AILA SUIT SEEKS SKINNY ON STAR CHAMBER SCANDAL — Secret “Remote Adjudication Centers” (“The Racks”) 🤮☠️⚰️ Subvert Justice, Abuse Asylum Seekers!

Under watchful eye of regime officials, “Remote Adjudicators” hone skills in using “rack” to deter asylum seekers from seeking justice:

Star Chamber Justice — “Justice”
Star Chamber
Style

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 30, 2020
Contact: Maria Frausto, mfrausto@immcouncil.org

Lawsuit Seeks to Uncover Secretive Expansion of Judicial Black Sites for Immigration Cases

WASHINGTON, DC — Immigration groups filed a lawsuit today in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)—which oversees immigration courts—and the General Services Administration (GSA) requesting information on the expansion and creation of immigration adjudication centers, which were established as part of EOIR’s Strategic Caseload Reduction plan designed to accelerate removal proceedings at the expense of due process.

The lawsuit—filed by the American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Chicago AILA Chapter, and the National Immigrant Justice Center— seeks the disclosure of records on the obscure procedural rules for immigration adjudication centers. The centers are a new initiative created under the Trump administration where immigration judges adjudicate immigration cases from around the country in remote-only settings that are closed to the public.

Immigration adjudication centers appear to have been created to address immigration court backlogs, but attorneys and immigrants facing deportation have little instruction on the procedures for appearing before these centers. Immigration lawyers and advocates have expressed concerns after public reports indicate the potential expansion of immigration adjudication centers across the country.

The lawsuit challenges EOIR’s failure to disclose information in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted in March 2020. EOIR and GSA have failed to disclose critical information about what immigration courts presently exist, immigration court expansion, and contracts governing this expansion.

“Immigration lawyers and advocates have an interest in pressing for more transparency in the immigration courts, helping ensure the due process rights of all who appear in court, and providing guidance to the lawyers representing people before these courts,” said Claudia Valenzuela, FOIA senior attorney at the American Immigration Council.

“Transparency is essential to a fair day in court. Unfortunately, the secretive creation and expansion of immigration adjudication centers where immigration judges conduct remote-only proceedings in facilities closed to the public demonstrate how opaque an already complex immigration court system has become at the hands of this administration. While the Department of Justice regulations require immigration hearings to generally be open to the public, this administration has imposed significant new barriers to the public’s ability to observe these proceedings and has led to some hearings being conducted in secret, calling into question whether the fundamental elements of due process are being met. We are proud to stand alongside our partners in this effort,” said Laura Lynch, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“Everyone deserves a fair day in court. The lack of transparency in EOIR operations compromises the integrity of our immigration system and undermines public confidence in this system,” said Nell Barker, chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Chicago Chapter. “The secretive expansion of immigration courts is a blow to due process and adds a layer of unnecessary unpredictability to a system that struggles to inform stakeholders about changing procedures. We are concerned about the increasing inaccessibility of immigration courtrooms to lawyers, clients, and the public.”

“The secretive and inaccessible immigration adjudication centers, where judges determine whether noncitizens will be deported to persecution and torture or permanent family separation, are a disturbing example of the manner in which this administration has developed and expanded numerous policies and procedures intended to expedite the deportation of noncitizens without due process,” said Sarah Thompson, senior litigation attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “EOIR must make public its plan for future adjudication centers and the procedures under which these centers operate.”

A copy of the complaint is here.

###

For more information, contact the American Immigration Council:

Maria Frausto at mfrausto@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7526.

The American Immigration Council works to strengthen America by shaping how America thinks about and acts towards immigrants and immigration and by working toward a more fair and just immigration system that opens its doors to those in need of protection and unleashes the energy and skills that immigrants bring. The Council brings together problem solvers and employs four coordinated approaches to advance change—litigation, research, legislative and administrative advocacy, and communications. Follow the latest Council news and information on ImmigrationImpact.com and Twitter @immcouncil.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members. Follow AILA on Twitter @AILANational.

The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) is a nongovernmental organization dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers through a unique combination of direct services, policy reform, impact litigation and public education. Visit immigrantjustice.org and follow @NIJC.

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

The current system is specifically designed to “break” asylum seekers and their representatives in body and mind.

Will a lawless regime get another four years to finish the job of destroying American democracy and eradicating justice? Or, will there be hope on the horizon for a better future for all Americans!

Vote ‘Em out, vote ‘Em out!

PWS

11-01-20

🎶MUSIC FOR THE TRUMP 🏴‍☠️ ERA: Nancy Sanchez & Demi Lovato Bring Regime’s Unrestrained Cruelty, Corruption, Immorality, Racism, Hate, & Stupidity To Life In Song On You-Tube!

PURE BS 💩 — TRUMP’S “BIG LIE” ABOUT MIGRANT APPEARANCES FOR HEARINGS BOGUS AS $3 BILL 🤮👎🏻— Replacing DHS/EOIR With Rational, Qualified, Fact-Based Governance & Real Judiciary Could Bring Appearance Rate Close To 100%! — Two Items From ImmigrationProf Blog!

Professor Ingrid Eagly
UCLA Law
Blogger, ImmigrationProf Blog
Picture from ImmmigrationProf Blog

First, from ImmmigrationProf Blog:

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2020/10/op-ed-when-trump-says-immigrants-dont-show-up-for-court-hearings-he-couldnt-be-more-wrong.html

ImmigrationProf blogger Ingrid Eagly and Steven Shafer in an op/ed in the Los Angeles Times take on President Trump who “[l]ast week, during the final presidential campaign debate, President Trump renewed a claim he has often made: Migrants with pending court dates rarely show up for their hearings. In response to the charge by his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, that the administration’s treatment of would-be immigrants was inhumane, Trump told debate watchers that the number who`come back’ to immigration court is `less than 1%.’

The government’s data, however, tell a far different story.”

Check out the op/ed and the take down of President.

[Dean] K[evin] J[ohnson]

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

Also from ImmigrationProf Blog:

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2020/10/new-fact-sheet-from-vera-institute-of-justice-on-immigration-court-appearance-rates.html

A new fact sheet by Nina Siulc and Noelle Smart of the Vera Institute of Justice summarizes new evidence showing that most immigrants appear for their immigration court hearings. The report includes data from Vera’s Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Initiative that provides free representation through a universal access model of representation. Vera researchers found that 98 percent of SAFE clients released from custody have continued to appear for their court hearings. Read the full report for additional information on related research, including Vera’s ongoing evaluation of the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP).

I[ngrid] E[agly]

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

Thanks, Ingrid and Steven! Our “Round Table” has used your scholarship in amicus briefs to educate Federal Courts at all levels about the realities of Immigration Court.

It’s particularly critical in an era where the politicized and “ethically challenged” DOJ often puts forth largely fictionalization versions of their self-manufactured “immigration emergency” that is actually little more than the outcome of studied ignorance, White Nationalism, “gonzo” enforcement, and maliciously incompetent administration of the Federal immigration bureaucracy.

And, as I pointed out yesterday, “Gruppenfuhrer Miller” and his gang of neo-Nazi thugs have every intention of “doubling down” on their crimes against humanity and anti-democracy agenda if they retain power after the upcoming election. https://immigrationcourtside.com/2020/10/30/%f0%9f%91%b9%f0%9f%8e%83halloween-horror-%f0%9f%8f%b4%e2%80%8d%e2%98%a0%ef%b8%8f%e2%98%a0%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%a4%ae%e2%9a%b0%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%91%8e%f0%9f%8f%bbreichsreport-gruppenfuhrer-miller-reveals/

Attribution: Stephen Miller Monster by Peter Kuper, PoliticalCartoons.com

If we kick out the kakistocracy next week, we could put qualified “practical scholars” like Ingrid and others like her in charge and remake both DHS and the Immigration Courts to actually operate as required by Due Process while also fulfilling legitimate law-enforcement objectives. To state the obvious, neither of these objectives is being realized at present. It’s bad for America and for humanity.

For far too long, the wrong individuals, lacking the necessary expertise in immigration and human rights, and also lacking a firm commitment to equal justice under law, have been “in charge” of the Government’s immigration policy and legal apparatus and appointed to the Federal Courts, at all levels. That’s particularly true at the Supremes where only Justices Sotomayor and (some days) Kagan appear “up to the job.”

We will never end institutionalized racism, achieve equal justice for all, and realize the true human and economic potential of America until we bring our broken immigration and refugee systems and our failing Federal Judicial System into line with our Constitutional and national values. That process must start, but certainly will not end, with this election!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-31-20

👹🎃HALLOWEEN HORROR 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻REICHSREPORT: GRUPPENFUHRER MILLER REVEALS “REICHSPLAN” FOR EXTERMINATION OF IMMIGRATION, ASYLUM, REFUGE BY EXECUTIVE DECREE! — “The Final Solution??” — Parents, Protect Your Kids, Families, & Your Country From This Grotesque Un-American Monster!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-adviser-stephen-miller-reveals-aggressive-second-term-immigration-agenda-n1245407

Sahil Kapur reports for NBC News:

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump‘s senior adviser Stephen Miller has fleshed out plans to rev up Trump’s restrictive immigration agenda if he wins re-election next week, offering a stark contrast to the platform of Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

In a 30-minute phone interview Thursday with NBC News, Miller outlined four major priorities: limiting asylum grants, punishing and outlawing so-called sanctuary cities, expanding the so-called travel ban with tougher screening for visa applicants and slapping new limits on work visas.

The objective, he said, is “raising and enhancing the standard for entry” to the United States.

Some of the plans would require legislation. Others could be achieved through executive action, which the Trump administration has relied on heavily in the absence of a major immigration bill.

Examining Trump’s immigration campaign promises four years later

AUG. 25, 202005:51Some of the plans would require legislation. Others could be achieved through executive action, which the Trump administration has relied on heavily in the absence of a major immigration bill.

“In many cases, fixing these problems and restoring some semblance of sanity to our immigration programs does involve regulatory reform,” Miller said. “Congress has delegated a lot of authority. … And that underscores the depth of the choice facing the American people.”

Miller, who serves in a dual role as an adviser in the White House and to Trump’s re-election campaign, stressed that he was speaking about second-term priorities only in his capacity as campaign adviser.

Immigration has been overshadowed by surging coronavirus case numbers and an economy shattered by a nearly yearlong pandemic, but it was central to Trump’s rise to power in the Republican Party, and Miller has been a driving force for the administration’s often controversial policies to crack down on illegal migration and erect hurdles for aspiring legal immigrants.

Miller has spearheaded an immigration policy that critics describe as cruel, racist and antithetical to American values as a nation of immigrants. He scoffs at those claims, insisting that his only priority is to protect the safety and wages of Americans.

And he said he intends to stay on to see the agenda through in a second term if Trump is re-elected.

In the near term, Miller wouldn’t commit to lifting the freeze on new green cards and visas that’s set to expire at the end of the year, saying it would be “entirely contingent” on governmental analysis that factors in the state of the job market.

Asked whether he would support reinstating the controversial “zero tolerance” policy that led to families’ being separated, Miller said the Trump administration is “100 percent committed to a policy of family unity,” but he described the policy as one that would keep families together in immigration detention by changing what is known as the Flores settlement agreement.

Over the past year, the administration has sought to amend the Flores agreement, which says children can’t be held over 20 days in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. If it succeeds, immigrant families could be detained indefinitely as they await their day in immigration court.

Keep asylum down

On Trump’s watch, asylum grants have plummeted. Miller wants to keep it that way. He said a second-term Trump administration would seek to expand “burden-sharing” deals with Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that cut off pathways to the U.S. for asylum-seekers.

“The president would like to expand that to include the rest of the world,” Miller said. “And so if you create safe third partners in other continents and other countries and regions, then you have the ability to share the burden of asylum-seekers on a global basis.”

. . . .

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

Read the complete report at the link.

Kids in cages, refugees returned to torture and death, ethnic communities terrorized, lives destroyed, an economy and a society (make no mistake about it, immigrants will be essential to America’s recovery, future prosperity, and competitiveness) in tatters, tens of millions wasted on unnecessary and counterproductive Gulags, walls, and cruel enforcement while the Gruppenfuherer and his fellow human rights criminals remain at large and and an existential threat to our nation and our world!

To state the obvious, this has little or nothing to do with protecting American workers. Trump has shown that he couldn’t care less about the health, safety, and welfare of American workers (or frankly anybody except himself) except at election time. Immigration and immigrants create jobs and economic prosperity for America.

Also, even Miller couldn’t possibly believe that the Democratic House will pass any part of this racist manifesto. Truth is, Trump failed to pass any meaningful immigration legislation in four years, even when the GOP controlled all the political branches! In fact, Miller’s nativist legislative game-plan “poisoned the well” and was soundly defeated in both Houses of Congress! So, he intends to use Executive misrule, bureaucratic corruption, and a fascism-enabling, racially tone-deaf GOP Supremes’ majority to rule without Congress (as has been the case for the last four years.)

But make no mistake: the real “Reichsplan” here is directed at further institutionalizing racism, spreading hate, and targeting Americans of color. That’s what the regime’s “Dred Scottification” is really about. Reducing or eliminating YOUR Constitutional rights! Immigrants are the “usual suspects.” But, by no means will they be the only victims of Gruppenfuhrer Miller’s White Nationalist, racist, hate extravaganza.

As reported at the link above, The Biden-Harris campaign immediately and forcefully condemned the Gruppenfuhrer’s plans for “ethnic cleansing:”

“We are going to win this election so that people like Stephen Miller don’t get the chance to write more xenophobic policies that dishonor our American values,” Molina said. “Unlike Trump, Vice President Biden knows that immigrants make America stronger and helped build this country.”

America is immigration! It’s our past, present, and future! When we deny those truths, we deny ourselves and betray our own humanity!

Get out the vote for Joe, Kamala, and the Dems! Top to bottom of the ballot! Our lives and the future of American Democracy depend on it! Don’t let Gruppenfuhrer Miller and his neo-Nazi agenda, the GOP’s dark vision of the future, destroy our democracy! Vote the party of corruption, hate, and neo-fascism out!

Don’t let the Monster win!👹

Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-30-20

🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️🤮👎🏻THE TRUMP REGIME & A CORRUPT SOLICITOR GENERAL HAVE CONDUCTED A WAR OF ATTRITION AGAINST AMERICAN LAWYERS ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE BATTLE TO SAVE DEMOCRACY — John Roberts & His GOP Buddies On The Supremes Have Aided, Abetted, & Encouraged It! — Constant Improper & Ethically Questionable Interference With Thoughtful, Legally Correct Lower Court Rulings Holding The Regime Accountable Have Demoralized The Profession’s Best & Bravest! — The Answer Is Better Judges For A Better America!

https://prospect.org/justice/loneliness-of-the-immigration-lawyer/

Marcia Brown Reports in American Prospect:

Susan Church, an immigration attorney in Boston, ended the first week of the Trump administration arm in arm with protesters at Logan Airport, resisting an executive order banning travel from several predominantly Muslim countries. But what happened the next day, away from the public chants of “Let them stay!” was more typical of what the life of the former chair of the New England chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) was to become under the Trump administration.

Church and an associate filed an emergency lawsuit to secure the release of immigrants from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody. “I got a federal judge on the phone, you know, on a Saturday night at eight o’clock.” The judge told Church to go to court immediately. An hour later, the attorneys were in court defending their clients.

“For me, that was the canary in the coal mine about what the rest of my four years under the Trump administration was going to be like,” Church said. “It’s just a nonstop series of emergency litigation filed to try to rescue one or 10 or 100 or 1,000 people, depending on which issue it is.” Eventually, the speed of the work, and the physical and mental exhaustion it triggered, landed Church in the hospital. “I thought I was having a heart attack,” she said.

More from Marcia Brown

Church stayed with the fight to reunite parents with their children. She described the process of taking affidavits from clients, which require she learn every harrowing detail of a client’s trauma. In one instance, CBP ripped away one woman’s eight-year-old daughter at the border. “She had to comb her daughter’s hair and change her daughter’s clothes and put her on a bus and say goodbye to her,” Church said through tears. The two were separated for nearly two months, even after the mother was released from detention.

Church was able to reunite her client with her child, but the episode—like many, many other cases—weighs heavy on her shoulders. “I don’t think I’ll ever be quite the same person that I was beforehand,” she said.

Four years into this migration crisis, there’s a parallel migration under way—of immigration lawyers out of the profession. Survey data and interviews the Prospect conducted with more than a dozen lawyers around the country reveal the physical, mental, and financial toll endured by members of the bar. Given the extreme violence, trauma, and inhumanity their clients often endure, immigration attorneys don’t like to talk about how it affects them. But secondary trauma also leaves a mark, making it impossible to continue for some attorneys. Although numerical data is limited, there is evidence that some attorneys are cutting back on some types of cases, such as deportation defense work, or even leaving immigration law altogether. Removal defense casework is one of the most time-intensive, emotional, and exigent parts of lawyers’ loads. It’s also where the administration has aimed much of its cruelest policymaking, severely limiting lawyers’ efficacy.

Under the Trump administration, immigration law has changed not only profoundly, but also so rapidly that it’s hard for immigration attorneys to keep up. Susan Church—and several other attorneys interviewed for this article—described combating Trump’s policies as a game of whack-a-mole.

. . . .

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

Read Marcia’s full article at the link.

Forget all the right wing BS and the “originalist hoax!” This is about “democracy (or the destruction thereof) in action.”

Remember, all of these cosmic “immigration law changes” have taken place without a single piece of major legislation enacted by Congress! Indeed, the Trump regime’s ham-handed attempt to force it’s nativist agenda down the throats of the Congress as part of the “Dreamer fiasco” fell flat on its face in both Houses! But, the Supremes have both encouraged and enabled Trump (actually notorious white supremacist Stephen Miller) to rewrite the law through. “Executive fiat.” Totally inappropriate, not to mention glaringly unconstitutional.

The Supremes’ majority has time and again improperly sided with the unethical, immoral, and Constitutionally bankrupt “Dred Scottification” of migrants, particularly asylum seekers. It’s not much different from what has happened to African Americans, Latinos, and other minorities following the Civil War. But, this is supposed to be the 21st Century where we have put “Jim Crow” behind us. Obviously, we haven’t!

Failing to protect “officers of the court” (lawyers) and their clients from a scheme of abuses heaped upon them by a corrupt, biased, out of control, overtly racist Executive and his sycophants is a gross dereliction of duty by the Supremes. It’s basically like allowing, and even encouraging, the badgering of a witness during trial!

It’s painfully obvious that we have many of the wrong folks on the bench — from the Immigration Courts to the Supremes. Indeed, the nation and the world would be much better served if many more of those courageous lawyers who serve the immigrant community and human rights experts were on the Federal Bench at all levels.

Trump, Roberts, and the GOP judicial misfits have also shown us first-hand the profiles of individuals who should not be serving in judicial positions. Let them litigate their “originalist,” “unitary Executive,” and other “far out” righty philosophies as lawyers appearing before real judges —“practical scholars” who live in the 21st Century and are committed to problem solving rather than problem creating. As Joe Biden has noted, the entire judicial selection system and particularly the Supremes need a thoughtful re-examination and reform.

Never again should we have Justices like Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas performing highly inappropriate and unethical televised “campaign stunts” for an incumbent President during an ongoing election. Geez! What kind of “impartial jurists” are they?

Most first year law students could tell you that’s a “no-go!” Why have we “normalized” and “accepted” such obvious bias, misbehavior, and lack of sound judgment at the highest levels of our (not Trump’s or Mitch’s personal) Judiciary?

It’s not “Rocket Science!” The fundamental building blocks of our society are immigration, human rights, and equal justice! Any lawyer who who doesn’t embody those virtues and doesn’t publicly embrace them should not in the future be given a lifetime appointment as a Federal Judge — at any level!

We need better judges for a better America! We will never achieve constitutionally-required “equal justice for all” for African Americans, Latinos, or anyone else, nor can we reach our diverse nation’s full potential, if we don’t start “pushing back” against Roberts and the GOP’s right wing judicial oligarchy, their obtuse legal gibberish, and their anti-democratic “jurisprudence.”

It starts with voting to take back our country from the far right. But, that’s just the beginning of the changes needed if equal justice for all is to become a reality, rather than an ever unfulfilled promise, limited to certain privileged (predominantly White) groups within our society!

And, all of society owes a debt of gratitude to Ms. Church and other brave lawyers like her who represent the best our country has to offer and have actually suffered for standing up for the rule of law and the legal and human rights of the most vulnerable among us. In other words, standing up for all of our rights against a tyranny!

Compare that with the utterly dismal composition of the “Trump kakistocracy” and its “Dred Scottification” of “the other.”

Due Process Forever!

PWS

1–29-20

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY🏴‍☠️☠️🤮👎🏻: Victims Of Trump, Miller, Sessions Child Abuse May Suffer Lifelong Damage Similar To That Of Holocaust Survivors! — “My mom and I have learned along the way that nothing seems to make it go away. Not her prayers. Not my ‘American Dream’ success. Not any logical explanation of how governments work or don’t work. My mother’s touch will always feel foreign to me.” — PLUS: BREAKING UPDATE: Just Released House Report Documents Regime’s Massive Human Rights Criminal Conspiracy Against CHILDREN!

Sheltering in Cages by John Darkow — “Sheltering in Cages” by John Darkow
Reproduced under license

https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/10/family-separation-effects-holocaust-children-trump.html

Rebecca Onion reports for Slate:

“They are so well taken care of. … They’re in facilities that were so clean,” President Donald Trump said during last week’s presidential debate, of the children his administration ordered separated from their parents at the southern border. As my colleague Jeremy Stahl points out, this isn’t the first time that an administration official has argued that because the separated children—over 500 of whom are still being kept from their parents—have (supposedly!) been physically taken care of, they should be “just fine.” But if the life histories of children forced to be parted from parents for years of their childhoods are any indication, these periods of separation will have long-lasting, devastating, and unpredictable effects.

I’ve been reading historian Rebecca Clifford’s new book, Survivors: Children’s Lives After the Holocaust, which is a painful history of Jewish kids who somehow made it through World War II when they were very small, and had to figure out how to forge a life afterward. Combining analysis of survivors’ testimonies recorded over the years, documents from the archives of organizations that came into contact with these children, and oral histories Clifford herself collected, the book shows how many of these survivors struggled with the act of making sense of their lives—even the lucky ones, who didn’t witness violence, and whose material needs were well met during the period of conflict and persecution. Clifford calls the work “fundamentally a book about the history of living after, and living with, a childhood marked by chaos.”

Survivors is, of course, about a group of children whose lives were marked by the Nazi regime, not about children fleeing violence in Central America, who were then separated from their families by Border Patrol agents. But it’s also fundamentally concerned with the human consequences of children’s separations from parents. In the group of survivors in Clifford’s history, there are kids who were sent to live with host families, who hid them until the war was over; kids incarcerated in different labor camps from their parents; kids who wandered the forests alone, tended only by older siblings.

Asking the historical record, and the grown-up survivors she interviewed, how this period of separation had affected the children’s lives in the long term, Clifford found things that she described as “not only unexpected, but shocking.” One such finding was the fact that for many of the kids, the war years were fine; it was liberation that was traumatic. “Children are adept at treating the exceptional as normal, and because they had no other life to compare it with, the years of persecution did not necessarily feel dangerous, fraught, or chaotic to young survivors,” Clifford writes. But after liberation, as well-meaning adults did everything they could to bring the kids back together with their surviving family members, or to find them places in Jewish homes, many of the separated survivors were profoundly destabilized. “My war began in 1945, not in 1940,” one such survivor said.

The German Jewish parents of Felice Z., who was born in October 1939, put their 1½-year-old daughter in the hands of aid workers in early 1941, and the girl spent the war years hidden by farmers in France. Felice Z. remembered in later interviews that she loved her host parents, and in particular her host mother, Madame Patoux: “All they were interested in was taking care of me. She basically saved my life. She was always ready to run. … I took it for granted that she was my mother, I called her meme (nana) and it was really the first close relationship that I had with another human being. I became very attached to them. Very.” At the end of the war, Felice got no joy out of being reunited with her sister, who had become a stranger. Soon after that reunion, she was removed from the family where she had grown up; as she remembered it, nobody bothered to explain why.

“Family reunions could be among the most difficult and distressing experiences that children went through after the war,” Clifford writes. “The youngest children might have no memory of their parents or relatives at all, and were effectively returned to strangers. … Not one child in this study who was returned to his or her family found this process easy or joyful.” The reunions brought up feelings of anger and terror—even if, as Clifford points out, the kids could rationally understand the reasons their parents had put them in safer places for the duration of the war. They had spent years suppressing childish impulses—“they had had to be obedient, quiet, and good to stay safe during the war, whether they were in hiding, in ghettos or in camps”—and often became explosive and “difficult to manage” after the separation was over.

. . . .

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

Read the rest of Rebecca’s article at the link.

So much wanton cruelty; such gross illegality; so little accountability; such glaring lack of integrity in our justice system! What has our country become? How is this “normal” or within the proper scope of “Executive authority.” What is impeachment for if not for “crimes against humanity?”

Vote ‘Em out, vote ‘Em out! Then start re-examining the failed and continuously failing institutions that couldn’t or wouldn’t effectively stand up to Trump, Miller, Sessions, Barr, Wolf, and the rest of their gang of thugs and scofflaws!

That starts, but by no means ends, with the highly politicized Supremes and their systemic failure to uphold our Constitution, the rule of law, and human dignity against an onslaught of White Nationalist, racist-inspired abuses by Trump, Miller, and their GOP cronies. This is a Court that disgracefully has been more interested in carrying out GOP shenanigans overtly intended to suppress votes, remove minority voting rights guaranteed by statute and Constitution, and throw the election to Trump than it has been in enforcing the Constitution and the rule of law to save the lives of refugees and asylum seekers, including women and children!

Better, more courageous, more humane judges for a better America!

PWS

10-29-20

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

UPDATE: HOUSE REPORT LAYS BARE “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” COMMITTED BY REGIME OFFICIALS!

Here’s the just-released Report (courtesy of Dan Kowalski @ LexisNexis):

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://judiciary.house.gov/uploadedfiles/the_trump_administration_family_separation_policy_trauma_destruction_and_chaos.pdf&source=gmail-imap&ust=1604588017000000&usg=AOvVaw3BTURhXxyazE-2XBhECcwR

Here’s what you really need to know:

VI. Conclusion
While we may never know the full extent of the damage inflicted by the Trump Administration’s family separation policy, it is evident—as a result of this investigation and public reporting—that it was driven by an Administration that was willfully blind to its cruelty and determined to go to unthinkable extremes to deliver on political promises and stop migrants fleeingviolencefromseekingprotectionintheUnitedStates. Asillustratedinthisreport:
• Within weeks of President Trump’s inauguration, the Administration began formulating a plan to separate parents from their children as a means to deter migration.
• Before a formal policy had even been developed, the Administration was accelerating familyseparations. ByMarch2017,thenumberofseparatedchildrentransferredtoORR custody had increased by nearly 900 percent, as compared to November 2016.
• In July 2017, without warning, the Administration implemented a family separation pilot programintheElPasoBorderPatrolSector. Thepilotprogramlastedfivemonthsand resulted in hundreds of additional children being taken from their parents and placed in ORR custody.
• During the pilot program, the Administration discovered that it was unable to track separated family members in a way that would facilitate eventual reunification.
• Knowing this, and without doing anything to address the tracking systems employed by deferral agencies, the Administration chose to expand the policy nationwide in May 2018.
• To make matters worse, the Administration failed to provide advance notice of the policy to front line agents and officers, which caused unnecessary chaos and inconsistent implementation of the policy across border sectors.
121 Dan Diamond, HHS Reviews Refugee Operations as Trump Calls for Border Crackdown, POLITICO (Oct. 23, 2018), https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/23/trump-caravan-border-hhs-873152.
122 Email from Scott Lloyd to Evelyn Stauffer, Press Secretary, Dep’t of Health and Human Services (Nov. 19, 2018), at Appendix AY.
21

• When judicial intervention and political pressure eventually resulted in the end of the policy, the lack of interagency cooperation and preparedness was laid bare by the inability of the Administration to quickly reunite separated parents and children.
As a result of this dark chapter in our nation’s history, hundreds of migrant children may never be reunited with their parents.
Despite considerable stonewalling by Administration officials, Judiciary Committee Members and staff have pushed relentlessly to obtain data and conduct much needed oversight of the agencies responsible for the family separation policy. This report details the Committee’s findings thus far. We remain committed to holding the Trump Administration accountable and continuing to shed light on this dark moment in our country’s history.

As my friend, “Immigration Guru” Ira J. Kurzban would say: “Folks, this is NOT NORMAL!”

As we both say: “This is unacceptable conduct for which there must be accountability if we are to remain a nation under law.”

PWS

10-29-20

🇺🇸⚖️🗽🛡⚔️😎👍ANOTHER NDPA/ROUND TABLE VICTORY OVER DHS/EOIR SCOFFLAWS – 2d Cir. Applies Constitution To Bond Hearings – Says Burden On DHS To Show “Clear & Convincing” Evidence For Imprisonment In Gulag – Velasco Lopez v. Decker

Velasco Lopez v. Decker, 2d Cir., 10-27-20, published

Here’s a link to the opinion:

19-2284_op

Here’s a link to the Round Table’s amicus brief:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16RkOlBfGLEn_RfBEZqQDmhrY7aBhA70P/view

PANEL: PARKER, CHIN, AND CARNEY, Circuit Judges

OPINION BY: BARRINGTON D. PARKER, Circuit Judge

SUMMARY:

The Government appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Carter, J.), granting Carlos Alejandro Velasco Lopez’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Velasco Lopez was detained pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), which provides for discretionary detention of noncitizens during the pendency of removal proceedings. His habeas petition challenged the procedures employed in his bond hearings, which required him to prove, to the satisfaction of an immigration judge, that he is neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk. We hold that the district court correctly granted the petition, and provided the correct remedy by ordering a new bond hearing in which the Government bore the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence that Velasco Lopez was either a danger or a flight risk.

KEY QUOTE:

The irony in this case is that, in the end, all interested parties prevailed. The Government has prevailed because it has no interest in the continued incarceration of an individual who it cannot show to be either a flight risk or a danger to his community. Velasco Lopez has prevailed because he is no longer incarcerated. And the public’s interest in seeing that individuals who need not be jailed are not incarcerated has been vindicated.

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

Judge Parker is correct insofar as he cogently states what should be a “win-win-win” under a functioning Government. I wholeheartedly join lead counsel Julie Dona of the Legal Aid Society, NY, in appreciating and recognizing Judge Parker’s understanding of the grim realities of today’s mal-functioning Immigration Courts and the important Constitutional rights being abridged by DHS & EOIR (essentially one and the same under the Trump kakistocracy).

But, that statement of how Government should be functioning glosses over the unfortunate reality of the Trump regime’s lawless, White Nationalist, nativist immigration agenda. The Trump regime doesn’t seek to create “win-win-win” situations! Instead, they seek to make political statements, dehumanize and degrade “the other,” and promote the biases of their “base” over sound public policy that benefits the common good.

The purpose of imprisonment in the Trump Gulag all too often has little or nothing to do with the legal criteria of danger to the community or flight risk. Rather, detention in the Gulag is used by the Trump regime’s DHS, with the connivence of the DOJ and often the courts, to punish individuals who choose to assert their legal rights; make it more difficult for them to obtain effective representation; and to coerce them into abandoning viable claims for relief, appeals, and judicial review. It’s all about punishment and deterrence, not mainly about the public interest, which is ill-served by most of Trump’s biased and counterproductive immigration policies.

DHS detention in the Trump era primarily serves Trump’s political interests and the interests of those running the for-profit prisons comprising much of Trump’s New American Gulag. Any time Trump’s policies match up with a legitimate national interest, it’s purely happenstance, not part of some overall plan to govern in the public interest.

Think things couldn’t get worse? Notorious White Supremacist “Gruppenfuhrer” Stephen Miller plans to go “full-Nazi” if the Trump regime stays in power, as reported by Amanda Holpuch in The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/28/stephen-miller-trump-second-term-immigration-blitz?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Miller’s plans are so explosively ugly, overtly racist, and anti-American that they are being kept under wraps (for now) because of a (quite legitimate) fear that they could drive the small, yet potentially significant, minority of voters of color that Trump needs to have any chance of extending his rule to do something rational and in their self-interest: Vote for Biden-Harris. Look for things like eliminating birthright citizenship, eradicating all refugee and asylum laws, making it difficult or impossible for family members and people of color to immigrate legally, a wave of summary deportations, deporting “Dreamers,” and exterminating every last ounce of compassion and humanity from our laws. If you think that Black Lives don’t matter much to Trump and his cronies, just wait until he turns the Gruppenfuhrer loose! Think the Federal Courts will stop him? Just look at Trump’s “wholly owned and proud to brag about it” Supremes’ majority! And, he’s also “stacked” — effectively “packed” — the lower Federal Courts with loyalist ideologues.

America can no longer afford life-tenured judges who treat Trump as “normal” and are unwilling or incapable of “connecting the dots” among the dehumanization and demonization of migrants, institutionalized racism, and the end of American democracy. Immigrants’ rights are human rights; human rights are Constitutional rights; dehumanization of “the other” dehumanizes us all!

It’s past time that America stopped granting the privilege and responsibilities of life-tenure to those who won’t publicly adhere to those fundamental truths! Not rocket science! Just basic Constitutional law and human decency! Better judges for a better America! It all starts with a better President and a better Senate! That’s why this election might be our final chance to take back our country and preserve our democracy!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-28-20

THE GIBSON REPORT ⚖️🗽🇺🇸— 10-26-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — DHS & EOIR Accelerate Trashing Of Due Process, Human Rights In Desperate Push To Re-Elect Trump! — New Report Debunks, Discredits Trump DHS’s Mythical Claim That “Sanctuary Cities” Promote Crime!

COVID-19

Note: Policies are rapidly changing, so please verify information on the relevant government websites and with colleagues on listservs as best you can.

EOIR Status Overview & EOIR Court Status Map/List: Hearings in non-detained cases at courts without an announced date are postponed through, and including, November 13, 2020. [Note: Despite the standing order about practices upon reopening, an opening date has not been announced for NYC non-detained at this time.]

TOP NEWS

ICE moves to quickly deport more immigrants without court hearings

CBS: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is implementing new rules unveiled in July 2019 that allow agents to expand their use of “expedited removal,” a fast-tracked deportation process created by a 1996 law that bars certain immigrants from seeking relief before an immigration judge.

New Trump Administration Rule Further Restricts Asylum Eligibility

USNWR: Under the regulation, having fake identification documents, including a fake ID, will render an immigrant ineligible for asylum in most cases. Unlawfully receiving public benefits will similarly bar someone from being granted asylum, as will a conviction for drug possession or possession of drug paraphernalia, with the single exception of having 30 grams or less of marijuana. An immigrant with two DUI convictions, or a single DUI conviction that resulted in the harm of another person, will be ineligible for asylum protections. The rule also bars immigrants convicted of domestic violence, stalking, child abuse and similar crimes, no matter the severity, from asylum. It also notably deems ineligible for asylum any immigrant whom an asylum officer “knows or has reason to believe” engaged in acts of battery or extreme cruelty – regardless of if the immigrant was arrested for such a crime.

‘Stunning’ Executive Order Would Politicize Civil Service

Gov Exec: Positions in the new Schedule F would effectively constitute at-will employment, without any of the protections against adverse personnel actions that most federal workers currently enjoy, although individual agencies are tasked with establishing “rules to prohibit the same personnel practices prohibited” by Title 5 of the U.S. Code. The order also instructs the Federal Labor Relations Authority to examine whether Schedule F employees should be removed from their bargaining units, a move that would bar them from being represented by federal employee unions. [It is unclear at this stage how/if this would affect the BIA, IJs, and other immigration officials.]

U.S. weighs labeling leading human rights groups ‘anti-Semitic’

Politico: The Trump administration is considering declaring that several prominent international NGOs — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam — are anti-Semitic and that governments should not support them, two people familiar with the issue said.

Lawyers say they can’t find the parents of 545 migrant children separated by Trump administration

NBC: Lawyers appointed by a federal judge to identify migrant families who were separated by the Trump administration say that they have yet to track down the parents of 545 children and that about two-thirds of those parents were deported to Central America without their children, according to a filing Tuesday from the American Civil Liberties Union.

John Oliver Explains the Three Other Ways Trump Has Been Cruel to Asylum-Seekers

Slate: In the video above, Oliver breaks down three other policies the Trump administration has used to deter asylum-seekers that don’t have the same notoriety that family separation does but are nonetheless important to know about: migrant protection protocols, safe third country agreements, and Title 42.

Inside the Refugee Camp on America’s Doorstep

NYT: The members of this displaced community requested refuge in the United States but were sent back into Mexico, and told to wait. They came there after unique tragedies: violent assaults, oppressive extortions, murdered loved ones. They are bound together by the one thing they share in common — having nowhere else to go.

Senators seek IG probe of border agency’s warrantless use of phone location data

WaPo: When people use any one of a broad assortment of weather, gaming and other apps, their location data is bundled and resold by companies such as Venntel to advertisers, commercial buyers — and, in recent months, federal agencies such as CBP, which have argued the data is a powerful tool for investigating crime.

DHS Arrests International Students, Threatens College Staff for ‘Willful Ignorance’ of Student-Visa Program

Chron Higher Ed: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security today announced the arrest of 15 international students as part of an investigation into fraud in optional practical training, or OPT, the work program for international graduates. Another 1,100 will lose their work authorizations.

Study finds no crime increase in cities that adopted ‘sanctuary’ policies, despite Trump claims

WaPo: Cities that have adopted “sanctuary” policies did not record an increase in crime as a result of their decision to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, according to a new Stanford University report. The findings appear to rebut the Trump administration’s rhetoric about the policies’ dire effects on public safety.

19 women allege medical abuse in Georgia immigration detention

LA Times: The medical experts found an “alarming pattern” in which Amin allegedly subjected the women to unwarranted gynecological surgeries, in most cases performed without consent, according to the five-page report, which was submitted Thursday to members of Congress.

MPP Cases Highest Since Start of Pandemic

TRAC: In September 2020, the Immigration Court recorded 1,133 new MPP cases, up from a low of 136 in May, and the highest since the start of the pandemic in March when 2,282 MPP cases were filed. A total of 24,540 MPP cases are currently pending before the Immigration Court.

The Pandemic and ICE Use of Detainers in FY 2020

TRAC: Average weekday detainer usage, already trending downward this year, began to show some reduction starting in mid-March when it fell below 400 per weekday, and by the first of April had fallen below 300. By the second week of April the daily weekday average fell to around 240. However, after mid-April usage started climbing back up. By the end of the first week in May it was back up to a weekday average of around 300, and by mid-May usage had recovered completely.

#ICEAir #DeathFlights Week of October 19, 2020.

Witness at the Border: We believe #ICEAir ramp up over the last 4 weeks reflects more CDC/Title 42 order expulsions. 27 deportations to 7 different countries in LA & Caribbean (high possibility of deportation to India, not yet confirmed). 106 total flights – 4th week in a row over 100.

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

ICE Implements July 23, 2019, Expedited Removal Designation

ICE announced that due to an order issued by the DC Circuit Court, ICE can now expedite the removal of certain individuals pursuant to the 7/23/19 Designation of Aliens for Expedited Removal. The announcement provides information on which individuals, except for UACs, can now be subjected to ER. AILA Doc. No. 20102230

USCIS and EOIR Final Rule on Bars to Asylum Eligibility

USCIS and EOIR final rule that adds seven additional mandatory bars to eligibility for asylum, among other changes. The final rule is effective 11/20/20. (85 FR 67202, 10/21/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102031

TPS Beneficiaries, Community Group Ask Court to Halt Unlawful Ken Cuccinelli Policy That Obstructs Path to Obtain Green Card

CLINIC: even Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries — who live in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and Miami, Florida — and the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in their suit against the Trump administration for unlawfully blocking TPS beneficiaries’ path to permanent U.S. residence.

Canadian Judge May Extend Contested Asylum Deal With US

Law 360: A Canadian appellate judge indicated at a Friday hearing that he may delay the effect of a lower court ruling striking down the country’s asylum-sharing agreement with the U.S. while the government appeals, but stressed he had a “difficult decision to make.”

RESOURCES

NYCBA: Report on the Independence of the Immigration Courts

NYSBA: New Ethics Opinion: COVID-19 and Client Representation

UnLocal: Bilingual Expedicted Removal Fact Sheets

ARC: Comparative Analysis of U.S Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (2016-2019)

CLINIC: Department of State Shifts Human Rights Reports Comparison Charts

CLINIC: Fact Sheet: Immigration Court Considerations for Unaccompanied Children Who File for Asylum with USCIS While in Removal Proceedings

CLINIC: Practice Advisory: Adjustment Options for TPS Beneficiaries

CLINIC: The Unlawful Presence Bars: Do They Continue to Run After Reentry to the United States?

CLINIC: DVP Updated DACA Resources

ILRC: 100+ Policy Changes that Have Devastated Immigrants and Asylum Seekers

ILRC: National Map of 287(g) Agreements

ILRC: The Asylum Transit Ban after CAIR Coalition v. Trump: Obtaining Relief in Asylum Transit Ban Cases

ILRC & ASISTA: In Harm’s Way: The Impact of President Trump’s Actions on Immigrant Survivors of Gender-based Violence

AILA: Client Flyer: Competing Perspectives: The Potential Impact of the 2020 Presidential Election on Immigration

AILA: Practice Advisory: Telephonic Appearance of Attorneys at USCIS Interviews

AILA Featured Issue: USCIS’s Blank Space Policy

AILA: Asylum Cases on Standard of Review

AILA: Asylum Cases on Social Group

AILA: Asylum Cases on Political Opinion

AILA: Asylum Cases on Serious Nonpolitical Crime

AILA: Asylum Cases on Miscellaneous

AILA: Asylum Cases on Material Support Bar

AILA: Asylum Cases on Deferral of Removal Under CAT

AILA: Practice Alert: USCIS Increased Premium Processing Fees Effective October 19, 2020

AILA Bite-Sized Ethics: Withdrawing When a Client Goes MIA

EVENTS

10/27/20 Seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status in Removal Proceedings

10/27/20 Immigration, COVID-19, and the 2020 Election

10/28/20 Advanced U Visa Hot Topics

10/28/20 The Ecology of State-Building: Moving Capitals in Indonesia

10/28/20 Roundtable: Navigating Detention Conditions

10/29/20-10/30/20 2020 Crimes & Immigration Seminar

10/29/20 Presenting the Case

10/29/20 Marijuana: Bridging the Divide Between State and Federal Law

11/4/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

11/5/20 Introduction to Asylum Law w/ I-ARC

11/9/20 Asylum Based on Fear of Gangs w/ CALA

11/9/20, 11/12/20 Intimate Partner Violence 101

11/10/20 Practicing in Video Teleconference Courts

11/10/20 Pursuing Immigration Pro Bono Opportunities in Private Practice

11/10/20 CMS 2020 Academic and Policy Symposium

11/11/20 Climate Change and Oceanic Migrations

11/12/20 Defying Non-Reviewability: How to Proceed After a Consular Denial

11/12/20-11/13/20 Public Charge Training of Trainers

11/17/20, 11/19/20 Trauma Informed Interviewing

11/17/20 Make the Government Pay! Attorney fees in Immigration

11/17/20 Employment-Based Immigration Opportunities for Immigrant Youth

11/18/20 Gender-Based Asylum w/ CGRS

11/18/20 Applying for Asylum and Related Relief for Clients with Convictions

11/24/20 VAWA Self-Petitioning Fundamentals

11/30/20 Perfecting a Winning Strategy for Asylum Applications

12/2/20 Migration, Climate Change, and Human Adaptation

12/2/20 An Overview of Naturalization

12/2/20-12/3/20 Legal Remedies for Immigrant Survivors: Introductory Seminar Series

12/3/20 Representing Permanent Residents in LPR Cancellation Cases

12/3/20 2020 AILA Crimes and Immigration Virtual Conference

12/3/20-12/4/20 53rd Annual Immigration and Naturalization Institute

12/8/20 Litigating Your Way Out of Delay

12/9/20 Public Charge in Consular Processing

12/15/20 Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude

12/16/20 LPRs and Public Charge

12/16/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

2/4/21 Basic Immigration Law 2021: Business, Family, Naturalization and Related Areas

2/5/21 Asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Crime Victim, and Other Immigration Relief 2021

ImmProf

Monday, October 26, 2020

Severed families, raided workplaces and a climate of fear: Assessing Trump’s immigration crackdown

John Oliver: Asylum

Guest Post — Minyao Wang: Chinese Voting in NYC in the Time of COVID-19

Naturalization Fees: A Poll Tax Hidden in Plain Sight

Immigration Article of the Day: Immigrants in Shifting Times on Long Island, NY: The Stakes of Losing Temporary Status by Kati L. Griffith, Shannon Gleeson, and Vivian Vazquez

Sunday, October 25, 2020

From the Bookshelves: Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas by Roberto Lovato

Saturday, October 24, 2020

NYT Visits Refugee Camp on US Border in Matamoros

At the Movies: The Undocumented Lawyer

Immigrant Women and Girls in the United States: A Portrait of Demographic Diversity

Friday, October 23, 2020

YLS Book Talk from Deborah Kang

Discussing Ming Hsu Chen’s Book Pursuing Citizenship [UPDATED]

Latino voter support for Trump Explained by Gender Gap

‘Criminal’: Trump and Biden square off on immigration

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Family Separations Continue In South Texas, Years After They Allegedly Ended

Trump Administration Implements Expansion of Expedited Removal

Lawyers say they can’t find the parents of 545 migrant children separated by Trump administration

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

DHS Arrests International Students, Threatens College Leaders for ‘Willful Ignorance’ of Student-Visa Program

545 Migrant Children Separated from Parents Cannot Be Reunified

An executive order worth $100 billion: The impact of an immigration ban’s announcement on Fortune 500 firms’ valuation

Activists call for Biden to Bring Immigrants and Immigration into Presidential Debate, Even if NBC and Trump Won’t

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Your Playlist: Elbow

AILA, Others Sue to Enjoin “Wage Protections” Rule

Immigrant-Origin Students in U.S. Higher Education

The Pandemic Continues: U.S. Borders With Canada and Mexico Will Stay Closed Another Month

Thoughts on the President and Immigration Law by Cristina Rodríguez and Adam Cox

Monday, October 19, 2020

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

DHS & DOJ need comprehensive leadership changes, major reorganizations, re-examination of missions, effective ethical reforms, and thorough housecleanings to restore American democracy and achieve social justice and racial equality.

The key, to borrow from “Moscow Mitch,” is political power! “Moscow” and his GOP Senate buddies have just demonstrated in “real time” how they can turn the Supremes into an anti-democracy adjunct of the RNC. Because they can! And “tough noogies” for the majority of Americans they don’t represent!

Conversely, by voting the Trump regime and the GOP out, we can regain control of our Government and get broken, incompetent, and biased institutions like DHS and EOIR working for the people, rather than a White Nationalist minority with an anti-American, anti-democracy, anti-social-justice, anti-equality agenda!

Vote like your life and America’s future depend on it. Because they most certainly do!

Turn out the vote for Joe, Kamala, and all Dem candidates! Restore due process, compassion, and human decency! Take our nation back from the forces of darkness, bias, and failure that are destroying it and needlessly endangering the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans with no plan whatsoever for addressing the current public health, social, and economic disasters crushing our nation!

Rounding the 'coroner' by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian — Rounding the ‘coroner’ by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

Put racism, intolerance, hate, and institutionalized inequality “in the rear view mirror!” Move forward as a nation of justice, peace, innovation, rationality, compassion, prosperity, strength, and the courage to look beyond our own lives to the best interests of humanity! Make the “American Dream” a reality for all Americans rather than an unfulfilled promise available to some but “off limits” to others!

Due Process Forever! 🇺🇸🗽⚖️

PWS

10-27-20

🦘🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️⚖️👎🏻🤮“KANGAROO KOURTS” MUST GO: NY City Bar Blasts Billy The Bigot Barr’s Deadly Immigration Court Farce, Calls For Article I! — “This step is now more crucial than ever, as ‘the many steps that the current administration has taken to politicize the court…have frayed the bare threads of justice that existed before to the point of a complete rupture, leaving not even the appearance of justice or due process of law.’”

Kangaroos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rasputin243/
Creative Commons License

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

City Bar Report Highlights Threats to Independence of Immigration Court System — Calls for Creation of Independent Article I Court

October 21, 2020

The New York City Bar Association has released a report on recent immigration policy changes “to highlight its concerns about their impact on the independence of the immigration court system as well as the due process rights of those who pass through the immigration system.”

The “Report on the Independence of the Immigration Courts” responds to an “inherent conflict of interest” in housing a judicial adjudicatory body such as the Executive Office for Immigration Review within the Department of Justice, “a federal agency primarily charged with law enforcement,” which the City Bar says has been exacerbated by various actions that DOJ has taken that “prioritize the administration’s political agenda over fairness in the immigration court system.”

According to the report, the DOJ “has taken several steps to reorganize immigration courts and the [Board of Immigration Appeals] in a way that aligns them more closely with the [current] administration’s goals of enforcing harsher and more restrictive immigration policies.” These steps include hiring practices that place judges “with records of much higher than average asylum denial rates” on the BIA; implementation of restrictive performance metrics for immigration judges, made in the name of efficiency but that in actuality “ignores the underlying reasons for the backlog;” a practice of reassigning cases “on a large scale in a manner that undermines judicial independence;” and a campaign to stifle immigration judges who speak up, including “efforts to decertify the union of IJs in a manner that further undermines the independence of the immigration courts.”

The report describes how Attorneys General in recent years have made use of “a previously rarely-used procedural tool, self-certification…to rewrite immigration court policies through changes in substantive case law, rather than following more traditional pathways of issuing regulations and legislative recommendations, both of which, notably, are more lengthy and transparent processes.” Moreover, the report details the ways in which “basic procedural mechanisms and immigration court scheduling functions are being limited or curtailed in a manner that promotes political objectives over due process,” by pushing judges to rush decisions or by restricting access to the courts and to appellate review with administrative barriers.

As detailed in the report, these legal and structural changes in the immigration judicial system have “turn[ed] its corridors into a maze. Without transparency and accountability, due process is inevitably eroded. The lack of transparency also impedes meaningful attempts at reform.” New policies have restricted public access to information, forced asylum seekers to mount their applications from outside the U.S., and prevented meaningful oversight from independent observers. All of these measures, according to the report, “tip the scales towards more and faster deportations, at the expense of due process.”

The report concludes that “moving the immigration court system out of the DOJ and making it into an independent Article I court would safeguard immigration law from being rewritten by each administration, and would thus ensure due process for the immigrants appearing before the courts.” This step is now more crucial than ever, as “the many steps that the current administration has taken to politicize the court…have frayed the bare threads of justice that existed before to the point of a complete rupture, leaving not even the appearance of justice or due process of law.”

The report can be read here: https://bit.ly/31tFEpm

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

Many thanks to my friend and NDPA stalwart Elizabeth Gibson of the NY Legal Assistance Group for distributing this.

“[N]ot even the appearance of justice or due process of law.” Yup! “Courtside” has been saying it for a long time!

There is a dual problem here. The failure of the Immigration Courts is a national disgrace. But, an even bigger disgrace is the failure of the GOP Senate and the Article III Judiciary to end this farce that kills people and is destroying the integrity of the entire U.S. Justice system while promoting racism and unequal justice.

Vote ‘Em out, vote ‘Em out. We need to get a start on saving democracy and getting better judges for a better America — from the Immigration Courts to the Supremes!

PWS

1-22-20

THE GIBSON REPORT — 10-19-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Helping ICE’s Unlawful Activities Costs LA County $14 Mil — Immigrants Create Net Gain In American Jobs!

COVID-19

Note: Policies are rapidly changing, so please verify information on the relevant government websites and with colleagues on listservs as best you can.

EOIR Status Overview & EOIR Court Status Map/List: Hearings in non-detained cases at courts without an announced date are postponed through, and including, November 6, 2020. [Note: Despite the standing order about practices upon reopening, an opening date has not been announced for NYC non-detained at this time.]

TOP NEWS

Justices take up border-wall, “remain in Mexico” cases

SCOTUSblog: The Supreme Court announced on Monday morning that it would take up two cases arising out of the Trump administration’s effort to stem immigration through the United States’ border with Mexico. The justices granted review to weigh in on the long-running dispute over the funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall, as well as the legality of the Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy, which allows the Department of Homeland Security to return immigrants seeking asylum to Mexico while they wait for an asylum hearing in U.S. immigration court. See also Endless Waits At An Immigrant Camp On The Mexico Border Are Pushing Desperate People To Make Tough Choices.

ICE campaign targeting ‘sanctuary cities’ yields 170 arrests, and amplifies Trump campaign theme

WaPo: ICE officers made the arrests in Denver, Seattle, New York, Baltimore, Washington and in Philadelphia, where authorities chose to announce the results and where officials said 26 immigrants were taken into custody. The agency has averaged about 40,000 “at-large” arrests per year, so the numbers announced Friday did not appear to be a significant increase in enforcement activity. See also Mayor de Blasio calls on ICE agents to stop suggesting they are NYPD.

Boston Immigration Court Set To Resume Large-Scale Hearings With Little Guidance From Feds

WBUR: On Tuesday, the Boston immigration court will resume what are known as “master calendar hearings.” Even though the court has remained open throughout the pandemic, these proceedings, which bring large crowds of people to court, have been on hold — until now.

Los Angeles County votes to pay $14 million to former immigrant detainees

WaPo: The five-member Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize the payment, mostly to undocumented immigrants arrested on criminal charges and then held after a judge ordered them released so that federal agents could attempt to deport them. The settlement still must be approved by the judge overseeing the case, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.

Immigrant rights’ coalition seeks to quash broad search warrant on Facebook page

WaPo: After someone painted a slogan on the sidewalk outside the home of Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring during a September protest, Leesburg police launched a criminal investigation into the immigrant rights coalition that organized it, court records state…Authorities asked for virtually all of the Facebook page’s content over a five-day period, a move the group says would give law enforcement access to sensitive information about undocumented immigrants and their families, confidential health reports, and complaints by name about specific law enforcement and immigration officers.

Refugees Who Assisted the U.S. Military Find the Door to America Slammed Shut

NYT: President Trump has reduced the flow of refugees into the country to a trickle, and even Iraqis and Afghans who risked their lives for American service members have been cut off.

As jobs vanished, immigrants left California. The question is how many

LA Times: California’s immigrant population of 10.3 million in 2019 fell by 642,200, or 6.2%, during the first five months of the pandemic, the analysis found. That figure eclipses both the number of residents in Sacramento and the combined decrease in the nation’s other states, which saw immigrant populations decline by 531,000, or 1.5%, during the same March-through-July period.

Despite public outcry, many Cameroonians and Congolese deported on a flight

SD Union Trib: Not all of the more than 200 Cameroonians and Congolese that detainees said were transferred to a detention facility in Texas to be deported were on the flight. Some of the group remained at Prairieland Detention Center, according to Rebekah Entralgo of Freedom For Immigrants, and a few were pulled from the flight due to individual legal actions taken on their behalf. See also Cameroonian asylum seekers pulled off deportation plane amid allegations of ICE abuse.

Immigrants to the U.S. Create More Jobs than They Take

Kellogg: A new study finds that immigrants are far more likely to found companies—both large and small—than native-born Americans.

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

DOJ and DHS Release Report on Incarceration and Immigration Status

DHS and DOJ released the FY2019 Alien Incarceration Report, providing data on the immigration status of known or suspected immigrants incarcerated under the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshals Service, and in state prisons and local detention centers throughout the U.S. AILA Doc. No. 20101607

CBP Provides Data on Migrant Protection Protocols

CBP provided data on Migrant Protection Protocols from 2020, including southwest border enrollments, cases referred to USCIS, data from EOIR related to the outcome of MPP cases, and individuals apprehended entering the U.S. without inspection subsequent to being returned to Mexico through MPP. AILA Doc. No. 20081231

CBP Provides Custody and Transfer Statistics

CBP provided custody and transfer statistics from 2020, including data on in-custody information by location, dispositions for apprehended individuals and those considered inadmissible, and transfer destinations for individuals leaving CBP custody. AILA Doc. No. 20081232

Announcements of ICE Enforcement Actions

DHS and ICE announced the arrests of more than 170 individuals from 10/3 to 10/9 as part of an immigration enforcement action in sanctuary jurisdictions, including Seattle, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

Notice of CDC Order Suspending the Introduction of Certain Persons Through Canada and Mexico

Notice of a CDC order suspending the introduction of certain persons traveling from Canada and Mexico through land ports of entry and Border Patrol stations due to COVID-19. This order is substantially the same as the order issued on 3/20/20. AILA Doc. No. 20101402

AAO Sustains Form I-212 Appeal After Finding Positive Equities Warranted Favorable Exercise of Discretion

In a nonprecedent decision, the AAO sustained an appeal of a Form I-212, finding that the denial did not fully consider evidence of significant positive equities in the record, including that the applicant had lived in the U.S. for 30 years. Courtesy of Alan Lee. In Re: 9072079 (AAO 9/24/20) AILA Doc. No. 20101330

RESOURCES

Temple Law Asylum Project: new set of Annotated Tables of Contents on indigenous people from Guatemala and Honduras

ICE: Legal Access in Detention: Communicating with Your Client or Prospective Client

CLINIC: Practice Advisory: Motions to Reopen for DACA Recipients With Removal Orders

ILRC: DACA Workers’ Rights Guide

ILRC: Immigrant-Origin Students in U.S. Higher Education: A Data Profile

ILRC: Special Report: USCIS Could Prevent Hundreds of Thousands of Would-Be Citizens from Voting in November’s Elections

MPI: Mexican Immigrants in the United States

MPI: Denying the Right to Vote: Politicization of the Naturalization Process as a Novel Form of Voter Suppression

AILA: Practice Pointer: Employment Verification During the COVID-19 Outbreak

AILA: Ten Ethics Issues Raised by the October Visa Bulletin

AILA: Practice Alert: Implementation of Expedited Removal Expansion

AILA: Bite-Sized Ethics: Who Can Sign on the Dotted Line?

AILA: Practice Alert: CSPA Beneficiaries Not Included in Exceptions to Proclamations 10014 and 10052 Suspending Entry of Certain Immigrants

CRS: Immigration Parole

CRS: Ninth Circuit Decision Allows Termination of Temporary Protected Statusfor Sudan, Nicaragua, and El Salvador to Go Forward

ASISTA: Updated Practice Advisory: Status of USCIS Fee Rule

Pro Se Clinics Webinar Handout

EVENTS

10/19/20 NYC v. ICE, a virtual training for New Yorkers interested in organizing their communities against ICE raids and creating rapid response networks

10/20/20 Immigration in the 2020 Election

10/20/20 Fee Rule Implementation: Effects on Survivor Relief

10/20/20 DVAM Webinar Special: A Closer look at VAWA Relief

10/21/20 Advising TPS Clients in Light of Recent Developments

10/21/20 Rule of Law Forum – Preserving the Rule of Law in an Age of Disruption

10/21/20-10/23/20 Case Management Skills & Database Functions

10/21/20 Migrations and One Health: Human, Animal, and Environmental Interactions and Emerging Diseases

10/22/20 Non-LPR Cancellation: Overview of Eligibility & Proving Continuous Presence

10/23/20-10/24/20 Conference on Racial Justice & Immigration

10/23/20 Migration as Resistance: The Underground Railroad

10/27/20 Seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status in Removal Proceedings

10/27/20 Immigration, COVID-19, and the 2020 Election

10/28/20 Advanced U Visa Hot Topics

10/28/20 The Ecology of State-Building: Moving Capitals in Indonesia

10/28/20 Roundtable: Navigating Detention Conditions

10/29/20-10/30/20 2020 Crimes & Immigration Seminar

10/29/20 Presenting the Case

10/29/20 Marijuana: Bridging the Divide Between State and Federal Law

11/4/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

11/10/20 Pursuing Immigration Pro Bono Opportunities in Private Practice

11/11/20 Climate Change and Oceanic Migrations

11/12/20 Defying Non-Reviewability: How to Proceed After a Consular Denial

11/17/20 Make the Government Pay! Attorney fees in Immigration

11/17/20 Employment-Based Immigration Opportunities for Immigrant Youth

11/18/20 Applying for Asylum and Related Relief for Clients with Convictions

11/24/20 VAWA Self-Petitioning Fundamentals

11/30/20 Perfecting a Winning Strategy for Asylum Applications

12/2/20 Migration, Climate Change, and Human Adaptation

12/2/20 An Overview of Naturalization

12/3/20 Representing Permanent Residents in LPR Cancellation Cases

12/3/20 2020 AILA Crimes and Immigration Virtual Conference

12/3/20-12/4/20 53rd Annual Immigration and Naturalization Institute

12/8/20 Litigating Your Way Out of Delay

12/9/20 Public Charge in Consular Processing

12/15/20 Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude

12/16/20 LPRs and Public Charge

12/16/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

2/4/21 Basic Immigration Law 2021: Business, Family, Naturalization and Related Areas

2/5/21 Asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Crime Victim, and Other Immigration Relief 2021

ImmProf

Monday, October 19, 2020

Supreme Court Takes Up Border Wall Funding, Migration Protection Protocols Cases

Immigrant of the Day: Julio Urias, pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers

Celebrating the History of ICE 2003-2020

Commentary: Racism in immigration asylum decisions

Special Report: USCIS Could Prevent Hundreds of Thousands of Would-Be Citizens from Voting in November’s Elections

Sunday, October 18, 2020

America’s Forgotten: An “Illegal Immigration” Film Generating Controversy

Trump’s and Biden’s Plans on Immigration

Ramped-up ICE arrests amid Covid outbreaks show ‘irresponsible disregard,’ Hispanic Caucus says

Endless Waits At An Immigrant Camp On The Mexico Border Are Pushing Desperate People To Make Tough Choices

Saturday, October 17, 2020

A Story of Two Lawyers

Second Presidential Debate Topics Announced, but Health Care and Immigration Aren’t Among Them

Mexican Immigrants in the United States

James H. Binger Center Annual Immigration Law Forum

Immigration Article of the Day: Distancing Refugees by Geoffrey Heeren

Friday, October 16, 2020

Breaking News: SCOTUS To Consider Whether Undocumented Can Be Left Out Of Census Count

Immigration Article of the Day: Legally White, Socially Brown: Racialization of Middle Eastern Americans by Sahar Aziz

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Holiday Gift Idea

Immigration Policy as the Power of Oppression

Nobel-Prize Winning Immigrants Exemplify the American Dream

Border Wall Construction Continues Round the Clock

Immigrant-Origin Students in U.S. Higher Education: A Data Profile

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Cyprus Exiting Business of Selling EU Membership

Webinar on Beth Caldwell’s Deported Americans: Life After Deportation to Mexico.

Immigrant Advocates Demand Release Of Black Migrants From Prairieland Detention Center

Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration to Wrap Up Census 2020

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

L.A. County Settles Immigrant Detention Suit for $14 Million

How Trump’s suspension of Diversity Training for federal employees will affect asylum seekers

How COVID-19 Affects Immigration Detention Centers

Undocumented Migrant Facing the Death Penalty in the Era of COVID

Migrant Children Can No Longer Be Secretly Held in Hotels, But Advocates Continue to Worry Children May Still Be Expeditiously Expelled Without Any Due Process

The ICE Detention Industrial Complex Must Be Abolished

One of the Faces Behind Trafficked Domestic Workers: Lola Eudocia Tomas Pulido

The Act of Immigration: Children, Trauma, and Limited Studies

Case preview: Harsh immigration consequences from ambiguous state criminal convictions

Tne Top 10 Most Accepting Nations for Migrants

Citizenship in the Enforcement Era: A Policy Discussion

Monday, October 12, 2020

Immigration Article of the Day: Effect of Border Policy on Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Change

The History of Hysterectomies: A Tale of the U.S. Practice of Eugenics

The program allowing CBP Officers to conduct “credible fear” interviews was about more than just “efficiency.”

Expression Beyond Language: Immigrant Art in a Global Pandemic & U.S. Political Turmoil

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

Wow, talk about fraud, waste, and abuse! Not only do DHS’s illegal, misdirected, politically-motivated “enforcement” efforts cost taxpayers big bucks, their racism-driven suppression of legal immigration actually reduces job opportunities for Americans!

While the particular illegal detentions on behalf of ICE resulting in the $14 million payout by LA County occurred under the Obama Administration, it’s no secret that Trump’s ICE has “doubled down” on efforts to coerce localities into complying with such “illegal detainers” NOT issued by “neutral and detached magistrates.” Obviously, an independent Article I Immigration Court with “neutral and detached” judges could be authorized to issue detainers where legally appropriate and justified, thus solving the problems in a way that actually complies with the Constitution and common sense.

DHS, a morass of seedy political corruption and gross mismanagement, is now engaged in a full-bore effort to aid Trump’s re-election in derogation of law and of real duties that might protect us all. In particular, they have done a poor job of messaging on the coronavirus threat. They have also separated families and endangered the lives of non-criminal “prisoners” unnecessarily jailed in unsafe conditions in their “New American Gulag.”

It’s a “rogue agency” that needs to be “reorganized, reformed, and repurposed” by a future Administration. In it’s current form, DHS is actually a threat to our national security and welfare, as it continues, under “illegal leadership” to operate as essentially “Trump’s Internal Security Police.”

Here’s an article by Maria Sacchetti from today’s Post that highlights the misdirection of DHS under Wolf’s illegal, and often immoral and unethical “leadership.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/dhs-coronavirus-outbreak-less-visible/2020/10/20/768fa0c4-12fe-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html

PWS

10-21-20

🏴‍☠️🤮👎🏻☠️⚰️DEPARTMENT OF (IN)JUSTICE: ANOTHER CAREER PROSECUTOR JUMPS BILLY’S “PLAGUE SHIP!”

Billy Barr Consigliere Artist: Par Begley Salt Lake Tribune Reproduced under license, Large — Bill Barr Consigliere
Artist: Pat Bagley
Salt Lake Tribune
Reproduced under license

From Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters From An American (10-16-20):

. . . .

And yet another story from the day: a third career prosecutor from the Department of Justice resigned after publicly attacking Attorney General William Barr for abusing his power to get Trump reelected. “After 36 years, I’m fleeing what was the U.S. Department of Justice,” Phillip Halpern wrote. “[T]he department’s past leaders were dedicated to the rule of law and the guiding principle that justice is blind. That is a bygone era, but it should not be forgotten.” Noting that “Barr has never actually investigated, charged or tried a case,” Halpern expressed deep concern over Barr’s “slavish obedience to Donald Trump’s will.” “This career bureaucrat seems determined to turn our democracy into an autocracy,” he warned.

Georgetown Law Professor Paul Butler, who worked as a federal prosecutor under Barr when he was George H. W. Bush’s Attorney General, told Katie Benner of the New York Times that such criticism is “unprecedented,” and reflects Trump’s pressure on the AG. “I have never seen sitting prosecutors go on the record with concerns about the attorney general,” he said.

And yet, Barr’s willingness to bend the Justice Department to Trump’s personal will may, in the end, not be enough to keep Trump’s favor. Angry that Barr did not produce a report attacking the Russia investigation before the election, Trump just yesterday said he wasn’t happy with Barr’s performance, and might not keep him on as AG if he wins a second term.

. . . .

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

Read Heather’s full letter here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-16-2020?r=330z7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email

I might add that the “Courtside network” — with nationwide tentacles — has heard from numerous courageous and dedicated Immigration Judges that they are putting their careers on the line every day to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law against Billy’s corruption, White Nationalist bias, and the institutional pressures to “go along to get along.” But, few think that they can take the stress and abuse for another four years. That’s why this election is absolutely pivotal for the continued existence of our nation as a democratic republic rather than a fascist kakistocracy!

Vote ‘em out, vote em’ out! For our future and the future of the world, vote ‘em out!

PWS

10-19-20

SUPREMES TO REVIEW TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S ILLEGAL RACIST/WHITE NATIONALIST POLICIES THAT THEY ALREADY HAVE ENABLED!

Adam Liptak
Journalist
NY Times
Slowking4, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Creative Commons License

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/us/supreme-court-trump-wall-asylum.html

By Adam Liptak

Oct. 19, 2020
Updated 12:02 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review two major Trump administration immigration initiatives: a program that has forced at least 60,000 asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their requests are heard and the diversion of $2.5 billion in Pentagon money to build a barrier on the southwestern border.

Lower courts blocked both measures. But the Supreme Court, in earlier orders, allowed them to remain in effect while appeals moved forward.

The arguments in the two cases will not be heard until after the November election. Should President Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., win, his administration could take steps to make the cases moot.

In the case on asylum seekers, an appeals court in February blocked the program, known as Remain in Mexico, saying it was at odds with both federal law and international treaties and was causing “extreme and irreversible harm.”

. . . .

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

Read the rest of the article at the link.

The losers in these cases have already been determined: the innocent human lives destroyed, the rule of law, the Constitution, human decency, and the Supremes’ reputation. If the Supremes’ majority hadn’t already “pre-judged” these cases in the regime’s favor, then their unwarranted and ethically questionable “early intervention” in the process to allow the abuses of humanity, Congressional authority, and the public fisc to continue would be even more unconscionable.

Indeed, both of these cases are examples of a democracy in danger, a judicial system in decay, and a Supremes who have established themselves as part of the problem, not the solution.

Better Federal Judges for a Better America! It starts at the polls!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-19-20

🇺🇸🗽⚖️🆘NY TIMES WITH THE TRUTH: A VOTE FOR TRUMP IS A VOTE AGAINST AMERICA! — The Worst President In History, Not To Mention That Beyond Being Totally Incompetent & Unqualified, A Truly Horrible Human Being With NO Redeeming Values!

Trump Clown — Donald J. Trump
Famous American Clown
(Officially titled “Ass Clown”)
Artist: Scott Scheidly
Orlando, FL
Reproduced by permission

Darth Vader — D. Vader
Minister of Justice
Banana Republic of Trump

Donald Trump’s re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II.

Mr. Trump’s ruinous tenure already has gravely damaged the United States at home and around the world. He has abused the power of his office and denied the legitimacy of his political opponents, shattering the norms that have bound the nation together for generations. He has subsumed the public interest to the profitability of his business and political interests. He has shown a breathtaking disregard for the lives and liberties of Americans. He is a man unworthy of the office he holds.

The editorial board does not lightly indict a duly elected president. During Mr. Trump’s term, we have called out his racism and his xenophobia. We have critiqued his vandalism of the postwar consensus, a system of alliances and relationships around the globe that cost a great many lives to establish and maintain. We have, again and again, deplored his divisive rhetoric and his malicious attacks on fellow Americans. Yet when the Senate refused to convict the president for obvious abuses of power and obstruction, we counseled his political opponents to focus their outrage on defeating him at the ballot box.

Nov. 3 can be a turning point. This is an election about the country’s future, and what path its citizens wish to choose.

. . . .

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

Read the rest of the editorial here:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/16/opinion/donald-trump-worst-president.html

Amen! Take back our country! 🇺🇸 We can’t survive another four years of the maliciously incompetent, racist kakistocracy🏴‍☠️!

PWS

10-17-20

⚖️👩🏻‍⚖️JUSTICE-ELECT BARRETT STUMPED BY WHETHER GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED CHILD ABUSE IS ILLEGAL OR IMMORAL – Frankly, My Dears, Once They Are Out Of The Womb, Who Cares, Particularly If They Are Only Migrant Kids? – Bess Levin @ Vanity Fair With The Latest Scoop On “America’s Favorite Mother!”

Judge Amy Coney Barrett — Supreme Court Nominee by Bob Englehart, PoliticalCartoons.com
Published under license

Bess Levin
Politics & Finance Writer
Vanity Fair

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/10/amy-coney-barrett-child-separation?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=vf&utm_mailing=VF_Hive_101520&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd67c363f92a41245df49eb&cndid=48297443&hasha=8a1f473740b253d8fa4c23b066722737&hashb=26cd42536544e247751ec74095d9cedc67e77edb&hashc=eb7798068820f2944081a20180a0d3a94e025b4a93ea9ae77c7bbe00367c46ef&esrc=newsletteroverlay&mbid=mbid%3DCRMVYF012019&utm_campaign=VF_Hive_101520&utm_term=VYF_Hive

Since Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the Supreme Court, Republicans have suggested that one of the reasons she should be given a lifetime appointment on the highest court of the land is that she has seven kids. Barrett is “a remarkable mother” with “seven beautiful children,” Senator Thom Tillis said during the first day of her confirmation hearing. She’s a “tireless mother of seven,” Senator Chuck Grassley told the room. “She and her husband have seven children,” Senator Lindsey Graham said in his opening remarks, in case anyone hadn’t heard, before giving her two more. “She and her husband have seven children. Two adopted. Nine seems to be a good number,” he said. Obviously, constantly bringing up this part of Barrett’s biography is part of an attempt on Republicans’ part to (1) draw a distinction between Barrett and what they view as childless heathen Democrats, (2) claim that any opposition to her confirmation is anti-mom, and (3) suggest that since she’s a mother, she must be a good person who couldn’t possibly issue rulings that would hurt millions of people.

But, surprise! Despite being a mother, Barrett is expected to help overturn the Affordable Care Act. (After she was asked about this possibility, which would strip health insurance from millions, Grassley raged at his Democratic colleagues that “As a mother of seven, Judge Barrett clearly understands the importance of health care.”) She will also very likely go after Roe v. Wade, if given the chance, which some mothers would point out prevents their daughters—or even women they didn’t give birth to!— from being forced into back alley abortions. And even though she’s a mom of seven children, she apparently thinks the jury is still out on whether or not it’s bad to separate small children from their parents, if they happen to be from another country: . . . .

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

Read the rest of Bess’s article and the latest from The Levin Report at the above link.

Just for the record, the Trump DOJ conceded before U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw (a GOP appointee) that intentional child separation is a violation of Fifth Amendment Due Process.

They also declined to appeal Judge Sabraw’s order to that effect – unusual for a regime that usually pushes the most frivolous, clearly illegal, and unethical positions for as long as possible to the highest levels of the judiciary (knowing that the “Roberts” Five” believes that ethical requirements and disciplinary procedures don’t apply to the Trump legal team assembled on your taxpayer dollars).

Wonder what would happen if we had a more honest and realistic confirmation system that allowed nominees to actually answer truthfully, rather than disingenuously claiming under oath that after a lifetime of intense public involvement in the law, politics, and public policy, they had no real views on anything of any importance whatsoever?

I actually doubt that an honest answer to this question, either way, would have cost Coney Barrett her politically-assured confirmation, nor would it have required recusal in any litigation likely to reach the Supremes’ merits docket. So, Coney Barrett thinks we’re dumb enough to believe that after several days of her GOP sponsors touting the wonderfulness of her bold embrace of their far-right agenda — the first overtly “pro-life woman Justice” — that they are badly mistaken and, in fact, she has no views or opinions on anything.

It kind of reminds me of the “super-disclaimer” I used to give on those occasions when my “EOIR handlers” let me speak in public: “Nothing that I say today represents my view on any case that I decided in the past, is pending before me, or might come before me in the future.”

On the bright side, Coney Barrett was able to (sort of) answer the question of Sen. John “I’m Not JFK” Kennedy (R-LA) about who does the laundry at her home (supposed to be her kids, but apparently they haven’t completely gotten the message. Now, if ACB were before me in Immigration Court, this is the point when I would have turned to the kids and said “Come on kids, Mom’s doing it all for you and others, I want you to give her and your Dad a hand.”)

Seriously, though, Dems, here’s the definition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett: “It’s what you get when lose elections for the White House and the Senate.” If you really want the next woman Justice to be a worthy progressive successor to the legacy of RBG and a “soul mate” for Justice Sonia Sotomayor, then go out and win the elections necessary to make that happen!

Another huge plus: If we Dems could figure out how to translate our national political majority into control of all three political arms, we could shore up health care, address COVID in a rational way, help Americans who have lost livelihoods and confidence because of COVID, and create educational opportunities and jobs that will be durable and serve us well in the Post-COVID world. We could also address the deficit by undoing the revenue shortage resulting from unwarranted tax giveaways to the wealthy, and get “more bang for our tax dollars” by running government wisely, prudently, and efficiently, for the overall public good rather than for the benefit of grifters and their selfish, anti-democracy far-right agenda.

Then, we could see whether Justice Barrett will stick to her word and urge her colleagues to “let the political branches of Government make policy.” That’s something that has been a challenge for past right-wing jurists, including the late Justice Scalia. But, if it actually happened, it would make the issue of “enhancing” the Supremes with progressive Justices largely moot.

Which is probably why Joe & Kamala have wisely refused to “take the GOP bait” on how they might specifically solve a problem that might or might not exist in the future. I do know one thing, however. As reflective, reasonable, and thoughtful public officials who listen to expert advice, they will promote the best possible solution for all Americans under the circumstances. That’s certainly a “quantum leap” over where we are today!

PWS

10-15-20

PWS

10-14-20

THE GIBSON REPORT — 10-12-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire. NY Legal Assistance Group — DocumentedNY Takes You Inside The Maliciously Incompetent Kakistocracy Known As Immigration “Courts,” That Aren’t “Courts” At All & Where The Victims Might Never Have Any Idea Of Why They Are Being “Ordered Deported” By “Judges” Beholden To the Regime’s Corrupt & Racist Enforcement Apparatus! (Item #5 Under “Top- News”) — Plus Other News From The Regime’s “Twilight Zone!”

COVID-19

Note: Policies are rapidly changing, so please verify information on the relevant government websites and with colleagues on listservs as best you can.

EOIR Status Overview & EOIR Court Status Map/List: Hearings in non-detained cases at courts without an announced date are postponed through, and including, October 30, 2020. [Note: Despite the standing order about practices upon reopening, an opening date has not been announced for NYC non-detained at this time.]

TOP NEWS

ICE Is Planning To Fast-Track Deportations Across The Country

Buzzfeed: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have started to implement a policy that allows officers to arrest and rapidly deport undocumented immigrants who have been in the US for less than two years, according to internal emails and documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.

Amid pandemic, sharply increased U.S. detention times put migrants at risk

Reuters: Detention centers now house fewer than half as many people as before the pandemic – less than 20,000 as of early October – in part because emergency health measures established in March have allowed authorities to expel nearly 150,000 migrants at the border. At the same time, the ICE data show, the average amount of time immigrants spent in U.S. detention almost tripled to three months this September compared to September 2016, before President Donald Trump took office. Detainees in September 2020 were being held nearly double the amount of time as in September 2019.

San Diego judge upholds state ban on private immigration detention centers

LA Times: Under the ruling, at least four immigration detention centers with the capacity to house about 5,000 people would be phased out over the coming years.

Justice Department cancels diversity training, including for immigration judges

SF Chron: The U.S. Justice Department has suspended all diversity and inclusion training and events for its employees, according to a memo obtained by The Chronicle, which would include judges in San Francisco and elsewhere hearing cases of immigrants seeking to avoid deportation.

How the Immigration Courts Malfunctioned: What We Saw

DocumentedNY: A prosecuting attorney for ICE losing a detainee´s file, immigrants spending more time in jail because the video teleconferencing system malfunctioned, a judge deporting children because they failed to show up to court. The following are some of the negligences we saw after we spent three months in the immigration courts.

Supreme Court Reopens Local Leader’s Immigration Case

DocumentedNY: Ravi Ragbir, an immigrant advocate who runs the New Sanctuary Coalition, has been fighting his deportation with a First Amendment claim

‘We Need to Take Away Children,’ No Matter How Young, Justice Dept. Officials Said

NYT: Top department officials were “a driving force” behind President Trump’s child separation policy, a draft investigation report said.

ICE Arrested More Than 100 Immigrants In California Weeks Before The Presidential Election

Buzzfeed: The arrests were the latest effort by ICE to target the state and its policies that reduce the cooperation between local police and federal agents when it comes to immigration enforcement.

The Matter Of Castro Tum

LatinoUSA: In 2018, a young Guatemalan man named Reynaldo Castro Tum was ordered deported even though no one in the U.S. government knew where he was, or how to find him. Now, more than two years later, his unusual journey through the United States’ immigration system has sucked another man back into a legal quagmire he thought that he’d escaped. This episode follows both of their stories and the fateful moment they collided.

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

EOIR Payment Portal

EOIR: The EOIR Payment Portal is available to pay BIA Filing Fees associated with the form EOIR-26 and related BIA Motions. Filing fees for the Form EOIR-29 and related motions should continue to be paid in accordance with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) instructions. Payments for immigration court fees must follow current processes (See 8 C.F.R. 1103.7).

EOIR Announces 20 New Immigration Judges

EOIR announced the investiture of 20 new immigration judges, including three assistant chief immigration judges. Per the notice, EOIR’s immigration judge corps has increased nearly 70 percent since January 2017. Notice includes the judges’ biographical information and courts of appointment. AILA Doc. No. 20101200

Oral Argument This Week in Pereida v. Barr

ImmProf: Oral argument in the case is scheduled for this Wednesday morning, October 14, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. The argument may be listened to live. In Pereida, the Supreme Court will decide whether a criminal conviction bars a noncitizen from applying for relief from removal when the record of conviction is merely ambiguous as to whether it corresponds to an offense listed in the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Petitions of the week: Sanchez v. Wolf

SCOTUSblog: The case asks whether a grant of Temporary Protected Status authorizes eligible noncitizens to obtain lawful-permanent-resident status if those noncitizens originally entered the United States without being “inspected and admitted” – a term of art referring to lawful entry and authorization by an immigration officer.

USCIS Updates Policy Guidance on TPS and Eligibility for Adjustment of Status Under INA §245(a)

USCIS is updating policy guidance in the Policy Manual confirming that a grant of TPS is not admission for INA §245(a) adjustment purposes; clarifying that the applicability of decisions in the sixth and ninth circuits is limited to those jurisdictions; and incorporating Matter of Z-R-Z-C. AILA Doc. No. 20100635

Second District Court Grants Motion for Preliminary Injunction of USCIS Fee Rule

A district court granted the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and stayed the effective date of the USCIS Final Rule (except for those fees set by statute) pending resolution of the matter or further order of the court. (NWIRP et al., v. USCIS, et al., 10/8/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100909

District Court Declares Unlawful 2018 SIJ Policy Imposing Reunification Requirement on State Courts

A federal district court in Washington State declared unlawful a 2018 policy requiring state courts to have jurisdiction to order reunification, if warranted, before making the relevant Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) findings. (Moreno Galvez, et al. v. Cuccinelli, et al., 10/5/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100842

BIA Rules That Cancellation of Removal Despite Criminal Conviction Precludes a Later Finding of Deportability Based on the Same Conviction

The BIA ruled that if a criminal conviction was charged as a ground of removability when cancellation of removal was granted, that conviction cannot serve as the sole factual predicate for a charge of removability in subsequent removal proceedings. Matter of Voss, 28 I&N Dec. 107 (BIA 2020) AILA Doc. No. 20100840

CA1 Finds “Wealthy Immigrants Returning to Jamaica” Is Not a Cognizable Particular Social Group

The court held that the petitioner’s withholding of removal claim failed, because it found that “wealthy immigrants returning to the country of Jamaica” did not form a cognizable particular social group. (Lee v. Barr, 9/22/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100535

CA1 Upholds Asylum Denial to Kenyan Petitioner Who Opposed Al-Shabaab

The court upheld the BIA’s denial of asylum, finding that terror attacks in Kenya by Al-Shabaab constituted generalized violence, and rejecting the petitioner’s proposed social group of westernized and Americanized Christian Kenyans who oppose Al-Shabaab. (Zhakira v. Barr, 10/2/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100901

CA3 Holds It Lacks Jurisdiction to Review IJ’s Discretionary Denial of Continuance to Petitioner Convicted of Aggravated Felony

Where petitioner, who had been convicted of an aggravated felony, argued that the BIA erred in upholding the IJ’s denial of his motion for a continuance, the court dismissed the petition, finding he had failed to state a constitutional claim or question of law. (Mirambeaux v. Barr, 10/2/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100903

CA3 Rejects Due Process Claims of Mexican Petitioner Who Sought Cancellation of Removal

Where BIA had dismissed petitioner’s appeal on the ground that his removal would not cause his daughters “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship,” the court rejected his two due process challenges, finding that neither was a constitutional claim. (Hernandez-Morales v. Att’y Gen., 9/2/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100902

CA5 Upholds Denial of Asylum to Chinese Petitioner Who Claimed He Had an Anti-Corruption Political Belief

The court upheld the BIA’s denial of asylum to the Chinese petitioner, finding that the evidence did not compel a reasonable factfinder to conclude that the petitioner had been persecuted for his political opinion rather than for personal reasons. (Du v. Barr, 9/14/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100540

CA8 Finds BIA Did Not Abuse Its Discretion in Denying Petitioner’s Motion to Reopen Based on Ineffective Assistance

The court upheld the BIA’s denial of the petitioner’s motion to reopen, finding that the petitioner had not substantially complied with the requirements in Matter of Lozada for reopening removal proceedings based on alleged ineffective assistance of counsel. (Avitso v. Barr, 9/22/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100537

CA9 Upholds District Court Order Prohibiting Government from Detaining Certain Minors in Hotels for Longer Than 72 Hours

The court denied the government’s motion for a stay of the district court’s order precluding DHS from placing minors detained under a Title 42 public health order in hotels for more than three days in the process of expelling them from the United States. (Flores v. Barr, et al., 10/4/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100906

CA9 Upholds Asylum Denial to Guatemalan Petitioner Who Did Not Report Abuse by Ex-Boyfriend to Police

Upholding the denial of asylum to the petitioner, who had been abused by her ex-boyfriend, the court held that substantial evidence supported the conclusion that the Guatemalan government could have protected the petitioner had she reported her abuse. (Velasquez-Gaspar v. Barr, 9/30/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100904

CA9 Finds Petitioner Was Properly in Asylum-Only Proceedings and IJ Lacked Jurisdiction to Consider Adjustment of Status Request

The court held that the termination of petitioner’s grant of asylum by reopening his asylum-only proceedings was not error, and that the IJ did not have jurisdiction to consider his request for adjustment of status because of the limited scope of such proceedings. (Bare v. Barr, 9/16/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100630

CA9 Holds That Petitioner’s Oregon Conviction for Manufacture of a Controlled Substance Was an Aggravated Felony

The court held that Oregon Revised Statute §475.992(1)(a) is divisible as between its “manufacture” and “delivery” terms, and that the petitioner’s conviction under that statute for manufacturing marijuana was thus an aggravated felony. (Dominguez v. Barr, 7/21/20, amended 9/18/20) AILA Doc. No. 20081036

CA9 Says Conviction Under California Penal Code §245(a)(1) for Assault with a Deadly Weapon Other Than a Firearm Is a CIMT

Deferring to the BIA’s decision in Matter of Wu, the court held that a conviction under California Penal Code §245(a)(1), which proscribes certain aggravated forms of assault, is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT). (Safaryan v. Barr, 9/17/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100631

CA9 Overrules Minto v. Sessions and Concludes Resident of CNMI Is Not Removable Under INA §212(a)(7)(a)(i)

The en banc court overruled Minto v. Sessions, holding that the petitioner, who was present in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) when the INA became applicable there, was not removable under INA §212(a)(7)(a)(i). (Torres v. Barr, 9/24/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100538

DOS Issues Update on Court Order Regarding Presidential Proclamation 10052

DOS announced that due to the injunction in NAM v. DHS, any J-1, H-1B, H-2B, or L-1 applicant who is either sponsored (as an exchange visitor) by, petitioned by, or whose petitioner is a member of, one of the plaintiffs in the suit is no longer subject to PP 10052’s entry restrictions. AILA Doc. No. 20100536

RESOURCES

National Bail Fund Network 2nd round of bailouts across the country, as part of an action on 10/21 called Fall Freedom Day 2020. Referrals by sending us an email at constanza.nbfn@gmail.com and including the following information: Name and link to your practice or organization, Detention center where person is detained, and their bond amount.

Instructions for Witness Declarations in Support of Asylum Applications (Spanish)

100+ Policy Changes that Have Devastated Immigrants and Asylum Seekers

Debunking “Extreme Vetting”: Recommendations to Build Back the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program

How the U Visa is Revictimizing the People It Was Created to Help

Top 10 Ethics Issues Raised by the October Visa Bulletin

Practice Alert: Office of Biometric Identity Management FOIA Delays

GAO Says HHS Needs to Improve Oversight of Care Facilities for Unaccompanied Children

Practice Alert: Important Updates Regarding Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization

Violence and Discrimination Against LGBT People in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and Obstacles to Asylum in the United States

Request Matter of A-B- Practice Advisory from CGRS

Status of USCIS Fee Waiver Changes – October 2, 2020

Asylos Research: Zimbabwe: Availability of Medication (AFR2020-18) – ENG; Nigeria: Yoruba convert to Christianity (AFR2020-20) – ENG.

ICE Air Flights September & September 2020 YTD

The Impact of COVID-19 on Noncitizens and Across the U.S. Immigration System

Mapping Far-Right and Anti-Immigrant Movement Alignment with County Sheriffs

EVENTS

10/14/20 Immigration, Healthcare, and the Coronavirus Crisis

10/14/20 Understanding Retroactivity in Immigration Matters

10/14/20 Affordable Federal Litigation Strategies, Part II

10/15/20 Maintenance of Status: What You Need to Know in the Current Climate

10/16/20 New EAD Rules for Asylum Seekers

10/20/20 Immigration in the 2020 Election

10/20/20 Fee Rule Implementation: Effects on Survivor Relief

10/21/20 Advising TPS Clients in Light of Recent Developments

10/21/20 Rule of Law Forum – Preserving the Rule of Law in an Age of Disruption

10/21/20-10/23/20 Case Management Skills & Database Functions

10/21/20 Migrations and One Health: Human, Animal, and Environmental Interactions and Emerging Diseases

10/22/20 Non-LPR Cancellation: Overview of Eligibility & Proving Continuous Presence

10/23/20 Migration as Resistance: The Underground Railroad

10/27/20 Seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status in Removal Proceedings

10/27/20 Immigration, COVID-19, and the 2020 Election

10/28/20 Advanced U Visa Hot Topics

10/28/20 The Ecology of State-Building: Moving Capitals in Indonesia

10/29/20-10/30/20 2020 Crimes & Immigration Seminar

10/29/20 Presenting the Case

10/29/20 Marijuana: Bridging the Divide Between State and Federal Law

11/4/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

11/10/20 Pursuing Immigration Pro Bono Opportunities in Private Practice

11/11/20 Climate Change and Oceanic Migrations

11/12/20 Defying Non-Reviewability: How to Proceed After a Consular Denial

11/17/20 Make the Government Pay! Attorney fees in Immigration

11/17/20 Employment-Based Immigration Opportunities for Immigrant Youth

11/18/20 Applying for Asylum and Related Relief for Clients with Convictions

11/24/20 VAWA Self-Petitioning Fundamentals

11/30/20 Perfecting a Winning Strategy for Asylum Applications

12/2/20 Migration, Climate Change, and Human Adaptation

12/2/20 An Overview of Naturalization

12/3/20 Representing Permanent Residents in LPR Cancellation Cases

12/3/20 2020 AILA Crimes and Immigration Virtual Conference

12/3/20-12/4/20 53rd Annual Immigration and Naturalization Institute

12/8/20 Litigating Your Way Out of Delay

12/9/20 Public Charge in Consular Processing

12/15/20 Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude

12/16/20 LPRs and Public Charge

12/16/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

2/4/21 Basic Immigration Law 2021: Business, Family, Naturalization and Related Areas

2/5/21 Asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Crime Victim, and Other Immigration Relief 2021

ImmProf

Monday, October 12, 2020

Supreme Court Petitioned to Review Salvadoran TPS Case

Latino USA: The Matter Of Castro Tum

Sunday, October 11, 2020

Oral Argument This Week in Pereida v. Barr

Algeria Expells Migrants Into Niger

Holly Cooper on Family Separation: On REDIRECT: Immigration Law and Perspectives Podcast

The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act is Important for Immigrants and Here’s Why

Video of immigration officers stopping Black jogger is ‘unacceptable in so many ways,’ Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Your Playlist: Rolling Stones, Heartbreaker (1972)

News Outlets Catching Up With Immprofs: Trump Has Radically Changed Immigration

Justice Department cancels diversity training, including for immigration judges

An Asylum Decision by Judge Barrett

Friday, October 9, 2020

Your Playlist: Maximo Park

Humanitarian Immigration Policy Is the Backbone of a Progressive Democracy—Let US Bring It About

It’s Been a Week Since the 9th Circuit Issued an Injunction on the USCIS Final Fee Rule… Now What?

Courts should be a sanctuary space for T-Visa applicants to be safe from ICE & deportation

Debunking “Extreme Vetting”: Recommendations to Build Back the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program

Federal Court Upholds Most of California’s Private Prison Ban

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Lindsay Harris: Trump’s War of Attrition on Women Asylum Seekers

Report Catalogues 100+ Policy Changes by Trump Administration That Have Devastated Immigrants

Joke of the Day (or last night)

Thursday, October 8, 2020

New Episodes of Podcast The Other Side of the Water: Immigration and the Promise of Racial Justice

Call for Papers: USF Symposium: Leveraging the Law For Human Trafficking Survivors

Critical Conversations: Racial Justice and the Immigrant Rights Movement by University of Minnesota Law School’s James H. Binger Center for New America

DHS announces ICE enforcement actions on “criminal aliens” released due to California sanctuary policies

Vice President Pence and Senator Harris Square Off in VP Debate

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Biden’s Central America Plan Goes Beyond Immigration

Inter-American Commission Hearing Charges U.S. and Mexico with Human Rights Violations at the Border

Emerging Immigration Scholars Workshop at UCLA/UCSD

Call for Papers: Winter 2021 Emerging Immigration Scholars Workshop

Anti-LGBT Persecution in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras

Most Asylum Seekers Have No Legal Counsel. This Villanova Program Trains Non-Lawyers to Step In.

Report alleges that former Attorney General Jeff Sessions aggressively favored separating migrant families

Federal District Court Enjoins USCIS in SIJS Case: “defendants have engaged in a practice of delaying the adjudication of SIJ petitions”

Eddie Van Halen Dies at 65

Report: Flawed Design: How the U Visa is Revictimizing the People It Was Created to Help

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Interim Final Rule Narrowing Scope of H1-B Visa

Immigration scholar Natalia Molina wins 2020 Macarthur Fellowship

An Election with Consequences for Immigrants to Watch this Fall? How about the Race for District Attorney in Los Angeles?

Immigrants on COVID America

Flores Lives: Ninth Circuit Denies U.S. Government’s Call for Emergency Stay of Orders in Flores v. Barr

Monday, October 5, 2020

From The Bookshelves: Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar

Immigration Law Professor Maureen Sweeney Lauded as Public Servant of the Year by the University of Maryland

Breaking News: Supreme Court Vacates and Remands Court of Appeals Decision Halting Removal of Immigrant Activist

Immigrantly, A Podcast

PBS Documentary on Proposition 187 and Change in Latinx Voting in California

USCIS Issues Policy Guidance Regarding Inadmissibility Based on Membership in a Totalitarian Party

Immigration Article of the Day: A Domestic Reign of Terror by Ediberto Roman

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

Only the “tip of the iceberg” in a thoroughly corrupt and totally dysfunctional system that nobody seems willing to put out of its misery and the injustices that it causes humanity and the rule of law each day that it continues to grind out gross miscarriages of justice!

PWS

10-13-20

Under watchful eye of regime officials, “Remote Adjudicators” hone skills in using “rack” to deter asylum seekers from seeking justice:

Vote ‘Em out, vote ‘Em out!

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