"The Voice of the New Due Process Army" ————– Musings on Events in U.S. Immigration Court, Immigration Law, Sports, and Other Random Topics by Retired United States Immigration Judge (Arlington, Virginia) and former Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals Paul Wickham Schmidt. To see my complete professional bio, just click on the link below.
Hon. Ilyce Shugall U.S Immigration Judge (Ret) Managing Attorney at ILD and Senior Counsel in the Immigration Program at Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, CA Adjunct Professor, VIISTA Villanova Member, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges PHOTO: VIISTA VillanovaKevin A. Gregg, Esquire Partner Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli & Pratt Coral Gables, FL Host Immigration Review Podcast PHOTO: KKPT
It was a pleasure working with my friend Ilyce during an exciting two-day workshop at VIISTA Villanova recently, attended by some of her VIISTA students now out using their skills to promote and realize social justice!
Round Table members are literally everywhere these days, fighting, teaching, advocating, and educating for due process and fundamental fairness for all persons in America!
Honorable Joan Churchill Retired U.S. Immigration Judge Member, Round Table of Former Immigration JudgesJudge (Ret.) Steven Morley Of Counsel,Landau, Hess, Simon, Choi & Doebley Philadelphia, PA Member, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges PHOTO: Linkedin
Ex-judges: Immigration courts should be independent
Two retired immigration judges urged Congress to create an independent immigration court system, removing the courts from under the U.S. Justice Department, where they currently reside.
Panelists on a recent ABA webinar argued that immigration judges are not truly independent as long as they answer to the U.S. attorney general.
The former judges made their call at a panel discussion March 17 — “Adjudicatory Independence: Are Immigration Judges a Warning or a Model?” — organized by the American Bar Association Judicial Division. They and other panelists argued that immigration judges are not truly independent as long as they answer to the U.S. attorney general, who can overturn their decisions, fire them and create new immigration policies that they must follow.
Steven Morley, a retired immigration judge in Philadelphia, talked about a case he handled in 2018, called the Matter of Castro-Tum, which he considered a red flag for judicial independence.
The case involved an unaccompanied minor who illegally entered the United States, was detained by authorities, then released to relatives in the United States pending a hearing to force him to leave the county. Hearing notices were sent to the relatives’ address, but the boy did not appear. Finally, after four postponements, Morley administratively closed — or indefinitely suspended — the case, ruling that the Department of Homeland Security could not show it had a reliable address to notify the boy of his hearing.
At that point, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions referred the case to himself and overturned the judge’s decision. Sessions ruled that immigration judges do not have the authority to administratively close cases as Morley did. The new policy made it harder for immigration judges across the country to indefinitely suspend cases. This caused an uproar among immigration judges and advocates.
Three years later, in 2021, Merrick Garland — a new attorney general in a new administration — overturned Sessions’ action.
Such actions undermine the independence of immigration judges, Morley said. “The flaws in the system allow this to happen, and we should always be concerned for the integrity of the court system.”
Morley said attorneys general under President Donald Trump referred immigration cases to themselves to overturn judges’ decisions 17 times in four years, a large number compared to previous administrations. “This is no way to run immigration policy, to have ping-ponging back and forth of policy, from one attorney general to another attorney general.”
Joan Churchill, a retired immigration judge in Northern Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., also emphasized the importance of maintaining due process in immigration courts, particularly hearing notices to defendants. “Adequate notice of the hearing is on everybody’s list as a requirement of due process,” she said.
Churchill noted that the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision a few years ago, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, found that notices in immigration court often were not constitutionally adequate. “Justice Gorsuch said any notices that did not include the time and place of the hearing — which many of them did not; they just said time and place to be determined — those were not adequate notice of the hearing and therefore the cases were defective.”
In 2010, the ABA House of Delegates adopted a policy supporting the creation of an independent Article I system of immigration courts. More than 150 organizations support this position, including the National Association of Immigration Judges and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Churchill said.
Thanks, Joan and Steve for forwarding this report and for doing such an outstanding job of highlighting the compelling, urgent need for this long-overdue reform.
Sen. Cory Booker sent a letter to the heads of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection on Monday criticizing the newly rolled-out CBP One — a mobile application that allows asylum-seekers to secure an appointment with CBP to get through U.S. ports of entry.
“The United States is a beacon of hope for many around the world seeking safety and freedom. Unfortunately, migrants now have to contend with the CBP One app as the sole method to schedule asylum appointments, which has been plagued by technical problems since its introduction,” Booker told HuffPost in an emailed statement.
“We must ensure that our asylum process is just and equitable and protects those who are fleeing violence and persecution in a way that’s consistent with our nation’s most fundamental ideals,” he added.
. . . .
“Even if the CBP One app was as efficient, user friendly, fair, and inclusive as possible – which I hope one day it will be – it would still be inherently discriminatory,” reads Booker’s letter, noting the resources an individual must have to successfully navigate the application.
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Read the complete article, with a copy of Sen. Booker’s letter, at the link.
Advocates at the border have been raising problems about the apps’ poor performance and the totally inadequate number of appointments available. And, even with an appointment there’s no assurance that an individual will get a fair audience on their asylum claim. Indeed, based on the current lack of transparency and atrocious proposed regulations from the Biden Administration, unfair treatment is almost guaranteed!
Notably, the clueless Biden “policy officials” who come up with cruel gimmicks and foist defective technology on the border stay far away from having to confront the faces of the humanitarian disaster they have created. They neither have the guts to meet with nor solicit the advice of advocates, NGO workers, and dedicated volunteers who, unlike the Administration, are trying to save lives, preserve human dignity, and maintain some semblance of the rule of law at the border!
There is no excuse for the Biden Administration’s cosmically poor performance on humanitarian issues at the border. None! And, while Sen. Booker and some of his colleagues have pushed back against the Administration’s abusive approach to asylum, other Dems shamefully have just “run away” from the racially-charged, totally unnecessary, disregard for competence, expertise, and the rule of law at the border.
Another problem: The absence of legal integrity from the DOJ, ironically led by former U.S. Judge Merrick Garland, who is unwilling to stand up for the rights of asylum seekers and equal justice for all at the border.
Exactly what do Dems stand for anyway? Apparently, not much, except what they believe (however incorrectly) is “politically expedient” at any particular moment in time!
A.G. Merrick Garland’s continuing operation of the “EOIR Clown Show,” at taxpayer expense, is costly in more ways than one! “Any reason to deny” proves too much even for the hyper-conservative 5th Circuit! PHOTO: Public Domain
Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:
“On May 18, 2022, this court granted Giscard Nkenglefac’s petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (BIA) dismissal of petitioner’s appeal from the immigration judge’s (IJ) denial of his application for relief from removal. See Nkenglefac v. Garland, 34 F.4th 422, 430 (2022). Because the IJ’s adverse credibility determination was not supported by evidence in the record, we determined that the BIA erred in affirming it and remanded the case to the BIA. The petitioner filed a timely application for attorneys’ fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA). We find that petitioner is entitled to attorneys’ fees under the EAJA and award $56,169.79.”
Homero Lopez, Jr. Director & Co-Founder Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy New Orleans, LA PHOTO: ISLA websiteEmma Morley Paralegal Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy New Orleans, LA PHOTO: ISLA website
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Wouldn’t it be cheaper and better for everyone if Garland finally “cleaned house” at EOIR, appointed and retained only well-qualified expert judges at both the trial and appellate level, replaced incompetent administrators, and ended the toxic — and costly — “any reason to deny culture” at EOIR?
When the DOJ is being “pasted” on wrongful decisions denying asylum by the 5th Circuit, everyone but Garland knows that “the EOIR Clown Show has got to go!”🤡
Make no mistake about it! Garland’s failure to reform EOIR into a due-process-focused expert tribunal willing to stand up for the legal rights of asylum seekers and to require “best practices” with respect to access to representation at the border and elsewhere is a major contributing factor to the Biden Administration’s deadly humanitarian disaster and abrogation of the rule of law for asylum seekers at the Southern Border. It didn’t have to be this way!
Why is this “preventable disaster” happening under a Dem Administration that ran on an (apparently false) pledge to restore due process and the rule of law for asylum seekers and other migrants? How can we stop it and prevent it from happening again in the future?
I daresay that many humanitarian experts warned the Biden Administration that without fundamental positive changes, better, courageous, expert, inspirational leadership, and long-overdue administrative reforms at DOJ, DHS, and the White House, disasters would unfold across the board. That’s exactly what has happened! It’s also infecting the entire legal system and inhibiting social justice in America.
But , unless and until social justice advocates come up with a better political approach to the disturbing lack of integrity and values in both political parties when it comes to immigration, they will continue to be vilified and attacked by the GOP and “consistently kicked to the side of the road” by Dems!
I wish I knew the answer! I don’t! But, I do know that human rights and social justice disasters will continue to unfold unless and until social justice advocates figure out how to get some “political clout” behind their intellectual power and store of (largely ignored) great ideas!
A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead, a government agency said Tuesday, in one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country.
Hours after the fire broke out late Monday, rows of bodies were laid out under shimmery silver sheets outside the facility in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from the morgue swarmed the scene.
Thirty-nine people died and 29 were injured and are in “delicate-serious” condition, according to the National Immigration Institute. There were 68 men from Central and South America held in the facility at the time of the fire, the agency said.
It was the deadliest incident inside a Mexican immigration facility in recent memory. Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire and the governmental National Human Rights Commission had been called in to help the migrants.
The agency said that it “energetically rejects the actions that led to this tragedy” without any further explanation of what those actions might have been.
The country’s immigration lockups have seen protests and riots from time to time.
Mostly Venezuelan migrants rioted inside an immigration center in Tijuana in October that had to be controlled by police and National Guard troops. In November, dozens of migrants rioted in Mexico’s largest detention center in the southern city of Tapachula near the border with Guatemala. No one died in either incident.
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Human rights experts, advocates, and international organizations have been predicting even more deadly tragedies like this will result if the Biden Administration’s tone-deaf and outrageous “death to asylum seekers regulations” go into effect. The Biden Administration has blown them off!
These are just the most “graphic deaths” resulting from years of ill-advised “deterrence” policies at the border and a continued deterioration of the legal refugee and asylum system. This preventable human rights disaster began under Obama, accelerated dramatically under Trump, and has continued its “death spiral” under the Biden Administration’s “active indifference” to human rights, racial justice, and the rule of law at the border. Significantly, incidents like this don’t account for the tragedies that occur when legal asylum seekers are illegally returned to torture, abuse, and death in home countries or Mexico without receiving any due process from U.S. officials.
Apparently, the Biden Administration believes that “death in Mexico will stay in Mexico” and that bodies and bleached bones along desolate areas of the U.S. borders will continue to be “below the radar screen.” In their own way, Biden policy officials are every bit as cruel, intellectually dishonest, and unaccountable as those in the Trump kakistocracy.
It doesn’t have to be this way! Why aren’t more Dems meaningfully challenging the Biden Administration’s adoption of horrible, deadly, hate-fueled “Stephen Miller border policies?”
“Death to asylum regulations” also mean death to our fellow humans seeking legal protection from the U.S. How is this acceptable “strategic policy” for ANY administration, let alone a Dem one?
President Biden’s plan to limit some migrants’ access to asylum could force federal asylum officers to break U.S. law, the union that represents asylum officers argued Monday in a formal filing opposing the proposal.
Enforcing Biden’s policy would violate asylum officers’ oath to carry out the immigration laws set out by Congress and “could make them complicit in violations of U.S. and international law,” attorneys for the American Federation of Government Employees Council 119 wrote in a comment submitted to the Department of Homeland Security.
The same union regularly protested the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict asylum at the southern U.S. border, including by joining lawsuits that sought to block his policies. Its decision to oppose Biden’s asylum proposal is one indication of the plan’s similarities to Trump-era efforts.
“At their core, the measures that the Proposed Rule seeks to implement are inconsistent with the asylum law enacted by Congress, the treaties the United States has ratified, and our country’s moral fabric and longstanding tradition of providing safe haven to the persecuted,” the union argued. “Rather, it is draconian and represents the elevation of a single policy goal — reducing the number of migrants crossing the southwest border — over human life and our country’s commitment to refugees.”
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Why is this guy still calling the policy shots in a Dem Administration? This is “nutsos!” Attribution: Stephen Miller Monster by Peter Kuper, PoliticalCartoons.com
Much appreciation to the professional Asylum Officers for helping to lead the charge against these truly cruel, lawless, wasteful, dishonest, and damaging proposals!
One reason that the Biden Administration’s approach to immigration, human rights, and racial justice has been so incredibly inept and counterproductive is that they aren’t paying attention to the views of experts already on the USG payroll (not to mention those in the private sector) before going public with “designed to fail, warmed over Stephen Miller crackpot nativist policies” that any Dem Administration should vigorously oppose as a matter of principle and sound policy!
There are numerous ways to bring “order to the border,” enforce the law (including the rights of refugees to seek and receive protection), and encourage refugees to use the legal system without violating anyone’s legal rights or diminishing their humanity. Why won’t the Biden Administration just “do the right (and smart) thing?”
The amount of time, energy, and resources being devoted to trying to get the Administration to cut the nonsense and comply with the laws already on the books is astounding! Obviously, the wrong people are “calling the shots” on human rights and racial justice efforts in the Biden Administration! Why?
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase Jeffrey S. Chase Blog Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges
KEY QUOTE:
For the reasons stated above, the proposed rule exceeds the agencies’ authority by seeking to create a ban on asylum that contradicts Congressional intent and international law. As former Immigration Judges, we can confidently predict that the rule would result in individuals being erroneously deported even where they face a genuine threat of persecution or torture. We urge that the rule be withdrawn in its entirety.
Many, many thanks to Judge “Sir Jeffrey” Chase for leading this effort!
This proposal is a total disgrace.It’s particularly reprehensible from a Dem Administration that ran on a platform of insuring that laws protecting human rights are fully and properly implemented. This regulation clearly belies that promise and undercuts any claim that this Administration is serious about racial justice in America! “Dred Scottification” at its worst! 🤮
Rev. Craig Mousin Ombudsperson Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, Grace School of Applied Diplomacy DePaul University PHOTO: DePaul Website
Craig writes:
Dear Paul,
Good morning.
We just posted our latest podcast with templates and instructions on how to file comments. For those who find the comments too complicated, we urge them to send the White House and their Senators and Representative an email opposing the rules. Please also share this podcast with your friends and networks.
As Craig says, the Biden Administration, along with GOP nativist politicos, and pandering righty Federal Judges, ignore the fundamental right guaranteed by the Refugee Act of 1980: Every person at the border or in the U.S., regardless of status, has a right to apply for asylum!Obviously, that includes a right to a fundamentally fair adjudication by a well-qualified, impartial adjudicator.
It’s not “rocket science!” Yet, Biden, Harris, Mayorkas, Garland, & Co. can’t wrap their heads around this fundamental truth! Disgracefully, after two years of screwing around and wasting time, resources, and squandering goodwill on futile and often illegal “deterrence,” they aren’t much closer to re-establishing a fair, functional asylum system at the borders than they were on Jan 20, 2021! Where’s the basic competence and “good government” that Biden/Harris promised when running for office?
The smug nativist-pandering politicos in the Biden Administration think that asylum applicants, the laws that protect them, and the advocates, like YOU, who defend them are “political chopped liver” — unimportant and completely expendable! It’s up to YOU to prove them wrong! Nobody else is going to do it!
YOU work hard for vulnerable and deserving asylum seekers! Biden Administration policy makers are afraid to venture to the REAL border and face the human carnage they promote. Yet, this is how they see YOU and your clients — as something less than “persons” — “chopped liver!” Until YOU prove them wrong, the dismissive and demeaning treatment will continue! Creative Commons License
While YOU are out there working for due process and social justice, they are huddled in their comfy offices secretly plotting the demise of YOUR clients and making YOUR job more difficult and frustrating. They are “wasting YOUR precious time!”
And, all the while, they have their hands out begging for YOUR financial support and counting on YOU — “chopped liver” — to ring doorbells, make phone calls, organize events, man the polls, and get out the vote! How totally arrogant and insulting! If YOU are tired of being treated as “chopped liver” and having your knowledge, expertise, and fundamental values ignored, YOU must do something about it!
Mr. W-G-G’s “winning team” from GW Law Immigration Clinic. PHOTO: GW Clinic with client’s permission. It’s never too early in your legal career to do meaningful work and save lives!
Professors Alberto Benitez & Paulina Vera of the GW Immigration Law Clinic report from the Annandale (VA) Immigration Court:
“I’ll only have a couple general statutory bar questions to ask and will defer to Judge Jimenez in granting relief”
Please join me in congratulating Immigration Clinic client W-G-G, from Venezuela. He was granted asylum this morning by Immigration Judge (IJ) Christina Jiménez. W-G-G was represented by student-attorneys Anam Abid and Matt Banaitis. W-G-G and his family were targeted by the Maduro government for their opposition views culminating in being removed from their home at gunpoint on New Year’s Day 2020. Only W-G-G was allowed to leave Venezuela but thanks to the asylum grant he can begin the process of bringing his wife and 11 and 8 year-young kids to the USA.
The ICE Assistant Chief Counsel complimented Anam and Matt on the thoroughness of their pretrial filing and direct examination, limited his cross-examination to the statutory bar questions, and deferred to the IJ’s discretion on the grant of asylum. The hearing lasted 50 minutes.
In addition to Anam and Matt, student-attorneys Jasmine Martínez and Mark Rook also worked on this case.
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Who says great representation and meticulous preparation don’t matter? (Disgracefully, during the Trump Administration EOIR tried to make exactly that bogus claim by releasing a fictional “fact sheet” full of lies.)
Thanks for showing us how the system could and should work in many more cases, Paulina and Alberto! Congrats to you and your amazing team of student attorneys! Imagine having saved lives like this before you even graduate from law school or take the bar!
It’s tragic that the Biden Administration just isn’t interested in institutionalizing due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices. This case represents real teamwork, expertise, and mutual respect from ALL participants for the common good.
I particularly liked the ICE Assistant Chief Counsel’s complimentary comments. “Positive reinforcement” and recognition of excellence is SO important in the development of practice skills! And, I know that GW Law has contributed outstanding talents to both the Government and the private/NGO sectors of immigration practice!
Everybody, including ICE and EOIR, benefits from great representation in Immigration Court! It also virtually guarantees appearance at all hearings without counterproductive expensive detention. Why isn’t the Biden Administration focused on funding, expanding, and institutionalizing the things that actually work and enhance due process?
I also recognize Judge Christina Jimenez for setting a positive tone and having the confidence to inspire those appearing before her to do their best and to let them “model” the proper resolution. “Retail level judging” is about teaching, inspiring, setting good examples, and reinforcing success. That appears to be exactly what Judge Jimenez did here!
This is also an example of why I urge practitioners to compete for Immigration Judge positions! Although the system often lacks consistent expertise and leadership “from above,” there is plenty of room for achieving justice, case by case, at the Immigration Court level. I constantly get reports of significant victories for the NDPA and their clients.
Last week, my Round Table colleague Judge Ilyce Shugall (she is also on the VIISTA permanent faculty) and I had a chance to work with VIISTA Villanova faculty and instructors from the National Institute of Trial Advocacy on mock Immigration Court hearings for VIISTA students. What an impressive group of smart, personable, engaged, and serious advocates! And, talk about prepared! This group was SO prepared for their sessions!
There is tremendous “un-mined” potential for great pro bono representation out here! If only the Biden Administration would work WITH the advocacy/NGO community on representation and best practices, rather than trying to shove their broken and user unfriendly “good enough for government work” model down the public’s throats!
Even if the Biden Administration prefers “deterrence gimmicks” to systemic due process and best practices, “change from below” can spread throughout the nation.
Unfortunately, this particular Venezuelan situation is hardly unusual. I’m sure I granted similar cases during my tenure.
One can imagine, however, that some Venezuelan asylum applicants in the same situation are denied in the “EOIR crapshoot that passes for justice” while others are sent away to peril without fair hearings by the Biden Administration’s anti-asylum policies at the border.
I hope that in the “next generation,” leaders like you, Paulina, and your NDPA colleagues can change this broken and unfair system! Because the Biden Administration sure isn’t getting the job done when it comes to due process, human rights, and equal justice. That will mean getting some political power to make Dems take notice or pay a price.
Thanks to you, Paulina, Alberto, and your talented student attorneys for all you do for American justice! If only the Biden Administration had the same commitment and dedication to due process, creative problem solving, excellence, and fundamental fairness, this system could be fixed!
Laura Lynch Senior Counsel, Border & Immigration, for the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee
Laura writes:
I’m happy to share that I just started a new position as Senior Counsel, Border & Immigration, for the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee.
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Laura most recently was Senior Immigration Policy Attorney at theNational Immigration Law Center. Prior to that, she held a similar position at the National Office of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
She’ll have her work cut out for her! As “leaked” yesterday, President Biden is “celebrating” his trip to Canada by expanding the existing “Safe Third Country Agreement” with Canada to allow summary turn back of asylum seekers without hearings at any point along the 4,000 mile plus border!
Experts on both sides of the border decried this latest gimmick designed to speed the demise of the legal asylum and refugee systems at the border.
Internationally-recognized expert Professor Audrey Macklin of University of Toronto School of Law, a former member of the Canadian Immigration and Refugees Board, told the NY Times:
“But they have to know that anything that closes off ways of entering only amounts to a job-creation program for smugglers and a kind of stimulus package for militarizing the border.”
It’s also likely to increase business for body bag makers and undertakers as desperate asylum seekers are discouraged from turning themselves in to enforcement at or near the border. Instead, this untimely expansion appears “ready made” to encourage asylum seekers to hire smugglers and attempt ever more dangerous journeys into the interior ofboth the U.S. and Canada to achieve “do it yourself/extralegal refuge.”
Another potential problem: Canada’s Federal Court has already rejected the previous, much more limited, version of the “Safe Third Country Agreement” on the basis that it violates Canada’s obligations under international law. That case currently is pending before Canada’s Supreme Court.
It’s past time for some Senate oversight of the Biden Administration’s disgraceful failure to honor due process, domestic law, and international law by establishing a safe, fair, orderly, and humane asylum and refugee adjudication and admission system as they promised before taking office! I hope Laura can spur some Congressional action (not just rhetoric) on this existentially important issue where the Administration’s lousy approach threatens both democracy and human lives.
Don’t just complain about the awful mess @ EOIR! Get on the bench and do something about it! Public Domain
From Dan Kowalski @ LexisNexis:
Good morning Dan,
I am writing to let you know that the U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), is looking to hire additional immigration judges. I wanted to provide the following information in the event it might be useful to Bender’s Immigration Bulletin subscribers and others who may wish to learn about the immigration judge career path. Could you please provide this information to anyone who you think may be interested?
Sign up to attend a Recruitment Outreach Session – on March 23 and on March 30, sign up to attend a live webinar, where we’ll be explaining how to become an immigration judge. The hour-long sessions are moderated by assistant chief immigration judges, with time for Q&A at the end.
2.The next immigration judge job opportunity announcement is scheduled to open in early April. Individuals may receive a notification when the announcement is posted on USAJOBS, by signing up for EOIR’s Adjudicators Announcement listserv: U.S. Department of Justice (govdelivery.com).
3.For more information on the immigration judge career path, benefits, qualifications, etc., please visit our EOIR Careers webpage.
Thank you so much for your attention and support as we work to hire additional immigration judges.
Kathryn
Kathryn Mattingly
———————————————–
Assistant Press Secretary
Communications and Legislative Affairs Division
Executive Office for Immigration Review
U.S. Department of Justice
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It’s very encouraging to see EOIR now doing some “affirmative recruiting” to widen and improve the selection pool for these important “life or death” positions. It’s YOUR chance to promote and deliver due process at the most important level of our justice system — the “retail level!” That’s where “the rubber meets the road” (or continues to have “flat tires” as is now the case throughout the Federal Judiciary at all levels.)
I seldom attend any professional gathering these days without being bombarded with “horror stories” and angry complaints about the poor quality of judging, lack of understanding, and absence of practical problem solving skills at all levels of EOIR. NDPAers, this is OUR chance to do more than “just complain” (particularly to me, since I’m not in charge of anything) by improving and diversifying the system “from the ground up,” institutionalizing better interpretations, great applications of law, and best practices in the process!
I also have a vision that at some point in history, a more “with it” Administration that actually understands the cosmic importance of immigration and human rights, takes Constitutional Due Process seriously, has some guts, and views all human lives as mattering, will use the Immigration Courts as a “natural pool” for better Article III judicial appointments.
Additionally, when Article I eventually happens, there inevitably will be some type of “grandfathering” of existing IJs. WHO would YOU like to see “grandfathered” into a new independent system? All of the current incumbents, or a more diverse group including many practical scholars and fearless due process mavens?
As my good friend and neighbor, Professor Alberto Benitez of the GW Law Immigration Clinic always says, “The world is yours!”
I’m concerned about the impact of the CBP One app on children and families seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The March 12 front-page article “At the border, a technology wall” underscored the injustice inflicted on these families.
Children and families fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries arrive at the U.S. border needing safety and security. Unfortunately, because of the failures of the CBP One app, many are denied access to the asylum process. Our colleagues at Save the Children Mexico have documented at least 30 instances in which families have chosen to separate instead of remaining in danger together. Additionally, they have seen countless cases of fraud and extortion related to the use of this app. The U.S. government is again causing family separations, this time because of the improper rollout of this app, causing children and families to become victims to extortion and abuse.
But even if the app functioned properly, it would exclude anyone without a cellphone, internet access or the ability to navigate this complicated technical system. Owning a phone and having access to the internet should not be obstacles to seeking safety from violence.
Our elected leaders and the Homeland Security Department need to better address the various issues with the CBP One app to ensure that asylum seekers can seek safety and protection in the United States through an orderly and fair process.
Christy Gleason, Washington
The writer is executive director of the Save the Children Action Network and vice president of policy, advocacy and campaigns for Save the Children.
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Thanks for speaking out Christy! Recently, with the “Ticketmaster Disaster” we all saw that Taylor Swift and her legion of fans are one of the few forces in America who can strike bipartisan fear and spark action in the wacky and self-centered halls of Congress!
Perhaps, Christy and her colleagues can convince Swift that the plight of vulnerable families and children facing rape, robbery, extortion, exploitation, beatings, sexual slavery, death, and dismemberment, who are being shafted by CBP One’s failed technology and its abusive use as a “gatekeeper,” are at least as important as the trauma facing those denied concert tickets by Ticketmaster!Maybe Swift could exert her outsized influence to demand Congressional investigation and corrective action!
T. Swift. Loss of chance to attend her latest concert due to Ticketmaster SNAFU caused immediate bipartisan Congressional outrage and hearings! Loss of chance to plead for life because of DHS CBP One App SNAFU, not so much! Dehumanization of our fellow humans degrades our society. LOS ANGELES – Swift at 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 14, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Glenn Francis/Pacific Pro Digital Photography) Creative Commons License.
Maybe Swift also could do a “benefit concert” at the border to draw attention to the human rights abuses and dehumanization being inflicted by cowardly politicos from both parties on vulnerable asylum seekers who only want our “nation of laws” to live up to its long-standing legal obligations to provide refuge and fair, dignified treatment. The proceeds could go to asylum seekers and the amazing NGOs and volunteers who have been doing the jobs that the Biden Administration, the State of Texas, GOP restrictionists, and the Mexican Government all shirk!
One common thread: Like Ticketmaster, CBP is basically a “failed monopoly” that provides lousy services — and then lies and blames the user — because there is no competition (except criminal enterprises) and little meaningful oversight or accountability.
Alicia A. Caldwell Immigration Reporter Wall Street JournalAngel of Death Artist: Evelyn De Morgan 1880 Public Realm The Angel of Death (“AOD”) comes for another asylum seeker at the border. Biden border policies have created “full employment” for the AOD!
Santiago Perez & Alicia Caldwell report for the WSJ:
EAGLE PASS, Texas—Local officials keep a refrigerated truck to hold the bodies of migrants who drown in the currents of the Rio Grande while trying to cross the border into the U.S.
Across the river, families having picnics or walking along the waterfront promenade of Piedras Negras, Mexico, say they sometimes see bodies floating by or bobbing among the reeds under a bridge. “We had times when we received four or five bodies a week,” said Hugo González, owner of Funerarias González in Piedras Negras. “At one point, there were a lot of corpses and there was nowhere to put them. We just didn’t have enough refrigerators at the funeral home.”
A spike in deaths along the most dangerous stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border reflects the escalating number of migrants seeking to cross into the U.S. from troubled home countries. At the same time, U.S. immigration policies are allowing fewer of them legal entry. Many migrants have turned to human smugglers and WhatsApp messages to help them navigate more lightly patrolled—and treacherous—sections of the border to enter illegally, U.S. officials said.
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Those with WSJ access can read the full article at the link. Those without can register for a limited number of free articles.
Remarkably, the existing law provides a legal framework for encouraging refugees to apply in or near their native countries and also for legal asylum seekers to apply in an orderly fashion at legal ports of entry. It also, for better or worse, provides DHS with an “expedited removal” process for those at the border who can’t establish a “credible fear” of persecution after initial proper screening by a trained expert Asylum Officer. This process does not require full Immigration Court hearings.
Sadly, the Trump and now the Biden Administrations have chosen to avoid or evade these existing legal tools for granting refuge in a timely and orderly fashion. Instead, encouraged by nativists, they have chosen to employ extralegal “gimmicks” like Title 42 to close down the legal avenues for seeking asylum at ports of entry.
Those who are allowed into the system face a series of the Government’s intentionally-imposed hurdles. These include: impeding access to representation; punitive imprisonment in substandard conditions in obscure places; deficient technology used as a “gatekeeper;” poorly-qualified adjudicators who lack expertise and “real life” experience assisting asylum seekers; unduly restrictive interpretations of what are supposed to be generous, protection-oriented asylum laws; a mismanaged and backlogged system that moves either too fast too slow for due process, but never “just right;” random scheduling and politicized resettlement; lack of adequate notice of the legal requirements they are supposed to meet.
Tragically, while Administrations and nativists disingenuously claim the opposite, this “dual lack” of competence and integrity has essentially left control of refuge in the U.S. to extra-governmental actors — basically smugglers, cartels, and other organized criminal enterprises. With legal avenues for seeking protection cut off or unduly restricted, refugees who need protection will resort to extralegal methods to save themselves and their families.
In addition to “empowering the bad guys to run the system,” the Government’s short-sighted approach actually dilutes border enforcement. That’s because it improperly and unnecessarily “lumps in” refugees and legal asylum seekers with individuals and groups actually seeking to enter for purposes unrelated to seeking legal protection under our laws.
It’s little wonder that despite questionable claims of lower numbers, the most obvious empirical effect of years of bad border policies and inept administration of the law has been to increase the number of border deaths, as related in the above article.
It would be nice to think that some day, our nation will have leaders who actually value human lives, rather than just viewing human rights as a “throwaway line” — subservient to their desire to amass and maintain political power. Until then, more will needlessly die.☠️🤮
CAUTION: You are about to enter AG Merrick Garland’s “Twilight Zone” — where judges operating in a parallel universe make surreal decisions without regard to facts, law, or common sense applicable in this world! The Twilight Zone Billy Mumy 1961.jpg :PHOTO: Public Realm
Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:
CA9 on Standard of Review: Umana-Escobar v. Garland
“Josue Umana-Escobar petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) order upholding the immigration judge’s (“IJ”) denial of asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). He also challenges the BIA’s determinations that defects in the Notice to Appear (“NTA”) did not require termination of his proceedings and that the BIA lacked authority to administratively close his case. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252. We dismiss the defective NTA claim for lack of jurisdiction and deny the petition as to the CAT claim. We grant the petition and remand as to the administrative closure issue, given the government’s recommendation that we should do so based on an intervening decision by the Attorney General. We also grant the petition and remand as to the asylum and withholding of removal claims because the BIA applied the wrong standard in reviewing the IJ’s determination that the evidence failed to establish the requisite nexus between a protected ground and past or future harm.”
The initial hearing was in 2013, merits hearing in 2017, Circuit remand in 2023. After a decade, a fairly routine asylum case is still unresolved!
This case probably shouldn’t even be in Immigration Court, as it was affected by “Gonzo” Sessions’s wrong-headed, backlog-building, interference with administrative closing, later reversed by Garland, but not until substantial, systemic damage to EOIR had already been caused.
When it’s “any reason to deny, any old boilerplate gets by!”🤬 Bogus “no nexus” findings — often ignoring the “at least one central reason” standard and making mincemeat out of the “mixed motive doctrine” — are a particular EOIR favorite! That’s because they can be rotely used to deny asylum even where the testimony is credible,the harm clearly rises to the level of persecution, is likely to occur, and relocation is unreasonable!
In other words, it allows EOIR to function as part of the “deterrence regime” by sending refugees back to harm or death. What better way of saying “we don’t want you” which has become the mantra of Biden’s “Miller Lite” policy officials!
GOP, Dems, neither are competent to run a court system. That’s why we need an independent Article I court!⚖️
