⚖️ THE GIBSON REPORT — 10-11-21 — NYC Attorneys & Clients Bear Brunt of Garland’s Failure To Fix Immigration Courts 🤮 — “Aimless Docket Reshuffling” (“ADR”) Imposed By Clueless Administrators Frustrates Lawyers, Denies Due Process, Builds Backlogs! — Plus Lots Of Other Immigration News Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group!

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

ALERTS

 

Alien’s Change of Address Card

USCIS: Starting Dec. 7, 2021, we will only accept the 08/31/21 edition.

 

I-693 Vaccine Requirement

USCIS: Effective Oct. 1, 2021, applicants subject to the immigration medical examination must complete the COVID-19 vaccine series and provide documentation of vaccination to the civil surgeon in person before the civil surgeon can complete an immigration medical examination and sign Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record. This guidance applies prospectively to Form I-693 signed by civil surgeons on or after Oct. 1, 2021.

 

USPS is about to charge you more for slower mail.

WaPo: Up until Oct. 1, the Postal Service said it should take no more than three days for a piece of first-class mail to be delivered anywhere in the country. After Oct. 1, it will take between two and five days. From Oct. 3 to Dec. 26, the Postal Service is raising prices on some products through a holiday season surcharge. The price hikes are modest for some products (30 cents more for first-class package service), a bit more for others ($1 more for parcel-return service, deliveries from consumers back to retailers), and heftier still for others ($5 more for priority mail, priority express mail, parcel select and retail ground services for items weighing between 21 and 70 pounds).

 

NYC Immigration Courts – Immigration Judge/Legal Assistant Directories (attached)

 

NEWS

 

‘A day without Latinx and immigrants’: Hundreds in Wisconsin expected to strike, march on Monday

NBC26: Organized by Voces de la Frontera, this action aims to increase economic and political pressure on President Biden, Vice President Harris and Congressional Democrats to deliver on their promise to pass a path to citizenship in the Build Back Better reconciliation budget bill this year.

 

Columbus Day Helped Italians Become ‘White’, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Explains

Teen Vogue: This excerpt from “Not ‘A Nation of Immigrants’” explains how Italian immigrants used Christopher Columbus to assimilate to American culture and whiteness. For decades, Native Americans and their allies have demanded the end of celebrating Columbus, rightly characterizing him as a mercenary of the Spanish monarchy, an actor in and symbol of the onset of European genocidal colonization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Western Hemisphere.

 

3 US-based economists win Nobel for research on wages, jobs

WaPo: A U.S.-based economist won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for pioneering research that transformed widely held ideas about the labor force, showing how an increase in the minimum wage doesn’t hinder hiring and immigrants do not lower pay for native-born workers.

 

Governor Hochul Signs Legislation Protecting Undocumented Immigrants from Threats to Report Their Immigration Status

NYGov: Threats to report a person’s immigration status can currently be treated as a crime in cases of labor trafficking and sex trafficking, but were not previously treated as potential extortion or coercion offenses.

 

How Attorneys Wrangle New York’s Wildly Unpredictable Immigration Court Schedule

Documented: The courts have been pushing individual hearings forward often too soon for immigrants and attorneys to properly prepare. Individual hearings, particularly for asylum cases, require rigorous preparation both from immigrants, who must recount traumatic details of their lives for a successful case, and attorneys, who must submit dozens of pages of paperwork and work alongside their clients to equip them for the court date.

 

Anger in U.S. Customs and Border Protection as Biden administration’s vaccine mandate looms

WaPo: The NBPC does not encourage members to get vaccinated and has said it would like to file a legal challenge to Biden’s mandate that all federal employees be immunized by Nov. 22, but it has not yet found lawyers willing to take the case.

 

At Mexico-U.S. Security Talks, Migration Question Is Largely Avoided

NYT: As diplomats from both countries began negotiating a new security agreement on Friday, the focus was on stopping criminal activity while the border crisis was conspicuously sidestepped. See also The U.S. Is Organizing A $5 Million Gun Sale To Mexican Forces Accused Of Murder And Kidnapping.

 

Mexico police intercept 652 Central American migrants in three cargo trucks

Guardian: Almost 200 of the 652 migrants found in the white refrigerated trucks were unaccompanied children and teens, the police said in a statement.

 

Court tosses ban on private immigration jails in California

AP: A federal appeals court on Tuesday tossed out California’s ban on privately owned immigration detention facilities, keeping intact a key piece of the world’s largest detention system for immigrants.

 

Trump baselessly claims Haitian immigrants entering the US ‘probably have AIDS’ and letting them come in ‘is like a death wish’

Business Insider: During his appearance on Fox News, Trump repeatedly claimed that Haitians trying to enter the US are infected with AIDS… Contrary to his assertions, the prevalence of HIV among Haitian adults aged 15 to 49 is around 1.9%, according to data from the United Nations. While that’s higher than the global rate of 0.7%, reports say Haiti’s HIV prevalence rate has declined significantly in recent decades.

 

US resumes Afghan refugee flights after measles shots

AP: Afghan refugees will soon be arriving again in the U.S. after a massive campaign to vaccinate them against measles following a small outbreak that caused a three-week pause in evacuations, officials said Monday. See also Small nonprofits helping resettle Afghan evacuees say they need more foundation and government support.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

3rd Circ. Raps BIA For Cutting Proof From Vet’s Removal Case

Law360: A U.S. Air Force veteran has another chance to fight his deportation to Trinidad after the Third Circuit found that an immigration appeals board used the wrong legal standard to bar evidence that he may be tortured if deported.

 

CA9 Holds That BIA’s Summary Dismissal of Pro Se Litigant’s Appeal Violated Her Right to Due Process

AILA: The court held that, given petitioner’s status as a pro se litigant, her Notice of Appeal was sufficiently specific to inform the BIA of the issues challenged on appeal, and thus the BIA violated her right to due process by summarily dismissing her appeal. (Nolasco-Amaya v. Garland, 9/28/21)

 

9th Circ. Says Breadth Of Wash. Law Doesn’t Bar Deportation

Law360: The Ninth Circuit confirmed that a conviction under a state assault law criminalizing HIV transmission amounts to a federal “crime of violence” for the purposes of deporting a Salvadoran man who shot his friend, saying the key common ingredient is intent.

 

9th Circ. Rejects Calif. Ban On Private Prisons

Law360: A California law banning private immigration detention facilities and other private prisons doesn’t pass legal muster because it would impede the federal government’s immigration enforcement, a split Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday, undoing a lower court’s decision to keep most of the law in place as litigation proceeds.

 

District Court Says DOS Acted Improperly in Suspending Visa Issuance Based on Regional Ban Proclamations

AILA: The court granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, holding that DOS’s interpretation of several Presidential Proclamations to prevent U.S. consulates and embassies in those countries from adjudicating visas was unlawful. (Kinsley, et al. v. Blinken, et al., 10/5/21)

 

Government Reaches Settlement with Flores Plaintiffs to Pay $1.15 Million in EAJA Fees

AILA: The parties reached a settlement to resolve the plaintiffs’ Motion for Award of Attorneys’ Fees and Costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), in which the government agreed to pay $1,150,000 in attorneys’ fees and litigation costs. (Flores, et al. v. Garland, et al., 9/30/21)

 

Groups File Emergency Request Against the United States to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Behalf of Asylum Seekers Expelled to Danger

CGRS: The Lowenstein Project at Yale Law School submitted today an emergency request for precautionary measures against the United States on behalf of asylum seekers who face grave dangers because the Biden administration continues to illegally block and expel them. The request was submitted under Article 25 of the Rules of Procedure to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

 

2 States Ask Full 5th Circ. To Block Biden’s Curbs On ICE Ops

Law360: Texas and Louisiana called on the full Fifth Circuit to reinstate a block on the Biden administration’s policy curbing immigration enforcement operations, saying Thursday that the federal government was ducking its obligation to arrest noncitizens convicted of serious crimes.

 

Ex-Gaddafi Worker Sues Feds Over Asylum Waiting Times

Law360: A Libyan man formerly employed as a government worker under the Gaddafi regime and his wife have filed suit in Michigan federal court against the federal government and the Chicago asylum processing center, saying five years is too long to wait for an asylum interview.

 

Afghan Ally Sues State Dept. To Bring Kids To US

Law360: An Afghan man who worked with the U.S. government in the Central Asian country told a California federal court that the U.S. Department of State failed to protect his children from the Taliban while their visa applications are processed.

 

Sens. Intro Bill Barring Warrantless Device Searches At Border

Law360: A bipartisan group of senators announced new legislation this week that would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before searching Americans’ digital devices at the border.

 

Feds Want DACA Appeal Paused Until New Rule Is Finalized

Law360: The Biden administration asked the Fifth Circuit to shelve its appeal of a lower court order blocking the federal government from approving new applications to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program while it firms up the details of a replacement rule.

 

ORR Announcement of Inflationary Increase to Refugee Cash Assistance Program Payment Ceilings

AILA: Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) announcement of an inflationary increase to the Refugee Cash Assistance program’s monthly payment ceilings, effective October 1, 2021. (86 FR 54466, 10/1/21)

 

ACTIONS

 

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

Monday, October 11, 2021

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Saturday, October 9, 2021

Friday, October 8, 2021

Thursday, October 7, 2021

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Monday, October 4, 2021

 

 

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Shifting cases around without working with the parties in advance to insure that the new dates are achievable is totally insane! No experienced practitioner or expert would “run the railroad” this way! But, Garland does!

To state the obvious, many attorneys practice in multiple jurisdictions and are already fully or heavily booked. Additionally, my experience was that “move ups” without consultation with both parties, including ICE ACC, often resulted in missing ICE files, unavailable witnesses, unavailable interpreters, or incomplete fingerprint reports which caused additional unnecessary continuances and yet more “ADR.”

“Motions to continue” are not the answer. The system is already backlogged. In an obvious denial of due process, it actually discourages Immigration Judges from granting reasonable continuances in a number of ways, including bogus “case completion quotas” and onerous requirements for justifications for granting continuances. It’s ADR on steroids!

An obvious solution, ignored by Garland and his subordinates:

  1. Return “docket control” to the local Immigration Judges where it has always belonged;
  2. Have Immigration Judges and Court Administrators work cooperatively with the local bar, the ICE OCC, and NGOs, in advance, to come up with rational scheduling procedures that meet everyone’s legitimate needs;
  3. Encourage ICE and the local bar to work cooperatively to identify cases that can potentially be moved up for “short hearings.” Let the parties, who have a strong joint interest in rational dockets, propose the solutions, rather than having politicos impose them from above through clueless agency bureaucrats who are unqualified to “micromanage” dockets!

The real fundamental problem here: Garland is improperly trying to “run” his huge, dysfunctional court system with bureaucrats and politicos who have no recent “real life” experience representing individuals in Immigration Court.  

Garland’s inexplicable determination to eschew appointing “progressive practical experts’ with the skills and courage to fix this system has become a (totally unnecessary) national disgrace!

Star Chamber Justice
Judge Garland’s gross mismanagement of EOIR is “ratcheting up the pressure” on practitioners in NYC and across the nation!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-12-21

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT— 01-02-22 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Garland’s Aimless Docket Reshuffling (“ADR”) Squeezes Refugees On Both Ends Of His Ludicrous Backlog, As Those Patiently Waiting Given Court Dates Nearly A Decade In The Future, While Recent Arrivals Mindlessly Rocketed To The “Front Of The Line” Struggle To Find Lawyers & Prepare Cases — Plus Other New Year News From The Dystopian World Of U.S. Immigration!
  2. 🧑🏽‍⚖️⚖️🗽🇺🇸WHO’S JUDGE IS IT ANYWAY? — The Crisis Of Independence In Our Immigration Courts! — Coming April 7, 2021! — Sponsored By The HNBA! — Don’t Miss It!
  3. 🇺🇸🗽⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️👍🏼BREAKING — THE NDPA STRIKES BACK WITH VIGOR: 70 Human Rights, Civil Rights, Due Process, Good Government, Immigration, Equal Justice, Racial Justice, Progressive, Gender Justice Organizations Rip Garland, Monaco In Letter Protesting Their Abject Failure To Address Due Process, Racial Justice, Rule Of Law Disaster At EOIR — New, Competent, Diverse, Progressive Leadership & Judges Needed To Counteract 4 Years Of White Nationalism, Biased Hiring, “Malicious Incompetence!” — No More “Miller Lite Unhappy Hour” @ DOJ!
  4. 🆘🤮IS 11TH CIR. GROWING WEARY OF GARLAND’S SCOFFLAW BIA? —Two Trips To The Circuit, & The BIA Still Violates Own Regulations, Ignores Precedent, Spouts Gibberish While OIL’s Defense Of This Nonsense & Malfeasance By EOIR Raises Serious Ethical Questions! — THAMOTAR v. U.S. ATT’Y GEN. — Garland’s Dysfunctional & Systematically Unjust Courts Undermine OUR Democracy☠️ — Demand An IMMEDIATE End To The Scofflaw Nonsense🤡 🧹 At OUR Justice Department! 🏴‍☠️