"The Voice of the New Due Process Army" ————– Musings on Events in U.S. Immigration Court, Immigration Law, Sports, Music, Politics, and Other Random Topics by Retired United States Immigration Judge (Arlington, Virginia) and former Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals PAUL WICKHAM SCHMIDT and DR. ALICIA TRICHE, expert brief writer, practical scholar, emeritus Editor-in-Chief of The Green Card (FBA), and 2022 Federal Bar Association Immigration Section Lawyer of the Year. She is a/k/a “Delta Ondine,” a blues-based alt-rock singer-songwriter, who performs regularly in Memphis, where she hosts her own Blues Brunch series, and will soon be recording her first full, professional album. Stay tuned! 🎶 To see our complete professional bios, just click on the link below.
A Helping Hand.jpg Image depicts a child coming to the aid of another in need. Once we have climbed it is essential for the sake of humanity that we help others do the same. It is knowing that we all could use, and have used, a helping hand. Safiyyah Scoggins – PVisions1111 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 White Nationalist Xenophobes have abandoned Traditional Judeo-Christian values in favor of neo-fascism.But, the rest of us should hold true to our “better angels.”
Hon. “Sir Jeffrey” Chase writes:
Hi all: Attached is our just-filed amicus brief in support of the Unaccompanied Children Program.
Once again, this was a real team effort. Major thanks to Ashley Tabaddor, for lending her expertise and powerful anecdotes on very short notice. Also thanks to Sue Roy, the eagle-eyed editing of Helen Sichel, and Denise Slavin for your contributions.
We never stand so tall as when we file an amicus brief to help unaccompanied children.
Hon. Jennie Giambastiani U.S. Immigration Judge (retired) Member, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges PHOTO: Linkedin
The Trump administration is stripping funding for legal representation from tens of thousands of children who are unaccompanied migrants in the United States, a move immigration lawyers warn violates their legal rights and will leave minors vulnerable to abuse.
“Picture yourself thrown into a detention center in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language, where you don’t understand that country’s complex legal system, only to be told that now you must fend for yourself, assert your rights and seek whatever protections that country might offer you,” Jennie Giambastiani, a retired immigration judge, said Tuesday during a call organized by the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights.
“Now picture yourself as a child in that situation,” she added.
Government-funded attorneys changed that dynamic, Giambastiani said, because they worked hard “to make sure that the children understood the proceedings and could present their claims in court.” Most unaccompanied children can’t afford to hire their own legal representation.
Without those lawyers, Giambastiani said separately, the immigration courts would be thrown into “chaos”: “The judge won’t have any sense that this child understands why [they’re] there in court.”
Thanks for speaking out for American justice, my friend and colleague! Expect more soon from our Round Table ⚔️🛡️ on this outrageous breach of due process, good government, and common sense!
Kansas City folks! It’s that time! The Annual Immigration Court Trial Advocacy College convenes in just over a month. Come play a witness and help train the next class of fearless immigration trial lawyers! Share with your networks please! 🙏🏽
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See you in Kansas City in April, along with my wonderful faculty friends and colleagues at the Annual Immigraton Court Trial Advocacy College. Never has effective advocacy been more important!
Wendy Young President, Kids In Need of Defense (“KIND”)
Reacting to this outrageous breach of the law and morality, Wendy Young, the President of Kids in Need of Defense (“KIND”) said:
“The administration’s devastating decision to strip vital legal services away from unaccompanied children runs counter to its stated desire to protect kids, some as young as toddlers, against trafficking, exploitation, and other abuses that make them easy prey for those who would do them harm. The critical legal programs eliminated today have long-standing bipartisan support from Congress, not only because they protect children from danger, but because they also improve efficiencies in the immigration system by ensuring legal counsel for unaccompanied children who otherwise must navigate a complex court proceeding alone. This includes facilitating private-sector pro bono legal services that KIND oversees with almost 900 law firms, corporations, law schools, and bar associations at no cost to the government. The value of these contributions from KIND’s pro bono partners is approximately $1 billion, a significant contribution at a time when the federal government is claiming to seek cost savings. Elimination of the services in this contract, which are mandated by law, makes it all but impossible for many unaccompanied children to appear for their immigration court hearings or otherwise remain in touch with immigration agencies. It severs key lines of communication and coordination between vulnerable unaccompanied children and the institutions in place to ensure their protection.
“While today’s development is unconscionable, Congress can act to restore these key protections. For years, bipartisan spending bills have dedicated resources to this important work. Doing so has never been more important than now. Congress has full authority on its own to remedy the crisis the administration’s actions will yield – authority it should exercise decisively. KIND calls upon the House of Representatives and Senate to work in a bipartisan fashion to mandate robust funding in the FY 2026 federal appropriations package to the Office of Refugee Resettlement for complete restoration of unaccompanied children’s legal services, including full legal representation. The safety of thousands of children depends on it.”
Many thanks to our wonderful pro bono friends at Akin Gump!
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase Jeffrey S. Chase Blog Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Former Immigration JudgesKnightess of the Round TableLeading the charge for due process! Adina Appelbaum Director, Immigration Impact Lab Amica Center for Immigrant Rights Charter Member, NDPA PHOTO: “30 Under 30” from Forbes
“Eyore In Distress” Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”
The Trump administration has also reportedly taken aim at Biden appointees serving on the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)—the body charged with reviewing immigration judges’ decisions—by reducing the number of members from 28 to 15. As of January, the BIA’s backlog reached a decade-high record of more than 127,000 pending cases, an almost eightfold increase compared to 2015.
Paul Schmidt, a retired immigration judge and one-time BIA chairman, traced a parallel between the Trump administration’s “purge” and a George W. Bush-era move to “streamline” the BIA. Back then, Attorney General John Ashcroft slashed the members perceived as pro-immigrant. The Department of Justice later found itself at the center of a scandal over senior officials’ efforts to hire judges based on their political and ideological affiliations.
Similar politicization could be happening now. Prior to her unceremonious termination, Doyle had been flagged on a “DHS Bureaucrat Watchlist” by the American Accountability Foundation, a right-wing group backed by the Heritage Foundation. Last year, the organization announced an initiative called “Project Sovereignty 2025” to expose “high-ranking civil servants within DHS and DOJ who are likely to thwart an incoming conservative administration’s immigration agenda.”
The website describes Doyle, who previously served as head prosecutor with
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), as an “immigration activist lawyer” with a “known history as a critic of DHS” and a “lifelong commitment to open borders and mass migration.” (It cites Doyle’s involvement, while in private practice, in a lawsuitagainst the first Trump administration’s infamous ban on travelers from Muslim-majority countries as evidence of her supposed ideological bias.)
“Significant time and resources went into hiring all of us and the group had a diverse background including a number of former OPLA prosecutors,” Doyle, whose hiring process took 14 months between multiple rounds of interviews and an extensive background check, wrote in a LinkedIn post, “but what we all had in common is that we were hired—through a neutral system I will point out—during the Biden administration. This firing was political.”
Schmidt, the former BIA chairman, predicts all of this is just the start: “I think the worst is yet to come.”
Kerry Doyle ESQ Former Principal Legal Advisor, ICE, DHS Official USG Photo
Isabela Dias Staff Writer, Immigration & Social Issues Mother Jones PHOTO: Twitter
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Not only does the kakistocracy treat immigrants unfairly, cruelly, and with disrespect, they inflict the same mistreatment on some of their own employees — many dedicated civil servants with expertise and honorable service.🤮
As noted by Isabela, GOP Administrations have a history of politicized hiring at EOIR and questionable personnel maneuvers going back several decades!
By sharp contrast, AG Merrick Garland actually honored all 17 of the “pipeline” IJ appointments made by his GOP predecessor AG Bill Barr under flawed selection procedures that favored those with prosecutorial or government service, some glaringly lacking immigration expertise, while discouraging or passing over better-qualified applicants with actual experience and expertise representing asylum seekers and other immigrants in his weaponized, DHS enforcement-oriented “Immigration Courts.” I was one of the many observers who harshly criticized Garland’s ill-advised and timid accession to his GOP predecessor’s questionable selections. See, e.g., https://immigrationcourtside.com/2021/05/05/%f0%9f%a4%ae%f0%9f%91%8e%f0%9f%8f%bbshocking-betrayal-justice-garland-disses-progressive-experts-with-secret-appointments-of-17-unqualified-immigration-judges-n/
While Garland did eventually make some good appointments of well-qualified jurists, overall his record on judicial appointments at EOIR was “middling at best” — certainly not the strong, effective makeover with subject matter experts unswervingly committed to due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices so desperately needed at EOIR! As a result, ridiculously inconsistent decision-making, mundane precedents, and entrenched anti-asylum, anti-immigrant attitudes at EOIR remained at endemic levels throughout the Biden Administration!🤯🤬
When it comes to EOIR and enlightened, consistent, due-process- focused immigration policies, Dems are often their own worst enemies — a disgraceful trend that infuriatingly continues even today!🤬
“Eyore In Distress” Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Wall Creative Commons 2.0
Reprinted with permission:
Statement from 7 terminated Assistant Chief Immigration Judges (ACIJs):
*Please note – pronouns are nonbinary below only to maintain anonymity.
The terminated ACIJs are 5 females and 2 males, all age 41 or older. 2 are military veterans. 2 are racial minorities. Together, the 7 terminated ACIJs have over 105 years of public service that ended abruptly with an email sent Friday afternoon, Valentine’s Day.
1. Facts related to termination:
– Friday afternoon we all received by e-mail a PDF letter terminating us with no notice and no cause for the termination.
2. Summary of our experience: Combined, the 7 ACIJs led 18 immigration courts, and supervised approximately 135 immigration judges and 418 support staff. One was working on opening a new immigration court with 4 judges. Their termination leaves roughly 25% of the nation’s immigration courts without leadership or additional judges to preside while the immigration case backlog grows to over 3.6 million cases.
– At least one ACIJ was sent the termination email during the middle of a merits hearing (asylum case) over which they were presiding.
– 4 of the ACIJs were backups for each other’s courts, so at least 4 courts are without any clear leadership.
Collectively, we are devastated at the loss of our ability to continue in our jobs serving the public and serving EOIR’s mission to “adjudicate immigration cases by fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly interpreting and administering the Nation’s immigration laws.”
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Rather than a “model of due process and fundamental fairness,” under this Administration EOIR is becoming a “parody of justice.” Obviously, getting rid of high-performing, experienced judges who were also in leadership positions, particularly in the face of a backlog approaching 4 million cases, has nothing to do with “efficiency” and everything to do with weaponization of the Immigration Courts against individuals seeking to vindicate their legal rights under our laws and our Constitution!
Thanks to this group for your service, and Due Process Forever!
