Category: Congress

🆘 SOS FROM ROUND TABLE’S 🛡 ⚔️ JUDGE SUE ROY: COMPLETE DUE ROCESS MELTDOWN @ EOIR NEWARK, AS GARLAND’S LEADERSHIP CONTINUES TO FAIL! ☠️☠️ — Garland Has Managed To Bring AILA & ICE Together In Outrage Over His Dangerous, Gross Mismanagement Of The Immigration Courts!🤯 

Hon. Susan G. Roy
Hon. Susan G. Roy
Law Office of Susan G. Roy, LLC
Princeton Junction, NJ
Member, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges

My colleague Sue writes:

Hi,

 

First, can someone please share with the RT as a whole?  I can’t do it from where I am at the moment.

 

Second, yes, believe it or not, Newark EOIR is implementing a “policy” (if you can call it that, since it hasn’t been written anywhere) starting Monday, October 3, 2022, that ALL DHS and Respondents’ attorneys must appear IN PERSON for almost EVERY case, including master calendar hearings.  Their stated reason?  “Webex bandwidth issues.”  This is the Court that started Webex.  This is the Court that caused the death of at least one person (and in fact 4 people ultimately died) and the severe illness of many more, because of its court policies at the beginning of the pandemic.  And Newark EOIR’s completely unsafe and short-sighted policy just last year is what generated the lawsuit filed by AILA-NJ against EOIR.

 

The OPLA attorneys’ union and AILA-NJ have issued a JOINT press release (which is attached) after a joint letter to David Neal unfortunately did not resolve the issue. The NJ State Bar Association has also submitted a letter to Director Neal. (Also attached).

 

In fact, the Newark EOIR policy flies in the face of the DM issued by Director Neal himself regarding the use of WebEx throughout the nation’s immigration courts.

 

Some Newark IJs have already begun denying ALL WebEx motions for both DHS and Respondents’ attorneys, regardless of the reason behind the motion (such as, undergoing chemotherapy; receiving treatment for heart conditions; or having oral argument scheduled before the U.S. Court of Appeals on the same day, just to give some examples).

 

In any event, feel free to share widely and publicly. The Chair of AILA-NJ this year is Jason Camilo, who I have cc’d on this email just so he is aware.

 

Happy Friday!

 

Sue

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Here’s the joint letter letter from AILA & ICE:

   PROSECUTORS AND ATTORNEYS

CALL FOR CONTINUATION OF VIRTUAL HEARINGS AND OPPOSE CHANGE IN POLICY IN NEWARK IMMIGRATION COURT

New Jersey – Both AILA NJ and AFGE Local 511 (ICE Professionals Union) call on the Newark Immigration Court, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), to continue to allow virtual hearings for all attorneys and immigrants, in all cases, without exception. These attorneys are opposed to the recently- announced policy of the Newark Immigration Court requiring all attorneys to either return in person to hearings beginning on October 3, 2022 or to seek waiver of in-person appearance for good cause. Public safety requires virtual hearings, especially for routine preliminary hearings that generate large groups of people in small courtrooms.

This new policy goes far beyond the policies of all other New Jersey court systems, from municipal courts, State courts, and federal courts, and puts everyone at risk—prosecutors, attorneys, court staff, immigrants, and the public at large. Federal and New Jersey State Courts are still operating almost entirely virtually, with exceptions only for criminal jury trials and some other specific proceedings. “EOIR’s new policy of making everyone return to the courtroom in person is dangerous and unjustified,” says Jason Scott Camilo, Chair of AILA NJ. Newark EOIR is not just requiring in-person appearances for contested individual hearings; it is requiring attorneys to appear in person at master calendar hearings as well, which can involve 50-60 cases per judge, per courtroom, every morning and afternoon. Thus, literally hundreds of people will once again be forced into small, unventilated courtrooms and narrow hallways every single day.

Sadly, this is not the first time Newark EOIR has tried to force prosecutors, attorneys, and the public into the courtroom during the pandemic. Numerous people contracted COVID-19 as a result of attending immigration court proceedings in March 2020. One well-respected AILA NJ member passed away as a result, and several people became seriously ill. Other federal workers at the same federal building have also succumbed to the disease. This is in addition to those who suffered and still suffer from long COVID complications.

Despite this, Newark EOIR compelled people back into courtrooms in July 2020. New Jersey immigration attorneys and the New Jersey Chapter of American Immigration Lawyers Association, (AILA NJ), sued EOIR on July 31, 2020 in Federal District Court, New Jersey,

 seeking protection from EOIR!s first attempt compelling attorneys to appear in person during the pandemic. Due to this suit, Newark EOIR committed to providing attorneys with remote videoconferencing for the duration of the pandemic and to troubleshoot and address any glitches or interruptions in its use. All Immigration Courts nationwide soon adopted internet based hearings as the default for cases.

Since August 2020, prosecutors, attorneys, and immigrants have been appearing remotely, and, according to polling conducted by AILA NJ, the vast majority of internet-based hearings are proceeding without issue. Secretary Becerra of the United States Health & Human Services recently announced the continuation of the nationwide public health emergency on July 15, 2022. More than 34,000 New Jerseyans have died from COVID-19; over 2,500 people a day are still falling ill in New Jersey alone.

Acknowledging the benefits of internet-based hearings, David L. Neal, Director of EOIR, issued guidance on August 11, 2022, indicating that “all immigration courts have the capacity to hold such hearings…,” that “internet-based hearings have proven a valuable safety measure during the pandemic, as immigration judges can conduct such hearings without requiring groups of people to congregate in a courtroom…,” and that “EOIR anticipates that, going forward, internet-based hearings will remain essential to EOIR’s operations.”

“In fact, EOIR has been holding stakeholder meetings across the country to explain the continued benefits of utilizing Webex in immigration court proceedings. Why, then, would Newark EOIR, which was the first immigration court in the nation to use the WebEx system, suddenly choose to abandon it? Logically and logistically, this makes no sense,” explained Jason Scott Camilo.

Virtual hearings provide other benefits as well. Virtual hearings allow the courts to efficiently process more cases safely. Private attorneys and pro bono organizations are able to represent immigrants more effectively, having the ability to beam into various courtrooms in different locations in a single day.

According to AFGE Local 511, virtual court appearances enable prosecutors to minimize their exposure to hundreds of people in crowded courtrooms every day, while having more time to allocate their limited resources towards resolving cases outside the courtroom in motion practice and in consultation with opposing counsel. OPLA offices are understaffed, and virtual courtrooms enable telework, which in turn permits them to better manage their out of court duties, which primarily consist of efforts to reduce the immigration court backlog. “It makes no sense to hinder government attorneys attempting to assist EOIR in resolving cases ,” said AFGE Local 511’s Executive Vice President, Ginnine Fried, who is assigned to the Newark office.

Newark EOIR’s newly-announced policy requiring attorneys to appear in person or request a waiver is in direct opposition to the resolution of the federal lawsuit, is in direct opposition to the policy of the EOIR Director and, if implemented on October 3, 2022 as planned, will imperil the

 health and safety of all who will be forced to appear in person. No other court in the state has taken such radical action. AILA NJ attorneys and AFGE Local 511 attorneys agree there is no valid public policy reason to implement this drastic change, and numerous public policy reasons to continue with virtual immigration court hearings: public safety, increased court efficiency, and uniformity. Standing united, these opposing sides are beseeching the Newark EOIR to let safety prevail and to preserve the health of those Americans working to preserve a fair and equitable Immigration system.

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Here’s the text of a letter to Director Neal from the NJ State Bar:

September 29, 2022

Sent via email to david.neal@usdoj.gov

Director David L. Neal

Executive Office for Immigration Review U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Director Neal:

NEW JERSEY STATE BAR ASSOCIATION

 JERALYN L. LAWRENCE, PRESIDENT Lawrence Law LLC 776 Mountain Boulevard, Suite 202 Watchung, NJ 07069 908-645-1000 • FAX: 908-645-1001 jlawrence@lawlawfirm.com

 On behalf of the New Jersey State Bar Association, which includes immigration attorneys among its 16,000 attorney members, I write to seek reconsideration of the policy change the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) has scheduled to implement in Newark, NJ, on Oct. 3, 2022. After more than two years of successful Webex Master Calendar hearings, EOIR will again require immigration attorneys to appear in person. While vague Webex bandwidth issues have been cited as the impetus for the change, there has been no stated reason why EIOR will not default to the prior practice of holding Master Calendar hearings telephonically. To be sure, there are legitimate concerns about the ability to judge credibility or simultaneous interpretation in certain telephonic immigration hearings, but those issues are not in play here as EOIR has waived clients’ appearance in Master Calendar hearings. Reverting to the pre-pandemic, inflexible court appearance requirements is both unnecessary, in light of back-up telephonic hearing capabilities, and presents costly time and monetary burdens to attorneys and respondents.

I. EOIR HAS SUCCESSFULLY HELD WEBEX HEARINGS SINCE THE HEIGHT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN 2020.

EOIR Newark began Webex hearings in summer 2020 because of litigation filed by New Jersey immigration attorneys in the New Jersey chapter of Association of Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on July 31, 2020, in the District Court of New Jersey, Newark Vicinage. That suit sought protection from EOIR Newark’s order compelling attorneys to appear in person during the pandemic. As a result of this litigation, Assistant Chief Immigration Judge David Cheng (ACIJ Cheng) of the New Jersey Immigration Court, and on behalf of EOIR Newark, committed to providing attorneys with remote videoconferencing for the duration of the pandemic. As part of the parties’ stipulation for dismissal, the parties agreed to the following:

New Jersey Law Center • One Constitution Square • New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-1520 732-249-5000 • FAX: 732-249-2815 • EMAIL: president@njsba.com • njsba.com

WHEREAS, PM 21-03 further provides that, “[o]nce WebEx compatibility is available at an immigration court, for the duration of the declared national emergency related to COVID-19, either party may file a motion for the alien or the representative for either party to appear at a hearing by VTC through WebEx rather than in person,” see id.; and

WHEREAS, PM 21-03 further provides that motions to appear at a hearing by VTC through WebEx for any party or party attorney/representative, like motions for telephone appearances, are “subject to the discretion of the immigration judge, any applicable law and any applicable requirements of the ICPM [Immigration Court Practice Manual], a standing order, or a local operating procedure,” see PM 21-03 at p. 4.

See Stipulation for Dismissal, Docket 44, dated Feb. 16, 2021 (Docket No. 2:20-cv-09748- JMV-JBC) (emphasis added), attached hereto as Exhibit A.

In the wake of that consent order, EOIR Newark joined all other state and federal courts in New Jersey in operating virtually during the pandemic. In practice, and pursuant to ACIJ Cheng’s Standing Order dated June 19, 2020, all Master Calendar hearings were held telephonically, without the need for a motion, and all respondents’ appearances were waived if an attorney appeared on their behalf. See Standing Order dated June 19, 2020, attached hereto as Exhibit B. This Standing Order was rescinded pursuant to ACIJ Cheng’s Standing Order on Dec. 28, 2021, effective Jan. 10, 2022, at which time Master Calendar hearings changed from being held telephonically to being held via Webex. As it was before, these were without the need for a motion, and all respondents’ appearances continued to be waived if an attorney appeared on their behalf. See Standing Order dated Dec. 28, 2021, attached hereto as Exhibit C.

Even today, many court operations across New Jersey continue to be virtual. To name a few, state municipal matters are being managed remotely, except for DUIs and trials, and in Superior Court, non-consequential hearings such as preliminary appearances and status conferences continue to be held remotely.1 The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey extended its standing order on Aug. 8, 2022, regarding virtual hearings for criminal proceedings.2

Additionally, EOIR itself has acknowledged the benefits of internet-based hearings, for which Newark was a national leader in its overall success as a pilot program jurisdiction. On Aug. 11, 2022, EOIR issued Director’s Memorandum 22-07.3 That stated, “all immigration courts have the capacity to hold such hearings…,” and “internet-based hearings have proven a valuable safety measure during the pandemic, as immigration judges can conduct such hearings without requiring groups of people to congregate in a courtroom…” The memo cites the benefits of internet-based hearings, including that “Respondents and counsel appearing remotely are

1 See njcourts.gov/public/covid19_one-stop.html#court_hearings, last accessed Sept. 27, 2022.

2 See njd.uscourts.gov/sites/njd/files/CARESActSOSixthExt.ofSO2021-03.pdf, last accessed Sept. 27, 2022. 3 See justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1525691/download, last accessed Sept 27, 2022.

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relieved from traveling to court.” Finally, the memo said that “EOIR anticipates that, going forward, internet-based hearings will remain essential to EOIR’s operations.”

II. EOIR NEWARK INTENDS TO SUSPEND STANDARD WEBEX HEARINGS ON OCT. 3, 2022, WITHOUT PROPER NOTICE TO THE BAR, INCLUDING NJSBA.

Notwithstanding the above, the EOIR seeks to disband the standard for Webex hearings without proper notice to New Jersey attorneys and their clients who will be substantially and disproportionately affected by this sudden policy shift. The NJSBA only learned of this policy through its affiliate AILA NJ members when the committee chair for AILA NJ announced the new policy to its members by email on Aug. 30, 2022. The email was supplemented on Aug. 31, 2022, and again Sept. 8, 2022. The below paragraphs, taken from our AILA NJ colleagues’ letter to EOIR leadership, contain the entirety of the new policy, which was communicated via the emails referenced above.

From the Aug. 30, 2022 Email from EOIR Committee Chair:

The standing order for Webex hearings is revoked and in person appearances required as of 10/3/22. This of course is subject to exceptions and variations as follows:

1. Webex hearings will continue for all cases heard by Judge Ranasinghe and Judge Jeannopolous

2. Judge Pierro and Judge Chen will have in person master calendars and Webex merits hearings.

3. Judges Rubin, Rastegar, Riefkohl, Finston, Wilson and Lane will have in person hearings master and merits.

4. Represented respondents’ appearances are waived for master calendars like they are now on Webex masters, but not for merits hearings. This includes cases where an attorney is already on record or making his/her first appearance. Atty shows up, the respondent does not have to appear. If you are hired at the last minute and can’t make it, the respondent has to appear.

5. This does not apply to Elizabeth hearings as the facility does not admit visitors, all remote hearings.

6. If it is Judge Shirole or Pope and the hearing notice is for Newark, (DD Case), in person at Newark. Any doubts about Shirole call Elizabeth. Pope will all be in person.

7. You can still file a motion for a Webex hearing for good cause but it MUST be filed 15 days or before. If it is not granted you have to

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appear. I am told the reason for this is the Webex bandwidth is incapable of handling the level of internet traffic that has developed. The system is crashing constantly. More and more attorneys are using it with technical issues constantly. So the “good cause” issue will be a major consideration in granting or denying motions for Webex calendars.

From August 31, 2022 Email from EOIR Committee Chair:

1. DHS has to appear in person and they will be required to file motions for Webex.

2. I failed to include ACIJ Cheng and IJ Mullican among the list of judges where in person appearances are required.

From September 8, 2022 Email from EOIR Committee Chair:

ACIJ Cheng has rephrased the “good cause” language requirement for a Webex motion. He chooses to phrase it as “there has to be a reason”.

See AILA New Jersey letter dated Sept. 23, 2022, attached hereto as Exhibit D.

III. THE NEW POLICY FAILS TO PROVIDE PROPER NOTICE TO NEW JERSEY ATTORNEYS AND IT IS IN CONFLICT WITH PRINCIPLES OF EQUAL ACCESS TO JUSTICE, DUE PROCESS AND FUNDAMENTAL FAIRNESS.

EOIR Newark failed to circulate a general notice to the entire bar of the policy change and thereby limited the ability of all practitioners to learn of the change in a timely fashion.

 Indeed,

 unless immigration attorneys are members of AILA NJ, which some, but not all NJSBA Immigration Law Section members are, they might still be unaware of this abrupt change in policy, which will prejudice them and their clients. To date, EOIR Newark has not published a formal standing order to officially announce it. This lack of notice will hinder equal access to the justice system for countless respondents whose attorneys are not aware of the sweeping changes

 made to the practice. As our AILA NJ colleagues adeptly stated, notice of these changes should come directly from EOIR Newark in the form of a standing order, notice to the bar, website update, or other written statement. Further, the new policy is confusing and complicated in its

 implementation.

 This new policy also denies equal access to justice because of the effect it will have on attorneys’ fees. The fees for appearing at Master Calendar hearings in person, rather than virtually, will be markedly more expensive, and needlessly so, for immigration clients. Although clients’ appearance would be waived, the time attorneys spend to appear in person will be exponentially greater than that spent at a Webex appearance. In immigration removal proceedings, where respondents have no right to court-appointed counsel, many clients will find it cost prohibitive to pay an attorney for protracted appearances at Master Calendar hearings in Newark. An additional

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 consequence may be that seasoned immigration attorneys would limit the removal defense cases

 they accept that require needless Newark appearances.

Consistency in agency practices is a hallmark of due process and fundamental fairness. Respondents and attorneys should be able to rely on established policies and practices and conform their behavior accordingly. To be clear, changes should be announced with reasonable notice and ample breadth to the entire legal community. EOIR Newark’s decision to change course without prior, reasonable notice will have serious economic and practical consequences to immigration attorneys and their clients.

IV. THE NEW POLICY WILL BE UNNECESSARILY BURDENSOME AND WILL RESULT IN ADDITIONAL BACKLOGS AND INEFFICIENCIES THROUGHOUT THE IMMIGRATION COURT SYSTEM.

 The new EOIR Newark policy will burden immigration attorneys by immediately requiring them to appear in person in Newark for Master Calendar hearings while their clients’ appearances remain waived. A Master Calendar hearing in Immigration Court is the equivalent to a status conference in most other litigation-based practice areas. They are administrative, taking approximately five to 15 minutes to complete. This will place a heavy burden on immigration attorneys across New Jersey all of whom will again be required to be physically present on the 12th Floor of EOIR Newark, which is New Jersey’s sole immigration court, by 8:30 a.m. on any given weekday for a hearing that will likely last fewer than 15 minutes. This change will be a hardship for attorneys from the south, such as an attorney from Cape May who would have to travel 148 miles to Newark, as well as those from the north, such as an attorney from Montague

 who would have to travel 59 miles to Newark, all for a brief hearing.

 A silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the legal community’s embrace of technology. Attorneys and courts alike learned, adopted, and then mastered a more efficient process to effectively practice law. There is no reason to revert to antiquated, unnecessary practices. Health concerns aside, appearing for Master Calendar hearings via Webex has proven to be a much more efficient process that reallocates attorneys’ time into their files and clients’ valuable financial resources. If Webex is experiencing bandwidth issues, telephonic Master

 Calendar hearings should be the back-up policy for attorneys rather than in person Master Calendar hearings. Immigration attorneys rely on Webex hearings to manage their practices, caseloads and clients’ schedules and expectations. Immigration attorneys have relied on the belief that EOIR Newark’s Master Calendar hearings would be handled in a remote fashion and have entered into retainer agreements with clients with fee estimates that do not contemplate in- person appearances, have scheduled their calendars, and accepted other court hearing dates, upon that belief. This new policy, which is being implemented in a haphazard manner, creates numerous conflicts, requiring voluminous motion practice to correct. The new policy would upend these successfully established practices on which attorneys, their staff, and their clients

 have come to rely over the last two years.

 The new policy states that motions to appear via Webex will be entertained, but that they must enumerate a “reason for the request.” Requiring a motion requesting a virtual hearing on every Master Calendar hearing, where an attorney may have dozens in any given week, is an

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 overwhelming and unnecessary burden. Additionally, the court, and its already backlogged docket, will be flooded with motions for virtual hearings. The most likely reality is that a majority of attorney motions requesting Webex appearances would be undecided by the date of the appearance. That would lead to a stressful situation each week in which immigration attorneys cannot properly plan their schedules and calendars because they do not know whether or how the immigration judge has ruled on their motion, and whether an in-person appearance will be necessary. Additionally, calling EOIR Newark to ascertain an immigration judge’s decision on a pending Webex motion is, and will continue to be, an unreliable practice strategy. Court staff are already far too busy with court administration to field dozens of additional calls

 from immigration attorneys each day relating to these issues.

 EOIR should continue to permit immigration attorneys to appear for Master Calendar hearings via Webex as standard policy, without a motion. Although EOIR Newark has cited bandwidth concerns as an impetus for the sudden return to in person hearings, it has failed to set forth any basis for not defaulting to the process of holding Master Calendar hearings telephonically nor any substantive reasoning to support the policy that an attorney’s in-person appearance at a Master Calendar hearing is vital to the judicial process. Indeed, prior to the Dec. 21, 2021, EOIR Newark standing order to conduct Master Calendar hearings by Webex, all Master Calendar hearings were handled successfully via telephone, with the respondent’s appearance waived. If bandwidth upgrades are a concern, EOIR Newark should temporarily reinstate that practice and hold Master Calendar hearings with immigration attorneys via telephone until Webex bandwidth

 issues are rectified.

Once again, the NJSBA urges this court to permit hearings for all Master Calendar hearings to be held telephonically or via Webex, without the need for a motion. When we learn and implement a better process, we should embrace that spirit of innovation and creative problem solving rather than revert to antiquated processes. We look forward to working with EOIR Newark to find solutions that allow the court to efficiently accomplish its work and best serve the litigants who appear before it.

Very truly yours,

Jeralyn L. Lawrence, Esq.

President, New Jersey State Bar Association

Cc: Hon. David Cheng, Assistant Chief Immigration Judge, EOIR Newark (sent via email to david.cheng@dhs.gov)

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

One of my reliable sources in the DMV area says that DHS is predicting the same awful “bandwidth” mess at the newly opened “Sterling Immigration Court.” How does a judicial system open “new courts” and mass reschedule cases without checking out basics like “bandwidth capacity” in advance? Total, inexcusable incompetence!

Sadly, this is not a surprise to those of us who have been blasting Garland’s horrible failure to make the glaringly obvious (to all but him) systemic, structural, and personnel changes to restore at least a modicum of due process in his failed “court system” — America’s worst courts, as I have been saying over and over.

When are Dems in Congress finally going to provide some meaningful oversight and force Garland to answer tough questions about his “due process disgrace” @ EOIR? Senator Booker and Senator Menendez, where are you?

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-30-22

EYORE
“Eyore In Distress”
Poor Eyore can’t catch a break — and, neither can the prosecutors, private attorneys, and individuals subjected to Garland’s botched “management” of EOIR — “America’s Worst Courts!”

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🏴‍☠️IT’S NOT YOUR FATHER’S GOP! — Today’s MAGA GOP Throws Refugees From Lefty Dictatorships Under The Bus Along With Most Of Humanity!🤮 We have a duty “to treat migrants humanely and incorporate as many of them as we lawfully and realistically can; and to oppose more effectively the despotism that is the root cause of their desperation.”

 

Charles Lane writes in WashPost:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/21/migration-cuba-nicaragua-venezuela-dictatorship/

. . . .

Like the 1980 and 1994 boatlift crises, the present one may be in part tacitly encouraged by the Havana regime, which, like its allies in Managua and Caracas, is closely aligned with Russia.

It is in these governments’ interest to export dissent and stir political trouble for President Biden — as the boatlifts did for his Democratic predecessors Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Notably, the exodus from Cuba accelerated after its ally Nicaragua ended its visa requirement for Cubans, making it far easier for the latter to reach the Central American isthmus — and continue on to the border.

Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela do not take their citizens back if deported from the United States, which renders the Biden administration all but powerless to deter the flow.

All of the above should inform the debate about “root causes” of migration, which, like so many of its predecessors, the Biden administration has promised to address. There is a related argument over the United States’ own culpability in the plight of people living under the three left-wing regimes. Washington has sanctioned each one for gross human rights violations, the most recent being Cuba’s nightmarish crackdown on protests that broke out in July 2021 and a similar round-up of dissidents by President Daniel Ortega’s regime in Nicaragua.

Even when the United States targets them to limit collateral damage, these measures can affect ordinary people and not just the regimes; obviously, too, millions have left non-communist countries in Latin America for a better life in the United States.

What is nevertheless undeniable is the historic debacle represented by the departure of over 6 million from Venezuela, whose population peaked at 30 million in 2015, when the main phase of the exodus began. That is a fifth of the entire country.

For Cuba, 200,000 emigrants in a year represents nearly 2 percent of its 11.3 million population. In Nicaragua, the 200,000 who have left since Ortega’s crackdown began four years ago, mostly for the United States and next-door Costa Rica, amount to 3 percent of a 6.6 million population.

U.S. sanctions, under which — for example — this country was still Cuba’s second-largest supplier of food imports in 2020, cannot possibly account for so many people “voting with their feet” against the systems they live under. The foreseeable failure of subjecting the economy to top-down control and denying people basic freedoms can.

The exodus is thus a tremendous compliment to the United States and other democratic capitalist countries. We should appreciate it. Meanwhile, it imposes duties: to treat migrants humanely and incorporate as many of them as we lawfully and realistically can; and to oppose more effectively the despotism that is the root cause of their desperation.

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Read the complete article at the link.

Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s in Wauwatosa, WI, then a GOP bastion, I remember that the party of Ike and Nixon never saw someone fleeing from Communism or lefty dictatorships that they didn’t swoon over. East Germans, Hungarians, the “Chang Gang” from China, Cubans, Russians, all were welcomed and viewed not only as great assets to America (which they were) but also as strong empirical evidence of the superiority of democracy over left-wing dictatorships!

In elementary and high school, I had good friends whose families had fled East Germany and Hungary. They were all hard-working folks who left much behind but “reinvented themselves” in a new environment.

Now,  the forces of xenophobia, hate, fear, and the hope of exploiting the foregoing for political gain have replaced more realistic and welcoming attitudes in MAGA land. It’s up to the rest of us to show that these “negative values and bad attitudes” don’t represent the real America! 

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-24-22

 

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Jason Dzubow
Jason Dzubow
The Asylumist

The latest report on Garland’s accelerating disaster @ EOIR from Jason Dzubow, “The Asylumist:”

https://www.asylumist.com/2022/09/21/due-process-disaster-in-immigration-court/

Due Process Disaster in Immigration Court

It is not easy to convey the magnitude of the ongoing disaster at EOIR, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the office that oversees our nation’s Immigration Courts. Simply stated, the agency is rescheduling and advancing hundreds–maybe thousands–of cases without notifying attorneys, checking whether we are available to attend the hearings or checking whether we have the capacity to complete the cases.

On its face, this appears to be a mere scheduling problem. But in effect, it is a vicious and unprecedented assault on immigrants, their attorneys, and due process of law.

pastedGraphic.png

“Advancing hearings with no notice and no time to prepare? Why didn’t I think of that?!”

For me at least, the problem started small. A few cases were rescheduled and advanced without anyone at the Immigration Court bothering to inquire about my availability: Your case that was scheduled for two years in the future has been advanced and is now set for two months in the future. I was angry and upset, but I did not want to let my clients down. So I set other work obligations aside. I set family time aside. I put off doctors appointments. And I completed the cases, which were approved. I hoped that these cases were anomalies and that EOIR would stop this unfair and abusive practice. But that was not to be.

Instead, EOIR has dramatically expanded its effort to reschedule cases, often without providing sufficient notice–or any notice–to get the work done for our clients. As best as we can tell, the problem is occurring in California, Colorado, Maryland, and Virginia. I myself have had about a dozen cases rescheduled and advanced (so far). These cases had been scheduled for 2023 or 2024, and suddenly, they are now set for the fall of 2022. Other attorneys have had 20, 30 or more cases advanced, including some that were double booked. One lawyer reported having seven cases scheduled for the same week and 47 cases set for one month. Another lawyer purportedly told a judge that if she had one more case scheduled within the next six months, she would commit suicide.

Here, I want to break down what is happening, so noncitizens in Immigration Court can at least have some idea about EOIR’s disruptive practices.

First, when I say that EOIR is not providing notice of the hearings, that is not entirely accurate. They are not sending us a notice or contacting us in advance. Instead, they are posting the new hearing dates on our portal. What does this mean? Each attorney has access to a portal page with a calendar. We can scroll through the calendar one month at a time. Days with hearings are highlighted, and we can click on those days to see what is scheduled. When I review my calendar, I often find new hearings that were not previously on the schedule. The only way to know whether a new hearing has been scheduled is to scroll through our portals month-by-month and compare what’s there with our existing calendar–a burdensome process that leaves plenty of room to overlook a date. Needless to say, every time I sign on to the portal, I feel a nauseous sense of dread about what I might find.

Once we discover the new date, we need to review the file, contact the client, and determine whether we can complete the case. This all takes time. If we cannot complete the case, or we do not have an attorney available on the scheduled date, we need to ask for a continuance. Of course, clients who have been waiting years for a decision usually want to keep the earlier hearing date. They do not understand why we cannot complete the work or why we are not available that day. Their perspective is perfectly reasonable, but they only have one case, where lawyers have many and we are daily being ambushed by EOIR with additional work. All this can result in conflicts between clients (who want their cases heard) and lawyers (who need time to get the work done). It also makes it difficult to serve our other clients, who must be pushed aside to accommodate the new work randomly being dumped on us.

Even if the client agrees to request a continuance, that does not solve the problem. Motions to continue can be denied. Even when they are granted, the judges tend to reset the date for only a few weeks in the future, which is often not enough time to properly complete the work. Other times, judges simply do not rule on the motion, so we are left to prepare the case, not knowing whether it will go forward or not.

Also, while we sometimes discover a new date that is a few months in the future (and so in theory, we might have time to do the work), other times, the new date is only a few weeks in the future. Since the evidence, witness list, and legal brief are due at least 15 days before the hearing, and since even a “simple” asylum case takes 20 or 30 hours to prepare, this is not nearly enough time. Worse, some cases are randomly advanced and placed on the docket after the evidence is due, and so by the time we have “notice” of the case, our evidence is already late.

Adding insult to injury, another common problem is that cases are still being cancelled at the last minute. And so we drop everything to prepare a case, only to have it postponed once all the work is done. Since this is all utterly unpredictable, it is impossible to prioritize our work or advise our clients.

Again, if this were only a few cases, attorneys could set aside other work and get the job done. But lawyers who do immigration law tend to have many cases, and we are seeing dozens and dozens of cases advanced with no notice. This is such a blatant and obvious abuse of due process that it is impossible to believe it is accidental. I might have expected this policy from the Trump Administration, which was hell-bent on restricting immigration by any means necessary. But as it turns out, President Biden’s EOIR is far worse than President Trump’s. Indeed, the current level of callousness would make even Stephen Miller blush.

The solution to these problems is so basic that it should not need to be said, but here it is anyway: EOIR should stop advancing and rescheduling cases without notice and without consideration for whether we have time to complete the work. Unless something changes, we can expect many noncitizens to be unfairly denied protection, immigration attorneys will leave the profession (or worse), and EOIR will become illegitimate. Let us hope that sanity and decency will soon return to the Immigration Courts.

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

Ever wonder why Dems struggle to govern and often lose elections they should win?  This is a pretty good example of how the Biden Administration, through cowardice, ignorance, arrogance, and failure to prioritize racial justice and immigrant justice are “shooting themselves in the foot, over and over!”

They are going into midterms where every vote counts. They need “all hands on board” in the human rights community to help bail them out of the gross failures of the White House, Garland, and Mayorkas to reestablish a fair, efficient, and properly robust system for legally admitting refugees and processing asylum claims at the borders and the interior. This, in turn, has empowered disingenuous nativists like DeSantis and Abbott to “play games with human lives.” 

But, the Biden Administration “strategy” is to do everything possible to offend and drive a wedge between them and some of their most loyal and important groups of supporters — the immigration, human rights, and racial justice communities. (Make no mistake: The ongoing disaster at Garland’s EOIR disproportionally targets individuals of color.)

Garland seems to be impervious to his self-inflicted disaster at EOIR.  I think that advocates are going to have to sue to bring his “Stephen Miller Lite” travesty of justice at EOIR to a grinding halt. Those are resources that could and should be used to help asylum seekers “orbited” around the country by DeSantis and Abbott. 

I, for one, have been saying for a long time that Garland’s unfathomably horrible performance at EOIR is a threat to our entire justice system and to the future of our nation. Sadly, every day, Garland proves me right!

The real shame: It was all so preventable with just a modicum of competence and backbone from our failing AG!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever! Merrick Garland’s deadly Clown Courts 🤡, Never!

PWS

09-21-22

Related posts:

  1. EOIR TARGETS UNACCOMPANIED KIDS FOR DEPORATION RAILROAD!
  2. PURE BS 💩 — TRUMP’S “BIG LIE” ABOUT MIGRANT APPEARANCES FOR HEARINGS BOGUS AS $3 BILL 🤮👎🏻— Replacing DHS/EOIR With Rational, Qualified, Fact-Based Governance & Real Judiciary Could Bring Appearance Rate Close To 100%!  — Two Items From ImmigrationProf Blog!
  3. HOW “AMERICA’S KILLER COURTS” PROMOTE “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” — HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: TRUMP & HIS WHITE NATIONALIST SYCOPHANTS & TOADIES TOUT LAWLESS POLICIES THAT VIOLATE LEGAL OBLIGATIONS & HELP KILL, RAPE, TORTURE THOSE RETURNED TO EL SALVADOR — Supremes & Article III Judiciary Complicit In Gross Human Rights Violations! 
  4. GROSS NATIONAL DISGRACE: “A Fucking Disaster That Is Designed to Fail”: How Trump Wrecked America’s Immigration Courts — Fernanda Echavarri Reports For Mother Jones On How Our Failed Justice System Daily Abuses The Most Vulnerable While Feckless Legislators &   Smugly Complicit Article III Judges Look On & Ignore The Human Carnage They Are Enabling — “ Two days after US immigration officials sent her to Tijuana, she was raped.”

🇺🇸🗽IN COMPETITIVE MICH 3RD, FORMER BIA ATTORNEY HILLARY SCHOLTEN REACHES VOTERS WITH VALUES-BASED CAMPAIGN FOCUSING ON LISTENING, SOLVING PROBLEMS, ADDRESSING LOCAL ISSUES, & PROTECTING INDIVIDUAL LIBERTIES! — Lissandra Villa Huerta @ BoGlo Reports!

Hillary Scholten
Hillary Scholten
Democrat
Candidate for Congress
Michigan 3rd District
Lissandra Villa Huerta
Lissandra Villa Huerta
National Political Reporter
Boston Globe
PHOTO: BoGlo Website

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/08/27/nation/democrats-michigan-hope-capitalize-swell-support-abortion-rights/

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Hillary Scholten, a 40-year-old Democratic congressional hopeful, only had to knock on a handful of doors last Saturday in a residential neighborhood here before she encountered Maria D’Angelo, who was sitting on her front porch, about to have coffee with her neighbor, Sara VanderArk.

Both women in the historically conservative but now Democratic-leaning district are overwhelmingly focused on a single issue this November: women’s rights.

“I’ve had to voice publicly and to family members that I never intended to tell that I’ve had abortions,” D’Angelo, a Democrat, told the Globe about the fallout from the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. VanderArk, who identifies as an independent, said she was inspired by the court ruling to join abortion rights protests and that her vote would largely hinge on the issue in the fall.

They are exactly the type of galvanized voters that Democratic candidates up and down the ballot in Michigan and across the country are hoping will give them a boost in the November midterm elections. Midterm years are historically bad news for the president’s party even without high inflation and sagging presidential approval ratings, but Democrats now are nursing a sliver of hope: They’re narrowing the enthusiasm gap — the motivation level of voters — and popular opinion on the issue of abortion is on their side.

That’s especially true in Michigan, a battleground state where, like Kansas before it, there has been a surge in the number of women who’ve registered to vote since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June after almost 50 years as settled precedent, according to an analysis by TargetSmart, a Democratic data firm. A recent poll commissioned by AARP, the interest group for older Americans, showed the issue was among voters’ top concerns. And Michigan’s new third congressional district, where Scholten is running, is a rare congressional race where Democrats aren’t just having to focus on defending their turf, they feel bullish about their odds of flipping the seat.

“The level of engagement on this issue is just so high,” Scholten told the Globe in an interview at her campaign office last weekend. “It’s the only thing I hear about. Women stop me in the grocery store and grab my arms and are like, please do something about this.”

Scholten, an attorney and former Department of Justice official, said she saw a surge of volunteers, fund-raising, and willingness of voters to answer doors and talk to her after the Dobbs decision.

This may sound strange in a district that has historically voted Republican. Its congressman is Republican Peter Meijer, a scion of a Midwest grocery store dynasty, and its voters have backed Republicans in the last three presidential elections. But the district’s newly drawn boundaries that are in place for the first time this election cycle make it significantly friendlier to Democrats. Since Meijer, who was one of just 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach former President Trump, lost his primary to his more right-wing and anti-abortion opponent John Gibbs, Democrats hope to motivate the more Democratic-leaning voters in Grand Rapids and its suburbs who are now part of the district and are mad as hell about the abortion rights repeal.

“Everywhere around the state, when we knock on doors, people bring up abortion — it’s not a negative anywhere,” said Michigan state Senator Winnie Brinks. “People used to be pro-choice, but they were quiet about it. Now they’re not quiet about it. They’re like, ‘Nope, this is on the line, we’re gonna talk about it.’”

That was clear in interviews with voters in downtown Grand Rapids for the city’s “3rd Thursdays,” where residents congregate for live music and can go into the city’s art museum for free courtesy of the Meijer Foundation. It was clear in interviews on the other end of the district on the shore of Lake Michigan, where voters strolled watching the sun set over the lake on a Friday night. And it was clear in the views expressed by voters Scholten met knocking on doors.

“I will for sure be there to vote,” said Erica Kochaney, a Democrat and Grand Rapids resident who was at Grand Haven State Park on Friday evening. Reproductive freedom “is my number one reason for getting out there for sure.”

On the Scholten-Gibbs race and the issue of abortion, she added, “I know where she stands on it, and I’m fine, and I feel like I know where he stands on it, and I’m not fine with it.”

. . . .

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

Read the rest of Lissandra’s coverage at the link.

A “home grown daughter” of her Michigan District, Hillary is an experienced, resilient, courageous, values-based problem solver committed to making Government work for the common good rather than infringing on individual liberties, invading bedrooms and doctors’ offices, banning books, interfering with elections, and “dumbing down” education.

She is also a highly successful working parent who knows that the same teamwork, caring, creativity, and unselfishness that goes into the challenges of raising a family also can apply on a larger scale to American society. She knows that problems like inflation, infrastructure, climate change, health, safety, and education affect all Americans, regardless of party affiliation.

As a DOJ attorney working in one of the most fractured areas of American law and public policy, Hillary has seen first hand what works and what doesn’t work in today’s Government. She knows that “same old, same old” won’t get the job done for 21st Century America! She seeks a better America — for all Americans, regardless of race, color, creed, gender, or status.

Several weeks ago I wrote about under-appreciated American “good government hero” Frances Perkins, our first female cabinet secretary, appointed by FDR.  https://immigrationcourtside.com/2022/08/14/%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%97%bd%f0%9f%a6%b8%f0%9f%8f%bb%e2%99%80%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%8e%96-a-true-american-hero-gets-her-due-frances-perkins-was-the-mother-of-americas-safety-net/

Frances Perkins
Hillary Scholten is following in the footsteps of another “Good Government Trailblazer,” Frances Perkins (1880-1965)
U.S. Secretary of Labor (1933-45)
PHOTO: Public realm

Perkins was driven by her life experiences and values, yet courageously and effectively “worked the system” (then basically an “Old Boys’ Club”) to achieve successes and innovations that have shaped our nation for generations (Social Security is just one of her achievements). Hillary Scholten embodies qualities that made Perkins a successful leader who made life better for all Americans!

No one legislator can do it all. But if anyone can bring fact-based legislating, the hopes, fears, and positive values of people in the heartland, and informed debate to our national legislative process, it’s Hillary and other “practical problem solvers” like her! Values, progress, innovation, and humanity over political expediency — that’s Hillary! She is a good listener and team-builder — willing and able to find common ground with those who might not share all her views.

I know Hillary as an unusual combination of intellectual and moral toughness with kindness, compassion, humanity, and common sense. She’s one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet — makes you want to be on her team! She gets things done by inspiring others, not by threatening , demeaning, or excluding them!

The good folks of Mich 3 have a chance to do something really great — for their own district and for the future of America — by sending Hillary to Washington! We need you, Hillary, now more than ever!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-06-22

Related posts:

  1. CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH @ DHS: ICE DEPORTS BLACKS TO DANGER & POTENTIAL DEATH, MANY WITH NO DUE PROCESS!🏴‍☠️ — Legislators Call On Biden Administration To End Racist Enforcement Policies!
  2. 🇺🇸⚖️🗽NY TIMES EDITORIAL MAKES THE CASE FOR ARTICLE I — “It’s hard to imagine a more glaring conflict of interest than the nation’s top law-enforcement agency running a court system in which it regularly appears as a party.” — Garland’s Abject Failure To Fix EOIR, Bring In Experts Highlighted, As Constitutional Due Process, Ethical, Human Rights, Racial Justice, Gender Equity, Diversity, & Management Farce @ EOIR Continues Under His Disgraceful Lack Of Awareness & Failure Of Courageous, Progressive Leadership!  — Progressives Can’t Remain Silent, Must “Raise Hell” 👹With Biden Administration About Garland’s Lousy Performance @ EOIR, As He Continues To Stack Immigration “Judiciary” With “Miller Lite Holdovers” 🤮 To The Exclusion of Progressive Experts Who Helped Put Biden Administration In Office!
  3. ⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️THE FEDERAL COURTS ARE BROKEN — PRESIDENT BIDEN WANTS TO FIX THEM! — He Should Start With The Immigration Courts! — “There Is Nothing To Be Gained From Half Measures!”
  4. DEMS INTRODUCE BIDEN’S COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION BILL — “U.S. CITIZENSHIP ACT OF 2021” — Lots Of Good Ideas, But Likely DOA In Narrowly Divided Congress! — Judge Garland Must Begin Immigration Court Reforms NOW!

⚒️👩🏾‍🌾🌾🇺🇸🗽 AN INSPIRING LABOR DAY MESSAGE FROM REV. CRAIG MOUSIN: Migrants Are The Backbone Of America & Those Who Fight For Migrant Justice Are Not Alone — A Special Podcast With Links To Music By John McCutcheon & Emma’s Revolution!

Rev. Craig Mousin
Rev. Craig Mousin
Ombudsperson
Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, Grace School of Applied Diplomacy
DePaul University
PHOTO: DePaul Website

Dear Paul,

As we begin Labor Day weekend, I give thanks for the many ways your work and mission seek justice for all.

My latest podcast gives thanks to all of you who have worked to end Title 42 and to all those immigrants who have contributed to the common good.

As I end the podcast quoting Emma’s Revolution’s song, Bound for Freedom, I give thanks that we are not alone, but united in the struggle.  Thank you.

https://blogs.depaul.edu/dmm/2022/09/02/lawful-assembly-podcast-episode-29-gratitude-for-those-who-labor-and-those-who-have-labored/

Have a great Labor Day weekend and Thank You.

Peace,

Craig

 

Rev. Craig B. Mousin

DePaul University

(mail) 1 East Jackson Boulevard

Chicago, Illinois 60604

 

(office) Suite 800H

14E. Jackson Blvd.

Chicago, Illinois 60604

 

312-362-8707 (voice)

312-362-5706 (confidential fax)

 

 

You can find some of my publications at either:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=667812or

https://works.bepress.com/craig_mousin/

You can find my digital story at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9VTkjhzIcI

You can follow the podcast Lawful Assembly at:https://lawfulassembly.buzzsprout.com

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

Thanks, Craig, for your “practical activism and scholarship!”

Takeaways:

  • Grass roots activism works to defeat the forces of darkness and White Nationalism (the defeat of the barrage of White Nationalist immigration amendments was covered on Courtside here: https://immigrationcourtside.com/2022/08/08/%f0%9f%87%ba%f0%9f%87%b8%f0%9f%97%bd%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8fndpa-activists-help-beat-back-gop-nativist-spoiler-amendments-to-reconciliation-bill-dems-need-to-win-midterms-to-thwart-newest-gop-immi/);
  • The John McCutcheon version of Woodie Guthrie’s song “Deportees” shows how deeply ingrained “Dred Scottification” is in our country’s often unconstitutional, impractical, and sometimes immoral approach to immigration enforcement.“De-personification” of  “the other’” — treating them as numbers, statistics, even “beds” or “apps” without names, faces or rights — and making up vile myths and lies about them, all while  exploiting their labor — is still at the heart of the anti-American White Nationalist agenda!
  • Social justice activism is an important multi-disciplinary endeavor — here we see how law, education, religion, civics, history, broadcast journalism, performance art, music, technology, political science, economics, language, culture, & communication all work together to thwart hate and lies;
  • More undergraduate institutions need to be making these links and insisting that the true history of American Immigration — with all its triumphs and warts — becomes a staple of education;
  • Many of those tone-deaf (or worse) politicos pushing the far right agenda of hate, lies, and racism reflected in the defeated amendments are elitists masquerading as “bogus populists” who got the benefit of education at some of the top law schools and universities in the nation. Whatever happened to the teaching of basic legal ethics and responsibilities to society? The Jim Crow agendas of today differ little from those of the pre-civil rights era of the 20th Century. These are NOT debates between legitimate “differing viewpoints,” but essentially questions of truth vs. lies, hate v. tolerance, integration v. exploitation; 
  • The White Nationalist Right is taking over school boards and local governance in the false name of “parents’ rights” — actually meaning the rights of far right parents to impose their minority religious doctrines and false social doctrines on others. The fight for social justice begins at the local level where where teaching of truth and legitimate debates are being drowned out by disgruntled, anti-democracy, empowered White Nationalist theocrats who claim they want liberty but actually are trying to impose autocracy and minority rule;
  • The fight for social justice never ends!

🇺🇸 Happy Labor Day, & Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-05-22

Related posts:

  1. THE SADNESS OF PROPHECY WITHOUT POWER: Two Years Ago, I Gave A Speech Warning Of The Consequences Of “1939 Germany” — Now, We’re In “Germany 1938” With 1939 Just An Election Away! — Moscow Mitch, Lindsey The Toad, Texas Ted & The Rest Of The GOP Fellow Travelers & Cultists Would Be Right At Home With Franz van Papen!
  2. PURE BS 💩 — TRUMP’S “BIG LIE” ABOUT MIGRANT APPEARANCES FOR HEARINGS BOGUS AS $3 BILL 🤮👎🏻— Replacing DHS/EOIR With Rational, Qualified, Fact-Based Governance & Real Judiciary Could Bring Appearance Rate Close To 100%!  — Two Items From ImmigrationProf Blog!
  3. COMPLICITY HAS COSTS:  Article III Judges’ Association Apparently Worries That Trump, Barr, GOP Toadies Starting To “Treat Them Like Immigration Judges” — Do They Fear Descent To Status Of Mere Refugees, Immigrants, “Dreamers,” Unaccompanied Children, Or Others Treated As “Less Than Persons” By Trump, 5th Cir., 11th Cir., 9th Cir., & The Supremes’ “J.R. Five?” 
  4. CRIME BLOTTER: CHILD ABUSE🤮☠️⚰️🦹🏿‍♀️: DOJ IG REPORT CONFIRMS WHAT COURTSIDE & OTHERS KNEW FROM THE START: Trump, Sessions, Miller, Rosenstein, Hamilton Are Cowards🐓, Lying 🤥 Criminals, Child Abusers🦹🏿‍♀️, Who Belong Behind Bars For Intentionally Abusing Asylum Seeking Families & Kids & Then Having Their Sleazy DOJ Lawyers Lie To Federal Judges! — What Happened To “Due Diligence” As An Ethical Requirement For Government Lawyers?

⚖️🗽🇺🇸🦸‍♂️ NDPA SUPERLITIGATOR RAED GONZALEZ DRUBS GARLAND AGAIN! — “Who else could persuade CA5 to agree with CA9, and get an award of costs,” asks Dan Kowalski of LexisNexis Immigration Community? — When will the unconscionable failure of immigrant justice at Garland’s Department of “Justice” finally end? When our nation’s democracy goes down in flames?🔥 ♨️

Dan Kowalski
Dan Kowalski
Online Editor of the LexisNexis Immigration Law Community (ILC)
Raed Gonzalez ESQ
Raed Gonzalez ESQUIRE
Chairman, Gonzalez Olivieri LLP
Houston, TX
PHOTO: best lawyers.com

From Dan:

Another CA5 Pereira / Niz-Chavez Remand: Parada v. Garland (unpub.)

https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unpub/19/19-60425.0.pdf

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/another-ca5-pereira-niz-chavez-remand-parada-v-garland#

“[T]he BIA’s decision to deny Parada’s motion to reopen was based on a legally erroneous interpretation of the statutes governing Notices to Appear and the stop-time rule. The Supreme Court has since reinforced the holding of Pereira and held—again— that to trigger the stop-time rule, a Notice to Appear must come in the form of “a single document containing all the information an individual needs to know about his removal hearing.” Niz-Chavez v. Garland, 141 S. Ct. 1474, 1478, 1486 (2021). That did not occur in this case, as the Notices to Appear served on Parada and her daughter did not contain the time or date for their removal proceedings. Thus, because “[a] putative notice to appear that fails to designate the specific time or place of the noncitizen’s removal proceedings is not a ‘notice to appear under section 1229(a),’ and so does not trigger the stop-time rule,” Pereira, 138 S. Ct. at 2113–14 (quoting 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(d)(1)(A)), the deficient Notices to Appear received by the Paradas did not stop the clock for the Paradas. …  [O]ne of two keys must fit before the stop-time rule can be unlocked: service of a valid Notice to Appear or commission of an enumerated offense. The latter has not occurred here as no one has asserted that either of the Paradas has committed such an offense. And we have already concluded that the former has not occurred because the Notices to Appear served on the Paradas lacked the time and date of their hearing. Thus, the stop-time-rule box remained locked, the Paradas’ clock never stopped, and they accrued the necessary 10 years to satisfy the physical-presence requirement for cancellation of removal. In so concluding, we agree with the Ninth Circuit [emphasis added] which also held that “[b]y its terms . . . the stop-time rule applies to only the two circumstances set out in the statute, and a final order of removal satisfies neither.” Quebrado Cantor, 17 F.4th at 871. … To return to the analogy above, when Congress provided the two exceptions to the physical-presence requirement, it created all the keys that would fit. It did not additionally create a skeleton key that could fit when convenient. To conclude otherwise “would turn this principle on its head, using the existence of two exceptions to authorize a third very specific exception.” Quebrado Cantor, 17 F.4th at 874. Instead, “the ‘proper inference’ is that Congress considered which events ought to ‘stop the clock’ on a nonpermanent resident’s period of continuous physical presence and settled, in its legislative judgment, on only two.” Id. (quoting Johnson, 529 U.S. at 58). Lacking either here, the BIA committed a legal error in concluding otherwise and finding that the Paradas did not satisfy the physical-presence requirement to be eligible for cancellation of removal. For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is GRANTED and the case is REMANDED to the BIA for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. … IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that respondent pay to petitioners the costs on appeal [emphasis added] to be taxed by the Clerk of this Court.”

[Yet another victory for Superlitigator Raed Gonzalez!  Who else could persuade CA5 to agree with CA9, and get an award of costs?]

Daniel M. Kowalski

Editor-in-Chief

Bender’s Immigration Bulletin (LexisNexis)

cell/text/Signal (512) 826-0323

@dkbib on Twitter

dan@cenizo.com

Free Daily Blog: www.bibdaily.com

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

Male Superhero
Due Process Superheroes like Houston’s Raed Gonzalez are standing up for the rights of EVERYONE in America!
PHOTO: Creative Commons

Kudos to Raed for “taking it to” America’s worst “courts” in America’s most “immigrant-unfriendly” Circuit! 

Tons of “rotten tomatoes” to Garland for his horrible mismanagement of EOIR, OIL, and the legal aspects of immigration policy at DOJ!

Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Garland & his lieutenants deserve appropriate recognition for failing to bring long-overdue reforms to America’s most dysfunctional “parody of a court system” — EOIR!
PHOTO: Creative Commmons

Immigration expert Professor Richard Boswell of UC Hastings College of Law asks: “Can someone explain why the government has been so obstinate on these cases?  I like the fee award but I doubt that it has much impact on their behavior.”

Professor Richard Boswell
Professor Richard Boswell
UC Hastings Law
PHOTO: LinkedIn
Professor Boswell asks the right question. So far, “Team Garland” has no answers!

I wish I knew, my friend, I wish I knew! There is no rational excuse for Garland’s abject failure to: put EOIR and OIL under progressive expert leadership committed to human rights and due process; replace the many weak “Trump holdover appointees” at the BIA with expert real, professionally competent judges; weed out more of the “deadwood” on the immigration bench; bring in qualified experts as EOIR Judges who could potentially create an existential improvement in the composition, performance, and procedures of the entire Federal Judiciary that would go even beyond the essential task of saving the lives of migrants; and finally make Constitutional Due Process and equal justice for all real at the “retail level” of our American Justice system!

If our democracy fails — certainly an unhappy possibility at this point in time — future historians will undoubtedly dissect the major responsibility stemming from Garland’s inexplicably weak, disconnected, and inept performance in ignoring the dangerous dysfunction in our Immigration Courts and Immigration Judiciary. 

The scurrilous attack on our democracy by far-right demagogues started with racist lies about immigrants, continued with the weaponizing of the Immigration Courts, and evolved with the compromising of the Article III Judiciary! But, it certainly hasn’t ended there!

Getting rid of the leftovers of the “Trump Kakistocracy” at DOJ and EOIR should be one of the top priorities of the Biden Administration’s “campaign to save American democracy!” Why isn’t it?

The unconscionable failure of Garland’s chief lieutenants, Lisa Monaco, Vanita Gupta, Kristen Clarke, and Elizabeth Prelogar — all of whom supposedly have some experience and expertise in constitutional law, human rights, civil rights, racial justice, and legal administration (talk about a shambles at EOIR!) — to get the job done for immigrant justice at DOJ also deserves to go “under the microscope” of critical examination. 

How do they glibly go about their highly paid jobs daily while migrants suffer and die and their attorneys are forced to waste time and struggle against the absurdist disaster at EOIR? Can any of these “out of touch” bureaucrats and politicos even imagine what it’s like to be practicing at today’s legally incompetent, insanely mal-administered, intentionally anti-due-process, overtly user unfriendly EOIR?

By the grace of God, I’m not practicing before the Immigration Courts these days! But, after recent conversations with a number of top practitioners who are being traumatized, having their precious time wasted, and seeing their clients’ lives threatened by EOIR’s stunning ongoing incompetence and dysfunction, I don’t understand what gives high-level political appointees and smug bureaucrats the idea that they are entitled to be “above the fray” of the godawful dysfunction, downright stupidity, and human trauma at EOIR for which they are fully accountable!

One practitioner opened their so-called “EOIR Portal” to show me how they were being mindlessly “double and triple booked,” sometimes in different locations, even as we spoke. Cases set for 2024 were “accelerated” — for no obvious reason — to October 2022 without advance notice to or consultation with the attorney — a clear violation of due process! Asylum cases that would require a minimum of three hours for a fair hearing were being “shoehorned” into two-hour slots, again without consulting the parties!

Long a backwater of failed technology, the “powers that be” at EOIR and DOJ are misusing the limited, somewhat improved technology they now possess to make things worse: harassing practitioners, discouraging representation, and further undermining due process with haste makes waste “Aimless Docket Reshuffling.” Because of EOIR’s gross mismanagement, more Immigration Judges are actually producing more backlog, issuing more wrong decisions, and generating more unnecessary non-dispositive time-wasting motions. It’s an abuse of power and public funding on a massive, mind-boggling scale that undermines our entire justice system!

It seems that the “malicious incompetence” of the Trump DOJ has been exchanged for “just plain incompetence and intransigence” at Garland’s DOJ. Is this “change we should embrace?” Hell no!

Let’s hope that the real superheroes like Raed Gonzalez, folks working in the trenches of our failed justice system, can bail the rest of us out and inspire others to use all legal and political means at our disposal to rise up against Garland’s intransigence on immigration, human rights,  and racial justice at DOJ! 

I agree with President Biden that the extreme, insurrectionist far-right is the greatest threat to American democracy at this moment. But, it is by no means the ONLY one! It’s time for everyone committed to our nation’s future as a constitutional democracy to look closely at the deadly EOIR farce that threatens humanity, undermines the rule of law in America, and squanders tax dollars and demand positive change! Now!

It’s not rocket science, 🚀 even if it is inexplicably “over Garland’s head!”

Alfred E. Neumann
Has Alfred E. Neumann been “reborn” as Judge/AG Merrick Garland? “Not my friends or relatives whose lives as being destroyed by my ‘Kangaroo Courts.’ Just ‘the others’ and their immigration lawyers, so who cares, why worry about professionalism, ethics, and due process in Immigration Court?”
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-03-22

Related posts:

  1. ⚖️🗽🧑🏽‍⚖️”MEDLEY OF INJUSTICE” — CIRCUITS CONTINUE TO LOWER HAMMER 🔨 ON BIA: Anti-Asylum Misogyny; Illegal & Incredibly Stupid “Policies;” “Perplexing” Lack Of Legal Knowledge Highlighted In Latest Batch Of Reversals! — “Attempted rape by a gang of men, in broad daylight on a public street, is especially terrorizing because it powerfully demonstrates the perpetrator’s domination, control over the victim and imperviousness to the law. Requiring evidence of additional harms both minimizes the gravity of the sexual assault and demeans the victim.”
  2. 🆘🤮IS 11TH CIR. GROWING WEARY OF GARLAND’S SCOFFLAW BIA? —Two Trips To The Circuit, & The BIA Still Violates Own Regulations, Ignores Precedent, Spouts Gibberish While OIL’s Defense Of This Nonsense & Malfeasance By EOIR Raises Serious Ethical Questions! — THAMOTAR v. U.S. ATT’Y GEN. — Garland’s Dysfunctional & Systematically Unjust Courts Undermine OUR Democracy☠️ — Demand An IMMEDIATE End To The Scofflaw Nonsense🤡 🧹 At OUR Justice Department! 🏴‍☠️
  3. ⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️JUDICIAL REVIEW — C.A. 2 — Brace Of Bad BIA Bobbles On Basics Brings “Culture Of Denial” Into Focus — Justice Will Continue To Be Illusive @ EOIR 👎🏽 Until Garland Steps Up & Replaces His Fatally Flawed BIA With Real Judges Who Are Progressive Practical Scholars In Immigration, Due Process, Human Rights, With A Firm Commitment To Bringing Racial & Gender Equity To Now-Disgraced Immigration Courts!🤮
  4. ⚖️🗽🧑🏽‍⚖️COURTS OF APPEALS CONTINUE TO THROW ROTTEN TOMATOES 🍅 @ BIA’S ANTI-ASYLUM BIAS — Basic Analytical, Legal Errors Continue From Weaponized, Non-Expert “Star Chamber” ☠️ Posing As ”Tribunal!” — Judge Garland Must Fix This Inexcusable, Unnecessary, Systemic Failure Now! — Justice For Persons Of Color & Migrants Can’t “Wait For Godot!”

DAN RATHER & ELLIOT KIRSHNER: TRUMP’S VERSI0N OF A “WEST WING NUDIST CAMP” — CHECK YOUR DECENCY @ THE DOOR, ENTERING AN “ETHICS FREE ZONE!” — “The naked self-interest was so rampant that Trump’s West Wing could be considered a nudist colony where decency was shed instead of clothing.” 🏴‍☠️

Clothing/Ethics Optional in MAGALAND
Ethics Prohibited Beyond This Point! “The naked self-interest was so rampant that Trump’s West Wing could be considered a nudist colony where decency was shed instead of clothing.” CREATIVE COMMONS.

They Knew. They All Knew.

Cowardice, Cynicism, Contempt, Rationalizations

Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner

6 hr ago

1,403

476

Documents seized from Donald Trump’s Florida home (credit: Department of Justice)

Sometimes we write a lot of words on Steady. Today will be an exception. Because for all that there is to say, for all that needs to be said, for all that an accounting for history requires we say, the general sentiments are quite simple:

They knew. They all knew.

It was clear to anyone who had an ounce of appreciation for what the job of the presidency entails, to anyone who respected the constitutional order of our government, to anyone who worried about the health and safety of this nation, to anyone with a moral compass, to anyone who prizes the common sense of purpose that great leaders can summon, that Donald J. Trump had no business anywhere near the presidency.

Now, as he melts down in the face of a serious criminal investigation, as we see pictures of how he stored classified material and his utter disregard for our nation’s most sensitive secrets, as we are left to wonder what he was up to and what damage was done, we should recognize that we would not be where we are today without his enablers, apologists, and hangers-on.

They heralded his outrageousness in a chorus of sycophancy.
They feted his vileness.
They viciously attacked those who pointed out the obvious, that Trump was mentally, emotionally, intellectually, morally, and constitutionally unfit for his office.

And who are they? They are the Republican politicians, the so-called serious ones who expressed their concerns in private even as they used Trump to achieve their desired tax cuts and judges. They are the members of his administration — senior and junior — who jockeyed to maximize their career benefit at the expense of doing the necessary work for the American people. They are the lawyers who twisted themselves into pretzels to try to legalize his inherent lawlessness. They are the media personalities who saw Trump as a printing press for their accrual of wealth and power. They are the capitalists who put corporate earnings ahead of the well-being of the nation.

While Trump’s voters were primed with a toxic stew of hatred, bigotry, and divisiveness, the small cabal playing the inside game didn’t bother with the MAGA hats. They were too busy trading access for favors. The naked self-interest was so rampant that Trump’s West Wing could be considered a nudist colony where decency was shed instead of clothing.

But make no mistake…

In their cowardice, they knew.
In their cynicism, they knew.
In their contempt, they knew.
In their rationalizations, they knew.
In their acquittals of his conduct, even for impeachment, they knew.

They knew when they could have stopped him — before he became president, and once he was president.

But they didn’t stop him. And with their inaction, they encouraged him.

As the Trump bubble begins to pop, all these people who knew what he was all along will likely scurry like cockroaches when the lights go on. They will make all sorts of excuses for their complicity. They will gaslight, lie, and try to rewrite history. You can already see it in many of their so-called tell-all books. Except what they are telling is only the story they want people to hear. It is not the truth.

The truth is that they don’t dare say what we all know. They knew.

Note: If you are not already a subscriber to our Steady newsletter, please consider doing so. And we always appreciate you sharing our content with others and leaving your thoughts in the comments.

***********************
Throughout history, despots and would-be despots have surrounded themselves with motley crews of sycophants, toadies, and retainers. Trump has excelled at it!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-01-22

Related posts:

  1. FRANK RICH @ NY MAGGIE: TRUMP TOADIES WILL FACE A RECKONING — “With time, the ultimate fates of those brutalized immigrant and refugee families will emerge in full. And Trump’s collaborators, our Vichy Republicans, will own all of it . . . .”
  2. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: CLYDE W. FORD @ LA TIMES: “Opinion: The immigration crisis and the racism driving it have roots in Hitler’s ‘bible’”
  3. 🤮NO PEACE ON EARTH GOODWILL TOWARD MEN (WOMEN, OR ESPECIALLY CHILDREN) FROM REGIME OF “BAD SANTAS” 🦹🏿‍♂️🎅🏻— Illegally Separated Families Continue To Suffer Irreparable Trauma, 😰 Volunteer Groups 😇🗽⚖️ Left To Pick Up Pieces — A Reminder That Defeated Regime Has Mocked, Disparaged, & Trashed Christ’s Values & Assaulted Humanity Over Four Christmases!🏴‍☠️🤮☠️⚰️👎🏻
  4. 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮👎🏻IN NYT OP-ED, FORMER TRUMP DOJ ATTORNEY ERICA NEWLAND ADMITS COMPLICITY! — Having Undermined Democratic Institutions, Sold False Narratives To (Too Often Willing) Federal Judges, & Participated In Racist-Inspired “Dred Scottification” (“Dehumanization”) Of the Other Is Actually a BIG Deal! — So Is The Destruction Of Due Process & Fundamental Fairness In The Immigration Courts (Now, “Clown Courts”🤡, or “America’s Star Chambers”☠️) 

THE GIBSON REPORT — 08-29-22 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Managing Attorney, NIJC

Elizabeth Gibson
Elizabeth Gibson
Managing Attorney
National Immigrant Justice Center
Publisher of “The Gibson Report”

Weekly Briefing

This briefing is designed as a quick-reference aggregation of developments in immigration law, practice, and policy that you can scan for anything you missed over the last week. The contents of the news, links, and events do not necessarily reflect the position of the National Immigrant Justice Center. If you have items that you would like considered for inclusion, please email them to egibson@heartlandalliance.org.

CONTENTS (jump to section)

PRACTICE UPDATES

EOIR Practice Manual & BIA Practice Manual

EOIR: In response to comments from the public, EOIR is once again making the Board and Immigration Court Practice Manuals available as downloadable PDF documents. [Also, the BIA Practice Manual now lists the BIA brief page limit at 50 pages.]

Penn State Law: DACA Final Rule: What You Need to Know

NEWS

Biden administration moves to make DACA harder to challenge in court

NPR: NPR’s A Martinez talks to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which is now in the federal government’s code of regulations.

She’s at Brown. Her Heart’s Still in Kabul.

NYT: In their first year at U.S. universities, women who escaped the Taliban are struggling to adjust — and to reckon with what they left behind. See also One year on, Afghan refugees find shelter but little security in US.

Visa rules in Mexico don’t stop Venezuelans headed to US

AP: In 2021, when Venezuelans could still fly to Cancun or Mexico City as tourists, only 3,000 of them crossed the Darien Gap — a literal gap in the Pan-American Highway that stretches along 60 miles (97 kilometers) of mountains, rainforest and rivers. So far this year, there have been 45,000, according to Panama’s National Immigration Service.

A ‘radical shift’ at the border is making things tougher for Biden

CNN: Back in 2007, the number of migrants in this “other” category was negligible. But since then, it’s grown dramatically — 11,000% — with the sharpest increase in just the past two years.

New Mexico won’t deny law licenses over immigration status

AP: Announced Monday, the rule change from the New Mexico Supreme Court is scheduled to take effect Oct. 1. Several states already have provisions that disregard residency or immigration status in licensure decisions.

Unaccompanied Immigrant Children Who Are Pregnant And In US Custody Are Being Moved Across State Lines To Access Abortion Services

Buzzfeed: ORR is working on an updated policy, and advocates have heard that the agency was already transferring minors to other states if they need access to abortion services, Amiri said. But nothing official has been released.

LITIGATION & AGENCY UPDATES

1st Circ. Says BIA Didn’t Explain Seriousness Of Weed Crime

Law360: The First Circuit has told the Board of Immigration Appeals to have another look at a Haitian man’s asylum request, saying the board did not adequately explain why his marijuana offenses made him ineligible for asylum.

3rd Circ. Says Pa. Stalking Conviction Isn’t Deportable

Law360: The Third Circuit ruled that U.S. Department of Homeland Security couldn’t deport an Indian immigrant over a stalking conviction, saying the man was convicted under an overbroad Pennsylvania law that criminalized misconduct that doesn’t warrant deportation.

CA4: IJ Milo Bryant Violated Respondent’s Due Process Rights; Illegal Reentry Indictment Dismissed

LexisNexis: During that hearing, the immigration judge neglected to advise Fernandez Sanchez about his eligibility for voluntary departure or inform him of his right to appeal. Then, in his written summary order, the immigration judge indicated that Fernandez Sanchez had waived his right to appeal—even though this was never discussed during the hearing…Ultimately, we agree with Fernandez Sanchez that there is a reasonable probability that, but for the denial of his appeal rights, he would not have been deported.

Allies Tell DC Circ. Green Card Delays Threaten Safety

Law360: Afghan and Iraqi allies suing the federal government over delays with their green card applications told the D.C. Circuit that a lower court’s refusal to impose a deadline to address the delays endangers their lives given the deteriorating security conditions in their homelands.

Blogger Cops To Assisting Attys’ Alleged Immigration Scam

Law360: A New York City blogger told a Manhattan federal judge Wednesday that he assisted two lawyers in creating fraudulent asylum applications to submit to U.S. immigration authorities, pleading guilty to a conspiracy count.

GEO Group Hit With Investor Suit Over Forced Labor Claims

Law360: An investor of The GEO Group has lodged a derivative suit against higher-ups of the private prison operator, saying their disclosures about GEO’s financial prospects didn’t match internal financial concerns stemming from lawsuits alleging forced labor by immigrant detainees.

DHS Issues Regulation to Preserve and Fortify DACA

DHS: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas today announced that the Department has issued a final rule that will preserve and fortify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy for certain eligible noncitizens who arrived in the United States as children, deferring their removal and allowing them an opportunity to access a renewable, two-year work permit.

EOIR 60-Day Notice and Request for Comments on Proposed Revisions to Forms EOIR-42A and EOIR-42B

AILA: EOIR 60-day notice and request for comments on proposed revisions to Form EOIR-42A, Application for Cancellation of Removal for Certain Permanent Residents, and Form EOIR-42B, Application for Cancellation of Removal and Adjustment of Status for Certain Nonpermanent Residents.

DOJ 60-Day Notice and Request for Comments on Proposed Revisions to EOIR-44

AILA: DOJ 60-day notice and request for comments on proposed revisions to Form EOIR-44, Immigration Practitioner Complaint Form. Comments are due 10/24/22.

RESOURCES

EVENTS

To sign up for additional NIJC newsletters, visit: https://immigrantjustice.org/subscribe.

You now can change your email settings or search the archives using the Google Group. If you are receiving this briefing from a third party, you can visit the Google Group and request to be added.

Elizabeth Gibson (Pronouns: she/her/ella)

Managing Attorney for Capacity Building and Mentorship

National Immigrant Justice Center

A HEARTLAND ALLIANCE Program

224 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60604
T: (312) 660-1688| F: (312) 660-1688| E: egibson@heartlandalliance.org

www.immigrantjustice.org | Facebook | Twitter

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

Thanks, Elizabeth!

As usual, this is a good rundown of some of the continuing problems that Garland’s EOIR is having in the Federal Courts, including a few items previously reported on Courtside.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-30-22

Related posts:

  1. ⚖️THE GIBSON REPORT — 07-11-22 —  Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, Managing Attorney, NIJC — Glimpses Of Some Failing Righty Federal Judges & An Administration That Lacks A Bold Plan For Improving Immigration, Human Rights, & Racial Justice, Particularly @ EOIR!
  2. ⚖️ THE GIBSON REPORT — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, Managing Attorney, NIJC: Stephen Miller Was Even More Of A Disreputable Scofflaw! — 9th Halts BIA’s “Rote Formula” For Improperly Denying CAT W/O Meaningful Analysis — EOIR In Louisiana Continues To Be “Death Valley” ☠️⚰️  For Asylum Seekers:  “‘I feel that the big problem we face today is that there is a real dehumanization of the entire process,’ said Mich Gonzalez, Associate Director of Advocacy at the Southern Poverty Law Center.”
  3. THE GIBSON REPORT:  05-09-22 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, Managing Attorney, National Immigrant Justice Center — HEADLINERS: 2d Cir. Reverses BIA On CIMT; Texas AG Targets Legal Assistance To Migrants; EOIR “Friend of Court” Memo; Lack Of Immigrants Hurting U.S. Economy — PLUS BONUS COVERAGE:  New Legal Aid Alliance Aims to Build a Model for Universal Representation for Detained Immigrants!
  4. ☹️HE BEAT THE GOVERNMENT TWICE IN COURT — But, After Three Years In Jail Without Being Charged With Any Crime, Omar Ameen Still Can’t Get A Bond From Garland’s Courts —  How Can A System Where The Prosecutor Makes The Rules & Picks The Judges, Mostly From The Ranks Of Former Prosecutors, Provide The “Fair & Impartial Judging” Required By Due Process?

🏴‍☠️CRISTIAN FARIAS @ VANITY FAIR: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A MAJORITY OF A DEMOCRACY’S TOP JUDGES NO LONGER BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY & ARE UNWILLING TO DEFEND IT?☠️

Cristian Farias
Cristian Farias
Writer 
Vanity Fair

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/08/post-roe-scotus-is-on-a-collision-course-with-democracy

After destabilizing the nation over abortion, and moving further right on guns, climate, and religion, the conservative justices’ sights are on affirmative action, voting rights, and a fringe legal theory that could empower Trump-friendly state legislatures for future elections.

BY CRISTIAN FARIAS

AUGUST 25, 2022

On the eve of his retirement, the nation’s first Black justice and ­constitutional giant, Thurgood Marshall, took a moment to denounce the Supreme Court of the United States over its “radical” path of abandoning past decisions for no other reason than the court’s membership had changed. Owing to these shifts in personnel, Marshall charged, now “scores of established constitutional liberties” hung in the balance, the powerless were left defenseless, and the court’s own authority and legitimacy were diminished. “Power, not reason, is the new currency of this Court’s decisionmaking,” Marshall warned in 1991, in what turned out to be his final dissenting opinion.

The dissenting justices in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the watershed case that discarded nearly 50 years of American jurisprudence protecting a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy, felt the need to quote from Marshall’s decades-old warning because power, indeed, is the only sensible explanation for the Supreme Court’s present course. The seismic end of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, two pillars of a much larger structure of unenumerated constitutional rights the high court has erected over almost a century, was neither legally necessary nor a product of profound changes in American society. Instead, five justices tore these precedents off the law books, ushering in a new era of abortion criminalization and second-class citizenship for half the nation, simply because they could—and had the numbers to do so. “Neither law nor facts nor attitudes have provided any new reasons to reach a different result than Roe and Casey did,” wrote Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan in their anguished Dobbs dissent. “All that has changed is this Court.”

As radical and destabilizing as the fall of Roe is for our most intimate personal decisions, beyond just abortion rights, its ripples will extend to other areas where the conservative justices are already smelling blood. Not satisfied with the erasure of just one constitutional right, Clarence Thomas, writing separately in Dobbs, indicated that contraception and same-sex marriage could be next. That future begins now. These actions and other signals make abundantly clear what Marshall foresaw: The Supreme Court is on a collision course with democracy itself. Dobbs merely sets the stage.

Every new justice creates a new court, the maxim goes. Yet for much of their time on the bench, Justice ­Samuel Alito, long a soldier in the Republican holy war to curtail abortion rights, and Thomas, an avowed Roe antagonist, had the will but not the votes to impose their antiabortion vision on the majority of the Supreme Court, much less on the rest of the country. Their fortunes, and power, changed with the election of Donald Trump, whose own marriage of convenience with white evangelicals and social conservatives paved the way for his presidency and the installation of three new justices of a different mold, all of them more extreme and lacking the moderation of Republican appointees of the past, including those who made Roe and Casey possible.

Next to this “restless and newly constituted Court,” as Sotomayor branded this new majority in June, Chief Justice John Roberts looks as weakened as ever. The Supreme Court may bear his name, and the chief may have come of age during the abortion wars of the 1980s and ’90s, but neither his title nor institutionalist bent could convince the reactionaries to his right that their ­power grab in Dobbs represented “a serious jolt to the legal system” that he simply could not join in full. Too much, too soon. To the Trump justices, plus Thomas and Alito, this shock to the nation could not come soon enough.

Nominated by a president who lost the popular vote and narrowly confirmed by a Senate plagued by minority rule, these justices—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—were all groomed for this moment. All of them were grown in the test tube of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal brain trust that for decades has been a judicial pipeline for Republican administrations and state governments, which since the time of Ronald Reagan have made the fall of Roe a white whale of their politics.

. . . .

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

Read the rest of the article at the link.

Cristian creates an interesting vignette. The Justices take a few minutes to gather to welcome Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Court. Then, the Right Wing Majority goes to work ignoring her views, insuring her marginalization, and pushing a minority agenda drawing into question her very existence as a person under law. 

The conclusion of the article is perhaps most illustrative of the uncertain future of democracy, human rights, equal justice, and indeed basic human decency:

“Women are not without electoral or political power,” wrote without irony the five justices who ended their right to be full and equal citizens before the law in Dobbs. In asserting power rather than reason over what remains of our less than perfect union, the Supreme Court may well unravel democracy with it, taking us down a path from which there is no return.

Quite an achievement for a Court now dominated by those appointed by Presidents whose election (initial or sole) contravened the will of the majority of voters.

“Better Judges for a Better America!” Why not start with your “wholly owned and operated” Immigration Courts, Merrick Garland?

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-29-22

More from today’s WashPost on the threat to our democracy posed by the anti-democracy, scofflaw GOP and their right wing judges:

William Webster and William Cohen on how today’s MAGA-infested GOP has become a cult of the lawless: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/26/mar-a-lago-fbi-attacks-lawless-gop/

E.J. Dionne on how the “off the rails, far right” GOP Supremes’ majority threatens  humanity’s future with their anti-scientific, anti-government, anti-truth far right agenda:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/28/west-virginia-epa-inflation-reduction-act/

Jennifer Rubin on how one distinguished Senior U.S. District Judge, a Clinton appointee, stood up to the GOP’s anti-abortion overreach: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/28/federal-judge-pushback-idaho-abortion-ban/

 

Related posts:

  1. THE SADNESS OF PROPHECY WITHOUT POWER: Two Years Ago, I Gave A Speech Warning Of The Consequences Of “1939 Germany” — Now, We’re In “Germany 1938” With 1939 Just An Election Away! — Moscow Mitch, Lindsey The Toad, Texas Ted & The Rest Of The GOP Fellow Travelers & Cultists Would Be Right At Home With Franz van Papen!
  2. 🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️⚖️ MAKING THEIR CASE: The Competition For “America’s Most Dangerous Court” 🏆🤮 Is Fierce, But The Far-Right Scofflaw Fifth Circuit Is Coming On Strong! — The Righty Supremes Fight Back With Gross Abuses Of “Shadow Docket” — Is There Another “Top Contender” Out There Operating Below The Radar Screen?
  3. ☹️HE BEAT THE GOVERNMENT TWICE IN COURT — But, After Three Years In Jail Without Being Charged With Any Crime, Omar Ameen Still Can’t Get A Bond From Garland’s Courts —  How Can A System Where The Prosecutor Makes The Rules & Picks The Judges, Mostly From The Ranks Of Former Prosecutors, Provide The “Fair & Impartial Judging” Required By Due Process?
  4. ⚖️👎🏽🤮☠️HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS BLAST BIDEN, HARRIS, GARLAND, MAYORKAS FOR ILLEGAL RETURNS TO COLOMBIA, CONTINUATION OF MILLER’S XENOPHOBIC, DEADLY & CORRUPT TITLE 42 ABUSES OF HUMANITY!

🤯 AS EOIR SINKS INTO THE SEA OF CHAOS & INJUSTICE, GARLAND’S SOLUTION: MORE UNNEEDED BUREAUCRACY!

Hole in the head
This is how much EOIR and its long-suffering stakeholders need a “Chief of the Immigration Law Division” at EOIR!
PHOTO: EOI Teacher @ Twitter

https://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/job/supervisory-attorney-advisor-chief-immigration-law-division

Duties include but are not limited to the following:

  • Plan and direct general legal activities of the Agency with the objective of assuring that all actions taken are in accordance with law and regulation with special emphasis on assuring that actions taken conform to the basic principles of law.
  • Provide interpretation of immigration provisions, laws, and regulations to all segments of the agency.
  • Propose the development of policies and procedures in response to legal cases or problems that have the effect of substantially broadening or restricting the activities of the agency.
  • Advise the Director/Deputy and staff on the legal implications of proposed and newly enacted laws, regulations and policies that will have an impact on the operation of the agency and keeps abreast of current decisions of the courts.
  • Direct professional legal staff in the development, documentation, and operation of both internal processes and administrative/technical controls.
  • Supervise staff in the formulation and direction of proactive, time-sensitive services and/or guidance to EOIR components, unique needs of senior management and responsiveness to the Department and other government or regulatory agencies.

Qualifications:

In order to qualify for the position, you must meet the following minimum qualifications:

  • Education: Applicants must possess an LL.B. or a J.D. degree. (Provide the month and year in which you obtained your degree and the name of the College or University from which it was conferred/awarded.)

AND

  • Licensure: Applicants must be an active member of the bar, duly licensed and authorized to practice law as an attorney under the laws of any state, territory of the U.S., or the District of Columbia. (Provide the month and year in which you obtained your first license and the State from which it was issued.)

AND

Required Experience:

For GS-15: Applicants must have four (4) full years (48 months) of post J.D. or LL.B professional legal experience. Qualifying professional legal experience includes: Direct professional legal staff in the development, documentation, and operation of both internal processes and administrative/technical controls; Advise Senior Management and staff on the legal implications of proposed and newly enacted laws, regulations and policies that will have an impact on the operation of the agency and keeps abreast of current decisions of the courts; and Plan and direct general legal activities of the Agency with the objective of assuring that all actions taken are in accordance with law and regulation with special emphasis on assuring that actions taken conform to the basic principles of law.

(Your resume must CLEARLY demonstrate this experience)

Preferred Experience:

The ideal candidate will have experience with the following:

  • Providing technical and administrative supervision over attorneys and professional staff within an organization.
  • Planning and assigning work to subordinate attorneys based on priorities and difficulty of the assignment.
  • Providing input and advice to Senior Officials on policy decisions.
  • Coordinating with other government offices and/or agencies on legal matters.

NOTE: Qualifying experience is calculated only after receipt of J.D. or LL.B.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

Salary:

($148,484 – $176,300 per year.

Travel:

Occasional travel

Application Process:

To Apply for this position, please click the below link to access and apply to the vacancy announcement via USA Jobs USAJOBS – Job Announcement . Please read the announcement thoroughly. You Must Submit a complete application package by 11:59PM (EST) on 9/02/2022, the closing date of the announcement.

Applicants should familiarize themselves and comply with the relevant rules of professional conduct regarding any possible conflicts of interest in connection with their applications. In particular, please notify this Office if you currently represent clients or adjudicate matters in which this Office is involved and/or you have a family member who is representing clients or adjudicating matters in which this Office is involved so that we can evaluate any potential conflict of interest or disqualification issue that may need to be addressed under those circumstances.

Application Deadline:

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Relocation Expenses:

Not authorized

Number of Positions:

1

Updated August 23, 2022

*         *         *

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

The ship is rudderless and sinking! Many of the sailors are inept or think they are working for a different Navy! The solution: More Lt. Commanders on deck, each doing someone else’s job and giving random orders, to add to the confusion and disorder!

Let me be clear: EOIR and its long-suffering “customers” and “stakeholders” need this superfluous position like a hole in the head! Perhaps less! This looks like “EOIR imitating the DHS bureaucracy” that it is supposed to be treating as a “party,” not a “role model!”

The “Office of Policy” — totally unnecessary and inconsistent with the mission of a quasi-judicial court system — is a serious boondoggle created by the last Administration. Eliminating it and redeploying its wasted resources into competent, expert quasi-judicial decision making should have been “Day One Stuff” for Garland. But it wasn’t!

EOIR needs better, expert judges, who know immigration and human rights laws, and are unswervingly committed to due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices! It also needs a “lean team” of well qualified judicial administrators to recruit, hire, train, and support judges and court staff!

Incredibly, most of this PD sounds like it’s right out of the PDs for BIA Chair, BIA Member, CIJ, Director, Deputy Director, or General Counsel. Get folks who can do those jobs and eliminate the Office of Policy and the other “non-operational bureaucratic fat” in Falls Church!

Does the Supreme Court have a “U.S. Law Division?” How about the D.C. Circuit where Garland once served? What on earth is Garland doing with this wasteful nonsense!

For Pete’s sake, the BIA IS the “Immigration Law Division!” If, as I maintain, most of the current Appellate Judges are not capable of performing those functions competently and in accordance with due process and fundamental fairness, then get better judges in there! Now!

Sure, it’s not the “popular solution” within the self-perpetuating bureaucracy. But, it’s the right one!

Stop the unnecessary proliferation of inept bureaucrats at EOIR! “Hey, hey, Ho, ho, the EOIR Clown Show has got to go!” Throwing more “ringmasters” into this circus is NOT the answer!

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

DOJ and Director Neal should be hauled before an Oversight Committee to justify their continuing bureaucratic nonsense in the face of abject “mission failure!” Not going to happen. But, it should! Honestly!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-24-22

Related posts:

  1. ⚖️FINALLY, HOUSE TO EXAMINE GARLAND’S DYSFUNCTIONAL, MISMANAGED, LEADERLESS IMMIGRATION “COURTS” & NEED FOR DUE-PROCESS-FOCUSED REFORMS! — Tal Kopan Reports For SF Chron!
  2. ⚖️🤯🤮GARLAND’S OHIO JUDICIAL MELTDOWN — “High-Asylum-Denying” Immigration Judges Appointed By Barr & Sessions Remain On Garland’s Bench In Cleveland Despite Referring To Migrants As “Illegals” & “Pretty Virgins!” — EOIR Disciplinary System Remains As Opaque As Ever Under Garland!🏴‍☠️ Yulin Cheng Reports @ Columbus Dispatch!
  3. ⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️🗽COURT REFORM: GW IMMIGRATION CLINIC STUDENTS WEIGH IN ON ARTICLE I — Emphasize Critical Due Process Need To Entirely Remove AG From Decision-Making Process!
  4. 🆘🤮IS 11TH CIR. GROWING WEARY OF GARLAND’S SCOFFLAW BIA? —Two Trips To The Circuit, & The BIA Still Violates Own Regulations, Ignores Precedent, Spouts Gibberish While OIL’s Defense Of This Nonsense & Malfeasance By EOIR Raises Serious Ethical Questions! — THAMOTAR v. U.S. ATT’Y GEN. — Garland’s Dysfunctional & Systematically Unjust Courts Undermine OUR Democracy☠️ — Demand An IMMEDIATE End To The Scofflaw Nonsense🤡 🧹 At OUR Justice Department! 🏴‍☠️

⚖️🗽 RAPPAPORT & STOCK URGE ACTION ON AFGHAN REFUGEES!

Nolan Rappaport
Nolan Rappaport
Contributor, The Hill
Margaret Stock, Esquire
Margaret Stock, Esquire
Anchorage, Alaska
PHOTO: Law firm

Nolan sends this summary of his latest on The Hill:

Afghans who helped us deserve better immigration treatment

Nolan Rappaport, opinion contributor

 

 

As the Afghan government and military fell to the Taliban after U.S. troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, the U.S. hastily evacuated American citizens and 76,000 Afghans who had helped the U.S. in its 20-year war against the Taliban.

 

It is a year later now, and most of the Afghan evacuees still have temporary immigration status, which means that they may be subject to removal when their status expires. This isn’t right.  We should be taking better care of them.

 

It is more than just an obligation to people who put themselves in peril to help the United States.

 

According to Margaret D. Stock, a retired military officer, “Correcting for this inaction is a matter of national security — in future conflicts, why would anyone risk their lives by serving alongside our soldiers or providing critical translation services if the U.S. can’t keep our promises to them when we depart?”

 

It wouldn’t be taking this long to meet the needs of the Afghans if our immigration system weren’t overwhelmed to the point of being dysfunctional.

 

Parole

 

The evacuees who did not have entry documents had to request humanitarian parole, which permits undocumented migrants to be admitted to the United States temporarily for urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit reasons.

 

Approximately 70,192 of them were paroled into the United States between July 30, 2021, and Nov. 15, 2021.

 

Permanent status

 

Congress has enacted a series of legislative provisions which enable certain Afghan nationals to become lawful permanent residents (LPRs) on the basis of a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV).

 

Section 1059 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2006, authorizes giving SIVs to Afghans who worked with the U.S. Armed Forces or under Chief of Mission (COM) authority as a translator or an interpreter for at least a year.

 

To be eligible for this special immigrant classification, the principal applicant must obtain a favorable written recommendation from the COM or a general or flag officer in the relevant Armed Forces unit.

 

Afghans who were employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government or the International security Assistance Force in Afghanistan may be eligible for SIV status under section 602(b) of the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009.

 

Roadblock

As of July 18, 2022, there were 74,274 principal applicants in the SIV pipeline. This number does not include spouses and children. And the applications have to be processed by USCIS, which is experiencing a backlog crisis.

 

Read more at https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/3605096-afghans-who-helped-us-deserve-better-immigration-treatment/

 

Published originally on The Hill.

 

Nolan Rappaport was detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an Executive Branch Immigration Law Expert for three years. He subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years. Follow him athttps://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/2306123393080132994

 

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

Read Nolan’s full op-ed at the link.

When experts like Nolan and Margaret are saying the same thing, everyone should listen and act accordingly!

In addition to fair and equitable treatment for our allies, we must resume and expand fair and humane treatment for all refugees, including, most important, those seeking legal refuge at our borders. Many of them actually come from broken countries where the the U.S. has left a “large footprint,” like Haiti and Latin America. 

It is long past time to make the legal requirement set forth in the Refugee Act of 1980 — any individual in the US or arriving at our border may apply for asylum “irrespective of status” — a reality rather than a cruel hoax. Contrary to some disgracefully wrong-headed court decisions, this statutory requirement implicitly requires that opportunity to be in full compliance with due process. 

Otherwise, to state the obvious, it’s no opportunity at all — just a legal charade. Unfortunately, that is what much of our broken, dysfunctional, and unjust asylum and refugee systems look like now!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-19-22

Related posts:

  1. WOW, HERE’S A SURPRISE: MANY KIDS FLEEING VIOLENCE IN THE NORTHERN TRIANGLE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BIDEN BORDER POLICIES — They Are Just Trying To Save Their Lives!
  2. VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS THINKS RULE OF LAW DOESN’T APPLY TO RICH NATION THAT ILLEGALLY TURNS DESPERATE REFUGEES AWAY, SUGGESTS GUATEMALANS SHOULD DIE IN PLACE! — “Deterrence Statement” Won’t Stop Migration, Won’t Appease Nativist-Restrictionists, But Will Cost Her Support From Human Rights Progressives Who Helped Elect Her!  — There Will Be No Workable Solutions At Our Southern Border Without a Functional, Robust Legal Asylum System That Complies With Due Process!
  3. ⚖️BINGO! — WASHPOST DUO’S REPORT SHOWS TIMELINESS ⏰ OF RAPPAPORT-PISTONE-SCHMIDT PLAN 😎 FOR INCREASING REPRESENTATION AND IMPROVING MPP PROCESS! — All That’s Missing Is The Government Leadership To Engage & Make It Happen! — “But despite the vastly lower numbers, there is still far more demand for pro bono legal services than nonprofit groups and charities can provide, Castro said.”
  4. 🏴‍☠️☠️👎🏽GROUPS EXPOSE RACISM, MYTHS IN BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S ABUSE OF HAITIAN ASYLUM SEEKERS! — “Each day that the Title 42 policy remains in effect, it places Haitians directly in harm’s way.”

📖COURTSIDE HISTORY: BEYOND THE CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT, RACISM IS AT THE CORE OF U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY — Professor Andrew S. Rosenberg Interviewed On New Book By Isabela Dias @ Mother Jones!

Isabela Dias
Isabela Dias
Staff Writer, Immigration & Social Issues
Mother Jones
PHOTO: Twitter
Professor Andrew S. Rosenberg
Professor Andrew S. Rosenberg
Assistant Professor of Political Science
U of Florida
PHOTO: Website

https://apple.news/AOMcfZiMFQ0OSgozcppDcjg

“Undesirable Immigrants: Why Racism Persists in International Migration”

. . . .

In the book, you dispute the assumption that the right to border control and to exclude foreigners is an inherent feature of sovereign states. Instead, you frame it as a “modern consequence of racism.” Why do you see it that way?

The nation-state is a relatively modern invention on the scale of human history. Today, we have this conventional wisdom floating around that it is the natural right and duty of nation-states as sovereign entities to be able to restrict foreigners and have these really hard borders—and that it’s that ability that makes a state what it is. Actually, if you go back in time and look at the international legal thought that emerged from the 15th through the 19th centuries on what it actually means to be a state, the commonly held assumption that people like the late Justice [Antonin] Scalia and others talk about, is actually an invention of the 19th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the great thinkers of international legal jurisprudence or of state theory either thought that states had a right or an obligation to be hospitable to foreigners and to allow them free passage into their territory or, at most, it was up for raucous debate. It was only in the 19th century, when immigrant-receiving countries like the United States began receiving a large influx of racially different outsiders like the Chinese, that this presumption that sovereign states have a right and an obligation that can be tied back to their status as sovereign states to restrict outsiders emerged.

People like Texas Governor Greg Abbott seem to invoke that supposed inherent right when they describe migrants at the border as an “invasion.”

Precisely. These types of “declarations of war” are one of the clearest examples of this ideology seeping into public debate, which leads everyday people to create this idea that migrants are undesirable outsiders who are not fit for, or are undeserving of reaping the benefits of living in the United States or participating in our society.

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

Read the complete interview at the link.

The myth of the “undesirable immigrant” — at the heart of the anti-immigrant rabble rousing of Trump, Miller, Bannon, DeSantis, Abbott, Cotton, Hawley, etc. — has deep roots in American racial history.

I’ve said it many times: There will be neither racial justice nor equal justice for all without justice for immigrants (regardless of status). Laws like the Refugee Act of 1980, that very explicitly make arrival status irrelevant to access to a fair legal process, have been intentionally misinterpreted and misapplied by right-wing judges from the Supremes all the way down to the Immigration Courts. 

Advocates for civil rights, womens’ rights, LGBTQ+ rights, voting rights, disability rights, and other fundamental rights that have been unlawfully restricted or diminished, usually, but certainly not exclusively, by the right, who continue to ignore the primacy of dealing with the intentional unfair, racially biased treatment of migrants do so at their own peril!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-12-22

Related posts:

  1. WHEN ARTICLE III COURTS FAIL: U.S. “Orbits” Refugee Families To Dangerous Chaos In Guatemala Under Clearly Fraudulent “Safe Third Country” Arrangements As Feckless U.S. Courts Fail To Enforce Constitutional Due Process & U.S. Asylum Laws In Face Of Trump Regime’s Contemptuous Scofflaw Conduct!
  2. 👹🎃HALLOWEEN HORROR 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻REICHSREPORT: GRUPPENFUHRER MILLER REVEALS “REICHSPLAN” FOR EXTERMINATION OF IMMIGRATION, ASYLUM, REFUGE BY EXECUTIVE DECREE!  — “The Final Solution??”  — Parents, Protect Your Kids, Families, & Your Country From This Grotesque Un-American Monster!
  3. FELIPE DE LA HOZ @ THE NATION: “The Shadow Court Cementing Trump’s Immigration Policy” — “It’s not a court anymore, it’s an enforcement mechanism,” said Paul Wickham Schmidt, who was himself chair of the BIA between 1995 and 2001 and now writes a popular immigration blog called Immigration Courtside. “They’re taking predetermined policy and just disguising it as judicial opinions, when the results have all been predetermined and it has nothing to do or little to do with the merits of the cases.”
  4. CHARLES M. BLOW @ NYT: TIME TO START CALLING IT WHAT IT IS:  “It is time for us to simply call a thing a thing: White supremacy is the biggest racial problem this country faces, and has faced. It is almost always the cause of unrest around race. It has been used to slaughter and destroy, to oppress and imprison. It manifests in every segment of American life.”

🏴‍☠️☠️DANA MILBANK @ WASHPOST:  THE JIM CROW GOP WAS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY LONG BEFORE TRUMP — Today’s Absurdist & Corrupt GOP Reaction TO DOJ’s Long Overdue Investigation Of Trump’s Treason & Criminality Is The Predictable Result Of Many Years Of Corrupt, Racist, Authoritarianism!

Dana Milbank
Dana Milbank
Opinion Columnist
Washington Post

\https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/04/dana-milbank-republican-destructionists-book-excerpt/

. . . .

Much has been made of the ensuing polarization in our politics, and it’s true that moderates are a vanishing breed. But the problem isn’t primarily polarization. The problem is that one of our two major political parties has ceased good-faith participation in the democratic process. Of course, there are instances of violence, disinformation, racism and corruption among Democrats and the political left, but the scale isn’t at all comparable. Only one party fomented a bloody insurrection and even after that voted in large numbers (139 House Republicans, a two-thirds majority) to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 election. Only one party promotes a web of conspiracy theories in place of facts. Only one party is trying to restrict voting and discredit elections. Only one party is stoking fear of minorities and immigrants.

Admittedly, I’m partisan — not for Democrats but for democrats. Republicans have become an authoritarian faction fighting democracy — and there’s a perfectly logical reason for this: Democracy is working against Republicans. In the eight presidential contests since 1988, the GOP candidate has won a majority of the popular vote only once, in 2004. As the United States approaches majority-minority status (the White population, 76 percent of the country in 1990, is now 58 percent and will drop below 50 percent around 2045), Republicans have become the voice of White people, particularly those without college degrees, who fear the loss of their way of life in a multicultural America. White grievance and White fear drive Republican identity more than any other factor — and in turn drive the tribalism and dysfunction in the U.S. political system.

Other factors sped the party’s turn toward nihilism: Concurrent with the rise of Gingrich was the ascent of conservative talk radio, followed by the triumph of Fox News, followed by the advent of social media. Combined, they created a media environment that allows Republican politicians and their voters to seal themselves in an echo chamber of “alternative facts.” Globally, south-to-north migration has ignited nationalist movements around the world and created a new era of autocrats. The disappearance of the Greatest Generation, tempered by war, brought to power a new generation of culture warriors.

Dana Milbank: In the GOP, the paranoid fringe is becoming the establishment

But the biggest cause is race. The parties re-sorted themselves after the epochal changes of the 1960s, which expanded civil rights, voting rights and immigration. Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” began an appeal to White voters alienated by racial progress, and, in the years that followed, a new generation of Republicans took that racist undertone and made it the melody.

It is crucial to understand that Donald Trump didn’t create this noxious environment. He isn’t some hideous, orange Venus emerging from the half-shell. Rather, he is a brilliant opportunist; he saw the direction the Republican Party was taking and the appetites it was stoking. The onetime pro-choice advocate of universal health care reinvented himself to give Republicans what they wanted. Because Trump is merely a reflection of the sickness in the GOP, the problem won’t go away when he does.

. . . .

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

Read the full excerpt from “The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party” by Dana Milbank at the link.

As I noted in yesterday’s post, racially charged lies, myths, knowingly false narratives, and bogus attempts to tie migrants to all the ills of society are a key part of the GOP’s toxic narrative! The continuing campaign of hate and misinformation began with immigrants — but as this article suggests, it won’t end until either the GOP is thrown out of office at all levels or our nation’s constitutional structure and democratic republic are in tatters!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-09-22

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  2. 👹🎃HALLOWEEN HORROR 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻REICHSREPORT: GRUPPENFUHRER MILLER REVEALS “REICHSPLAN” FOR EXTERMINATION OF IMMIGRATION, ASYLUM, REFUGE BY EXECUTIVE DECREE!  — “The Final Solution??”  — Parents, Protect Your Kids, Families, & Your Country From This Grotesque Un-American Monster!
  3. CRIME BLOTTER: CHILD ABUSE🤮☠️⚰️🦹🏿‍♀️: DOJ IG REPORT CONFIRMS WHAT COURTSIDE & OTHERS KNEW FROM THE START: Trump, Sessions, Miller, Rosenstein, Hamilton Are Cowards🐓, Lying 🤥 Criminals, Child Abusers🦹🏿‍♀️, Who Belong Behind Bars For Intentionally Abusing Asylum Seeking Families & Kids & Then Having Their Sleazy DOJ Lawyers Lie To Federal Judges! — What Happened To “Due Diligence” As An Ethical Requirement For Government Lawyers?
  4. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY🏴‍☠️☠️🤮👎🏻: Victims Of Trump, Miller, Sessions Child Abuse May Suffer Lifelong Damage Similar To That Of Holocaust Survivors! — “My mom and I have learned along the way that nothing seems to make it go away. Not her prayers. Not my ‘American Dream’ success. Not any logical explanation of how governments work or don’t work. My mother’s touch will always feel foreign to me.” — PLUS: BREAKING UPDATE: Just Released House Report Documents Regime’s Massive Human Rights Criminal Conspiracy Against CHILDREN!

🇺🇸🗽⚖️NDPA ACTIVISTS HELP BEAT BACK GOP NATIVIST SPOILER AMENDMENTS TO RECONCILIATION BILL — Dems Need To Win Midterms To Thwart Newest GOP Immigration Hate Plan!

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

“Sir Jeffrey” Chase reports:

Hi: I just heard that all of the anti-immigration measures that Republicans attempted to add as amendments to the reconciliation bill were defeated.

I’m so in awe of the advocates who were up all night monitoring the process and weighing in with Senators’ offices.

Best, Jeff

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

James “Jim” Crow
James “Jim” Crow
Symbol of American Racism, Now At The Heart of The GOP Immigration Agenda

 

But, don’t relax or breathe a sign of relief. The GOP is very up front about the Jim Crow hate agenda they plan to roll out if they gain control of Congress in the midterms. Here is is in all it’s dishonesty, cruelty, and racist agitation:

https://republicans-homeland.house.gov/media/2022/07/Border-Rollout-one-pager_FINAL_formatted.pdf

Yes, you can expect Biden to veto any of this. But, it still will disrupt the business of Congress and will lead to hate rhetoric, lies, and racist stereotypes being hurled against immigrants and people of color. There is virtually no chance that the GOP would have the votes to override the vetoes in both Houses. 

Still, upcoming generations of younger Americans will have to decide whether they want to live and raise their children in the the “American Hungary” — a neo-Nazi state where racial and ethic hatred and anti-Semitism will be at the center of all authoritarian Government policy. If not, the younger generation of the NDPA needs to come up with ways of keeping the GOP out of political power from the top to the bottom. 

However welcome, the latest hard-fought victory over racist nativism and xenophobia was just the beginning of the struggle for the heart and soul of America.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-08-22

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  1. 😰NO HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR FAMILIES IN “THE NEW AMERICAN GULAG”☠️⚰️ — As Kakistocracy Of War Criminals 🤮🏴‍☠️ Departs, Will President Biden Have The Wisdom & Guts To Move Beyond “The Dem Border Alarmists” & Get The Progressive Leaders 🦸🏽‍♂️⚖️ From The NDPA In Place To Bring Due Process & Order To The Border?🗽🇺🇸
  2. 🤮NO PEACE ON EARTH GOODWILL TOWARD MEN (WOMEN, OR ESPECIALLY CHILDREN) FROM REGIME OF “BAD SANTAS” 🦹🏿‍♂️🎅🏻— Illegally Separated Families Continue To Suffer Irreparable Trauma, 😰 Volunteer Groups 😇🗽⚖️ Left To Pick Up Pieces — A Reminder That Defeated Regime Has Mocked, Disparaged, & Trashed Christ’s Values & Assaulted Humanity Over Four Christmases!🏴‍☠️🤮☠️⚰️👎🏻
  3. 👹🎃HALLOWEEN HORROR 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻REICHSREPORT: GRUPPENFUHRER MILLER REVEALS “REICHSPLAN” FOR EXTERMINATION OF IMMIGRATION, ASYLUM, REFUGE BY EXECUTIVE DECREE!  — “The Final Solution??”  — Parents, Protect Your Kids, Families, & Your Country From This Grotesque Un-American Monster!
  4. WOW, HERE’S A SURPRISE: MANY KIDS FLEEING VIOLENCE IN THE NORTHERN TRIANGLE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BIDEN BORDER POLICIES — They Are Just Trying To Save Their Lives!

🗽TELL CONGRESS TITLE 42 HAS GOT TO GO!  — “A Sham Policy With Deadly Consequences” — Listen To Rev. Craig Mousin’s Podcast On “Lawful Assembly” ⚖️

Rev. Craig Mousin
Rev. Craig Mousin
Ombudsperson
Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, Grace School of Applied Diplomacy
DePaul University
PHOTO: DePaul Website

Craig writes:

We just posted our latest podcast urging folks to email or call Congress to stop Title 42, “Do Not Let Summer Daze Turn Pretense Into Law: End Title 42.”

https://blogs.depaul.edu/dmm/2022/07/29/lawful-assembly-podcast-episode-28/

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

Title 42 is a total, disgraceful fraud that violates U.S. and international law, abuses (and sometimes kills) vulnerable refugees seeking to exercise legal rights, and turns immigration policy over to cartels and human smugglers

Shockingly, instead of standing up for due process, human rights, and the rule of law, horrible right-wing Federal Judges have gone along with this farce at the urging of GOP White Nationalist state AGs.

Better judges for a better America!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

07-30-22

Related posts:

  1. WOW, HERE’S A SURPRISE: MANY KIDS FLEEING VIOLENCE IN THE NORTHERN TRIANGLE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BIDEN BORDER POLICIES — They Are Just Trying To Save Their Lives!
  2. COURTSIDE HAS BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF EXPOSING THE “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” COMMITTED BY THE REGIME AND THE MORAL CULPABILITY OF THOSE WHO WILLFULLY CARRY OUT & ENABLE THESE ATROCITIES — The “Mainstream Media” Is Now Channeling Courtside! — “In the meantime, no government has the right to treat people with such abject inhumanity. History will remember Trump for this, but it will also remember the people who enable such atrocious acts.”
  3. 😰NO HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR FAMILIES IN “THE NEW AMERICAN GULAG”☠️⚰️ — As Kakistocracy Of War Criminals 🤮🏴‍☠️ Departs, Will President Biden Have The Wisdom & Guts To Move Beyond “The Dem Border Alarmists” & Get The Progressive Leaders 🦸🏽‍♂️⚖️ From The NDPA In Place To Bring Due Process & Order To The Border?🗽🇺🇸
  4. 🏴‍☠️CLOSING THE BORDER TO LEGAL ASYLUM SEEKERS IS A VIOLATION OF BOTH DOMESTIC & INTERNATIONAL LAW — It’s Neither Something To Tout (Biden Administration) Nor A Solution (GOP) (Except, Perhaps, In The “Hitlerian” Sense) — Our Inability To Solve A Humanitarian Situation By Acting Lawfully, Sensibly, & Humanely Is A Sign Of Gross National Weakness Spurred By Unwillingness To See The Human Tragedies We Are Promoting! — And The Lousy, Misleading, & Tone-Deaf Reporting By The Some Of The “Mainstream Media” Is Making It Worse! — Leon Krauze & Suzanne Gamboa With Simple Truths About Human Migration That Neither Pols Nor Nativists Want You To Hear! — PLUS BONUS COVERAGE: Friday Mini-Essay: “Degrading Ourselves As A Nation Won’t Stop Human Migration”