Category: Congress

☠️👎🏽GARLAND EOIR’S DISTURBINGLY BAD ANALYSIS IN YET ANOTHER ASYLUM CASE “OUTED” BY FIRST CIRCUIT! — Lopez Troche v. Garland

 

Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:

http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/20-1718P-01A.pdf

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca1-on-credibility-lopez-troche-v-garland#

“Mario Rene Lopez Troche (“Lopez Troche”), a native and citizen of Honduras, petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) that affirms the denial of his application for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We vacate and remand. …  [T]he record does not reveal the claimed inconsistency between the testimony and the reasonable fear interview as to Lopez Troche’s reporting to police that the BIA identified. The BIA cited to three portions of Lopez Troche’s testimony in support of its determination that the IJ did not clearly err in finding an inconsistency between what Lopez Troche told the asylum officer during his reasonable fear interview and how he testified as to the reporting of past abuse. But, none of those passages supports the BIA’s determination. … Nor is it possible to read either the BIA or the IJ to have inferred from Lopez Troche’s failure to report to the police the specific incidents that he discussed in his testimony that he was asserting in that testimony that did not report any incidents of abuse ever. Neither the IJ’s opinion nor the BIA’s expressly purports to premise its ruling as to adverse credibility on the basis of such inferential reasoning, see Chenery, 318 U.S. at 95, and we do not see what basis there would be for drawing that inference on this record, given that, in his reasonable fear interview, declaration, and testimony, Lopez Troche discussed a series of traumatic physical and sexual assaults that he had experienced that appears to have stretched back to a time when he was eight years old and that thus encompassed many more incidents than those addressed specifically in the portions of his testimony on which the BIA focused. As a result, we must vacate and remand the BIA’s order affirming the denial of Lopez Troche’s request for withholding of removal.”

[Hats way off to PAIR Project Legal Director Elena Noureddine and Staff Attorney Irene Freidel!]

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Law students and attorneys of the NDPA are out there helping refugees every day. Meanwhile, over at Garland’s dysfunctional EOIR, Immigration Judges and BIA Appellate Immigration Judges strain to improperly “diddle the record” to deny relief to asylum seekers! Then, OIL defends them!

Essentially, in this case, the BIA “made it up and misrepresented the record” in an effort to deny asylum for specious reasons! Then, OIL tried to “blow it by” the Circuit! 

“[T]he record does not reveal the claimed inconsistency between the testimony and the reasonable fear interview as to Lopez Troche’s reporting to police that the BIA identified.” That’s “judgespeak” for: The BIA invented non-existent “inconsistencies” to unfairly deny asylum. Then, OIL defended that fabrication and denial of due process! What does this say about Garland’s leadership at DOJ?

Whatever happened to legal and judicial ethics? Clearly they were “deep sixed” under Sessions and Barr. But, why is Garland continuing to operate DOJ as an “ethics and quality free zone?”

This is a bad system with the wrong folks in too many judicial and leadership positions and presenting an overwhelming need for robust, bold change in how decisions are made and defended in Circuit Court. So far, Garland has not made the fundamental personnel changes and “quality upgrades” necessary to bring due process and some semblance of expertise and order back to his broken Immigration Courts! Why not?

Why are the kind of individuals who should be Immigration Judges and EOIR judicial leaders, talented lawyers like Elena and Irene, still “on the outside” rather than being actively recruited and brought in to replace those unable to perform judicial, administrative, and litigation duties in a fair, expert manner, that enhances due process? Why is EOIR still operating with a “judiciary” the majority of whom were installed by the Trump regime at Justice to “dehumanize, deport, and deter” without regard for due process? Why is OIL continuing to “defend the indefensible?” Why isn’t Congress asking Garland these questions?

Government lacking in expertise, intellectual honesty, professional ethics, and accountability is “bad government.” That’s true no matter which party holds power!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-21-21

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. 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮👎🏻ERROR SUPPLY: EOIR’s Anti-Asylum Bias, Failure To Apply Precedents, Earns Yet Another Rebuke From 3d Cir.  — Blanco v. AG
  3. ⚖️🗽🧑🏽‍⚖️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!”
  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!

THE GIBSON REPORT — 10-18-21 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Phantom NTAs, Rubber Stamps, Elimination Of Masters, & Other Insanity Surfaces @ Garland’s EOIR “Clown Courts” 🤡

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

As a side note, the phantom NTA issue and literal IJ rubber stamp story are both crazy.

 

If you or any of the retired IJs wanted to follow-up on the phantom NTA issue, I just wanted to pass along a good source: CLINC webinar @1:07:08: https://cliniclegal.org/training/archive/orders-border. It also affects the ability to file motions to change venue because DHS is serving the NTA on EOIR the day of the master calendar hearing, so there are no proceedings for which to file a motion until the day of court.

 

-Elizabeth

 

·         AILA: Liaison Update: Key Takeaways from Listening Session on Immigration Detention Ombudsman

·         AILA: Liaison Update: Key Takeaways from Stakeholder Engagements with DHS Operation Allies Welcome Leadership

·         AILA: Practice Alert: Biden Administration Plans to Rescind COVID-19 Travel Bans and Instead Require Proof of Vaccination

·         AILA: Practice Pointer: What You Need to Know About the Third Country Transit Ban

·         AILA: Sample Briefs and Resources

·         AILA: Asylum Cases on Social Group

·         AILA: Asylum Cases on Serious Nonpolitical Crime

·         AILA: Asylum Cases on Political Opinion

·         AILA: Asylum Cases on Motion to Reopen

AILA: Asylum Cases on Miscellaneous

·         AILA: Asylum Cases on Deferral of Removal Under CAT

AILA: Asylum Cases on Credibility

·         CLINIC: Ethical Considerations in Using Technology for Legal Services

·         CLINIC: Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness: FAQs for Legal Practitioners

·         CRS: The Department of Homeland Security’s Reported “Metering” Policy: Legal Issues

·         CRS: Visa Waiver Program

·         DHS OIG: ICE Needs to Improve Its Oversight of Segregation Use in Detention Facilities

·         DHS: Seneca Mental Health Services Resources

·         EOIR: Webex and Open Voice Information for NYC Immigration Judges (attached)

·         Hoppock: Here Are the BIA Chairman’s Memos From 2004 to 2018 Obtained Through FOIA

·         IRAP: Country conditions for Afghans

·         Migration Policy Practice: Children’s Experiences On The Central America–Mexico–United States Migration Corridor: Data And Policy

·         MPI Launches 20th Anniversary Podcast Series, World of Migration, Examining the Evolution of the Migration Policy Field and Where It Goes Ahead

·         USCIS: How to Make Your Communication with the USCIS Contact Center More Effective

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

Monday, October 18, 2021

·         Kidnapping on Rise in Haiti

Sunday, October 17, 2021

·         Good judge? Bad judge?

·         Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2022

·         Trouble in Paradise? Tensions Flare between Biden Administration Officials and Immigrant Activists

Saturday, October 16, 2021

·         Guantánamo’s Other History

·         Biden Administration to Bring Back “Remain in Mexico” Policy pursuant to Court Order

Friday, October 15, 2021

·         Good News, Bad News: Biden Narrows Expedited Removal, Continues Title 42 Expulsions

·         Afghan Immigrants in the United States

·         Children’s experiences on Central America-US migration corridor highlighted in IOM report

·         From the Bookshelves: Saving the Freedom of Information Act by Margaret B. Kwoka

·         ABA Commission on Immigration offers students “hands-on” experience with people in detention

·         The Gift That Keeps on Giving? Judge Orders Trump To Give Deposition In Immigration Activists’ Suit

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Immigration Law’s Arbitrariness Problem by Shalina Bhargava Ray

Thursday, October 14, 2021

·         From The Bookshelves: Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

·         Democrats consider new immigration reform proposal

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Are People in Federal Territories Part of “We the People of the United States”?  by Gary Lawson and Guy I. Seidman

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

·         The Role of Mental Health Evaluations in Immigration Court Proceedings

·         UNLV Law Dean Search

·         From the Bookshelves: Mexican American Civil Rights in Texas: Latinos in the United States (Robert Brischetto and J. Richard Avena, editors)

·         US borders reopening to tourists, travelers

·         Biden administration defends H1-B wage rule

·         Migrants and refugees caught up in Belarus-EU “hybrid warfare” are freezing to death in no man’s land

·         Supreme Court to consider whether to reinstate death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber

·         Immigration Article of the Day: “Discretion and Disobedience in the Chinese Exclusion Era”  by Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

·         DHS Memo on Worksite Enforcement

·         Democratic Senators Lambaste Biden Haitian Policies

·         Afghan Immigration Fears Prompt Greece to Increase Number of Guards at Turkish Border

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Introduction to the Symposium on COVID-19, Global Mobility and International Law  by Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Tenday Achiume, & Thomas Spijkerbber

Monday, October 11, 2021

·         Economist David Card, Who Studied The Effects of Mariel Boatlift Migration on the Miami Labor Market, Wins Nobel Prize

·         From the Bookshelves: Our Stories Carried Us Here Hardcover by Tea Rozman Clark

·         Trapped In Diplomatic Limbo

·         Afro Mexicanidad: A Symposium

·         Immigration Article of the Day: The Challenge of Immigration: A Radical Solution  by Gary Becker

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

Alfred E. Neumann
Judge Garland isn’t worried! HE doesn’t have to practice before the dysfunctional Immigration Courts!
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons

Absolutely “nutsos!” But just “another day at the office” in the three-ring circus 🎪🤹‍♀️🤡  that “Ringmaster Garland” calls his “courts!” Where’s the accountability for this disgraceful mess? Where is the Congressional oversight? What happened to the essential “Article I legislation” to remove this continuing clown show from a flailing and failing DOJ?

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

1-21-21

 

 

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT— 01-02-22 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Garland’s Aimless Docket Reshuffling (“ADR”) Squeezes Refugees On Both Ends Of His Ludicrous Backlog, As Those Patiently Waiting Given Court Dates Nearly A Decade In The Future, While Recent Arrivals Mindlessly Rocketed To The “Front Of The Line” Struggle To Find Lawyers & Prepare Cases — Plus Other New Year News From The Dystopian World Of U.S. Immigration!
  2. THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-14-21💝 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Mandatory E-Filing @ EOIR Starts & Lots Of Other “Interesting Stuff!”  — CMS Study Shows How Garland Is Ignoring the “Low Hanging Fruit” On His Out of Control EOIR Backlog! ☹️
  3. 🧑🏽‍⚖️⚖️🗽🇺🇸WHO’S JUDGE IS IT ANYWAY? — The Crisis Of Independence In Our Immigration Courts! — Coming April 7, 2021! — Sponsored By The HNBA! — Don’t Miss It!
  4. THE GIBSON REPORT — 05-17-21 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Continuing To Highlight Garland’s Tone-Deaf Failure To Bring Justice, Due Process, Progressive Expertise To EOIR! — Hey Progressives & Due Process Advocates, Had Enough Of His “Amateur Night At The Bijou” Approach To EOIR? — Get Mad, Make Your Voices Heard, Demand Change, Demand Better! — Much Better!

HISTORY: THE IMMIGRATION ACT THAT MADE AMERICA WHAT WE ARE TODAY🇺🇸🗽

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/opinion/asian-americans-1965-immigration-act.html

OPINION

JAY CASPIAN KANG

The Enduring Importance of the 1965 Immigration Act

Oct. 7, 2021

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Credit…

Alberto Miranda

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By Jay Caspian Kang

Opinion Writer

What follows is an excerpt from my book  which will be published on Oct. 12. (I also published an excerpt this week in the Times magazine.) The book is a meditation on the 1965 Immigration Act, which I argue is the starting point of the multiethnic society we live in today.

***

On Oct. 3, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson stood in front of the Statue of Liberty and said something that would be proved wrong: “This bill that we sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not reshape the structure of our daily lives.” He was referring to the Hart-Celler Immigration Act, a landmark piece of legislation that lifted restrictive quotas on immigration from Asia, Africa and southern and Eastern Europe.

Its opponents at the time it was finally passed described apocalyptic scenarios in which the United States and its white population would be overrun by a horde of foreigners. Johnson, for his part, assured the public that the easing of restrictions would have only a mild effect on the demographics of the country. Most people, he believed, would stay in their home countries.

Over the next five decades, the Hart-Celler Act would bring tens of millions of immigrants from Asia, southern and Eastern Europe, and Africa. No single piece of legislation has shaped the demographic and economic history of this country in quite the same way.

. . . .

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Read the full article at the link.

“Just say no” to nativism and White Nationalism!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-08-21

Related posts:

  1. COURTSIDE HISTORY: Trump’s American White Nationalist Antecedents Were The Racist Pols & Pseudo-Scientists Of A Century Ago! — The Lies & Ugliness Of The Past Are Being Repeated — Only This Time It’s People Of Color Rather Than Italians, Irish, Slavs, Catholics, & Jews Who Are Targeted For “Dehumanization” (Although It Would Be Wrong To Underestimate Trump’s Responsibility For The Revival Of Anti-Semitism)!
  2. NY TIMES BLASTED FOR GIVING FORUM TO WHITE NATIONALIST PROPAGANDA FROM CIS SHILL! — “The organization has gained credibility by writing pseudo-science ‘research’ papers that are little more than racist ideology dressed up in scholarly language.”
  3. 🎥🎞📺NEW NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY SERIES SHOWS DHS’S CRUEL, MISGUIDED, WASTEFUL ENFORCEMENT UNDER TRUMP — Not Surprisingly, The Regime Wants To Suppress The Truth — At Least Until After The Election — Caitlin Dickerson @ NY Times Reports 
  4. 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻KAKISTOCRACY HAS CONSEQUENCES: CLIMATE MIGRATION IS ONE OF THEM! — Trump’s Stupidity & Cruelty On Immigration Climate Science, & Disease Control Promises Horrible Global Human Disaster For Future Generations — Empowering & Enabling A Moron Is Always A Very Bad Idea!  — No Idiotic Wall Or “Drill Baby Drill” Insanity Is Going To Prevent This Human Catastrophe We Are Inflicting On Those Who Follow!

🇺🇸🏴‍☠️RACE IN AMERICA: CARRIE ROSENBAUM “GETS IT,” EVEN AS MAYORKAS, GARLAND, HARRIS & THE OTHER BIDEN HYPOCRITES PRETEND NOT TO:  “Immigration reform, and a more robust application of the Equal Protection doctrine to all those inside the country, and at our borders, is necessary to move towards meaningfully dismantling systemic racism.”

Carrie’s guest blog in ImmigrationProf Blog should be be read and taken to heart by everyone who believes in a better, racially equal, America:

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2021/10/guest-post-by-carrie-rosenbaum-the-slippery-slope-of-systemic-racism-in-immigration-law-del-rio.html

Friday, October 1, 2021

Guest Post by Carrie Rosenbaum: The Slippery Slope of Systemic Racism in Immigration Law – Del Rio

By Immigration Prof

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The Slippery Slope of Systemic Racism in Immigration Law – Del Rio by Carrie Rosenbaum

When Senator Maxine Waters proclaimed that what we witnessed in Del Rio, Texas last week, Customs and Border Protection officers on horseback whipping black men, harkened back to slavery, she drew an age-old, but still relevant connection between slavery, Jim Crow, and anti-immigrant racism. In a press briefing, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated, “[w]e know that those images painfully conjured up the worst elements of our nation’s ongoing battle against systemic racism.” Yet, if both are right, where are our equality, anti-racism principles and why haven’t they been enough to dismantle systemic racism? Should U.S. anti-discrimination law inhibit anti-black and anti-immigrant racism, in the U.S. and at the border? Does it? Is there a slippery slope, such that undeterred discrimination against immigrants at the border seeps beyond the immediate individuals at the border?

Senator Waters was right to blur the boundaries of citizenship and rights in her speech. Racism begets racism, and racism towards black Haitians at the border translates to anti-black racism within the United States, just as anti-Mexican racism does not confine itself to noncitizens, and never has. Examples abound including obvious examples, like Latinx lynching of the late 1840s through 1920s (which coincided with lynching of Blacks), mass expulsion or “repatriation” of persons of Mexican descent that included U.S. citizens in the early 1920s and 1930s again via “Operation Wetback” in the  1950s and more subtle ones like exploitation and expropriation of Mexican and Central American farm workers and laborers, whether authorized or not, and colorblind or race neutral policies that fall most heavily, even if not completely, on persons from Mexico and Central America, like border jails.

While the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. constitution does not limit itself to citizens, it falls vastly short in protecting racialized people of color, especially immigrants. The U.S. treatment of Haitians in Del Rio implicates the problem of anti-black and anti-immigrant racism, and is indicative of the express and implicit bias that continues to evade remedy. It runs much deeper than the disturbing images of CBP agents on horseback, and its impacts have ripple effects.

At the same time that DHS Secretary Mayorkas decried systemic racism, he spelled out the government’s potential argument that the exclusion of Haitians, and Central Americans, and Mexicans that accompanies such brutal treatment was not discriminatory pursuant to the current state of immigration equal protection. He stated, “if we are able to expel them under Title 42 … we will do so” and announced that its application was “irrespective of the country of origin, irrespective of the race of the individual, irrespective of other criteria that don’t belong in our adjudicative process and we do not permit in our adjudicative process.”

Yet this is precisely how systemic racism flourishes. The reality is, this provision has been used to exclude the same racialized immigrants who have been subject to the worst treatment under immigration law. However, because the law is colorblind, Mayorkas can suggest that there was no discrimination. Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s 1977 Arlington Heights decision, discriminatory impact has to be accompanied by proof of discriminatory intent. Just by saying that wasn’t his (or implying it was not Congress’) intent, he can erase what too many know to be real. A new immigration priorities memo by the Agency released today stated that ““We must ensure that enforcement actions are not discriminatory and do not lead to inequitable outcomes.” It is a step in the right rhetorical direction, but does little to meaningfully address the colorblind racism that plagues enforcement.

What is the solution? Aside from a more expansive interpretation of the Equal Protection doctrine in line with Justice Sotomayor’s dissent in the Trump era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals case, and modest progress at the district court level in the crimmigration context, Congress could take steps to stop racial harm inflicted via immigration law and policy. By creating a path to legal status for those who not only have been here, but who have suffered the greatest harms of systemic racism, Haitian immigrants, Mexican immigrants, and others, Congress could start to undo the damage. It could also stop the relatively new practice of detaining or imprisoning migrants at the southern border, who happen to be almost entirely from Mexico and Central America, or abolish immigration prisons entirely. The policies that result in the imprisonment of Mexicans and Central Americans at the southern border now started with expulsion and imprisonment of Haitians in the 1980 and 1990s. Instead of expulsions and rumored potential imprisonment at the notorious Guantanamo Bay as was done in response to Haitians fleeing violence after the U.S. supported overthrow of democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the U.S. could re-evaluate both its involvement in foreign affairs, and treatment of those who flee here after our interventions cause disruption and civil strife. The largest number of Black migrants come from Haiti and their mistreatment is rooted in anti-Black racism. Racializing anti-immigrant demonization does not confine itself to noncitizens, nor should the remedies. Immigration reform, and a more robust application of the Equal Protection doctrine to all those inside the country, and at our borders, is necessary to move towards meaningfully dismantling systemic racism.

—–

Carrie Rosenbaum

Law Offices of Carrie L. Rosenbaum

Lecturer & Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley

Access my law review articles and scholarship on SSRN 

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Very eloquently said, Carrie! 

Compare this with the racist blather and White Nationalist nonsense of nativist pols like Abbott, DeSantis, Cruz, Cotton, and others who glorify Jim Crow and seek to force a sanitized, whitewashed version of American history down the throats of the public! 

Also, compare this with the intellectually dishonest actions by Biden Administration officials. They disingenuously claim to be champions of racial equality and racial justice.

But, in reality, they operate “star chamber courts,” “New American Gulags,” and implement discredited, outmoded, and ineffective “Stephen Miller Lite” border enforcement policies that basically dehumanize people of color and deny them the due process and equal protection to which they are entitled under law. Also, think about the many Federal Judges who spinelessly enable that which most first year law students could tell you is illegal and unconstitutional, not to mention totally immoral! 

What  exactly does Assistant AG for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke do every day at the Civil Rights Division if unraveling the White Nationalist, racially tone deaf policies of her own Department, the DHS, and the “star chambers for people of color” being operated by her “boss” aren’t first and foremost on her “to do” list?

“Floaters”

“Floaters” — The ugly reality of Biden’s “Miller Lite border strategy.”  It’s mostly people of color floating face-down in the river, being illegally returned to danger zones, rotting in the “New American Gulag,” and being railroaded through Garland’s biased and dysfunctional “star chamber courts.” Right now, Garland and and the rest of of the Biden Administration have “zero (0) credibility” on racial justice and voting rights!
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – The bodies of Salvadoran migrant Oscar Alberto Mart??nez Ram??rez and his nearly 2-year-old daughter Valeria lie on the bank of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, Monday, June 24, 2019, after they drowned trying to cross the river to Brownsville, Texas. Martinez’ wife, Tania told Mexican authorities she watched her husband and child disappear in the strong current. (AP Photo/Julia Le Duc)

The biggest failure of the Biden Administration to date is their willful blindness to the obvious connection between lack of overall racial justice in America and running star chambers, gulags, and border enforcement policies that are unconstitutional, dehumanizing, and racially demeaning to individuals of color. Sadly, and tragically we seem to have gone from “zero tolerance” under Trump to “zero credibility” under Biden! “When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?”

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-02-21

Related posts:

  1. 🇺🇸🗽⚖️GEORGE W. BUSH INSTITUTE REPORT: GENDER VIOLENCE ☠️⚰️DRIVES CONTINUING REFUGEE FLOW TO U.S. — Dishonesty Of Sessions’s Misogynistic Attack In Matter Of A-B- 🤮 Exposed Again! — Yet, Garland Fails To Take Action To End Misogyny, Anti-Asylum Culture @ EOIR, Even As He Also Fails To Insist On The Restoration Of The Rule Of Law @ Our Borders! —  WHY?🤯
  2. 😰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?🗽🇺🇸
  3. 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!
  4. 🤮👎🏽ULTIMATE HIPOCRACY: EVEN AS AMERICA FINALLY CELEBRATES JUNETEENTH HOLIDAY, DRED SCOTT & INSTITUTIONALIZED RACIST DEHUMANIZATION REMAIN REALITIES FOR BLACKS & OTHER MIGRANTS OF COLOR AT EOIR & DHS — Imprisonment Without Trial, Bogus Bonds, Mistreatment In The New American Gulag, Jim Crow “Courts,” No Rule Of Law,  Still Realities For Those Of Color Exercising Legal Rights In Broken System!

🗽NOLAN RAPPAPORT RESURFACES AN IDEA FOR IMMIGRATION COMPROMISE: REGISTRY  — THE HILL

Nolan Rappaport
Nolan Rappaport
Contributor, The Hill

https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/574240-registry-is-a-reasonable-work-around-to-legalize-undocumented-aliens

Democrats suffered a major blow when the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, decided that they could not include immigration provisions in their $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill. According to MacDonough, the effect that the immigration provisions would have on the budget would be incidental to their overall policy effect.

The rejected provisions would have provided legalization for undocumented immigrants who were brought here illegally as children, often called “Dreamers;” undocumented immigrants with Temporary Protected Status; and undocumented essential workers. This would have made lawful status available to more than 8 million undocumented immigrants.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) claims that there is another option, which is to narrow the immigration reform provisions such that Democrats can navigate it through the Senate’s Byzantine rules. He thinks this can be done with an update to the registry provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

Registry is a process that permits undocumented immigrants to become lawful permanent residents (green card holders) on the basis of their long-standing presence in the country, regardless of their status or the way they entered the country.

I don’t think updating the registry provision will be acceptable to MacDonough either — It’s just another way to legalize undocumented immigrants.

But it might be possible to move a registry update through the regular legislative process. The registry process has been in place for nearly a century. It reflects our nation’s historical sense of fairness to allow undocumented immigrants who have lived in the country for a very long time an opportunity to obtain legal status, and it hasn’t been updated since 1986.

. . . .

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Read Nolan’s complete article at the link.

Nolan’s article was highlighted in ImmigrationProf Blog. https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2021/09/the-clamor-for-updating-registry-continues.html

As Dean Kevin Johnson noted in his ImmigrationProf  post, Nolan correctly predicted that the Parliamentarian would reject registry as part of budget reconciliation. But, the possibility for bipartisan legislation doesn’t end there.

Any time we have Nolan and ImmigrationProf Blog resident expert Professor Kit Johnson talking about the same possible solution, folks in Congress on both sides should wake up and take notice! Doesn’t mean they will. But they should think about proposed solutions from thoughtful subject matter experts, who have been involved in the process for years, and who often come at problem-solving from different angles. 

Kit Johnson
Kit Johnson
Associate Professor of Law
University of Oklahoma Law School

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-29-21

Related posts:

  1. KIT JOHNSON & NOLAN RAPPAPORT UNITED IN CAUSE OF JUSTICE FOR MARIA ISABEL BUESO — Different Methods, But One Objective: Justice!
  2. 🗽⚖️ “COURTSIDE” IN THE NEWS: BOTH NOLAN @ THE HILL & KEVIN @ IMMIGRATIONPROF BLOG HIGHLIGHT MY BLISTERING ANALYSIS OF BIDEN’S FIRST-YEAR IMMIGRATION POLICIES! — Garland’s Monumental EOIR Fail Writ Large Among “Underreported News” Of 2021 — Mishandling Of Immigration Courts Creates Key “Enthusiasm Gap” Among Progressives Heading Into 2022 Midterms!
  3. THE HILL — NOLAN SAYS LEGALIZATION SHOULD BE #1 CONCERN FOR THOSE THREATENED WITH REMOVAL!
  4. 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️RACE IN AMERICA: CARRIE ROSENBAUM “GETS IT,” EVEN AS MAYORKAS, GARLAND, HARRIS & THE OTHER BIDEN HYPOCRITES PRETEND NOT TO:  “Immigration reform, and a more robust application of the Equal Protection doctrine to all those inside the country, and at our borders, is necessary to move towards meaningfully dismantling systemic racism.”

🗽🇺🇸WASHPOST: Our Need To Absorb Current Undocumented Residents & Expand Legal Immigration Remains As Clear As Ever — All We Lack Is The Political Will & Courage To Do The Obvious!

From the WashPost Editorial Board:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/26/immigration-reform-is-back-square-one-way-forward-is-clear/

. . . .

There are enormous downsides to border disorder, to immigration policy paralysis and to leaving the fates of more than 11 million current immigrants without any path to a secure future — even beyond the reinforcement it provides to the United States’ growing international reputation for dysfunction. No one gains by the chaos except smugglers who soak desperate migrants financially on their way north in hopes of a better life. The losers include not only the “dreamers” brought to this country as children, who must live in perpetual anxiety, but also the country as a whole, which loses the value of immigrants, skilled and otherwise, who would turbocharge entrepreneurship, create jobs and help the economy grow.

There are available solutions if Congress could overcome its horror of bipartisan compromise. The goal should be to establish a realistic annual quota of immigrant visas for Central Americans, Haitians and others desperate to reach this country who otherwise will cross the border illegally — a number that recognizes the U.S. labor market’s demand for such employees. That must be supplemented by a muscular guest worker program that enables legal border crossing for migrants who want to support families remaining in their home countries.

. . . .

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

Read the complete editorial at the link.

It’s worth adding that the current “border disorder” is largely the result of White Nationalist, legally defective, anti-immigrant policies of the Trump regime compounded by the failure of Mayorkas and Garland to take the obvious, available, common sense steps necessary to reopen legal border ports of entry, to make the long overdue necessary reforms to establish a fair, efficient, and generous legal asylum system at the USCIS Asylum Offices and the Immigration Courts, and to insist on the creation of a robust, functional refugee program for Latin America and the Caribbean.

None of the this is “rocket science!” 🚀 Plenty of great blueprints for administrative reforms and the potential expert leadership to implement them were “out there for the taking” at the beginning of the Biden Administration. By dawdling, tapping the wrong leaders, and continuing enforcement policies and bad judicial practices that were proven failures, the Administration predictably put itself “behind the eight-ball” in establishing order and implementing the rule of law at our borders!

Until the Biden Administration ends its disgraceful, cowardly, illegal, cruel, ineffective, and inhumane reliance on bogus “Title 42” restrictions to suspend orderly legal processing at the border, they will continue to bobble the next predictable “border crisis.” The GOP will continue to spout nativist nonsense. Desperate people will continue to do desperate things. Only a tone-deaf Administration would continue to ignore this reality!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-27-21

Related posts:

  1. 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! 
  2. FROM THE HEIGHTS OF KASINGA TO THE DEPTHS OF AMERICA’S DEADLY STAR CHAMBERS: Will The Biden Administration Tap The New Due Process Army To Fix EOIR & Save Our Nation? 
  3. 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!
  4. 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️RACE IN AMERICA: CARRIE ROSENBAUM “GETS IT,” EVEN AS MAYORKAS, GARLAND, HARRIS & THE OTHER BIDEN HYPOCRITES PRETEND NOT TO:  “Immigration reform, and a more robust application of the Equal Protection doctrine to all those inside the country, and at our borders, is necessary to move towards meaningfully dismantling systemic racism.”

NOT ROCKET SCIENCE! 🚀 “Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum . . . .” INA section 208(a). Black Organizations File Complaint About Biden Administration’s Scofflaw Actions Targeting Black Haitians & Other Asylum Seekers Of Color!

Sanjana Karanth
Sanjana Karanth
Politics Reporter
HuffPost

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-immigration-groups-demand-biden-halt-deportations-haitian-asylum_n_6150a453e4b00164119567a9

Sanjana Karanth reports for HuffPost:

Several Black immigration organizations have filed a formal complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, demanding that the Biden administration halt its continued deportations of Haitian asylum seekers.

The complaint filed by four groups ― the Haitian Bridge Alliance, UndocuBlack Network, African Communities Together and Black Alliance for Just Immigration ― requests that any potential witnesses of Border Patrol abuses be allowed to remain in the U.S. while their asylum claims are investigated. The complaint was first reported by theGrio, and signed by dozens of advocacy groups.

More than 13,000 Haitians were camped along the river at the Texas border town of Del Rio last weekend when Border Patrol officers on horseback charged at some of those gathered there, verbally assaulting and appearing to whip them. Photos of the violence shocked the public.

. . . .

The complaint by the organizations notes that the migrants have been denied access to attorneys, interpreters, adequate medical care, fear-based screening and proper nourishment and sanitation, all under intense heat. It also highlights physical intimidation and violence against migrants by Border Patrol officers, and misleading statements made by Homeland Security officers to Haitians about where they were being flown to.

“We’re not living up to our obligation as a nation to be a place of refuge for people seeking a better life,” former Obama administration Cabinet member Julián Castro told HuffPost earlier this week. “And in the least, asylum seekers, whether they’re from Haiti, or from one of these Northern Triangle countries should be allowed to make their asylum claim, instead of being severely expelled from the country. This was not the change we were hoping for on immigration policy.”

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

Mayorkas’s defense of his grotesque, “Trumpist” misuse of Title 42, which actually has been rejected by a Federal Judge, on “Meet the Press” was as disgraceful as it was dishonest!  

Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr succinctly nailed it in a recent interview for National Geographic: “The United States has to realize that more people are on the move in the world than ever before.  We’re never going to be able to shut off our borders.” https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/outsidenews/posts/expert-u-s-immigration-laws-don-t-match-current-reality

Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr
Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr
Cornell Law

Either Mayorkas doesn’t understand reality, or he’s too intellectually dishonest to speak truth! Regardless, it’s not good! 

Re-establishing the rule of law and treating asylum seekers fairly and generously, as the law requires, is not an option! It’s a legal and moral obligation! There is absolutely no reason to “apologize” for treating asylum seekers fairly and humanely, no matter what racist GOP nativists like Texas “Governor Death” Greg Abbott and Senator “Cancun Ted the Insurrectionist” Cruz say!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-27-21

U

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. ☠️⚰️🏴‍☠️HAITI IS NOT “SAFE,” & THE PERVASIVE GANG VIOLENCE APPEARS TO BE POLITICALLY MOTIVATED! — “They raped women, burned homes and killed dozens of people, including children, chopping up their bodies with machetes and throwing their remains to pigs. . . . It was organized by senior Haitian officials, who provided weapons and vehicles to gang members to punish people in a poor area protesting government corruption!” — So, Why Are Biden, Harris, Mayorkas, & Garland Illegally Returning Refugees There Without Hearing Their Asylum Claims?  👎🏽🤮
  3. ⚖️🗽MORE TRUTH ABOUT THE SOUTHERN BORDER FROM ONE OF AMERICA’S 🇺🇸 LEADING HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERTS: “Real Needs, Not Fictitious Crises Account For The Situation at US-Mexico Border,” By Donald Kerwin Center For Migration Studies
  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”

🏴‍☠️GARLAND’S FAILED BIA REAMED BY 3RD CIR. ON ANTI-ASYLUM BIAS, LACK OF BASIC COMPETENCE! — “First, the Board’s conclusion ignores overwhelming evidence that Ghanem was persecuted on account of political opinion. Second, it erroneously treated familial relationships as disqualifying and failed to give the proper weight to the substantial record evidence that a protected ground remains one central reason for Ghanem’s persecution.” — Ghanem v. AG

EYORE
“Eyore In Distress”
Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”

Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:

 https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca3-bia-ignored-overwhelming-evidence-of-persecution-ghanem-v-atty-gen#

CA3: BIA Ignored “Overwhelming Evidence” of Persecution: Ghanem v. Atty. Gen.

Ghanem v. Atty. Gen.

“Adel Ghanem, a former lawful permanent resident of the United States, seeks to avoid removal to Yemen, from which he fled to avoid persecution on account of political opinion. He pursues three forms of relief that were denied by the Immigration Judge (IJ) and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA): asylum under the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a), withholding of removal under the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3), and withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture, 8 U.S.C. § 1252, 8 C.F.R. § 1208.16(c). Ghanem was kidnapped and tortured before being convicted and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for political opposition to the Houthi regime. We will therefore grant the petition for review and remand to the BIA. … We begin by reviewing the agency’s determination that Ghanem was ineligible for asylum under the INA because he was not persecuted “on account of” political opinion. We perceive two errors in its analysis: First, the Board’s conclusion ignores overwhelming evidence that Ghanem was persecuted on account of political opinion. Second, it erroneously treated familial relationships as disqualifying and failed to give the proper weight to the substantial record evidence that a protected ground remains one central reason for Ghanem’s persecution. … Illustrating “gross, flagrant [and] mass violations of human rights” that he would be unable to escape, the record evidence not only fails to support but directly contradicts the BIA’s conclusions that Ghanem is not likely to be tortured with the government’s acquiescence, if returned to Yemen. 8 C.F.R. § 1208.16(c)(3)(iii).8 The denial of relief under CAT therefore cannot withstand even our most deferential review. … For the foregoing reasons, we will grant Ghanem’s petition, vacate the BIA’s order, and remand to the agency for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

[Hats off to pro bono publico appointed counsel Will Weaver, Ian Gershengorn and Sam Kaplan!]

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

How is the BIA’s grotesque misapplication of asylum and CAT law and intentional distortion of the record evidence acceptable adjudication from a Federal Court, even a “quasi-judicial administrative tribunal?” Lives are at stake are here! But, Garland remains indifferent to the deadly ☠️ daily injustices and stunning judicial incompetence and bias he promotes, coddles, defends, and enables at his dysfunctional EOIR! 

And what is his OIL doing defending this garbage before the Circuits? Garland’s DOJ is an ethical cesspool and a slimy mess of legal incompetence! Where’s the long overdue “thorough housecleaning” of this gross abuse of taxpayer dollars and walking talking insult to the Canons of Legal and Judicial Ethics!

These aren’t just “honest legal mistakes!” No way! They are the product of an anti-asylum, anti-immigrant, anti-due process, anti-people of color “culture” which was actually encouraged and promoted at EOIR during the Trump regime and still endures!

It starts, but doesn’t end, with a  BIA “packed” with a number of Trump/Miller appointees who were nationally renowned for their unsuitability to fairly adjudicate ANY asylum case, let alone to be “elevated” to the highest immigration tribunal. But, it’s not like any BIA Appellate Judge has the guts and integrity to stand up and speak out for immigrants’ rights, human rights, and constitutional due process!

It’s outrageous that the BIA as currently comprised is charged with setting precedents, maintaining consistency, and guaranteeing fairness for asylum applicants, particularly women and people of color. Of course this type of misconduct and incompetence will continue to generate huge, uncontrolled backlogs! THIS national, even international, disgusting disgrace will be Garland’s lasting legacy! 

The proposed “asylum reform regulations” and all other immigration and racial justice reforms put forth by Biden will fail without a better, progressive, expert BIA totally committed to due process, fundamental fairness, and racial justice! Why hasn’t Congress demanded an accounting from Garland for his jaw-dropping mismanagement of the Immigration Courts and his failure to make obvious administrative reforms?

Demand better from Garland and the Biden Administration! This disgraceful, dysfunctional, deadly mess at EOIR is NOT OK!🤮👎🏽

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-23-21

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. ⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️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!🤮
  3. 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!
  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! 🏴‍☠️

SCHUMER RIPS BIDEN’S XENOPHOBIC ASYLUM POLICIES, 🤮 ILLEGAL EXPULSIONS OF HAITIANS TO DANGER ZONES!☠️

Border Patrol on Horses
The Biden Administration’s treatment of Black folks trying to apply for asylum has a certain “Jim Crow” appearance!
PHOTO: times of Israel.com

Igor Bobic reports for HuffPost:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/haiti-migrants-biden-chuck-schumer_n_6149f781e4b077b735eb78f3

. . . .

“We cannot continue these hateful and xenophobic Trump policies that disregard our refugee laws,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. “We must allow asylum-seekers to present their claims at our ports of entry and be afforded due process.”

. . . .

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

Exactly what I’ve been saying at Courtside!

Fact is, nobody appears to know what’s really happening at the border and what policies and criteria are applied. One moment, the Biden Administration brags that Haitians are being rapidly and arbitrarily excluded with no due process. A little later, they claim that many Haitians are being allowed to come into the U.S. for “processing.” https://madison.com/news/national/many-haitian-migrants-released-in-us-trump-sues-niece-ny-times-biden-doubles-vaccine-purchase/article_89244157-a530-500b-9095-ba676e4a2307.html

Who knows what “processing” is? Meat processing? Removal processing? Asylum processing? Who’s making these life or death decisions? What criteria are they using?

I see little evidence that the key decisions are being made by trained Asylum Officers. Rather, the Haitians appear to be at the whim and the mercy of the Border Patrol Agents who encounter them! “Apprehend” seems like a very misleading term for those mostly seeking just to turn themselves in and apply for asylum in the absence of a functioning legal screening system at ports of entry.

One thing we know for sure: Myorkas’s claim that it is “safe” to indiscriminately return individuals to Haiti, a nation every true expert agrees is in total physical and political crisis, is pure BS! The kind of thing that Gauleiter Miller and his toadies would say!

Almost all experts, and Courtside, emphasized the need for the Biden Administration to use the time between the election and the inauguration to “hit the ground running” to have a comprehensive plan ready to deal with asylum cases at ports of entry. This included reopening the ports, getting trained and well-qualified Asylum Officers in place, and fixing the dysfunctional mess at EOIR on at least a temporary basis with real experts on asylum law replacing the BIA and some of the other Immigration Judges unqualified to fairly decide asylum cases.

Instead, they dawdled and did same old old, same old. EOIR remains a dysfunctional mess with a total lack of guidance and a shortage of Immigration Judges skilled in fair adjudication of asylum claims.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

09–22-21

Related posts:

  1. NOT ROCKET SCIENCE! 🚀 “Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum . . . .” INA section 208(a). Black Organizations File Complaint About Biden Administration’s Scofflaw Actions Targeting Black Haitians & Other Asylum Seekers Of Color!
  2. 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️RACE IN AMERICA: CARRIE ROSENBAUM “GETS IT,” EVEN AS MAYORKAS, GARLAND, HARRIS & THE OTHER BIDEN HYPOCRITES PRETEND NOT TO:  “Immigration reform, and a more robust application of the Equal Protection doctrine to all those inside the country, and at our borders, is necessary to move towards meaningfully dismantling systemic racism.”
  3. 🇺🇸🗽⚖️GEORGE W. BUSH INSTITUTE REPORT: GENDER VIOLENCE ☠️⚰️DRIVES CONTINUING REFUGEE FLOW TO U.S. — Dishonesty Of Sessions’s Misogynistic Attack In Matter Of A-B- 🤮 Exposed Again! — Yet, Garland Fails To Take Action To End Misogyny, Anti-Asylum Culture @ EOIR, Even As He Also Fails To Insist On The Restoration Of The Rule Of Law @ Our Borders! —  WHY?🤯
  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!

☹️BREAKING: PARLIAMENTARIAN KILLS DEMS’ HOPES FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM, GUARANTEEING YEARS OF  CONTINUING PAIN, SUFFERING, LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR MILLIONS OF AMERICAN RESIDENTS & OUR NATION!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/immigration-dreamers-senate-parliamentarian_n_61449d33e4b0556e4dd84e27

 Igor Bobic reports for HuffPost:

Democrats’ push to give young undocumented Dreamers a path to citizenship violates Senate rules, according to the Senate’s parliamentarian, who dealt yet another blow on Sunday to long-stalled immigration reform efforts in Congress.

. . . .

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

Predictable! It’s pretty simple. Long overdue and badly needed positive immigration reform, including Dreamer relief, is dead until enough GOP nativists are removed from Congress to save our democracy!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-19-21

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-14-21💝 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Mandatory E-Filing @ EOIR Starts & Lots Of Other “Interesting Stuff!”  — CMS Study Shows How Garland Is Ignoring the “Low Hanging Fruit” On His Out of Control EOIR Backlog! ☹️
  2. JAMELLE BOUIE @ SLATE: TRUMP, SESSIONS, MILLER & THE GOP RESTRICTIONISTS HAVE PUT GOOD OL’ 1920S RACISM AT THE FOREFRONT OF THEIR WHITE NATIONALIST IMMIGRATION AGENDA! –“What good does it do to bring in somebody who’s illiterate in their own country, has no skills, and is going to struggle in our country and not be successful? . . . That is not what a good nation should do, and we need to get away from it.” — J. “Gonzo Apocalypto” Sessions, Attorney General of the United States of America & Unapologetic White Nationalist With A Long History Of Racism!
  3. COLBY KING @ WASHPOST: The “Original Dreamers” Were Disenfranchised African Americans! — “That fight must continue on behalf of today’s dreamers, the disenfranchised, the demeaned and left out, and all freedom-loving people in this nation.“
  4. 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! 

⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️👩‍⚖️👨🏾‍⚖️BIDEN TAPS DIVERSE GROUP OF PROGRESSIVES FOR ARTICLE III JUDGESHIPS, EVEN AS CAL DEM SENS DRAG FEET, & GARLAND CONTINUES TO RUN AMERICA’S MOST REGRESSIVE, DYSFUNCTIONAL, DISRUPTIVE, & NON-DIVERSE JUDICIARY @ EOIR! — How Are Progressives Going To “Climb The Mountain” When Garland Won’t Even “Pick The Low Hanging Fruit?”

Jennifer Bendery
Jennifer Bendery
Journalist
HuffPost
PHOTO: Twitter

Jennifer Bendery reports for HuffPost:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-judicial-nominees-diverse_n_6138c48ee4b0eab0ada03532

President Joe Biden announced another historic slate of judicial nominees on Wednesday who would bring badly needed diversity to the nation’s federal courts.

His picks also begin to address a major vacancy problem on California’s courts.

Biden announced a total of eight new judicial nominees; three would fill seats on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and five would fill seats on U.S. district courts. All are up for lifetime appointments.

With Wednesday’s nominees, Biden has now nominated a total of 43 people to federal judgeships. Thanks in part to the Democrat-led Senate, he has been confirming judges faster than any president in more than 50 years by this point in their terms.

His latest nominees also reflect his push to bring more diversity to the federal bench, both professionally and demographically. The courts have long been represented by white, male judges with backgrounds as corporate attorneys or prosecutors. President Barack Obama helped to diversify the courts, adding historic numbers of women and LGBTQ judges, for example. But former President Donald Trump reversed that trend by overwhelmingly nominating straight, white, male, right-wing ideologues.

As a candidate, Biden vowed to bring a diversity of perspectives onto the courts, even promising to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court if and when a seat opens up there. He’s kept his word; so far, his court picks have been public defenders, civil rights lawyers, voting rights lawyers and historic firsts with Native American and Muslim American picks.

Wednesday’s nominees include people with backgrounds at legal civil rights organizations, too. Thomas worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Urias and Vera both worked for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

California’s senators praised Biden for his six picks for courts located in their state.

“If confirmed, this slate of nominees will bring historic personal and professional diversity to California’s federal bench,” said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.). “Our justice system needs the experience and unique perspectives these public servants bring.”

But California needs far more nominees than Biden put forward Wednesday. The state still has a whopping 15 vacancies on its federal courts, in part because the state’s two U.S. senators aren’t moving quickly enough to recommend people to the White House to fill those seats.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) acknowledged there is more work to be done here.

“There are 15 additional vacancies on California’s district courts that need to be filled immediately and more expected next year,” Feinstein said. “I look forward to continuing to work with President Biden and Senator Padilla to ensure that the remaining vacancies on the federal courts in California are filled with well-qualified judicial candidates who reflect the makeup of the state.”

. . . .

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

Read the complete story at the link.

It’s an important step — but only a first step in the process of creating a diverse progressive Federal Judiciary, from top to bottom!

Meanwhile, a house built on a bad foundation is in trouble! In this case, that crumbling foundation is the nearly 600-judge U.S. Immigration Court at both the trial and appellate levels. 

This “court” system, with nationwide jurisdiction and life or death authority over millions of lives and American families, is regressive, dysfunctional, and non-diverse, particularly when taking into account the composition of the American communities most directly affected by it’s too often defective, unprofessional, and biased decision making. That’s hardly surprising, because it was largely expanded, packed, weaponized, staffed, and directed in the “image” of Jeff Sessions, Billy Barr, and Gauleiter Stephen Miller! 

Unlike Article III Judges, Immigration Judges currently are considered “DOJ Attorneys” who are selected outside the competitive Civil Service, have no “tenure” in their quasi-judicial positions, are subject to the control of the Attorney General, and can be reassigned, or in some cases terminated, at the will of the Attorney General. In simple terms, Garland could fix this badly broken system, but hasn’t done so. 

The sorry condition of today’s Immigration Courts (“EOIR”) is particularly disgraceful when one considers the wide, diverse, progressive pool of potential judicial talent available in the private/NGO/sector who were either discouraged from applying under Trump or passed over in favor of lesser-qualified candidates perceived (whether accurately or not) to be more receptive and obedient to the overtly White Nationalist, xenophobic stance promoted by Trump’s DOJ.

To date, Garland has replaced zero (0) of the Trump judicial appointees. He has hired no notable progressive judges as inspirational leaders. He “promoted” one notable progressive to be among the several dozen “Assistant Chief Immigration Judges.” He outrageously appointed his first 27 Immigration Judges from among those “preselected” by Barr under defective procedures that have been universally condemned by progressive experts!

For the most part, without any progressive judicial leadership, precedents, or procedures, EOIR rambles on producing the same sloppy, haste-makes-waste, anti-immigrant, anti-asylum, racially and misogynistically tinged decisions that were the “hallmark” of the Trump-era EOIR.

If things don’t change quickly, I guarantee that American progressives will come to rue the squandered opportunity to radically reform EOIR and convert it into a model progressive judiciary that will showcase due-process-focused judging, innovation, and best judicial practices while saving lives and promoting racial justice, gender rights, and equal justice for all at the critical “retail level” of our justice system!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever! 

PWS

09-10-21

Related posts:

  1. 🧑🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️⚖️BIDEN & WARREN BELIEVE IN A DIVERSE, PROGRESSIVE FEDERAL JUDICIARY — JUDGE GARLAND CONTROLS PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT FEDERAL JUDICIARY NEXT TO THE SUPREMES — So, What’s He Waiting For? — Will He Reverse The Dems’ Maddening Failure To Grasp & Act On The Cosmic Importance & Game Changing Potential Of A Progressive Immigration Court, That Gets Beyond The Often White, Male, Enforcement, “Go Along To Get Along” Stereotypes & Showcases Diverse, Progressive “Practical Scholars,” Many Of Them Women & People Of Color?
  2. ⚖️🧑‍⚖️☠️ SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-RI) HIGHLIGHTS RIGHT’S SUPREME TAKEOVER! — My Thoughts On “Agency Capture” By Nativists @ EOIR Under Garland!
  3. Judge Mimi Tsankov @ ABA JOURNAL: 🆘 Immigration Courts Now A Human Rights Catastrophe Threatening The Heart ❤️ & Soul 😇 Of American Justice!
  4. 🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️🆘NO JUSTICE @ JUSTICE! — OUTRAGE OF PROGRESSIVE EXPERTS CONTINUES TO GROW AS GARLAND FAILS TO VACATE SESSIONS/BARR RACIST, MISOGYNIST, ANTI-IMMIGRANT, UNETHICAL, BIASED PRECEDENTS — “Garland’s Star Chambers” Careen Further Out Of Control As AG Dithers While Lives Of Vulnerable Refugee Women Hang in Balance & Pro Bono Advocates Are Forced To Exhaust Resources Fighting Trump DOJ’s Misdeeds That Biden Has Failed To Fix, Despite Promises — “Unforced Errors,” Lack Of Competent Progressive Leadership Continue To Plague Flawed Immigration Agenda @ Justice, Offend Dem Supporters! — Expert Professors Karen Musalo & Stephen Legomsky Call For Immediate Vacating Of Repulsive Matter of A-B- Abomination Before More Lives Of Women Of Color Are Lost!

THE GIBSON REPORT — 08-30-21 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

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

ALERTS

 

Final week of email filing: Email filing with EOIR ends at the remaining courts on September 4, 2021.

 

CDC Requirements for Immigrant Medical Examinations: COVID vaccine to be required for medical exams starting October 1, 2021.

 

NEWS

 

Court won’t block order requiring reinstatement of “remain in Mexico” policy

SCOTUSblog: The Supreme Court on Tuesday night rejected the Biden administration’s plea for a reprieve from a district-court order requiring it to reinstate a Trump-era program known as the “remain in Mexico” policy, which requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while they wait for a hearing in U.S. immigration court. The court was divided on the decision to deny relief, with the court’s three liberal justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – indicating that they would have granted the government’s request and put the district court’s order on hold. See also The Supreme Court’s stunning, radical immigration decision, explained; Biden administration will continue challenging ‘Remain in Mexico’.

 

U.S. officials provided Taliban with names of Americans, Afghan allies to evacuate

Politico: U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies to grant entry into the militant-controlled outer perimeter of the city’s airport, a choice that’s prompted outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials. See also In evacuation mission’s 11th hour, hope dims for Afghans seeking escape.

 

Federal judge orders ICE to test detainees for COVID-19

AP: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement must test detainees for COVID-19 before they are transferred to the immigrant detention center in Tacoma, a federal judge ordered Monday.

 

Little-Known Federal Software Can Trigger Revocation of Citizenship

The Intercept: ATLAS helps DHS investigate immigrants’ personal relationships and backgrounds, examining biometric information like fingerprints and, in certain circumstances, considering an immigrant’s race, ethnicity, and national origin. It draws information from a variety of unknown sources, plus two that have been criticized as being poorly managed: the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database, also known as the terrorist watchlist, and the National Crime Information Center. Powered by servers at tech giant Amazon, the system in 2019 alone conducted 16.5 million screenings and flagged more than 120,000 cases of potential fraud or threats to national security and public safety.

 

Migrant children spend weeks at US shelters as more arrive

AP: Five months after the Biden administration declared an emergency and raced to set up shelters to house a record number of children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border alone, kids continue to languish at the sites, while more keep coming, child welfare advocates say.

 

A Squalid Border Camp Finally Closed. Now Another One Has Opened.

NYT: a new camp sprang up about 55 miles farther west, in the Mexican city of Reynosa, and this one, aid workers say, is far worse than the one at Matamoros ever was. Overcrowded already, with more than 2,000 people, it is filthy and foul-smelling, lacking the health and sanitation infrastructure that nonprofit groups had spent months installing at Matamoros. Assaults and kidnappings for ransom are commonplace.

 

A Texas Sheriff’s Grim Task: Finding Bodies as Migrant Deaths Surge

NYT: . Through July, Border Patrol officials found 383 dead migrants, the highest toll in nearly a decade, and one already far surpassing the 253 recovered in the previous fiscal year.

 

Gov. DeSantis Demands Info On Migrants Moving To Fla.

Law360: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis demanded the Biden administration provide personal information on undocumented migrants being relocated to Florida, including names, addresses and the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 or refused the coronavirus vaccine.

 

Feds OK’d Work Authorization For 800K Without Full Vetting

Law360: A federal watchdog on Wednesday called on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to improve its employment eligibility verification system, finding shortcomings that kept the agency from accurately confirming workers’ identities and work authorization in at least 800,000 instances.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

Supreme Court Allows “Remain in Mexico” Policy to Be Reinstated

AILA: The Supreme Court denied the application for a stay and thus preventing the Biden administration’s effort to halt the reminstatement of “Remain in Mexico.” (Biden, et al. v. Texas, et al., 8/24/21)

 

Week Ahead in Immigration: Aug. 30, 2021

Reuters: Here are some upcoming events of interest to the immigration law community. All times are local unless stated otherwise.

 

CA5 Extends Stay on Preliminary Injunction on Biden Enforcement Memos Indefinitely

AILA: The court extended the district court stay on the preliminary injunction on the Biden immigration enforcement memos indefinitely. (Texas, et al., v. USA, et al., 8/27/21)

 

2nd Circ. Says Judge Unfairly Nitpicked Asylee’s Story

Law360: A Nepalese asylum-seeker has another shot at avoiding deportation after the Second Circuit ruled Friday that an immigration judge had prematurely declared his story of Maoist intimidation and violence not credible without giving him a chance to address minor discrepancies.

 

2nd Circ. Says Asylum-Seeker Could Have Moved Within India

Law360: The Second Circuit rejected an immigrant’s arguments Wednesday that after being beaten by members of a rival political party for his affiliation with a Sikh party, he could not escape the threat of more violence by moving within India, affirming a Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision to deny asylum and deport the man.

 

BIA Must Weigh 5th Circ. Ruling In Cannabis Removal Order

Law360: A panel of Fifth Circuit judges vacated a Pakistani man’s deportation order issued after he was convicted for synthetic marijuana possession, finding that the Board of Immigration Appeals failed to fully consider whether his state law conviction is equivalent to federal drug law.

 

CA5 Finds BIA Did Not Err by Declining to Construe Petitioner’s Motion to Reconsider as a Motion to Reopen

AILA: Where the petitioner alleged that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Sessions v. Dimaya made his removal unlawful, the court held that the BIA did not err by construing his motion as a motion to reconsider nor by denying it as time barred. (Gonzalez Hernandez v. Garland, 8/13/21)

 

CA8 Finds BIA Erred by Failing to Apply Matter of Sanchez Sosa Factors to U Visa Applicants

AILA: The court granted the petition for review of the BIA’s denial of the petitioners’ motion to reopen, finding the BIA abused its discretion by departing from established policy when it failed to apply the Matter of Sanchez Sosa factors. (Gonzales Quecheluno v. Garland, 8/12/21)

 

CA8 Upholds Denial of Deferral of Removal Under the CAT to Somalian Petitioner

AILA: Where BIA had reversed the IJ’s findings that petitioner would more likely than not be tortured in Somalia, the court found that BIA applied the correct legal standard to the Convention Against Torture (CAT) claim and did not engage in impermissible fact finding. (Mohamed v. Garland, 8/13/21)

 

8th Circ. Says INA ‘Vagueness’ Can’t Stop Deportation

Law360: The Eighth Circuit refused to stop an Ethiopian refugee’s deportation, ruling Friday that a portion of the Immigration and Nationality Act allowing the deportation of certain migrants who face persecution upon return is ambiguous, but not unconstitutionally vague.

 

9th Circ. Slams Judge For Nitpicking Rape Survivor Testimony

Law360: The Ninth Circuit Wednesday revived a Cameroonian rape survivor’s asylum bid, ruling that the immigration judge cherry-picked discrepancies in the woman’s testimony to justify deporting her and “displayed a dubious understanding of how rape survivors ought to act.”

 

CA9 Holds That INA §212 Applies for Cancellation of Removal Purposes to Petitioner Who Legally Entered the United States

AILA: The court upheld BIA’s determination that petitioner was ineligible for cancellation of removal under INA §240A(b)(1)(C) due to his conviction for an offense described in INA §212(a)(2), even though he had been previously admitted into the United States. (Sanchez-Ruano v. Garland, 8/11/21)

 

CA9 Says Failure to Notify Petitioner That Alleged False Claim of Citizenship Would Be at Issue During Hearing Violated Due Process

AILA: The court held that the IJ failed to put the petitioner on notice that his alleged false claim of U.S. citizenship would be at issue during his hearing, and that such failure violated due process by denying him a full and fair hearing. (Flores-Rodriguez v. Garland, 8/16/21)

 

CA9 Says There Is No Colorable Constitutional Claim Exception to Statutory Limits on Judicial Review of Expedited Removal Orders

AILA: The court found it lacked jurisdiction to review petitioner’s challenge to his expedited removal proceedings, concluding that the Supreme Court’s decision in DHS v. Thuraissigiam abrogated any colorable constitutional claim exception to INA §242(a)(2)(A). (Guerrier v. Garland, 8/16/21)

 

CA9 Says Substantial Evidence Supported BIA’s Holding That Serious Nonpolitical Crime Bar Applied to Petitioner with Interpol Red Notice

AILA: The court held that an Interpol Red Notice, among other evidence, created a serious reason to believe that the petitioner had committed a serious nonpolitical crime before entering the United States, and that he was ineligible for withholding of removal. (Villalobos Sura v. Garland, 8/17/21)

 

CA9 Holds That Petitioner Did Not Suffer Past Persecution in India After Considering Non-Exhaustive List of Factors

AILA: The court held that the record did not compel the conclusion that the petitioner suffered hardship in India that rose to the level of past persecution, where he did not experience significant physical harm and his harm was an isolated event, among other factors. (Sharma v. Garland, 8/17/21)

 

CA9 Says Vehicle Theft Under California Vehicle Code §10851(a) Is Not an Aggravated Felony

AILA: Granting in part the petition for review, the court held that vehicle theft under California Vehicle Code §10851(a) is indivisible in its treatment of accessories after the fact, and thus is not an aggravated felony theft offense under INA §101(a)(43)(G). (Lopez-Marroquin v. Garland, 8/18/21)

 

CA11 Concludes That Petitioner’s Federal Conviction for Making False Statements in an Immigration Application Was an Aggravated Felony

AILA: The court denied the petition for review, holding that because petitioner was convicted of a violation of 18 USC §1546(a) and his sentence was greater than one year, his conviction expressly fell under the definition of aggravated felony in INA §101(a)(43)(P). (Germain v. Att’y Gen., 8/18/21)

 

Split 11th Circ. Won’t Revive Sri Lankan’s Asylum Bid

Law360: A split Eleventh Circuit panel refused Tuesday to grant asylum to a member of a Sri Lankan ethnic minority or to block his deportation, ruling he hasn’t proven past persecution or credible fear of future persecution.

 

Federal Court Blocks Texas Migrant Transportation Order

Law360: A Texas federal judge has blocked an executive order from the state’s governor banning the transportation of certain migrants in the state, holding it violates the supremacy clause of the Constitution by authorizing state officials to make federal immigration determinations.

 

ICE Must Test Migrants Before Sending Them To Wash. Center

Law360: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement must test immigrants for COVID-19 before transferring them to a Washington state detention center, after a federal judge blamed the agency for 240 detainees and facility staff contracting the virus over the past three months.

 

DHS Says Border Turnback Policy Doesn’t Exist

Law360: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has told a California federal judge that it could not produce an administrative record related to its practice of turning back asylum-seekers at the southern border because no such policy existed.

 

USCIS Provides Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement in SIJ Cases A.O., et al. v. Jaddou, et al.

AILA: USCIS provided information regarding a proposed class settlement in A.O., et al. v. Jaddou, et al. No. 19-cv-6151 (N.D. Cal.) regarding juvenile court orders in the California Juvenile Court with subsequent filed Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) petitions after the age of 18 years old.

 

DHS Releases Guidance on Parole for Certain Afghan Nationals Into the U.S.

AILA: DHS released a memo with guidance on immigration processing for certain Afghan nationals, stating that they will be paroled into the U.S. on a case-by-case basis for a two-year period and may be eligible to apply for status through USCIS.

 

EOIR Announces Launch of FOIA Public Access Link

AILA: EOIR launched its FOIA Public Access Link (PAL), which will allow users to submit requests, check the status of requests, download records, browse the FOIA reading room, and correspond with the EOIR FOIA Service Center. The PAL also allows users to pay required fees online.

 

ICE Issues Interim Guidance Regarding Civil Immigration Enforcement and Removal Policies and Priorities

AILA: ICE issued interim guidance to all OPLA attorneys to guide them in appropriately executing interim civil immigration enforcement and removal priorities and exercising prosecutorial discretion. Note, on 8/19/21, OPLA suspended reliance on this guidance due to litigation.

 

Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility

USCIS: Starting 10/26/21, we will only accept the 7/20/21 version.

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

   

 

ImmProf


Monday, August 30, 2021

Sunday, August 29, 2021

Saturday, August 28, 2021

Friday, August 27, 2021

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Monday, August 23, 2021

 

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

Thanks, Elizabeth! It’s interesting and satisfying that several Circuits, including the 2d and the 9th, are openly rejecting EOIR’s practice of “nit-picking” asylum applicants’ testimony in an attempt to deny meritorious applications. It’s all part of the “culture of denial” that continues to flourish at EOIR’s deportation assembly line under Garland.

Sadly, the Circuits haven’t yet had the guts to face the larger problem here — the EOIR system, as currently staffed with too many “Trump plants” as judges and a continuing lack of expertise and anti-asylum, anti-immigrant bias is clearly unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment!

Indeed, some Circuit panels take judicial review seriously, others function as rubber stamps, and most individuals wronged in Immigration Court lack the lawyers and wherewithal to take their case to the Circuits. This means that inconsistent results and lack of consistently applied expertise at all levels of the Federal legal system just add to the inconsistencies and unfairness heaped on migrants in violation of the Due Process Clause. To date, no Circuit has been willing to act on the glaring constitutional defects at EOIR staring them in the face.

Unhappily, Congress also has  failed to act on long-overdue legislation to create an independent, Article I Immigration Court. In the interim, it would be possible to ameliorate, if not entirely eliminate, these constitutional problems by replacing marginally qualified IJs and BIA judges with well-qualified progressive experts and then giving them independence to issue precedents and make necessary procedural and structural changes to restore some semblence of Due Process, quality control, fair procedures, and efficiency to this disgracefully dysfunctional, unnecessarily backlogged system. The private bar could be constructively involved in creating universal representation and sane docket management. Indeed experts recommended these very changes to Garland, only to be ignored in favor of the “same old, same old” incredible mess and gross indifference to both the rule of law and human life at EOIR!

Not surprisingly, a recently issued report from the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) highlighted lack of “shareholder engagement” — something specifically discouraged by the Trump kakistocracy — as an endemic and continuing problem at EOIR. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-104404

Shareholder engagement means having a meaningful dialogue with those practicing before the courts, and honestly considering their input in advance of promulgating new policies. So called “Town Halls” to announce unilaterally developed bureaucratic policies are the antithesis of this meaningful process. It’s no mystery why EOIR continues to founder and stumble under Garland.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-01-21

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT— 01-02-22 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Garland’s Aimless Docket Reshuffling (“ADR”) Squeezes Refugees On Both Ends Of His Ludicrous Backlog, As Those Patiently Waiting Given Court Dates Nearly A Decade In The Future, While Recent Arrivals Mindlessly Rocketed To The “Front Of The Line” Struggle To Find Lawyers & Prepare Cases — Plus Other New Year News From The Dystopian World Of U.S. Immigration!
  2. THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-14-21💝 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Mandatory E-Filing @ EOIR Starts & Lots Of Other “Interesting Stuff!”  — CMS Study Shows How Garland Is Ignoring the “Low Hanging Fruit” On His Out of Control EOIR Backlog! ☹️
  3. THE GIBSON REPORT — 05-17-21 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Continuing To Highlight Garland’s Tone-Deaf Failure To Bring Justice, Due Process, Progressive Expertise To EOIR! — Hey Progressives & Due Process Advocates, Had Enough Of His “Amateur Night At The Bijou” Approach To EOIR? — Get Mad, Make Your Voices Heard, Demand Change, Demand Better! — Much Better!
  4. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚖️🗽🇺🇸FORMER DEPUTY AG DON AYER, JUDGE MIMI TSANKOV AMONG “HEADLINERS” AT TIMELY UPCOMING NY CITY BAR ASSN. EVENT: “Rule of Law Forum – Preserving the Rule of Law in an Age of Disruption” — Register Now, Right Here!

🇺🇸🗽⚖️NDPA ALERT: ELIMINATE THE CANCELLATION OF REMOVAL CAP! — Join Neela Nes’s Petition To Lift the Cap & Donate To Immigration Reform — Watch Neela’s Inspirational Video About “American Families In Limbo!” — End Injustice To Our Immigrant Communities!

Here’s the link to 1) sign Neela’s petition; 2) watch her very impressive video; and 3) donate (only if you choose, of course, not required to do 1 & 2):

https://www.change.org/p/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-remove-the-green-card-annual-cap

Neela is the daughter of my friend, Northern Virginia Immigration Lawyer Yousef Nesari, whose firm appears in the Arlington Immigration Court on a regular basis.

I’ve helped lawyers with some cancellation cases since retirement. The unnecessary delays, inconsistent decisions, and human toll caused by failure to do better is simply appalling. An obvious example is the Government’s dilatory actions and litigation that took the “stop time” rule unsuccessfully to the Supremes twice, rather than just dong things fairly, correctly, and according the law in the first instance. Talk about “low hanging fruit” among the ways the Biden Administration and Congress could “declutter the Immigraton Courts” while making America a better place by allowing more immigrants to reach their full potential!

🇺🇸🗽Good luck, Neera, and Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-21-21

Related posts:

  1. ⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️🗽COURT REFORM: GW IMMIGRATION CLINIC STUDENTS WEIGH IN ON ARTICLE I — Emphasize Critical Due Process Need To Entirely Remove AG From Decision-Making Process!
  2. 🇺🇸🗽👍🏼😎MAKING AMERICA BETTER, FINALLY: “Mr. Biden has laid out an immigration program that would genuinely put America first.” (WashPost) — No Wonder GOP Anti-American White Nationalists Like Tom Cotton Are Apoplectic & Spouting Their Racist, White Elitist Nonsense!
  3. ⚖️🤯🤮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!
  4. ⚖️ “WINNNG SHOULDN’T BE LOSING” — Cancellation & Life After Winning (“CLAW”) Project Kicks Off With “Keynote Remarks!” — End The Inhumane & Irrational “4,000 Cap” On Cancellation!

🗽⚖️HUMAN RIGHTS: IMMIGRATION JUDGES SPEAK OUT FOR AFGHAN WOMEN JUDGES — National Association For Women Judges Call To Protect Courageous Afghan Women Featured in WashPost Lead Editorial! 

Judge Joan Churchill
Honorable Joan Churchill
Retired U.S. Immigration Judge
Member Round Table of Retired Judges
Honorable Mimi Tsankov
Honorable Mimi Tsankov
U.S. Immigration Judge
President, National Association of Immigration Judges (“NAIJ”)

From WashPost:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/18/no-deadline-should-stand-way-evacuating-us-citizens-afghan-partners/

. . . .

In an interview with ABC News, Mr. Biden himself for the first time hinted at flexibility on the deadline, “if there are American citizens left.” That won’t be enough: This country’s moral responsibilities begin, but do not end, with U.S. citizens. On Tuesday, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) received and forwarded to Secretary of State Antony Blinken an appeal from the National Association of Women Judges on behalf of 250 Afghan women judges, trained by Americans and other Western countries, some of whom sentenced Taliban fighters to prison for murder or other crimes. These criminals have just been released by the Taliban. The judges have thus joined the ranks of the fearful. This country must make time for all of them.

Here’s the NAWJ’s full statement:

https://www.nawj.org/blog/newsroom/news/nawj-statement-on-afghanistan

NAWJ Statement on Afghanistan

Written by National Association of Women Judges|August 15, 2021|News

NAWJ is the U.S. Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges, an organization which NAWJ founded, developed and helped grow. NAWJ joins the IAWJ in expressing our grave fears for the basic human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan as the Taliban advance and take control of large parts of the country. In particular, the women judges have disclosed that because they have followed their country’s laws, conducted trials, and administered sentences to the guilty, many of whom are members of the Taliban, they will soon be targeted for assassination. The AWJA judges have served in criminal, anti-corruption and narcotics courts, developed in conjunction with the United States over many years. Through their efforts, they have implemented rule of law and anti-corruption principles which are central to the mission statements of NAWJ and IAWJ.

At a virtual meeting of the AWJA last month, at which a number of NAWJ members were present, the Afghan judges spoke about the dangerous and difficult conditions in which they live and work. Some judges have lost their lives in terrorist attacks and several of the judges present had received death threats. Some have already been forced to flee their posts in the provinces with their families because it was too dangerous to remain. Their fears are not theoretical. In January, two women judges traveling to their jobs at the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, were murdered in the street. Now, the prisons housing convicted terrorists have been opened, and sentenced prisoners are contacting their judges threatening reprisals and revenge.

As a chapter of the IAWJ, an organization comprised of over 6500 women judges from more than 100 countries and territories worldwide, NAWJ wants to draw particular attention to the situation of Afghan women judges, given the special role they have played in upholding the rule of law and human rights for all, and the particular dangers they face as a result. We honor their commitment and their courage. Today, some 250 women serve as judges there.

Today, it is reported that the Afghan government has collapsed. The President of Afghanistan has fled the country. The United States Department of State is currently prioritizing visas for employees of the United States, including interpreters, as the United States reaches its date for final withdrawal from Afghanistan. NAWJ urges the Department of State to include the Afghan women judges and their families, who are in such a desperate and precarious position, in facilitating travel and processing visas in the same manner that special measures are being extended to interpreters, journalists and other personnel who provided essential service to the foreign military forces in Afghanistan.   NAWJ urges our government to consider the fate of the women judges. By serving as judges and helping develop the Afghan judicial branch, women judges have helped establish the rule of law in their country, an essential pillar of a democratic state. Allowing them to be at the mercy of the Taliban and insurgent groups, given what they have sacrificed and contributed working side by side with the United States would be tragic indeed.

Hon. Karen Donohue

President, NAWJ

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

Thanks to my friends and long-time colleagues Judge Churchill and Judge Tsankov for standing up and speaking out. I understand from them that Senior DC Court of Appeals Judge Vanessa Ruiz (also a past President of the NAWJ) was also instrumental in this effort.

Hon. Vanessa Ruiz
Honorable Vanessa Ruiz
Senior Judge, DC Court of Appeals
PHOTO: Wikipedia

Also, many thanks to Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) for sending this to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken who hasn’t exactly covered  himself in glory or shown much moral or intellectual courage in standing up for the rights and lives of refugees and energizing the bureaucracy to save lives.

Compare this with the conspicuous lack of moral, intellectual, and legal leadership and effective action from the Biden USDOJ on refugee and asylum issues. 

Sadly, as many of us tried, in vain, to tell the incoming Biden Administration, failure to make immediate, bold, progressive, humanitarian, due process reforms at EOIR and to take a strong, courageous stand against the continuing misuse of bogus legal rationales to suspend refugee and asylum processing (and ignore our legal and moral obligations to refugees and other migrants) at the border will likely cripple the US response to arising human rights catastrophes and cost more innocent human lives.

Human rights and immigrant justice are not “back burner” issues! Nor are they “rocket science!” Delay costs lives and undermines democracy and our international leadership.

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever! Lack of expertise and moral courage has consequences!

PWS

08-19-21

Related posts:

  1. ⚖️🇺🇸👍🏼🗽DEAN KEVIN JOHNSON’S SUCCINCT RESPONSE TO GREG ABBOTT’S PREDICTABLE SOUTHERN BORDER BS IS WORTH A READ! — PLUS: ARELIS HERNANDEZ OF WASHPOST WITH SOME MUCH-NEEDED TRUTH & PERSPECTIVE FROM THOSE ACTUALLY LIVING ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER: “We need more lawyers and judges, not more troops or technology.”
  2. ⚠️🚸V.P. HARRIS IS GOING TO THE BORDER: SHE SHOULD TALK WITH THE REAL VICTIMS OF HER GOVERNMENT’S, ILLEGAL, WRONG-HEADED, IMMORAL, AND INEFFECTIVE BORDER DETERRENCE POLICIES — Avoid The CBP “Dog & Pony Show,” & The GOP’s Cowardly “Gunboat Cruz” — Cross Over The Border, View The Human Rights Catastrophe We Have Created, Understand People Have A Right To Seek Legal Refuge, & Fix The Legal Asylum System At Ports Of Entry & Immigration Courts With Humane, Practical Experts! — “The vice president seems to have bought into the… I can’t use another word, but the nativist party line, that somehow these immigrants are the cause of the problem when, in fact, they’re the victims of multiple problems in many cases.” — Stop Blaming, Shaming, & Dehumanizing The Victims & Start Fixing Our Asylum System & Solving The Problems That Force Them To Migrate!
  3. 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!
  4. 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️RACE IN AMERICA: CARRIE ROSENBAUM “GETS IT,” EVEN AS MAYORKAS, GARLAND, HARRIS & THE OTHER BIDEN HYPOCRITES PRETEND NOT TO:  “Immigration reform, and a more robust application of the Equal Protection doctrine to all those inside the country, and at our borders, is necessary to move towards meaningfully dismantling systemic racism.”

👨🏽‍⚖️⚖️BIDEN NOMINATES HON. DAVID ESTUDILLO, FORMER IMMIGRATION/HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER FOR US DISTRICT JUDGE , WD WA! — The Daily Kos Reports

 

Hon. David Estudillo
Hon. David Estudillo
Washington State Judge
Nominee for USDC WD WA
PHOTO: YouTube

 

 

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

As I always say: “Better Judges for a better America!” This a step forward, although we still have a long way to go to repair the extensive damage inflicted on the Federal Judiciary by Trump & McConnell.

Moreover, as I will discuss below, one of America’s most important (and readily “improvable”) judiciaries, one completely controlled by the Biden Administration, the U.S. Immigration Court, has actually taken steps backward in terms of progressive appointments under Garland. It’s like a new coach taking over in the 4th quarter of a game his team is losing 48-7 and saying “OK, let’s spot them another 17 points before we start playing to win!” Incredible, yet, sadly, true!

As the latest census shows an increasingly diverse America, the Article III Federal Judiciary remains an embarrassing backwater of “non-diversity.” This was intentionally aggravated by Trump & McConnell who, as noted above, elevated primarily White ultra right wing men, many with thin or questionable qualifications, to the Federal Bench!

As stated above:

It is crucial that the more than 1.1 million immigrants and nearly 1 million Latinx people in Washington feel that they are represented on the courts by people who share their experiences and identities.

Evidently, AG Merrick Garland and his team @ DOJ haven’t gotten that message. So far, Garland’s appointments to the Immigration Court, and the composition of his BIA, look more like Stephen Miller’s, Billy Barr’s, and Jeff “Gonzo Apocalypto” Sessions’s “skewed whitewashed vision” of America than they do the real America. That’s particularly true when you consider the American communities whose lives and futures are existentially affected (primarily adversely) by substandard and biased EOIR decisions that continue to be cranked out under Garland. This is despite a few moves by Garland to “kill off” the most horrible of the many bad precedents cranked out by the AG and the BIA during the Trump regime.

Judge Estrada sounds like just the type of individual that Garland should be appointing to the U.S. Immigration Court and the BIA. Compare Judge Estrada’s experience, qualifications, and “real life” background and human engagement with the lackluster profiles of Immigration Judges recently appointed by Garland and with many of those appointed to the Immigration Court and the BIA over the past two decades.

There are plenty of diverse, extraordinarily talented, courageous, practical experts out there in the NDPA to reform and improve the EOIR Judiciary at all levels! Many haven’t applied in the past (or have had their applicants rejected in favor of lesser-qualified candidates) because of the White Nationalist, xenophobic, nativist tone set by Sessions and Barr. Indeed, I spoke over the weekend to one of the leading progressive immigration/human rights experts in America who felt that way. Obviously, I encouraged that “NDPA superstar” to submit the applications — not just for EOIR but also for the Article III Judiciary which also needs to get its act together on human rights, immigration, and racial justice.

Garland & team need to reform and improve the selection criteria, involve outside expert input, and then actively recruit the “best and the brightest” from the NDPA to remake and elevate the Immigration Judiciary! As I have mentioned before, my colleagues in the Round Table and I have done more outreach, cajoling, inspiring, and recruiting among the progressive immigration and human rights community to apply for EOIR jobs than have those at DOJ and elsewhere in the Administration whose job it should be to do just that! It’s ridiculous, and it’s wrong!

No wonder things continue to be an ungodly mess at EOIR despite mountains of blueprints, action plans, and other readily achievable reform recommendations and proposed improvements produced by practical experts in the immigration/human rights/racial justice community! The Immigration Judiciary cries out for diverse, progressive, talented, practical scholar “role models” drawn from the NDPA! 

Lucas Guttentag, are you listening somewhere out there? Don’t get co-opted by the DOJ bureaucracy that overall failed to stand up to Trump and his gang of insurrectionists! Don’t let the new leadership at DOJ “de-prioritize or back burner” essential, long overdue, achievable EOIR reforms! Expose “Obamathink revolution by evolution” as the ridiculous and dangerous nonsense that it is (and always was)! Fight for your ideals, speak out, and shake up this disastrously broken and unfair system with the progressive change we need! At this point in your distinguished career, what do you have to lose? Those who consciously chose “not to rock the boat” at EOIR in the past, when human lives, due process, and human dignity were at stake, now share in the responsibility for its sinking!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-16-21

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