YOU, since I’m retired) will remain on the outside suffering, risking heath, safety, and sanity, and once again ineffectively bitching and moaning.

Sally Yates as a leading contender for AG is NOT, I repeat NOT, good news. I was on the “inside” at EOIR during the Lynch-Yates debacle. 

She never lifted a finger to stop Aimless Docket Reshuffling, Family Detention, children going unrepresented, indefinite detention, incompetent Immigration Court management, biased “judicial” selections that effectively excluded private sector experts, educators, and advocates like YOU, and intentional skewing of the law by the BIA against Central American asylum seekers.

She might have spoken out against private detention of criminals, but not so much when it came to substandard private detention of innocent families with children whose “crime” was seeking asylum through our legal system. Really, how outrageous can it get! Yates helped establish the “New American Gulag” (“NAG”) that Miller & Co. have so gleefully and unlawfully expanded and weaponized!

She and her boss, Lynch, never bothered to “connect the dots” between civil rights and the legal rights and humanity of immigrants and asylum seekers. There can be no “equal justice under law” in America until the rights and humanity of immigrants and asylum seekers are upheld against “Dred Scottification” and intentional “dehumanization.”

For Pete’s sake, folks, during the Obama immigration disaster, holdover GOP right-wing operatives @ EOIR were rewriting the precedents in favor of their restrictionist agenda while YOU and others like you in the NGO and advocacy community were totally shut out, not given the time of day, and forced to spend eight wasted years in “damage control” rather than rolling out a progressive human rights, due process, practical problem solving agenda that would have saved lives (and, perhaps, not incidentally, created more USCs).

I’ve done what I can. I’ve written, I’ve agitated, I’ve given speeches, I’ve spoken to the Transition Team, written to my Democratic legislators, signed comments, amicus briefs, published my “mini essays,” and riled up and tried to inspire every student I can reach for the NDPA.

But, I’m pretty much at my wit’s ends watching the fecklessness and political ineptitude of the immigrant advocacy, human rights, and NGO communities! We were the backbone of the resistance to tyranny over the last four years and a key force in the Biden victory.

If we (YOU) don’t exercise some real political muscle with the incoming Administration NOW, the next four years are going to be just as grim, maddening, deadly, and disastrous for migrants (and their advocates, YOU) as the preceding two decades! We need the experts from the NDPA on the inside, calling the shots, not sitting in the waiting room while lesser talents cluelessly play out the game behind closed doors! Human lives and human dignity depend on the NDPA getting to play and lead!

It’s not rocket science! But, it does involve political will, and some effectively applied political outrage!

When you read about folks like Sally Yates and Jeh Johnson (both complicit in past human rights disasters) getting serious consideration for AG, and read that the Biden DOJ agenda is all about civil rights (what, indeed, are immigrants’,  asylum seekers’, and humans’ rights, if not civil rights?) and criminal justice reform (not going to happen as long as “Dred Scottification” of immigrants is allowed to continue) with ZERO mention of ousting the EOIR kakistocracy and radically reforming the Immigration Court into a progressive, due-process, human rights model judiciary of the future (should be JOB #1 @ DOJ), you know that our message is NOT being heard, nor is it being taken seriously, by the “political powers that be” in the incoming Administration!

Get outraged, get mad, speak up, speak out, act up, sue, protest, raise Hell until somebody on the incoming team pays attention to the biggest (entirely fixable, but only with will and the right people) crisis in our failing justice system! 

It’s going to take the new faces and better thinking of the NDPA, not the same folks who failed to fix the system in the past and swept life-destroying problems under the carpet, to get the job done!

If nothing else, we owe it to the migrants who have lost their lives, loved ones, and/or seen their futures needlessly trashed by the last three Administrations to stand up for due process, justice, and human dignity for everyone in America!

Due Process Forever!

Best wishes and Happy Thanksgiving,

PWS😎🗽⚖️

11-26-20

🇺🇸🗽⚖️MAYORKAS APPOINTMENT @ DHS SIGNALS MOVE AWAY FROM RACISM, WHITE NATIONALISM, STUPID NATIVISM AS “POLICIES” – If Confirmed, Can He Finally Bring Sanity, Humanity, Fiscal Responsibility, & Focus On Legitimate Law Enforcement & “National Security” (Rather Than A String Of Fabricated Anti-Immigration Actions Motivated By Overt Racism, Political Opportunism, & Invidious Religious Discrimination) To A Politicized Agency Gone Bezerk? — “This is it. The change we needed, hallelujah,” Says GOP Pundit Al Cardenas!

Suzanne Gamboa
Suzanne Suzanne Gamboa, Political Editor, NBCLatino, NBC NewsDate: October 21, 2013
Place: Washington, DC
Credit: Maria Patricia Leiva/OAS
Creative Commons License
Al Cardenas
Al Cardenas
Last of A Dying GOP Breed?
Al Cardenas speaking at CPAC FL in Orlando, Florida.
Gage Skidmore, Photo
Creative Commons
Alejandro Mayorkas
Alejandro Mayorkas
DHS Secretry – Designate
Official DHS Photo
Public Domain

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/first-latino-tapped-head-dhs-signals-shift-trump-s-hard-n1248716

 

 

From Suzanne Gamboa @ NBC News:

 

Alejandro Mayorkas, the first Latino chosen for President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet, will head a Department of Homeland Security that is expected to drastically overhaul President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, as well as put Mayorkas at the forefront of the new administration’s anti-terrorism strategy.

Mayorkas will be the first Latino and first immigrant to head the Department of Homeland Security, if confirmed by the Senate. The highest-ranking Cuban American in the Obama administration, Mayorkas was deputy secretary of DHS under then-Secretary Jeh Johnson, and before that was the director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, a part of DHS that oversees granting citizenship and other immigration benefits.

Mayorkas, if confirmed, will take over the nation’s third-largest agency in terms of employees, one that was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that oversees several smaller agencies such as Customs and Border Protection, Transportation Security, the Coast Guard and the Secret Service.

 

President-elect Biden names Alejandro Mayorkas for Homeland Security Chief

NOV. 23, 202003:15

The Trump administration has drastically transformed the nation’s immigration system with over 400 executive actions — including refusing entry to asylum-seekers, taking children from parents at the border and restricting travel to the U.S. by Muslims.

There will be pressure on the Biden administration to act quickly on immigration and uphold pledges he made on the campaign trail, such as ending travel bans and protecting young immigrants, known as Dreamers, and to take such actions in the first 100 days of his administration.

Much of Trump’s immigration policy was the work of his adviser Stephen Miller, who cited and promoted white nationalist beliefs in emails leaked to the Southern Poverty Law Center last year.

 

. . . .

 

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

Read the rest of Suzanne’s report at the link.

 

 

Al Cardenas has been one of very few Republicans to appear on “Meet the Press” over the past four years who has 1) dealt with facts, and 2) said something worthwhile. The normal GOP guest on MTP is either a Trump toady or a disingenuous apologist for the worst and most corrupt Administration in U.S. history.

 

I do suggest that Al needs to sit down and have a “heart to heart” with his Senate buddies Marco Rubio and  Ted Cruz as well as lots of Cuban-Americans in Florida about the future of America.  They don’t seem to be on the same page, or indeed even in the same universe, as Al and the substantial majority of American voters.

 

This also illustrates the vital importance to DHS reform of a strong, due process, human rights, efficiency oriented, “best practices” EOIR with expert judges from the NDPA in leadership positions and on the BIA (and eventually the Immigration Courts). In the past, true reform at DHS has often been inhibited by refusal of supervisors and line officials to follow “policies sent out from Washington” specifically designed to enhance individual justice, insert reality, and promote docket and litigation responsibility and efficiency. In other words, the type of practical, reasonable, humane, experience-based prosecutorial discretion policies that every other law enforcement agency in the U.S., save DHS, routinely follows.

 

DHS reforms won’t be fully effective unless preceded by an EOIR under new leadership with an expert, courageous, independent due process committed BIA unswervingly dedicated to protecting the rights of asylum seekers and other migrants and effectively requiring DHS to operate within the law and conform to rational, practical, non-discriminatory policies. The talent is out there, just waiting be tapped!

 

A friend recently asked me what I expected to happen when the U.S. asylum system is reinstituted as President-Elect Biden and Vice President Harris have pledged. Here’s my answer:

 

[The Biden Administration] will get them [asylum applications] adjudicated in a timely and professional manner; more will qualify for protection, thereby allowing more of the work to be shifted to the Asylum Office; the refugee program will expand; America will prosper!

 

I hope I’m right. But, it won’t happen without a “new awakening and some new faces” at EOIR. Remember, it’s not rocket science!

 

Due Process Forever!

 

PWS

11-25-20

 

 

 

 

 

🇺🇸🗽⚖️👍🏼😎ANALYSIS: 46TH PRESIDENT— IN CABINET SELECTIONS, LESTER HOLT INTERVIEW, BIDEN SHOWS WHAT REAL LEADERSHIP, GOOD GOVERNMENT, COMMON GOOD, & ASPIRATION TO MAKE OUR WORLD A BETTER PLACE ARE ALL ABOUT!

President Elect Joe Biden
President-Elect Joe Biden
Official portrait of Vice President Joe Biden in his West Wing Office at the White House, Jan. 10, 2013. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann).

Following the “official” beginning of his transition, President-Elect Joe Biden showed why an impressive majority of Americans wisely called on him and his running mate Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris at this pivotal moment in history to preserve and rescue our nation, solve pressing problems, and return us to a positive leadership role in a world that needs and longs for it. 

Biden praised the recent sincere cooperation from the outgoing Administration. He vowed to make his top priorities controlling the pandemic and getting the American economy and the now bleak jobs picture back on track to success. He promised to focus on the hardest hit communities — primarily minority communities who have disproportionately borne the brunt of COVID-19 while providing essential services to all Americans. In that respect, he has already been listening to the advice and input of state governors, mayors, and local officials of both parties. Helping hard pressed state and local governments will be high on his “to do” list.

The President-Elect vowed to push forward with sound immigration, environmental, and climate change policies in the early days of his Administration. To assist in the effort, he initially tapped a group of acknowledged Government experts and veteran public servants to help and advise him and Vice President Harris in their Cabinet. Professionalism, demonstrated excellence in public service, and expertise were the common qualities of the nominees. 

So far, Biden’s Cabinet choices, apparently also reflecting Vice President-Elect Harris’s influence, look like the nation they will be serving. They come from a variety of backgrounds and embody the gender and racial diversity of America. 

While some commentators have expressed concerns of an “Obama IIIl” look to the Cabinet, Biden scotched that idea. He correctly pointed out that America is a much different nation facing a much different world than when he left the Vice Presidency four years ago. We face a new range of problems that must be solved. He promised to provide the type of unifying, empirically based, empathetic, and forward-looking leadership that will allow us to surmount the current challenges and move forward together to greater heights!

Significantly, Biden told Holt he would eschew political vendettas and appeared determined to restore integrity, professionalism, and independence to a broken and dysfunctional Justice Department.

The proof will be in the governing and the actions, although Biden noted the important role played by a President’s rhetoric and universal leadership qualities. Undoubtedly, things will not be perfect. But, so far, Biden appears to be on the right track and setting the correct tone for what is likely to be the most important Presidency since Abraham Lincoln (and arguably, the most important in American history).

Come January 20, 2021, the circus will be pulling up stakes and leaving town. Let the governing begin!

PWS

11-25-20

👹AS CURTAIN FALLS ON KAKISTOCRACY, BIA CLOWN SHOW 🤡 ROLLS ON TOWARD OBLIVION! — Latest Travesty Ignores Clear Statutory Language, Elevates AAO Over Circuits, Shafts TPSers Who Qualify For Legal Permanent Immigration, Makes Hash Out Of Uniform Administration Of Laws!🏴‍☠️☠️🤮

EYORE
“Eyore In Distress”
Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”
Kangaroos
All In A Day’s Work — BIA Members Unwind After Ignoring Statute, Dissing Three Circuits, Screwing TPS Holders, Beating Up Unrepresented Respondent, & Aiding Their “Partners” At ICE In Demeaning Justice
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rasputin243/
Creative Commons License

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDAsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsImJ1bGxldGluX2lkIjoiMjAyMDExMjMuMzA5ODM1ODEiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL2dvLnVzYS5nb3YveDdmMjgifQ.3HiEf4LU6Bwc5S-T8jqxR2hmHX9AQ585LsaksbtbRnk/s/842922301/br/90293063224-l&source=gmail-imap&ust=1606764672000000&usg=AOvVaw3Fk5zcttz_HLhd3nxbHyiO

Matter of PADILLA RODRIGUEZ, 28 I&N Dec. 164 (BIA 2020)

BIA HEADNOTE:

(1) Where the temporary protected status (“TPS”) of an alien who was previously present in the United States without being admitted or paroled is terminated, the alien remains inadmissible under section 212(a)(6)(A)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i) (2018), and removal proceedings should not be terminated.

(2) An alien whose TPS continues to be valid is considered to be “admitted” for purposes of establishing eligibility for adjustment of status only within the jurisdictions of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits.

BIA PANEL: MALPHRUS, Deputy Chief Appellate Immigration Judge; HUNSUCKER, Appellate Immigration Judge; GEMOETS, Temporary Appellate Immigration Judge

OPINION BY: HUNSUCKER, Appellate Immigration Judge

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

For today’s BIA, it apparently doesn’t get any better than beating up on an unrepresented respondent who actually won before the Immigration Judge! Where was the “BIA Pro Bono Program” on this one?

It’s not rocket science: INA section 244(f)(4) says: “for purposes of adjustment of status under section 245 and change of status under section 248, the alien shall be considered as being in, and maintaining, lawful status as a nonimmigrant.”

So, clearly, an individual in TPS status who is eligible for permanent immigration can adjust statutus under INA section 245, right? Of course, unless you’re the BIA and stretching to find a way to deny. And, elevating the meanderings of the AAO over the considered opinions of three Circuit Courts of Appeals shows the level of intellectual honesty and scholarship on today’s BIA!

Now, lets look at the policy results produced by the BIA’s intentional misconstruction of the plain meaning of the statute.

First, it means that except in the 6th, 8th, and 9th Circuits, individuals in TPS status, basically long term residents who are going to be remaining, working, paying taxes, and raising families in the U.S., and who also are qualified to permanently immigrate (e.g., spouses of U.S. citizens) will be mindlessly barred from doing so.

But, wait, it gets even better! That’s only the case if they have the  misfortune to live in a Circuit other than the 6th, 8th, or 9th. Of course, if they are able, they could move to one of those circuits to adjust.

Make sense? Only if you’re part of the “Clown Show of Denial.” Then, you ignore the statute, diss the Circuit Courts, and go out of your way to promote a non-uniform interpretation of the law that will screw contributing members of our society residing here legally and arbitrarily block them from achieving the permanent status to which they are entitled.

Now you can see what a difference replacing the “Clown Show” with real judges from the NDPA could make — both for the human lives and futures at stake and for sane, lawful, and fiscally efficient administration of our immigration laws! 

REPEAT AFTER ME: Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Tell The Biden Team That The EOIR Clown 🤡 Show Has Got To Go!

EOIR clown Show Must Go T-Shirt
“EOIR Clown Show Must Go” T-Shirt Custom Design Concept

Due Process Forever! Clownocracy, never!

PWS

11-24-20

THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-23-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal,Assistance Group —  Court Losses, Rebukes Pile Up For Loser Scofflaw White Nationalist Regime — But Cruelty, Stupidity, & Sabotage Of Democracy Still On The Agenda For Defeated Kakistocracy!🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️👎🏻

Elizabeth Gibson
Elizabeth Gibson
Attorney, NY Legal Assistance Group
Publisher of “The Gibson Report”

 

COVID-19

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

 

EOIR Status Overview & EOIR Court Status Map/List: Hearings in non-detained cases at courts without an announced date are postponed through, and including, December 11, 2020. NYC non-detained remains closed for hearings.

 

TOP NEWS

 

Asylum Ruling Halts Restrictions in New Rule

Lawfare: On Nov. 19, Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held that a new asylum rule exceeded the power of both the attorney general and the Department of Homeland Security and issued a nationwide temporary restraining order against the rule’s implementation.

 

Judge Halts ‘Public Health’ Expulsions of Children at the Border

NYT: A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a public health emergency decree did not give the Trump administration authority to expel unaccompanied children before they could request asylum.

 

Trump administration revives talk of action on birthright citizenship

The Hill: The administration is aware the order would be promptly challenged in court, but officials would hope to get a ruling on whether birthright citizenship is protected under the 14th Amendment, according to one source familiar with the plans. Many lawmakers and experts have argued it is protected, but the courts have not definitively ruled on the issue.

 

White House killed deal to pay for mental health care for migrant families separated at border

NBC: The White House’s refusal to accept the deal ended up costing taxpayers $6 million…. In November 2019, the judge in the case ordered the government to pay for mental health services, which the Justice Department appealed unsuccessfully. The nonprofit Seneca Family of Agencies was awarded a $14 million contract in March to provide screenings and counseling to migrant families.

 

As coronavirus cases surge again, ICE leaders push to detain more immigrants in California

KTLA: Now, against the backdrop of the latest and potentially most difficult wave of COVID-19 cases across the state and country, ICE officials are pushing to increase the number of immigrants detained in California.

 

ICE Arrested More Than 150 Immigrants In A Nationwide Sweep

Buzzfeed: This time, ICE officials say they targeted people who had been granted voluntary departure, a policy that allows undocumented immigrants to leave the country on their own accord rather than be deported.

 

The time has come for a reckoning on US immigrant abuse

AlJazeera: A letter to the UN by four congresswomen renews hope that abuse of detained immigrants in the US will finally be addressed.

 

Biden Will Try to Unmake Trump’s Immigration Agenda. It Won’t Be Easy

MP: Some of Trump’s actions can be undone relatively easily, legal scholars and former judges and justice officials say. Others require laborious rule-making or slow-moving litigation. For Biden allies hoping to make a fast start, choosing priorities is daunting.

 

Immigration Officials Have Been Told Not To Communicate With Joe Biden’s Transition Team

BuzzFeed: An official at the agency that oversees US immigration and naturalization services told employees not to communicate with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team until a Trump appointee “deems the results ‘clear’” and recognizes the winner, according to an internal email obtained by BuzzFeed News.

 

IT Snafus Added Confusion to Migrant Family Reunification, Watchdog Says

WSJ: Old systems maintained by the Department of Homeland Security failed to track migrants that were separated at the U.S. border.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

Federal Judge Issues Nationwide Injunction Against Rule Restricting Asylum Eligibility

A district court issued a nationwide injunction against a rule issued on 10/21/20 that created new categories that would bar individuals from being eligible for asylum, which were scheduled to go into effect on 11/20/20. (Pangea Legal Services et al., v. DHS, et al., 11/19/20) AILA Doc. No. 20111934

 

Federal Court Blocks the Trump Administration’s “Title 42 Process” as It Relates to Unaccompanied Minors

The district court granted motions to certify class and for preliminary injunction, blocking application of the Trump administration’s “Title 42” order to all unaccompanied children, which restricted immigration at the border under the Public Health Service Act. (P.J.E.S. v. Wolf, 11/18/20) AILA Doc. No. 20111839

 

NY Judge Slams Feds For ‘Ignoring’ Justices’ DACA Revival

Law360: A New York federal judge rebuked the Trump administration Wednesday for refusing to reinstate DACA, saying the administration was “ignoring” court orders that preserved the immigration ptogram while trying to “run out the clock” on the president’s remaining time in office.

 

DC Judge Slams DOJ’s $212K Fee Payment To Arnold & Porter

Law360: A District of Columbia federal judge on Tuesday criticized a deal in which the Trump administration will pay Arnold & Porter more than $212,000 in legal fees to resolve a battle over expedited traveler security clearance programs, calling the fees excessive and the government’s conduct “embarrassing.”

 

Advocates File Class Action Lawsuit Challenging USCIS’s Blank Space Policy

Advocates filed a lawsuit challenging USCIS policy to reject applications that have any blank response field. USCIS has rejected thousands of applications, primarily targeting humanitarian benefits such as asylum applications and T and U visa petitions. (Vangala v. USCIS, 11/19/20) AILA Doc. No. 20112034

 

CA4 Holds That IJs Must Make Finding as to Whether Corroborating Evidence Was Reasonably Available

The court held that while the INA does not require an IJ to provide a noncitizen with advance notice of the need to offer corroborating evidence, the IJ must make a finding as to whether such corroborating evidence was reasonably available if it was not provided. (Wambura v. Barr, 11/13/20) AILA Doc. No. 20111740

 

CA5 Affirms Dismissal of Habeas Petition After Finding Inability to Seek Work Authorization Is Not a Collateral Consequence

Affirming the district court’s dismissal of the habeas petition, the court rejected the petitioners’ argument that their inability to seek work authorization was a collateral consequence that should allow them to maintain their petition. (Bacilio-Sabastian, et al. v. Barr, et al., 11/13/20) AILA Doc. No. 20111741

 

USCIS Updates Policy Guidance on Prerequisite of Lawful Admission for Permanent Residence for Purposes of Naturalization

USCIS updated policy guidance affirming that an applicant is ineligible for naturalization in cases where they did not obtain LPR status lawfully, including cases where the U.S. government was unaware of disqualifying facts and granted AOS to that of an LPR or admitted the applicant as an LPR. AILA Doc. No. 20111831

 

USCIS Updates Policy Guidance on the Use of Discretion for Adjustment of Status

USCIS updated guidance regarding discretion in adjustment of status (AOS) applications. The update consolidates guidance on the privileges, rights, and responsibilities of LPRs, and clarifies factors or factual circumstances for AOS that officers consider when conducting a discretionary analysis. AILA Doc. No. 20111731

 

DHS Issues Order Designating the Order of Succession for the Secretary of Homeland Security

On 11/4/20, Peter T. Gaynor, administrator of FEMA, exercised any authority of the position of Acting Secretary to designate an order of succession for DHS Secretary. This order was issued in response to recent findings that the 11/8/19 order of succession issued by Kevin McAleenan was invalid. AILA Doc. No. 20111737

 

DHS Issues Ratification of Actions Taken by Acting Secretary Chad Wolf

Following the execution of Peter Gaynor’s 11/14/20 order designating the order of succession for the secretary of homeland security, DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf ratified any and all of his own actions taken since 11/13/19. AILA Doc. No. 20111738

 

DHS Issues Ratification of Certain Actions Taken by McAleenan and Edlow

Following the execution of Peter Gaynor’s 11/14/20 order designating the order of succession for the secretary of homeland security, DHS Acting Secretary Wolf ratified certain actions taken by former Acting DHS Secretary McAleenan and one action taken by USCIS Deputy Director for Policy Edlow. AILA Doc. No. 20111739

 

ACTIONS

 

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, November 23, 2020

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Friday, November 20, 2020

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Monday, November 16, 2020

 

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

Thanks, Elizabeth!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-24-20

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS WILL BE TAPPED AS BIDEN’S DHS SECRETARY!

Alejandro Mayorkas
Alejandro Mayorkas
DHS Secretry – Designate
Official DHS Photo
Public Domain

Mayorkas, currently a partner at Wilmer Hale, was Deputy DHS Secretary under Obama from 2013-2016. If confirmed, he will be the first Latino to hold the post. 

He helped design and implement DACA, certainly the most rational, cost effective, and astoundingly successful Executive immigration initiative of the 21st Century. But, then, there was not really much else to choose from in two decades of largely wasteful, counterproductive, “designed to fail uber enforcement” from all Administrations.

On one level, Mayorkas faces “mission impossible”” — reform an agency without mission or recognizable humane values that has been totally out of control over the past four years and has shown that it is infected with institutionalized racism, hate, ignorance, disrespect for the rule of law, rampant unprofessionalism, and overt political corruption at every level.

But, on another level it should be easy for Mayorkas to look good! Following the early departure of Gen. John Kelly, who looked pretty good on paper but showed neither the inclination to understand immigration policy nor the willingness to buck Trump, the agency has been “run” by a succession of toadies and war criminals. The current (NOT) Acting Secretary Chad “Wolfman” Wolf, a “super-hack,” is totally unqualified for the job, and also happens to be serving illegally in an “acting capacity.” That’s an easy act to follow!

Just by respecting the Constitution and the law, simply refraining from overt lying, racism, committing crimes against humanity, and child abuse, and wasting less taxpayer money on stupid walls, detention, and counterproductive “civil” enforcement, Mayorkas will be perceived as a “breath of fresh air” by many long-suffering members of the immigration and human rights community, even if he never accomplishes much else.

Expectations were extraordinarily low for the Trump regime. But, his “chosen toadies and scofflaws” consistently performed far below even our worst fears, demonstrating exceptional “malicious incompetence” at virtually all aspects of their jobs. DOJ and EOIR are by no means the only rings under the “Big Top” 🎪where the deadly “clown show” 🤡 has been in continuous performance for the past four years!

Due Process Forever. Let the Biden Team Know That The Clown Show 🤡 Must Go!

PWS

11-23-20

CORRUPT, CHILD ABUSING, RACIST IMMIGRATION BUREAUCRACY 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻 MUST BE REPLACED WITH PROFESSIONAL WORKFORCE COMMITTED TO DUE PROCESS, RULE OF LAW, HUMAN DIGNITY! — “CRUELTY TO migrant children, a trademark of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, did not cease when officials reversed course in the face of public outrage two years ago and stopped wrenching toddlers, tweens and teens from their parents — with no plan or process to reunite them. It has continued apace under cover of the pandemic . . . .”

Trump Dumping Asylum Seekers in Hondiras
Dumping Asylum Seekers in Honduras
Artist: Monte Wolverton
Reproduced under license
Sheltering in Cages by John Darkow
“Sheltering in Cages” by John Darkow
Reproduced under license
Sessions in a cage
Jeff Sessions’ Cage by J.D. Crowe, Alabama Media Group/AL.com
Republished under license

From WashPost:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-federal-judge-halts-another-inhumane-trump-administration-practice-at-the-border/2020/11/22/d5795686-2b4d-11eb-8fa2-06e7cbb145c0_story.html

Opinion by the Editorial Board

November 22 at 12:59 PM ET

CRUELTY TO migrant children, a trademark of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, did not cease when officials reversed course in the face of public outrage two years ago and stopped wrenching toddlers, tweens and teens from their parents — with no plan or process to reunite them. It has continued apace under cover of the pandemic, which the White House has used as an all-purpose pretext for ignoring child-protection laws and diplomatic agreements governing asylum, and, without even a nod to due process, expelling unaccompanied children who cross the border seeking refuge.

A federal judge has now halted that practice even as he acknowledged the administration’s far-reaching powers in the midst of a public health emergency. Those powers are broad, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled, but do not enable the government to send minors packing without affording them a chance to have their asylum claims heard.

At least 13,000 children have been detained by Border Patrol officers and swiftly thrown out of the country under an emergency decree that has effectively sealed off the southern border to most migrants since the spring. Administration officials justified the measure in the name of protecting the country from a potential influx of migrants carrying the coronavirus — but performed no testing, and provided no data, to substantiate their stance.

Given infection rates in Mexico and Central America, it may be reasonable to assume that some migrants, including unaccompanied minors, might have contracted covid-19. It may also be the case, however, as the ACLU argued in court, that the practice of expelling young migrants actually exposes U.S. border authorities to more risk — in the course of holding them while flights are arranged to their home countries in Central America or elsewhere — than they would otherwise face if the migrants were placed in shelters that have the capacity to adopt social distancing and other precautions. Judge Sullivan, for his part, said the government had asserted its “scientific and technical expertise” to justify its policy of evicting young migrants — but provided none by way of actual evidence.

As it happens, it occurred to at least some administration officials, early on in the pandemic, that migrant children deserved some special consideration. When the policy of suspending asylum was first rolled out, children who crossed the border were exempted. That was quickly reversed, however, with a spokesman saying that minors would be returned to their countries of origin on a “case by case basis.” In the ensuing months, however, virtually all have been expelled.

Anti-trafficking and other laws provide for protections for unaccompanied minors who arrive in this country. The administration has seized on the pandemic to disregard those, along with other long-standing measures and practices that set procedures for migrants seeking refuge here. A more humane approach, in line with American traditions and values, would have established a process for testing and quarantining, at least for migrant children, as they pursued asylum claims. But humane policy is anathema to the Trump administration, and the result is thousands of children who have been subjected to unwarranted hardship and risk.

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

Remembers, the victims are largely dead, deported, or still suffering! The “perps” — including  the “Perp in Chief,” “Gruppenfuhrer Miller,” Jeff “Gonzo Apocalypto” Sessions, “Wolfman the Illegal,” and “Billy the Bigot” remain at large, even profiting from and bragging about their “crimes against humanity.” This is a “functioning democracy?” No way!

We’ve all been subjected to the disingenuous writings of pundits babbling on about the resilience of American democracy in the face of a fascist president and his corrupt anti-democracy party of cowards and enablers. Hogwash! 

Make no mistake about it, American democracy is on the ropes! Basically, we’re watching a corrupt President who lost the election by over 6 million votes and 74 electoral votes engage in systematic frivolous, abusive, baseless litigation intended to destroy our nation, undermine our national security, and disenfranchise voters. It’s a disgusting, overtly racist, dishonest performance that would have any other individual in America and his motley band of unethical lawyers in jail for contempt and conspiracy to obstruct justice! But, Trump and his cronies continue to operate outside the law!

We owe our existence as a nation less to any “structural integrity” and much more to a relatively few courageous, smart, highly motivated members of the resistance: immigration, human rights, and civil rights lawyers; African American women; non-right-wing journalists; Democratic legislators; scientists and medical professionals; a limited number of Federal Judges, mostly at the District Court and Immigration Court levels (and specifically excluding any current BIA Member, EOIR “Manager,” or Supreme Court Justice not named Sotomayor, Kagan, and (sort of) Breyer); courageous DACA kids; and some Federal Career Civil servants not working at ICE or CBP.

The “resilience of American institutions” view is largely that of a privileged minority who haven’t been deported to possible torture or death without any process at all (let alone “due” process), haven’t been illegally separated from beloved family members, aren’t rotting in private prisons (the “New American Gulag”) for the “crime” of seeking justice, aren’t struggling with unemployment or difficulty putting food on the table while Moscow Mitch and his elites focus on confirming unqualified Federal Judges, haven’t had family members shot by the police, haven’t had family members unnecessarily suffer and die because of the worst President in U.S. history’s maliciously incompetent failure to provide leadership and any systematic strategy for controlling a pandemic, and haven’t had to put their lives and professional reputations on the line in a failing Justice system that has enabled grotesque abuses by the likes of Jeff “Gonzo Apocalypto” Sessions, Billy the Bigot Barr, Noel Francisco, and the rest of their band of unethical Government lawyers.

The Biden Administration must do a thorough housecleaning of the corrupt DHS and DOJ bureaucracies that carried out the illegal, immoral, racist, White Nationalist agenda developed by neo-Nazi Stephen Miller and his cowardly gang of brownshirts!

And, as a nation, we need to think carefully about the implications of a life-tenured Supreme Court majority that, since their initial feckless performance on the “Muslim Ban” cases, time and time again failed to forcefully and unanimously stand up for our democracy, human decency, and those defending them in the face of overt, racism and hate driven, Executive tyranny! A Supremes’ majority that has disgracefully and spinelessly embraced the “Dred Scottification” of “the other” (mostly immigrants and those of color). It’s not rocket science! And some of our  “elite law schools” seemed to have forgotten to teach “Con Law 101” and “Basic Ethics” to aspiring right wing judges! 

It’s less about institutions than it is about the courageous individuals who uphold them! And, our future depends on the Biden-Harris Administration putting these folks “in the game” to insure that an unmitigated disaster like the Trump regime, it’s rampant illegality and inhumanity, and its “malicious incompetence” can never, ever, happen again! And, we must at least start the process of developing a better and more courageous Federal Judiciary for the future! 

Due Process Forever! Complicity in the face of tyranny, never!

PWS

11-23-20

COURTSIDE WINTER FASHION EDITION: See The Latest In Due Process & Racial Justice Sportswear Design By Our Award-Winning NDPA Fashion Team!

EOIR clown Show Must Go T-Shirt
“EOIR Clown Show Has Got To Go” T-Shirt Custom Design Concept

 

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

“A Brand New EOIR For A Better America!”⚖️🗽🇺🇸👨🏽‍⚖️👩‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️👍🏼😎

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-22-20

 

🏴‍☠️☠️👎🏻KAKISTOCRACY KORNER: It’s Hard For The Gov. To Lose An Immigration Case In The Fifth Circuit — The BIA Pulled It Off! —“Berhe contends that the BIA, which affirmed the IJ with little analysis, failed to employ a mixed-motive analysis. On further consideration, we agree.”

EYORE
“Eyore In Distress”
Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”
Star Chamber Justice
“Justice”
Star Chamber
Style
Kangaroos
BIA Members Unwind After Ignoring Mixed Motive, Failing To Analyze Evidence, Aiding Their “Partners” At ICE In Demeaning Justice, & Shafting More Asylum Seekers
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rasputin243/
Creative Commons License

Here’s the complete (unfortunately) unpublished decision from the 5th Circuit (which seldom sees a deportation order they don’t want to “rubber stamp”) in Berhe v.Barr:

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unpub/18/18-60706.1.pdf

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

Let the Biden-Harris Team know! The EOIR Clown Show 🤡 has got to go!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-22-20

🛡⚔️BATTLING THE KAKISTOCRACY: KNIGHTESSES & KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, NDPA PRO BONO REGIMENT FROM SULLIVAN & CROMWELL CONTEST DEFEATED REGIME’S CONTINUING TYRANNY AT COURT! — Latest 9th Circuit Amicus Brief Highlights Due Process Requirements For Developing Record In Immigration Courts! — PLUS “SATURDAY BONUS” — Time For The NDPA To Stand Up & Demand A Primary Leadership Role In Reforming EOIR & The Totally Corrupt Immigration Bureaucracy! — “Just Say No” To “Same Old, Same Old” By The Characters Who Sowed The Seeds Of Past Failures & Opened The Door For Miller & Co! ☠️🏴‍☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻

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

Read the Round Table amicus brief here:

Brief of Amici Curiae Retired IJs and Former Members of the Board of Immigration Appeals

Highlight:

As this Court has recognized, “when [an] alien appears pro se, it is the IJ’s duty to ‘fully develop the record.’” Agyeman v. INS, 296 F.3d 871, 877 (9th Cir. 2002) (quoting Jacinto v. INS, 208 F.3d 725, 733-34 (9th Cir. 2000)). Despite this long-recognized obligation, the record in this case demonstrates that this duty is not always fulfilled; and that the consequence may be unfairness and injustice to the pro se petitioner who is unable to develop the record without guidance and assistance. We respectfully submit that this Court should use this case to provide much-needed guidance to IJs on the scope of their duty to work with pro se respondents to elicit the information necessary to develop the factual record. Based upon our own extensive experience, we are of the view that this can be done efficiently and effectively by conscientious IJs, so long as the rule that they are required to do so is clear.

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

Thanks so much to out “Team of Pro Bono Heroes” at Sullivan & Cromwell, NY: 

  • Philip L. Graham, Jr.
  • Amanda Flug Davidoff
  • Rebecca S. Kadosh
  • Joseph M. Calder, Jr.

This regime has appointed mostly judges lacking experience representing individuals in Immigration Court and then compounded the problem with:

  • Mindless “haste makes waste” enforcement gimmicks (often supported by knowingly false or misleading narratives) imposed by political hacks at DOJ and Falls Church;
  • A BIA lacking expertise and objectivity that instead of focusing on due process for those in Immigration Court, spews forth “blueprints for denial and deportation” without regard for statutory, Constitutional, and human rights;
  • A system that has elevated “malicious incompetence” and “worst judicial practices” to a “dark art form.”☠️

TIME FOR COURAGEOUS NEW IMMIGRATION LEADERSHIP!

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

It’s time for the “EOIR Clown Show” in Falls Church to go! Bring in competent jurists and administrators from the NDPA: practical scholars and problem solvers with real life skills developed by saving lives from this broken and biased system. Real jurists with expertise in human rights and courage, who will make due process, fundamental fairness, humane values, and “best judicial practices” the only objectives of the Immigration Courts. Jurists who will courageously resist political interference and improper and unethical weaponization of the Immigration Courts by any Administration.

Let the incoming Biden-Administration know that you won’t accept failed “retreads” from the past and “go along to get along” bureaucrats running and comprising what is probably the most important and significant court system in America from an equal justice, social justice, constitutional development, and saving human lives standpoint. 

This is the “retail level” of our justice system: The  foundation upon which the rest of our legal system all the way up to a tone-deaf, flailing, failing, and generally spineless Supremes stands! This is a court system that the Biden Administration can fix without Mitch McConnell!

The members of the NDPA are the ones who have been fighting in the trenches (and at the borders) to save lives, advance social justice, insure equal justice for all, end institutional racism, and preserve our democracy in the face of a tyrannical, unscrupulous, corrupt, racially biased, anti-democracy regime and its enablers! Many have sacrificed careers, health, not to mention financial security in this fight!

Don’t let those who watched from the sidelines, above the day-to-day fray, or were part of the problem swoop in and take control after the battle has been won! 

Get mad! Get vocal! Get active! Call everyone you know in the incoming Administration! Demand that the NDPA and its members be given the leadership roles they have earned and deserve in remaking EOIR and reforming a thoroughly corrupt, politicized, and dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy across our Government! 

Don’t let the Dems turn their back on achievable reforms and “shut out” the reformers and problem solvers in the advocacy sector (who have “carried the water” for Dems for decades) as has been the case in the past! Don’t let the mistakes and short-sightedness of the past destroy YOUR chances for a better future!

Don’t let timidity, ignorance, indifference, and fear of “rocking the boat” in the name of justice, due process, and human dignity replace “malicious incompetence” in Government!

Due Process Forever! Same old, same old, never! It’s time for real change and reform! It’s YOUR time to shine! Let YOUR voices be heard!

PWS⚖️🗽🇺🇸👨🏽‍⚖️👩‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️

11-21-20