"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.
Courtney Greene Accredited Representative Catholic Charities of Central Texas VIISTA Villanova Grad PHOTO: Linkedin
Courtney writes:
I went to my first merits hearing with a client yesterday in San Antonio and she was granted asylum!! Thank you for your continued advocacy for due process and your participation in my training as a VIISTA student. I feel so thankful that there are people like you, ensuring that people experience justice after so much suffering!
***************************
Thanks, Courtney. It’s YOU, and others like you, getting the job done. Saving individual lives every day!
As my friend and former partner at Fragomen Cynthia Lange pointed out at a recent PLI conference, if every attorney or accredited representative who cares about justice saves just one life over the next four years, that’s thousands of lives saved, including family members! And, that will inspire others to do the same. Eventually, it can be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of lives saved!
As I’ve previously observed:
Rather than looking for expensive ways to diminish asylum-seekers’ rights and inflict more cruelty, Congress and the Administration should be investing in cost-effective programs like VIISTA that actually work, protect rights, and have promise for the future!
Building hope rather than intentionally causing despair!😎 Why don’t our public officials “get it?”
So much of the suffering that Courtney references is unnecessarily caused, compounded, or aggravated by our own nation’s lousy, inhumane, and often scofflaw asylum policies and procedures!
“What the government is essentially asking us to do is agree that certain ‘analogous’ state crimes must count as rape and then reverse engineer a definition to make sure they do.”
Sure sounds like the kind of “any reason to deny” (non) logic that has been allowed to flourish at EOIR under Garland. And the 8th Circuit actually sounded pleased to be freed from the necessity under Chevron of inevitably “rubber stamping” the least reasonable, most “pro enforcement” interpretations offered up by the Government under Chevron. Garland could and should have changed that, but chose not to!
Many congrats to the “Youth Brigade” of the NDPA!
Some consider Garland’s failure to hold Trump accountable for January 6 to be his greatest failure. That’s a complex issue clouded by his decision to basically distance himself from the process. Undoubtedly, he was an overly cautious and weak leader!
But, I think history ultimately will see his failure to reform the Immigration Courts and to stand up for the legal and human rights of asylum seekers and other immigrants as his worst shortcomings. It actually continues to cost lives, squander resources, allow lies and negative attitudes toward vulnerable legal asylum seekers to be “normalized,” and help pave the way for Trump 2.0.
If only our national leaders were paying attention! 🤯 The best answers are out here, and they don’t involve expensive and counterproductive “mass deportations,” more inhumane detention facilities, or spreading fear among communities! Never too young to become a member of the “New Due Process Army!”
Twilight Near Sedona, AZ Paul Wickham Schmidt June 13, 2024
In September 2024, I was invited to address a group of prospective social workers on immigration policy in the Biden Administration. They had read my previous published article “An Overview and Critique of US Immigration and Asylum Policies In The Trump Era” (2018). They requested an “update” on that article to cover significant developments during the Biden Administration.
While, obviously, things have changed since the election, I believe this speech still has relevance. Therefore, I publish it in a revised and updated version.
REVISITED: U.S. Immigration & Asylum Policies In The Twilight Of The Biden Administration
Originally Delivered in September 2024
Edited and Revised, Nov. 4, 2024
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
I call on you to join our NDPA, use your skills, commitment, and power to resist the haters, oppose the wobbly enablers, expose political bullies who trade away lives and rights that aren’t theirs, and fight to finally deliver on our nation’s yet-unfulfilled promise of due process, fundamental fairness, and equal justice for all in America!
INTRODUCTION
Good evening, and thanks for inviting me. Please listen very carefully to the following important announcement.
In the next hour, you will hear no party line, no bureaucratic doublespeak, no sugar coating, no BS, or other such nonsense. Just the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, of course as I define truth and see it through the lens of my five decades of work with and in the American immigration system.
The views expressed herein are mine, and mine alone. They also do not represent the position of any group, organization, individual, or other entity with which I am presently associated, have associated with in the past, or might become associated with in the future.
But, that’s not all folks! Because today is Wednesday and you are such a wonderful audience, I give you my famous, “industry best,” absolute, unconditional, money back guarantee that the following presentation will be free of power points, split screens, and all other forms of distracting modern technology that might interfere with your comprehension and total listening enjoyment. For the next hour, I will be your “power point.”
Congratulations and my deep appreciation for your noble choice of social work as a career. Your skills and talents are desperately needed in our society. As you might imagine, as an Immigration Judge I heard and relied upon expert testimony from professional social workers, among others.
I am also well aware of the important behind the scenes efforts of social workers to get individuals and families beyond their often-traumatic situations here and abroad, to adjust to and be able to function in our society, and thereby to have the confidence and devote the necessary attention to working with their legal representatives to present the best cases possible in court. As a decision-maker, sound information cogently presented is the key to getting it right and doing justice.
You are fortunate to have some great, inspirational examples to guide you.
Three of my personal heroes come to mind. First, Aimee Miller who owns and operates a group practice called Interconnect: Counseling and Consulting, LLC, dedicated to conducting psychosocial and mental health evaluations and providing expert testimony and reports for immigration proceedings. She also teaches at the University of Michigan, School of Social Work.
My friend Joan Hodges Wu, a licensed social worker, is the founder and CEO of AsylumWorks in Washington, D.C. Her organization is devoted to helping newly arrived asylum seekers and their families navigate the legal, language, employment, educational, and other potential hurdles of adjusting to a new life while facing the uncertainties of the future.
Another friend, Hanna Cartwright, received dual degrees in social work and law from Catholic University in D.C. She was an intern at the “Legacy” Arlington Immigration Court and a “charter member” of what I call the “New Due Process Army,” or “NDPA.” This is a group of outstanding professionals, many of them former students of mine at Georgetown Law, interns, and judicial law clerks at the Arlington Court, who are committed to social justice and “fighting the good fight” to force our nation to deliver on its promise of due process for immigrants. Hannah has had a varied career and has risen to become the co-founder and Director of Mariposa Legal in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Additionally, I am proud to be on the Advisory Council of AYUDA, a community group serving the needs of asylum seekers and other immigrants in the D.C. metro area. AYUDA attorneys appeared before me pro bono when I was on the bench. Social work is one of the major service divisions of AYUDA, in addition to legal and language services.
These are all great and inspiring examples of individuals and organizations that “put it all on the line,” every day, to make their communities, America, and the world better places. And certainly, as you will find, there are many more of these throughout America.
I recently read an article in the Washington Post about the struggles and divisions in a small community in Massachusetts with resettling, on a temporary basis, a limited number of pregnant women, children, and families. Most of those at issue are recent arrivals to the U.S., many camping in a concourse at Logan Airport for weeks or even months. [1]
We need better resettlement programs. For some inexplicable reason, the Biden Administration thought that it would be a good idea to essentially “outsource” resettlement to restrictionist GOP governors like Abbott and DeSantis. They, in turn, bussed, or in some cases even flew, recently-arrived asylum seekers to locations in so-called “blue states,” where they believed they would overload local resources and cause problems, thereby inflaming xenophobic resentment.
Instead of such inexcusable nonsense, we need asylum resettlement programs that are “dressed for success” – some type of “national clearing house” to match asylees in an orderly fashion with locations across the U.S. where their skills are needed and they would be welcomed. Then, these communities and the asylum seekers must have support services to insure a mutually beneficial transition and reduce misunderstandings and resentments on both parts.
These organized programs should concentrate on preparing, supporting, informing, educating, and communicating with communities and migrants, requirements that are often overlooked or inadequate today. Change is an inevitable part of life, but that doesn’t mean everybody will like or accept it. We need better ways of “getting over the hump together.”
Tragically, neither political party appears interested in investing in the successful resettlement efforts that will benefit our nation and those seeking refuge through asylum. Therefore, it is likely to fall to the private/NGO sector to “model success” and innovative thinking. Certainly, social work services are an important part of this multi-disciplinary approach.
Now, to the main part of my presentation. You have read my 2019 article “An Overview and Critique of US Immigration and Asylum Policies in the Trump Era.” You have asked me to update you on the current status of the four “membership categories” that I posited in that article: full members; associate members, friends, and outcasts. So, here goes.
FULL MEMBERS
With respect to full members, essentially U.S. citizens, I’m pleased to report that naturalizations are up under the Biden Administration. As of this summer, more than 3.3 million new citizens had been naturalized as opposed to a little under 3 million during the entire Trump Administration. [2]
I think this is the result of ending the misallocation of resources and intimidation tactics used by the bureaucracy under Trump to discourage naturalization. The end of COVID also played a role. Plus, the Trump Administration’s message of hate, lies, and overt xenophobia probably convinced many lawful permanent residents that they would be safer with the protections of U.S. citizenship and the ability to vote on their political leaders.
Of course, you have probably heard of Trump’s outrageous threat to mess with birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. Since this is a constitutional right, it legally can’t be abridged by either executive action or legislation. The intent here appears to be to harass, dehumanize, and spread fear among our ethic communities and to basically cast doubt on the status of many loyal Americans, mostly of color, who obtained citizenship in this manner notwithstanding the immigration status of their parents.
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Turning to “associate members,” basically green card holders, refugees, and asylees, admissions and adjustments to lawful permanent residence are up. Again, this probably stems largely from the end of COVID and the elimination of some bureaucratic hurdles, as well as some efforts to address backlogs at USCIS.
There has been a significant improvement and revival of U.S. overseas refugee programs. They are now on target to exceed 100,000 refugee admissions, although probably falling a bit short of the 125,000 announced target number. Compare that with the paltry fewer than 12,000 admissions in the final fiscal year of the Trump Administration.[3]
Still, refugee programs are underutilized and not targeting all our real needs. For example, while the Administration has significantly improved refugee admissions from Latin America and the Caribbean, they are still well below the number necessary to meet actual demand. Of the top five refugee admission countries, DRC, Syria, Afghanistan, Burma, and Guatemala, only the latter is in the Western Hemisphere.
Worse yet, has been the cowardly bipartisan attack on our legal asylum system at the Southern Border. This culminated in some of the most draconian anti-asylum executive actions ever in relatively recent regulations issued over the strenuous, well-founded objections of experts, advocates, and NGOs with actual experience in the plight of asylum seekers.
Disgracefully, the Biden Administration is considering extending these legally questionable provisions, now under attack in litigation. At the same time, V.P. Harris has pledged that if elected she would attempt to resurrect a horrible, anti-asylum “Bipartisan Border Bill” aimed at accomplishing much of the same damage. For his part, Trump has long demeaned and dehumanized legal asylum seekers and would happily seek to eliminate or further restrict their admission.
Neither party seems interested in “doing the right, and obvious, thing” – building an asylum screening and adjudication system that actually works in a fair, generous, and timely manner. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (“EOIR”), an agency of the USDOJ that contains the Immigration Courts, where I once worked, is a particularly dysfunctional mess, with out-of-control backlogs burgeoning to nearly 4 million cases. It also produces wildly inconsistent results with asylum grant rates ranging from approximately 0% to 100% among nearly 700 Immigration Judges.
Essentially, both parties seek to improperly punish and demean legal asylum seekers for their bipartisan failure to fix the asylum adjudication system across more than two decades. That’s what “bipartisanship” has come to mean in immigration: Basically, a race to the bottom to find the lowest common denominator!
FRIENDS
With respect to so called-friends, those with limited permission to be here, but no clear path to permanent residence or citizenship, nonimmigrant visas have rebounded with the lifting of COVID restrictions.
However, so-called “Dreamers” remain in limbo. There is no foreseeable prospect for legislative relief and a “red-state” challenge to the legality of their DACA status is in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, likely headed for the Supremes.
The Biden Administration used executive actions to create some new “legal pathways” programs allowing up to 30,000 per month pre-screened individuals with U.S. sponsors to be “paroled” into the U.S. for an initial two-year period. This program has proved somewhat successful in reducing pressure at the Southern Border.
However, it is limited to nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. That plus the numerical limitations diminish its ameliorative effect. In addition, the program had to be temporarily paused to look into allegations of sponsorship fraud.
Moreover, unlike those admitted in refugee or asylum status, those paroled have no statutory path to green cards and eventual U.S. citizenship. They would need special legislation to gain lawful permanent status.
But, given strong GOP opposition to these humanitarian programs, these individuals are likely to remain in “limbo,” and become “political footballs” subject to the whims of the next Administration. Many have been, or will be, forced into the already backlogged asylum adjudication system, thereby defeating part of the original purpose of these parole programs.[4]
Remarkably, the Administration also chose to use parole, rather than the refugee system, to allow large numbers of our Afghan allies to come to the United States following the Taliban takeover. These also remain in limbo, in the absence of a legislative path to permanent status.
Unlike Trump, who tried to restrict and eliminate so-called Temporary Protected Status, or “TPS” wherever possible, the Biden Administration has made relatively robust use of TPS. The Administration has also made some improvements in the timely issuance and renewal of important “Employment Authorization Documents” (“EADs”) for those awaiting adjudication of applications filed with USCIS and EOIR.
OUTCASTS
With respect to those “outcasts” who don’t fit within any of the three foregoing categories, sometimes called “undocumented,” their numbers are probably around 10 to 12 million. [5]It is certainly not the bogus 20 million figure that GOP politicos and the right-wing media like to throw around. It’s also unclear to me whether this figure subsumes the many asylum applicants who actually are neither “undocumented” nor “illegal,” but here with Government permission to pursue their legal asylum applications before the USCIS Asylum Office and/or EOIR.
The Biden Administration tried to help noncitizen spouses and stepchildren of USCs regularize their status with a widely-hailed practical, humanitarian program called “Parole in Place” (“PIP”). However, perhaps predictably, a Trump-appointed Federal Judge blocked the PIP Program, at least temporarily. He acted at the request of “red states” with anti-immigrant agendas. So, while PIP registrations are still taking place, the fate of the program is unclear at this juncture.
Perhaps, worst of all, as I mentioned earlier, the Immigration Courts remain a dismal mess, with nearly 4 million case backlog that has grown exponentially under A.G. Garland. Instead of fixing EOIR and standing up for the legal and human rights of asylum seekers, Garland has instituted “built to fail” gimmicks like “expedited dockets” and approved regulations barring most asylum claims at southern border in violation of the statutory right, not to mention human right, to seek asylum “regardless of status.”
NGOs, practical experts, and advocates who, unlike Garland and his lieutenants, actually work with asylum seekers at the border and elsewhere, have documented how these tone-deaf policies increase deaths and abuses of asylum seekers in Mexico and beyond. However, truth has been to no avail in this appalling situation. I’d argue that most of the Administration’s misguided “maximum enforcement/no due process” at the border has been in response to their abject failure to bring long-overdue reforms to EOIR and the AO. They now seek to “cover-up” this massive failure by scheming to avoid the system entirely, rather than fixing it.
Trump outrageously threatens mass deportations. These would not only violate laws guaranteeing due process, but also sow fear and terror in many ethnic communities, which is, of course, the real point of such threats: essentially “dehumanization” or “de-personification” of wide swarths of our society going far beyond immigrants. At the same time, he would waste money, misdirect law enforcement resources, and likely tank our economy, which depends heavily on the labor of immigrants, both legal and undocumented. Not a pretty picture.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the Biden Administration has been a “mixed bag” on immigration, human rights, civil rights, and the rule of law. Basically, it has been “one step forward, and two steps back.”
A number of the Administration’s ameliorative programs for immigrants, like retention of DACA, humanitarian parole, increased refugee admissions, and “Parole in Place” have been too timid, limited, or blocked by restrictionist litigation.
On the other hand, bad border policies and largely ignoring the due process crisis in the Immigration Courts have undermined the rule of law, promoted the “bipartisan demonization and dehumanization of asylum seekers and other migrants at the border,” squandered scarce resources in the private/NGO sector, and wrecked death, despair, and untold misery on some of our most vulnerable fellow humans.
In extremely unfortunate ways, we are now replicating the very pre-1980 programs and disorganized, ad hoc, often-biased approaches that the Refugee Act of 1980 and the creation of EOIR were intended to solve.
Refugee provisions are avoided when dealing with so-called “emergencies,” leading to the mass parole of Afghans, limbo status, and the need for Congressional action for permanent status. Asylum determinations are basically reverting to ad hoc, often arbitrary and capricious, decisions that favor some nationalities and ethnicities over others based on US internal politics and foreign policy concerns. Humanitarian parole programs, while potentially a step in the right direction, deny individuals the stability and clear route to green cards and citizenship as well as some of the protections that come with refugee, asylum, and other types of legal admissions. It also makes them “political footballs” for the restrictionist right.
Making EOIR an independent entity within DOJ, back in 1983, a process I was involved in, was supposed to advance quasi-judicial independence and professionalism. Instead, after decades of bipartisan misdirection and mismanagement, the Immigration Courts have essentially resumed some of their pre-EOIR characteristics of being perceived, and often acting, as politicized arms of DHS enforcement, too often lacking professionalism, expertise, consistency, practical problem-solving abilities, and compassion.
I recently posted on Linkedin an article by Eduardo Porter that summarized the current gloomy and disturbing state of our national non-debate on immigration:
Consider immigration, the epicenter of zero-sum thinking in voters’ minds. It’s an issue that is critical to the United States’ future and a topic that is easily demagogued as a struggle between endangered Americans and some predatory “other.” Harris, like Biden, has worked to distance herself from Trump’s most implausible ideas (such as expelling 11 million people). Still, she leads a Democratic Party that believes one of its paramount challenges is stopping immigrants from coming to the United States. [6]
That’s a rather sad, yet fundamentally true, commentary on how our nation of immigrants now thinks and acts. The GOP demonizes, dehumanizes, and lies about immigrants; the Dems roll over and want to change the subject. As you witnessed in the Presidential “debate,” actually more of an exercise in “performative entertainment” than a serious discussion of issues, we don’t know November’s winners, but we already know the losers: Immigrants, due process, and social justice advocates.
Few, if any, politicos on the national level have the moral courage and clear vision to mount a well-justified, evidence-based defense of asylum seekers and other migrants. Likewise, few of them advocate for investing in achievable improvements in the system. Instead, they seek partisan political advantage, on the backs of the desperate and disenfranchised, by eagerly and cynically pouring money and manpower into cruel, ultimately ineffective, enforcement and “deterrence” gimmicks.
The latter, not incidentally, have spawned a highly profitable and politically potent industry that benefits from every deadly, failed border deterrence “enhancement.” No wonder positive change and creative problem solving are so elusive, and so many of our politicos lack the guts effectively to protect immigrants’ lives, human dignity, and rights at the border and beyond!
More than 50 years of experience working in our immigration systems, at different levels, and from many angles, tell me the following inalienable truths:
Human migration is real;
Forced migration is exactly that;
It won’t be stopped by walls, prisons, deterrents, or other cruelty;
Asylum is a human and legal right;
Immigrants are good for America; and
Due process for all persons in the U.S. is essential.
My time on the stage is winding down. But, yours, my friends, is just beginning. I call on you to join our NDPA, use your skills, commitment, and power to resist the haters, oppose the wobbly enablers, expose political bullies who trade away lives and rights that aren’t theirs, and fight to finally deliver on our nation’s yet-unfulfilled promise of due process, fundamental fairness, and equal justice for all in America!
The Lion King by Giles Laurent Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution
HINT: It’s neither the one that let NFL MVP leading candidate Saquon Barkley walk (and proceed to run wild over the league), nor the one that signed Aaron Rodgers to an overpriced contract!
Training and certification in trades, skilled crafts, technology, and other essential occupations are readily available;
Students who seek a four-year degree can earn transfer credentials;
Tuition is affordable;
Work/study is a “norm;”
Those already in the workforce are sought and respected;
Diversity is “self-created” by the students;
Equal educational opportunity is a reality;
All are welcome;
Future employers can have input into the curriculum;
Practical training in real world skills is emphasized;
Adult enrichment and continuing life education are encouraged, not afterthoughts;
Parents don’t need to inflate their kids’ athletic or artistic profiles to beat the “admissions racket;”
More is spent on classrooms and educational support than athletic venues;
The football coach doesn’t make more than the college president!
There’s probably a community college (or colleges) near you. Whether you are a prospective student, employer, retiree, community activist, someone looking to sharpen existing skills or broaden your horizons, or just a curious community member you should check out America’s best educational bargains and the future of affordable, practical higher education!
Here’s a recent timely article from David Kirps, professor emeritus at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley, in WashPost on how community colleges are a source for a diverse group of highly-qualified students ready to take their skills and talents to other campuses and the real world:
My only “beef” with Mr. Kirps’s article is the he passes over the important “other cohort” of community college students: Those who don’t necessarily aspire to transfer to a four-year college (at least not immediately), but rather seek the skills training and expertise to immediately enter the workforce in key, well-paying jobs. Our granddaughter, Cassie, who graduated from community college in Wisconsin last spring and is now gainfully employed as a licensed dental hygienist is a good example.
Full disclosure: Our son Will is the Manager, Business Engagement and Industry Initiatives at Northern Virginia Community College, where he concentrates on developing and insuring compatibility and employability for the “other cohort” of students and the employers who need and rely on them as the workforce of today — and tomorrow!
The Board’s holding in Matter of Fernandes, 28 I&N Dec. 605, 610–11 (BIA 2022), that an objection to a noncompliant notice to appear will generally be considered timely if raised prior to the close of pleadings is not a change in law, and thus Matter of Fernandes applies retroactively.
“In a decision dated October 24, 2022, the Immigration Judge granted the respondents’ motion to terminate their removal proceedings based on a noncompliant notice to appear. The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) has appealed, arguing that the Immigration Judge erred in not applying Matter of Fernandes, 28 I&N Dec. 605 (BIA 2022). The appeal will be sustained, and the record will be remanded. … Our guidance in Matter of Fernandes as to the timeliness of the claim-processing rule objection to a noncompliant notice to appear applies retroactively. The respondents did not object to the missing information in their notices to appear before the close of pleadings and have not otherwise demonstrated that their objection should be considered timely. Thus, they have forfeited their objection. We will sustain DHS’ appeal, vacate the Immigration Judge’s decision, and remand for further proceedings.”
Victoria Maqueda Feldman, ESQ Director of Legal Programs AYUDA PHOTO: AYUDA
Dear Ayuda Board of Directors and Advisory Council:
Today we announced our new Director of Legal Programs, Victoria Maqueda Feldman. Victoria’s commitment to justice and extensive experience in immigration law perfectly align with our mission to create a community where immigrants can thrive with dignity and hope.
Victoria has been an integral part of Ayuda’s work over the years, starting as a legal intern and eventually moving up through the ranks to Managing Attorney and Interim Legal Director. Our hiring process for the Legal Director role included 13 staff members from various teams, levels, and all 3 offices. Members of the hiring team were impressed with Victoria’s combination of hands-on collaboration and strategic vision, her exceptional team leadership skills, and her unwavering dedication to delivering excellent, client-centered services.
As we navigate the complexities of serving immigrant communities during a difficult political climate, Victoria’s leadership will be instrumental in steering our legal programs to address both emerging challenges and opportunities. We are confident that under Victoria’s guidance, Ayuda’s Legal Team will continue to excel in protecting the rights and dignity of those we serve.
Please our team in welcoming Victoria to her new role and congratulating her on this well-deserved appointment!
You can read our formal Ayuda statement on our website here, which will be included in our November newsletter out on Wednesday 11/20. I’ve copied the statement below as well.
##
Ayuda Welcomes Victoria Maqueda Feldman as Director of Legal Programs
Washington, D.C. (November 18, 2024) – Ayuda is proud to announce that Victoria MaquedaFeldman has been appointed as Ayuda’s Director of Legal Programs, bringing a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to immigrant communities.
In her new role, Victoria will oversee Ayuda’s legal programs across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, including immigration, domestic violence, and family law services. She will also lead the organization’s pro bono and Project END initiatives, ensuring high-quality, culturally sensitive legal assistance for low-income immigrant populations.
“We are thrilled to have Victoria step into the role of Legal Director,” said Paula Fitzgerald, Ayuda’s Executive Director. “Her commitment to justice and extensive experience in immigration law perfectly align with our mission to create a community where immigrants can thrive with dignity and hope.”
Previously Ayuda’s Interim Legal Director and Virginia Managing Attorney, Victoria has a long history of transformative work at Ayuda, including serving as Supervising Attorney and Staff Attorney in the DC office and starting her journey at Ayuda as a legal intern. Her impactful career also includes a notable fellowship with the Santa Fe Dreamers Project in New Mexico.
She holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a magna cum laude bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University. A proud daughter of Argentine immigrants and native Spanish speaker, she embodies Ayuda’s mission to support immigrant families.
“I am deeply honored to lead Ayuda’s incredible legal team,” said Maqueda. “Ayuda has been my legal home for the past seven years and together, we will continue advocating for justice and providing hope to those who need it most.”
For over 50 years, Ayuda has been a lifeline for immigrants in the D.C. area. Victoria’s leadership marks an exciting new chapter in advancing equity and opportunity for all.
Many congratulations and welcome Victoria! The whole “Ayuda Family” enthusiastically looks forward to supporting and working with you to save lives, advance due process, and insist on all humans in our midst being treated with dignity, respect, and in accordance with the rule of law!
Immigration will be a key issue in the next administration. Join a panel of experts from the Cornell Law School immigration law and policy research program to learn what immigration laws and policies might change, both in the lame duck session and in 2025.
🇺🇸⚖️🗽😎BRINGING HOPE 🙏& LIGHT💡: ROUND TABLE🛡️, NDPA ALL-STARS ✨HELP CA 2 👩🏽⚖️CORRECT YET ANOTHER TOTAL SCREW-UP BY GARLAND’S DOJ! — This time EOIR blew competency determination, couldn’t properly apply own precedents to achieve due process, fundamental fairness!🤯
Hon. Cecelia M.Espenoza Former Appellate Immigration Judge, BIA Source: Denverdemocrats.org
DISTRICT 4:
Candidate
Total Votes
% Votes
Cecelia Espenoza (D)
20,806
80.5%
Jack Daus (R)
5,042
19.5%
SOURCE: AZCENTRAL.com
****************************
You go, my friend and colleague! Thanks for running and for standing up for a better, fairer America! Building a “values based movement” starts at the “grass roots level.” You’re getting it done, Cecelia!
Creator: Ike Hayman Credit: Ike Hayman SOURCE: Wikipedia
Hillary’s statement from X:
I set out to build a new political home in West Michigan, and with this decisive victory, we’ve proven that what we made is built to last. It truly is a new day in West Michigan. It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve you in Congress, and I’m ready to get back to work.
42-years-old, brilliant, practical, solution-focused, works well with others, dedicated to family, flipped a formerly GOP seat in 2020. As Dems examine the “carnage of 2022,” maybe it’s time to thrust this rising superstar 🌟 into a more prominent leadership role!
Congratulations again and my utmost appreciation for your absolutely stellar, four-decade, high-impact career in applied scholarship on immigration, human rights, and justice in America. Your influence, which I trust will continue unabated into retirement, has been a huge positive for our nation and our world.
As I previously mentioned, I am sorry that I will be unable because of previous commitments to celebrate in person or online with you and your many admirers at Cornell Law on November 8. But, I know it will be a “love-fest” whether in the form of “roast” or “conferring of regalia!”
You are the epitome of what I have termed the “practical scholar” — someone who uses creativity, extraordinary learning, and masterful command of a complex subject to solve problems, achieve actual results in the real world, inspire others, and produce positive trends. I have truly treasured our friendship and association going back over four decades to your time at Interpreter Releases, Immigration Briefings, and Federal Publications. We, of course, shared the mentorship of the late, great former BIA Chair and Editor of Interpreter Releases Maury Roberts, the friendship and professional association with the late Juan Osuna who played a major role in our respective careers, as well as our mutual association with Sue Siler who worked with me during my “Jones Day era.”
I assume that you recollect helping and encouraging me to set a “footnote record” with my article on employer sanctions for Immigration Briefings as well as our work together on some updates for your treatise Immigration Law & Procedure, and the now long in the past Federal Publications “holiday bashes” for authors and editors!
Our friendship and association continued beyond my “private practice phase” into my tenure as BIA Chair and then into my “next chapter” at the “Legacy Arlington Immigration Court.” Following my retirement, I was delighted to accept your kind invitation to be part of the Berger International Programs Lecture Series at Cornell Law in March 2017. We also had a chance to strategize and talk about”applied law” with your wonderful Clinic students who were engaged in some really challenging and important cases!
Professors Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer & Steve Yale Loehr show off their “no ties look” at Cornell Law, March 2017.
I also appreciated having a chance to see your spectacular campus and to chat with you informally over meals.Your book “Green Card Stories,” which you “gifted” to me at the time, eventually because one of the sources and inspirations for an adult enrichment class on a cultural anthropological and legal approach to American immigration history that I co-taught with my friend and colleague Dr. Jennifer Esperanza at Lawrence University’s Bjorklunden Seminars.
No, it’s not the Tower of London, but the “Tower of Law” @ Cornell (not to be confused with the “Falls Church Tower”). March 2017
Of course in addition to your many scholarly publications and Clinic successes, you have been a tireless presenter and public voice for truth, accuracy, scholarship, and humane solutions to thorny immigration and human rights issues at a time when myths, disinformation, and fear about these topics scandalously have become “normalized” in our political and media discourse. Indeed, I have “featured” your activities, including your heartfelt tribute to Juan Osuna, on my blog immigrationcourtside.com no less than 45 times (and I probably missed a couple)! I also greatly admire and appreciate you and others having the guts and integrity to “speak truth to power and set the record straight” even when powerful currents are pushing in the opposite direction.
Recently, I was happy to be able to share an evening with you and Amy during the DC Tribute Dinner for our mutual friend and inspiration Doris Meissner. I will also take full credit for shaming you into wearing a coat and tie to the function. After all, somebody has to maintain standards among the ranks of the New Due Process Army (“NDPA”).
In closing, thank thank you again, Steve, for your more than four decades of friendship, support, encouragement, scholarship, and unswerving commitment to using law as a tool for humane practices, due process, inspiring the younger generations, and overall making our nation and our world a better place! I wish you, Amy, and your family all the best in retirement and look forward to many years of continuing association in the cause of justice.
Congratulations again, due process forever, and best wishes, always,
Michelle N. Mendez, ESQ Director of Legal Resources and Training National Immigration Project, National Lawyers Guild PHOTO: NIPNLGVictoria Neilson NDPA SUPERSTAR ATTORNEY PHOTO: CLINIC
Michelle writes:
The American Immigration Lawyers Association has just released its first ever book on immigration court trial skills. The book is authored by my colleague Victoria Neilson and myself, and was reviewed by several retired immigration judges, including the Hon. Dana Leigh Marks. It grew out of a collaboration between the National Immigration Project and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, through which we have been providing intensive trial skills training courses in the context of immigration court for several years.
We hope the book will become a go-to resource for immigrant defenders as they prepare for individual hearings and think through rules of evidence, trial strategy, and best practices for questioning, objections, closing arguments, and more.
The book is available for purchase as an e-book or print book. It will also be posted on AILALink in a couple of months.
What an important and monumental contribution to “practical scholarship!”
I look forward to appearing with Michelle on an Immigration Court practice panel with Aimee Mayer-Salens & Sarah Owings at AILA New England in Boston this Friday, Nov. 8!
