GOP subversion – Page 10 – immigrationcourtside.com

🤯 JUSTICE ON THE ROCKS! ☠️ THE GOP HAS CORRUPTED THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY, WHILE THE DEMS CAN’T BRING DUE PROCESS AND QUALITY TO THE LARGE JUDICIARY THEY “OWN!” — Latest Rebuke By 5th Shows EOIR’s Sloppiness, Misrepresentations, Misconstructions, DOJ’s “Defense Of the Indefensible” In Quest To Deny Asylum To Refugees! — Recent Reports On “Management” & “Leadership” Deficiencies Show “The Wheels Are Coming Off The EOIR Circus Wagon!” 🤡

injustice — Injustice
Public Realm
Dems spend lots of time whining about the destruction of the Federal Judiciary by GOP right-wing extremists. However, after two years in charge, they have done little to bring due process, fundamental fairness, and judicial expertise to America’s worst courts — the Immigration Courts — which they totally control!

The 5th Circuit didn’t mince any words in its latest (inexplicably) unpublished, 24-page takedown of EOIR’s ridiculous “judicial” failure with lives at stake!

https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unpub/20/20-60133.0.pdf

. . . .

Based on all of the evidence as a whole, and in light of the applicable caselaw, Reyes-Hoyes has made a compelling case of persecution. Nevertheless, we find a remand is necessary because the BIA did not make a determination as to Reyes-Hoyes’s credibility. The BIA did not mention credibility in its decision or express any doubts about the truth of Reyes- Hoyes’s testimony. The IJ did express some doubts about Reyes-Hoyes’s credibility, although he did not explicitly find her uncredible and ultimately stated he was not denying relief “based on a lack of sufficiency of proof.” However, the BIA did not adopt the IJ’s decision and thus did not incorporate any of the doubts the IJ had. “Generally speaking, a court of appeals should remand a case to an agency for decision of a matter that statutes place primarily in agency hands.” I.N.S. v. Orlando Ventura, 537 U.S. 12, 16 (2002). If Reyes-Hoyes is credible, she has shown persecution, but the credibility determination must be made by the factfinder, not by this court on appeal. See 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1)(B)(iii); Avelar-Olivia v. Barr, 954 F.3d 757, 767 (5th Cir. 2020). Accordingly, the decision of the BIA is vacated in part, and we remand to the BIA for a determination on credibility.

. . . .

In sum, we conclude that, if Reyes-Hoyes is credible, the record compels the conclusion that Reyes-Hoyes suffered harm rising to the level of past persecution, but we remand for the BIA to consider her credibility in the first instance. We also conclude that the record compels the conclusion that safe internal relocation to parts of Guatemala—Mesata and Raul—was not possible. Additionally, we hold that the BIA procedurally erred in the remainder of its analysis concerning whether internal location was reasonable and whether Reyes-Hoyes had shown state action by not meaningfully considering the relevant substantial evidence.

. . . .

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

Here is my immediate reaction when Dan Kowalski at LexisNexis sent me the decison:

Wow! This is an EOIR/OIL error fest — replete with misrepresentations and mischaracterizations! Totally sloppy work! Why won’t they publish this? It’s a perfect example of how Garland has failed to get the job done!

And, here’s the reaction from my friend and Round Table Colleague “Sir Jeffrey Eagle Eyes” Chase:

24 pages; very detailed analysis of recurring asylum issues. Should certainly have been published.

BTW, please note footnote 9, an example of the ongoing problem with the government’s online regs continuing to list the enjoined “death to asylum” regs that the previous administration tried to push through. The Fifth Circuit continues to believe that the internal relocation reg was amended effective January 19, 2021. Have cases been decided based on this erroneous belief?

Lest you doubt the “complete FUBARness” of EOIR, check these out:

EOIR ranked 420 out of 432 in list of USG “Best Places to Work” (97th percentile) https://naij-usa.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fb6095c093c4ba52c1a1f5cec&id=e8849a6c94&e=a00508cc44;
Second worst component of DOJ;
Worst of all the small and mid-sized agencies ranked;
While the “curve” for “subagencies” has gone up since 2007, EOIR’s score has cratered, plunging dramatically during the Trump years;
EOIR ranked at or near the bottom on key metrics, including, significantly, “leadership style” (some of the “credit” for this abysmal score should go to DOJ, which has failed to provide dynamic, due-process-oriented leadership over the last six years);
GAO study just cited EOIR for a number of management deficiencies including “blowing off” “our [GAO’s] 2017 recommendation to develop a strategic workforce plan to address current and future staffing needs, EOIR hasn’t done so—even though it had a significant and growing backlog of 1.8 million pending cases at the start of FY 2023, more than triple the number that it had in FY 2017.”
The NAIJ continues to raise technology and health and safety defects with EOIR “management;”
Notably, during this period of abject failure, EOIR has found time and resources to waste (and potential “goodwill” to squander) on unneeded nonsense like “IJ Dashboards,” “production quotas,” “expedited dockets,” more layers of bloated headquarters bureaucracy, and, perhaps the biggest boondoggle of all, a totally absurd and duplicative “Office of Policy” for an agency that has demonstrated a disturbing inability to carry out its “core function:” Providing Due Process for all through fair, timely, expert, correct adjudications!

EYORE — “Eyore In Distress”
Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up” — As Dems founder in their commitment to restore justice, could new Immigration Judges from the NDPA — unswervingly committed to due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices — get this poor little fella back on his feet and improve the culture and atmosphere at the “retail level” of EOIR, even in the face of indifference and incompetence from those in charge? Lives and futures — perhaps the future of our democracy — are at stake!

What we really need is a “lean, not mean, due process machine” @ EOIR. Why can’t the Dems deliver? That’s the age-old question among human rights experts!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-30-23

🎥🍿AT THE MOVIES: “LAS ABOGADAS” — How Courageous Immigration Lawyers Are The Front Line Defenders Of American Democracy! 🇺🇸

https://thinkimmigration.org/blog/2023/04/19/the-impact-of-immigration-attorneys-on-the-big-screen-las-abogadas/

From Think Immgration:

AILA is pleased to welcome this blog post from long-time AILA member Careen Shannon, Senior Counsel (formerly Partner) at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP, and the Executive Producer of an important new documentary, “Las Abogadas: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis.” AILA members in town for the Spring Conference have a chance to see “Las Abogadas” at the Washington, DC International Film Festival on Wednesday, April 26, at 6:00 p.m., with a second show on Friday, April 28, at 8:30 p.m.

When my friend Rebecca Eichler told me that a documentary filmmaker was making a movie about her experience providing legal advice to members of a Central American migrant caravan as it made its way north through Mexico in 2018, I said, “That’s nice.” Later, when film production stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she sent me a link to a trailer and encouraged me to take a look, and I promised to do so. But I was busy managing my remote work for the Fragomen law firm where I was then a partner, and I put all thoughts of the film aside.

Then one day, I watched the trailer, and I was hooked. Here was a story that needed to be told. It wasn’t just about Rebecca, but about tenacious lawyers – mostly women – who were dedicating their lives to defending the rights of asylum seekers, reuniting migrant families torn apart by the Trump administration’s cruel family separation policy, and fighting to uphold the rule of law at a time when the few existing safeguards for migrants seeking refuge from harm were being systematically dismantled.

I reached out to the film’s Director, Victoria Bruce, who I later learned only reluctantly took my call at Rebecca’s urging, since at that point she had run out of steam – and money – and was not sure she had it in her to complete the film. But we had a great conversation, we fed off of each other’s enthusiasm for the subject matter, and by the end of our talk she had invited me to sign on as the film’s Executive Producer.

Two years into the pandemic, I decided to step down as a partner at Fragomen and dedicate myself to ensuring that this important film got made. Fast forward to today, and Las Abogadas: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis is making the rounds of film festivals, winning awards, and garnering critical acclaim. Las Abogadas (which means “the women lawyers” in Spanish) follows a group of women immigration attorneys over a multi-year odyssey as the U.S. government under Trump upends every protection for those fleeing from persecution, violence and war. The film’s narrative continues into the first two years of the Biden administration, where great hope gives way to a despair my fellow AILA members undoubtedly share, that nothing fundamental had changed in U.S. immigration policy.

. . . .

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

Read the complete article at the link.

“Nothing fundamentally has changed.” Rather than listening to, recruiting, partnering with, and following the advice of those on the “front lines” of defending individual rights, freedoms, and upholding American democracy, the Biden Administration disastrously turned immigration, human rights, and racial justice policies over to a bunch of “wonks” disconnected from the preventable human tragedies and mocking of the rule of law represented by Trump’s xenophobic, White Nationalist agenda.

Today, President Biden announced his candidacy for re-election in 2024. Part of his slogan is “protecting personal freedoms” from the GOP right-wing authoritarian, police state — bedrooms, bathrooms, classrooms, voting booths, more guns, MAGA-maniacs plan to invade and regulate every aspect of your life. But Biden’s miserable performance on immigrants’ rights and his Administration’s tone-deaf “dissing” of those like the heroes of “Las Abogadas,” suggests he will need more than a slogan to energize a critical, too often ignored, “core component” of the Dem base.

He could start by watching “Las Abogadas” along with VP Harris (who “took on” the “immigration portfolio,” and has been MIA since), his politicos, and his campaign staff and heeding the message. Social justice advocates are understandably skeptical about Biden’s promises. He needs actions that advance due process, the rule of law, and humane, robust, orderly processing of refugees and asylum seekers!

As the Trump debacle demonstrated, when immigrants’ rights disappear, all other individual and personal rights in America are in the far-right’s sights! It doesn’t take much imagination (except, perhaps, for some so-called “centrist” Dems) to see how the onslaught of anti-immigrant myths, rhetoric, and legislation by the GOP right has quickly shifted to hate bills targeting gays, transgender, women, Black History, teachers, voters, election officials, rational gun control, heck, even doctors, nurses, and established medical science!

Careen Shannon
Senior Counsel (formerly Partner) Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP Executive Producer
“Las Abogadas: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis.”
Photo: Think Immigration

Many congrats to Careen Shannon and everyone else involved in this tremendous project!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-26-23

POLITICS: RICE TO LEAVE WHITE HOUSE IN MAY — Tanden Possible Replacement!

From Politico:

https://apple.news/Au9UkPR0bSiqaMkC5yrBHQA

Susan Rice to step down as domestic policy adviser

Rice, who also served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, helped the Biden administration with expanding the Affordable Care Act.

By KIERRA FRAZIER, ADAM CANCRYN and MYAH WARD
04/24/2023 09:26 AM EDT
Updated: 04/24/2023 11:32 AM EDT

Domestic policy adviser Susan Rice is stepping down from her post.

Rice, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, helped the Biden administration with expanding the Affordable Care Act, getting his Inflation Reduction Act into law, and passing gun control legislation. The move comes as the White House is facing controversy over its handling of migrant children who crossed the Southern border.

“As the only person to serve as both National Security Advisor and Domestic Policy Advisor, Susan’s record of public service makes history,” said President Joe Biden in a statement announcing the departure. “But what sets her apart as a leader and colleague is the seriousness with which she takes her role and the urgency and tenacity she brings, her bias towards action and results, and the integrity, humility and humor with which she does this work.”

Rice’s departure leaves a major hole within the top ranks of the White House right as it gears up for a likely re-election campaign and as it faces a stare down with congressional Republicans over raising the debt limit. Among those being eyed as a replacement for her include Neera Tanden, Biden’s staff secretary and a senior adviser, four people with knowledge of the deliberations told POLITICO. Separately, a top White House official said no replacement had been identified yet.

One former administration official said White House aides were talking openly about Tanden’s consideration for Rice’s job over the weekend, calling her potential appointment “pretty damn firm.”

. . . .

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

Read the full article at the link.

Say what you will, Rice never got a handle on the need to restore the rule of law for asylum seekers at the border. Nor did she ever “get” the simple fact that you can’t solve a humanitarian situation through law enforcement focused largely on deterrence and punishment.

Although reviled by the GOP, Rice appeared to uncritically adopt many of Stephen Miller’s most xenophobic border myths and showed little interest in listening to experts who actually are working with asylum seekers and kids at the border.

In theory, Neera Tanden, whose nomination to be OMB Director was “torpedoed” by the GOP and Sen. Joe Manchin, could be better for human rights. But, 1) she doesn’t actually have the job yet; and 2) we’ve been here before with folks who look good from a distance but can’t perform in practice.

Among the apparent reasons for Tanden’s OMB rejection was that she had sent nasty e-mails and tweets about some Senators.

That was a case of the GOP having mass amnesia about the intemperate statements, personal insults, and incoherent rage that were a staple of their former election-denying President whom most blindly supported, and continue to cover for, through all transgressions against decorum and the law.

I suspect that most due process and human rights advocates aren’t shedding any tears about Rice’s impending departure. We’ll see what happens next.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-24-23

🤯 ASYLUM SEEKERS @ THE BORDER NEED DUE PROCESS & COMPASSION — BIDEN ADMINISTRATION PLANS TO DELIVER DETERRENCE, DETENTION, DEPORTATION, DUMBNESS! — “The right to seek asylum, even though it is recognized in international law, is not being upheld.”

Marisa Limón Garza, Executive Director of Las Americas
PHOTO: The Border Chronicle

Melissa Del Bosque in The Border Chronicle:

https://open.substack.com/pub/theborderchronicle/p/the-right-to-seek-asylum-in-el-paso?r=330z7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

The Right to Seek Asylum in El Paso: A Q&A with Marisa Limón Garza, Executive Director of Las Americas

Marisa Limón Garza is executive director of the nonprofit Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas. Founded in 1987 to aid refugees from the civil wars in Central America, Las Americas has provided legal representation to thousands of refugees and asylum seekers. Today, the staff of 19 is adapting to the growing, complex needs at the second-busiest port of entry for asylum seekers, after San Diego. Limón Garza, a native El Pasoan, talks about the challenges the organization faces as the United States rejects asylum law. “We’re seeing more expressions of xenophobia towards migrants on both sides of the border,” she said.

Las Americas has been serving migrants and asylum seekers since the 1980s. How has the population you serve changed since then?

The population that we started off serving was mostly Central American people seeking asylum. That population was our main focus. Over time, it’s shifted. For a long time, we’ve had a focus on women who were impacted by domestic violence or gender-based violence. We continue to have a community program specifically for crime victims. And so that has been something that we’ve persisted with. And then now we’re also working with people in the detention center setting. So, it’s evolved over time to meet the needs of immigrants and migrants.

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Are you seeing more people than ever? Or the same?

Right now, there are limitations on how many services we can provide, because of the number of attorneys that we have on staff, which is four. Attracting talent at the nonprofit level can be hard. It’s also a challenge in a community like ours that doesn’t have a law school. But we are seeing many people come for services. Especially due to the policies from the Trump administration and now the Biden administration. The need continues to grow. We are contacted by people all the time seeking assistance. And it’s more than we can actually serve.

What are the challenges you’re seeing with the populations you’re helping?

The challenges are related to the ways that the policies are being implemented. The people in our detained program have been focusing on a strategy of getting people out of detention on bond, because they’ll have a much higher chance of getting asylum when they have access to representation outside the detention center setting. But that’s become a lot more challenging in the past three months. There’s been a shift. Judges are not allowing people to be released on bond. And so that’s something that we are monitoring. We’re now taking on more cases for full representation through the asylum process with some people. So that’s a shift for us.

Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star was extended to El Paso. How has it affected your community?

Operation Lone Star has been in our community since the city declared an emergency in December. It certainly has changed the dynamic with the more militarized presence and more enforcement. Visually, there’s more razor wire, more physical barriers, more obstacles. And the DPS squad cars everywhere.

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Can you talk about the CBP One app? I was in Reynosa, Mexico, recently. There were a lot of complaints about the app from asylum seekers, saying it doesn’t work. What are you experiencing in Ciudad Juárez with CBP One?

Our team has been helping folks get connected to the app and working with the Chihuahua state government in their COESPO office. Through that, we’ve been able to support over 662 people trying to access the app. It is challenging, even with the great Wi-Fi that’s available at COESPO. And it’s certainly been difficult as different versions of the app come out. There’s new glitches or glitches that didn’t happen before. Recently, there was a glitch where people were being notified on their screen that they needed to be north of the center of the country to secure an appointment. And of course, these people were applying from Ciudad Juárez, so it should have automatically included them, but they were being bumped out. Things like that continue to be challenges for people.

Are you having success with the app? Are some people getting through?

A minimal number. It’s not to the extent that we would like, but some people have secured appointments for themselves and their families.

Does frustration with the app lead asylum seekers to gather at ports of entry?

I think it’s the combination of rumors being shared about when people can access the port along with a level of frustration with the app. Combined, it creates a situation where people have this growing frustration, and they’re wanting to move forward but can’t. So it’s certainly part of the dynamic. I wouldn’t say it’s the sole factor. But it certainly contributes to that feeling that people are facing.

. . . .

Have conditions become more precarious for migrants arriving in Ciudad Juárez?

I think this has fomented because so many migrants have been coming towards the ports of entry. And when they go to the ports, some of those ports decide to close. That’s caused more of a challenge between community members and the migrants themselves. We’re seeing more expressions of xenophobia towards migrants on both sides of the border. And so that’s something that may have always existed but wasn’t as spoken out loud. Now it seems to be ratcheting up, although there’s still the presence of people who want to welcome and support migrants.

What future problems or issues do you see coming down the road?

I foresee challenges if we continue with the CBP One app. If that’s the only way people can access protection, then it really limits asylum. We would prefer that people be able to access a port of entry, claim their credible fear, and seek protection. We’re also mindful of the transit ban that is likely to go into place and will cause a lot of difficulty. People are supposed to seek asylum in the first country they cross through before seeking asylum here, but many of those countries have overrun asylum systems already. Adding to that challenge are the geopolitics as many different countries seem to be working with the United States to wall off access. This means that vulnerable people have far fewer places to turn to. The right to seek asylum, even though it is recognized in international law, is not being upheld.

What are solutions that you wish would be enacted right now by the U.S. and Mexican governments to fix things at the border?

We’d like there to be more transparency with border communities, at all levels, to ensure that plans are incorporated into the community, and there’s clear understanding of how they will work. Right now, there’s no clear information on what’s going to happen on May 11 [when Title 42 ends], and it’s less than a month away. We’d also like to see attention to the backlog of asylum claims within the courts, because there are many years that pass before someone can get access. Also reduce the time it takes to get a work permit. Right now, it takes at least six months to a year. That makes it riskier for people who must take more dangerous jobs and do things off the record. It’s important for people to earn a living and support their loved ones in a dignified way.

. . . .

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

Read the full interview at the link.

Think the Biden Administration is paying attention and has used their 2+ years in office to work with experts to be ready to welcome legal asylum seekers excercising their rights upon the inevitable end of the Title 42 charade? Not a chance!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/04/20/homeland-security-border-mayorkas/

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday that the Biden administration plans to announce preparations across the U.S.-Mexico border next week in anticipation of an influx of migrants after the White House lifts pandemic-related restrictions on May 11.

Mayorkas declined to provide details about the government’s efforts but said immigration detention facilities would have additional beds available to hold migrants facing possible deportation.

“I think next week we’ll have more to say about our preparation and some of the things we are going to be doing,” Mayorkas told reporters at DHS headquarters in Washington.

. . . .

Since March 2020, DHS has leaned on the Title 42 policy as its primary enforcement tool, expelling more than 2 million migrants back to Mexico or their home countries. But Biden officials face pressure from immigrant advocates and some Democrats calling for an end to the policy they view as a carry-over from the Trump administration’s harsher approach.

DHS officials further blame the Title 42 policy for encouraging repeat illegal crossing attempts because migrants don’t face the threat of federal prosecution and jail time that they would under standard immigration rules. Lifting Title 42, Biden officials say, is key to restoring the legal consequences they need to deter illegal entries.

. . . .

Miller, the acting CBP commissioner, said officials will attempt to tamp down the surge with “enhanced expedited removal” — a fast-track deportation process for those who don’t qualify for humanitarian refuge.

But, he cautioned, “it will take time” for deportations to have a deterrent effect.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/04/20/homeland-security-border-mayorkas/

Deterrence, deterrence, deterrence = failure, failure, failure! It’s been failing for decades and is guaranteed to do so in the future! Governments can’t deter, detain, and deport their way out of humanitarian situations.

But, the the Biden Administration is happy to waste billions and unnecessarily endanger human lives making the same old mistakes over and over.

Not a mention of what REALLY would work: Honoring our legal obligations and enforcing the law by inviting asylum seekers to apply at ports of entry; making the system efficient and user friendly; providing wide access to representation; and timely and robustly granting asylum to qualified applicants under generous standards enunciated by the Supremes and the BIA decades ago but widely ignored, often mocked, in practice!

If, contrary to the Administration’s predictions of doom, gloom, and “planned failure,” the legal system works at the border, it will be due to folks like Marisa Limón Garza and NGOs forcing the law to work as it should — no thanks to out of touch politicos and bureaucrats in the Biden Administration and to GOP nativists like Abbott.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-21-23

ROBERT REICH: THE GOP’S UNHEALTHY OBSESSION WITH SEX!🤮

GOP BEDROOM POLITICS — GOP in the Bedroom
By: Robert Reich on Substack

Robert Reich writes on Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/why-are-republicans-so-obsessed-about?r=330z7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

The Republican Party, once a proud proponent of limited government, has become a font of government intrusion into the most intimate aspects of personal and family life.

Last Friday, a judge who previously worked for a conservative Republican legal organization and was then nominated to the bench by Trump and pushed through the Senate by Mitch McConnell, invalidated the FDA’s approval of a 23-year-old abortion pill (mifepristone) used in over half of pregnancy terminations in the United States.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the Dobbs case (in which Republican appointees on the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade), Republican states are criminalizing abortion. Some are criminalizing the act of helping women obtain an abortion in another state. Texas gives private citizens the right to sue anyone who helps someone get an abortion. Idaho just passed an “abortion trafficking” law that would make helping a minor leave Idaho to get an abortion without parental consent punishable by five years in prison. Tennessee Republicans have made it illegal to mail medical abortion pills. In the last Congress, 167 House Republicans co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act, conferring full personhood rights on fertilized eggs.

At the same time, Republican lawmakers want to make it more difficult for couples to buy contraceptives. Sixteen Republican-dominated state legislatures already bar abortion clinics from receiving public contraception funds.

So far, at least 11 Republican states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors, even if parents approve. Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has ordered state child welfare officials to launch child abuse investigations into reports of transgender kids receiving such care. Republican lawmakers are also pushing teachers to refer to students by their gender assigned at birth. Many are restricting which bathrooms trans students can use.

Republican states are also limiting discussions of gender and sexuality in classrooms. Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, signed a bill banning public school teachers in kindergarten through third grade from talking about sexual orientation or gender identity, calling it an “anti-grooming bill” and accusing opponents of wanting to groom young children for sexual exploitation.

Republican lawmakers are also putting obstacles in the way of same-sex marriage and are considering appeals to the Supreme Court to reverse its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. Texas’s Republican attorney general says he’d “feel comfortable defending a law that once again outlawed sodomy” in the wake of Dobbs.

Oh, and Republicans now routinely accuse political opponents of favoring child pornography. In her confirmation hearings, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was barraged with questions from Republican senators about her alleged lenient treatment of child pornographers. (In four days of hearings, the phrase “child porn” or “pornography” or “pornographer” was mentioned 165 times, along with 142 mentions of “sex” or related terms like “sexual abuse” or “sex crimes.”)

***

Why are Republican lawmakers obsessing about sex? Three reasons.

First, by focusing on sex, Republicans can court both the evangelical right and the right-wing extreme QAnon vote (with its loony “Pizzagate” conspiracy claim that Democrats are pedophiles).

Second, by focusing on sex, Republican lawmakers don’t have to talk nonstop about Trump. They don’t have to discuss his indictment or other pending cases against him. They don’t have to say whether they agree with his vitriolic diatribes against other Republicans (DeSantis, McConnell, and any other Republican who criticizes him). They don’t have to defend his bonkers positions (on Ukraine, NATO, George Soros, immigrants, and all else).

Finally, creating a culture war over sex allows Republicans to sound faux populist without having to address the practical problems faced by most Americans — lack of paid sick leave, unaffordable child care and elder care, stagnant wages, and inadequate housing. And by focusing on sex, they believe they can ignore the sources of populist anger — corporate profiteering and price gouging, monopolization, union busting, soaring CEO pay, and billionaires who pay a lower tax rate than the average worker (courtesy, in part, of the 2017 Republican tax cut for the wealthy).

But the Republican obsession about sex is backfiring on them, as we saw in the 2022 midterms and again in last week’s elections in Wisconsin and Chicago. It’s drawing a contrast between the two parties that pits the GOP against the vast majority of voters.

It’s becoming increasingly apparent to Americans that while Democrats want to make life easier for average working people and end corporate abuses of economic power, Republicans want government to intrude on the most intimate aspects of peoples’ lives.

***

On a different note, please join me Friday for the second session of my course on Wealth and Poverty. (If you missed the first session, you can find it here.)

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

Yup!

Today’s extremist GOP is an existential threat to individual liberty in America!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

0-11-23

🏴‍☠️ SUPREMELY CORRUPT! 🤮 — Clarence & Ginni Thomas Wined & Dined “Off The Books” By GOP Fat Cat! 🤑 “Let’s just say that none of the trips Thomas took with Crow on his yacht and to his private resort in the Adirondacks resembled a Walmart parking lot.“ 👎🏼

Clarence Thomas Gifts

Cartoonist: Dave Whamond

Republished under license

https://open.substack.com/pub/steady/p/a-great-piece-of-journalism?r=330z7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner write on Substack:

A hallmark of great journalism is that it shines a bright light on information that is in the public’s interest but that powerful forces and actors desperately want to remain hidden.

A perfect example of this came today with a blockbuster investigative report from ProPublica about serious ethical questions concerning Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

In a thorough examination of Thomas’s two-decade relationship with billionaire and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, reporters Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski detail a series of trips gifted to Thomas and his wife, Ginni, that on the open market would likely have totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars.

None of these were disclosed by Thomas, who likes to portray himself as a man of simple tastes. The report notes that in a recent documentary about his life, Thomas stated, “I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal to me about it.” Let’s just say that none of the trips Thomas took with Crow on his yacht and to his private resort in the Adirondacks resembled a Walmart parking lot.

It is fitting that this news would drop a day after we wrote about the election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The reporting on Thomas shows the utter hypocrisy of those on the political right claiming that progressive judges are the ones undermining faith in our judicial system.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts likes to intone on how much he cares for the integrity of the court. But under his watch, the court’s standing with the public has dropped precipitously. And he need look no further than his ideological counterparts in the court’s right-wing majority.

The damage to the court’s reputation has been manifest in a series of rulings that have made a mockery of the ideas of judicial restraint and precedent. These have overturned Roe v. Wade, emboldened unrestricted gun rights, and undermined our representative government through gerrymandered elections. And that’s just the beginning.

Then there is the personal conduct of the justices, of which Thomas, a hero to the right, is a particularly egregious example. Here he is hobnobbing with rich, powerful interests and not letting anyone know. There he was refusing to recuse himself from a case involving the January 6 insurrection even though his own wife was implicated. It is clear he feels he has no need to defend his actions to anyone. He is completely unaccountable and flaunts it.

Senate Democrats today called for an ethics code for the Supreme Court. But color us skeptical that anything will change anytime soon.

This is a time of great tension in the function (or perhaps more aptly, the dysfunction) of our democracy. It feels as if we have been walking a high wire for years. But the tension still increases. In just the last few days, we have seen a state legislator in North Carolina who had run as a solid Democrat switch parties, giving Republicans a supermajority. In Tennessee, Republicans in the state’s House expelled two Democratic representatives who had joined students in protesting inaction on gun violence. And this on top of what we saw in Wisconsin.

There is also the backdrop of the former president facing numerous strands of legal peril.

There has always been an element of hardball in politics. There have always been public officials who skirted or crossed the lines of ethics and the law. There have always been judges who had dubious connections. Democracy is always precarious.

But there is a sense that now the danger is building. Voters are angry. The will of the majority is being undermined on issues like abortion and gun safety. Power is being accrued for its own sake and not to address the needs of the people.

These are times when we need a fearless press to explain where there is peril and where there is promise around the ability of our nation to regain its footing and thrive. Kudos to ProPublica for its contribution to the health of American democracy.

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

For the last several weeks, the so-called “mainstream media” has been providing “wall to wall” coverage of a “non-event” that eventually “morphed” into yet another tawdry episode in the tawdry life of America’s most visible anti-democracy fascist! They worked hard to give “equal (or greater) time” to a unified disingenuous effort by this guy’s supporters to portray him as “the victim!” In perhaps a new “modern journalistic low” they willingly provided a platform for dangerous wacko conspiracy theorist “MTG” to spew forth her vile “sicko-fascist” rantings — with little pushback and no fact checking!

Fortunately, as pointed out by Rather and Kirschner, somebody, in this case Pro Publica, was out there doing serious investigative journalism while their “mainstream” colleagues indulged their fantasies!

For more on the GOP’s concerted, nationwide assault on democracy and fundamental values, read historian Heather Cox Richardson, here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/april-6-2023?r=330z7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-07-23

🇺🇸⚖️🗽 THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE: PROGRESSIVES WIN KEY RACES IN WISCONSIN & CHICAGO!😎 — Instead Of “Running Away” From The Humanitarian Values That Got Them Elected, Biden, Harris, & So-Called “Centrist Dems” Should Be Embracing The Practical, Universal Values Of Due Process, Fundamental Fairness, Equal Justice Under Law & The Human Dignity Of All!

Equal Justice
FROM: United Nations, Creative Commons LIcense

From HuffPost:

Liberals Take Control Of Wisconsin Supreme Court

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/janet-protasiewicz-wins-wisconsin-supreme-court-race_n_642c7201e4b0ba5d603c81ed

Brandon Johnson, Progressive Union Organizer, Elected Mayor Of Chicago

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brandon-johnson-elected-chicago-mayor_n_642caf1be4b0ba5d603cc31a

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

It’s also remarkable, if not surprising, that 33,000 of us, many representing larger groups, filed written comments OPPOSING Biden’s tone-deaf, anti-due-process, anti-rule-of-law, racially-targeted, designed-to-fail, Stephen-Miller-inspired “death to asylum (and asylum seekers)” proposed regulations! https://default.salsalabs.org/Ta42828aa-7c89-4fca-a530-ab64d55d9cdf/e9c83407-de3b-4bcf-a318-704cbcd599a2. As someone who spent considerable time analyzing public comments on regulations during my career, that’s an astounding show of unified opposition.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that Biden, Harris, Garland, Mayorkas, or anyone else in the Administration will listen. But, they should!

Unfortunately, the ridiculously short 30-day comment period and that this major reversal of the positions and values that Biden and Harris campaigned upon, without meaningful input and discussion with experts who actually understand the borders and have been present there, indicates that the the comments are likely to be largely ignored. That’s going to lead to big time litigation — from both progressives and GOP nativist/restrictionists.

But, discouragingly, the Biden Administration has shown itself to be willing to tie up time and resources insanely (and not necessarily successfully) doing battle with its own would-be supporters rather than fighting the right! Just who they think is going to be the “winner” here — other than, perhaps, Donald Trump and Jim Crow — is beyond me!

James “Jim” Crow
Symbol of American Racism. Biden’s ill-advised and tone-deaf nativist asylum policies appear designed to appease this guy rather than to please those who actually voted for him and other Democratic candidates!

Instead of “running away” in the face of the GOP’s scurrilous “Anti-Woke Campaign:” targeting immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Jews, Muslims, women’s reproductive rights, teachers, free speech, libraries, public education, medical science, the environment, social justice, the Federal Government, voting rights, unions, the working poor, and just about all “mainstream American” individual freedoms, the Biden Administration and Dems in general should stand up for what’s actually great about America and against the GOP’s vile, ignorant, hateful “culture warriors” and “Jim Crow racists and misogynists. Defending the legal rights and humanity of asylum seekers and other migrants would be a good place to start a real defense of American values and democracy! That is, if someone in power were really interested in those things!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-05-23

🇺🇸 ON THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. KING’S ASSASSINATION, IRV WILLIAMS @ PORTLAND (ME) PRESS HERALD REMINDS US WHY THE TRUE HISTORY THAT THE GOP FEARS IS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTANDING OUR NATION!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929|-1968 PHOTO: Nobel Foundation (1964), Public Realm — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
1929 – 1968
PHOTO: Nobel Foundation (1964), Public Realm

https://www.pressherald.com/2023/04/04/maine-voices-fifty-five-years-after-martin-luther-kings-assassination-we-still-have-much-to-learn-from-himq/

https://www.pressherald.com/2023/04/04/maine-voices-fifty-five-years-after-martin-luther-kings-assassination-we-still-have-much-to-learn-from-him/

On April 4, 1968, I was a senior in high school when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. That weekend I had been attending a planning meeting in Richmond, Virginia, for mobilizing white teens from suburban churches to serve in inner-city projects in the District of Columbia and Baltimore.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Irv Williams is a native of Baltimore, with family roots in the Northern Neck of Virginia. He moved to Maine in 1973 and is a resident of Peaks Island.

Driving home on Sunday afternoon I arrived at the Baltimore city line, about five miles from my house, to find National Guard troops and tanks blocking off access to the city. I was allowed to pass only on the condition that I drive directly home.

Today I know the real reason I was allowed to pass by those armed soldiers was that my face was white, not Black. Dr. King was only 39 years old when he was murdered.

William Page was only 25 years of age when he was lynched in August 1917 in Lilian, Virginia. My mother would have been a toddler sleeping in her crib at home, just a mile away from the schoolyard in which he was hanged. Newspaper reports state that a mob of about 500 men assembled to commit the murder.

William Page would be the last Black man to be lynched in my mother’s home county of Northumberland, but the lynchings would continue on for another seven years, claiming the lives of nine additional Black men across Virginia.

I am now just a bit older than my mother was when she died. At 72, I look back over a lifetime of witnessing racial injustice through the segregation of schools and other public and private facilities. The false doctrine of “separate but equal” was then in full force throughout Virginia, where both of my parents were born and raised.

I carry childhood memories of seeing “White” and “Colored” water fountains in the county courthouse. Of visiting the family doctor whose small brick office behind his house had separate waiting rooms. Hearing my grandmother talk about “the colored” schools that a neighboring county closed for five full years rather than integrate, meanwhile taking public funds to open white academies. Knowing that nearby was a “colored beach” that was a small sliver of sand allotted to Black children. And knowing that there would never be any Black worshippers or preachers at the church revival meetings where my grandmother played piano.

Looking back at all of those memories, I know full well that the privilege to pass by those National Guard tanks in 1968 had come at the expense of others, sometimes in deadly ways.

In his 1964 book “Why We Can’t Wait,” Dr. King wrote: “Armies of officials are clothed in uniform, invested with authority, armed with the instruments of violence and death and conditioned to believe that they can intimidate, maim or kill Negroes with the same recklessness that once motivated the slaveowner.”

Now, nearly 60 years later, we see that Dr. King is still being proven right with the brutal beating death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. It wasn’t a rope like they used on William Page, or a bullet like the one that felled Dr. King, but the stun gun, pepper spray, fists and boots of police officers who have been charged with murder in an incident that equals the terror of the August night when 500 men watched William Page die.

Must we wait for another hundred years to pass for this senseless killing to stop? The simple answer is, no, we can’t wait.

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

The work of achieving due process and equal justice for all persons in America, as required by our Constitution, remains urgent and unfinished!

Indeed, under the “New Jim Crow” GOP and it’s noxious, intellectually dishonest, morally challenged “leaders,” our nation has actually regressed from some of the key achievements that Dr. King championed.

It’s particularly critical for the next generations to decide whether they want to live in a better, fairer, more tolerant world, or be forever captive in a White Supremacist, misogynist, fearful past, beholden to a “whitewashed” version of history that never was!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-03-23

🇺🇸⚖️ SLATE’S MARY HARRIS INTERVIEWS REP. HILLARY SCHOLTEN (D-MI) — Exploiters Rejoice 🎉 As Huckabee Sanders Leads GOP Efforts To De-Regulate Child Labor!☠️🤮👎🏼

“I was working at the Justice Department on immigration issues largely related to enforcement, figuring out how to make our laws more just, more fair, more humane. . . . But the Board of Immigration Appeals also has jurisdiction over dealing with regulations. It’s the highest administrative agency dealing with immigration issues—not only one-off cases, but we set national precedent for things like asylum, dealing with children who are detained in the United States. It’s a very powerful agency. Not a lot of people realize how much influence it has. And so that’s significant because when Trump was elected, we saw such a marked change in the direction of the work, where the focus of the policies seemed to be cruelty for the point of cruelty. And I couldn’t continue to work there and uphold my oath to protect and defend the Constitution, let alone maintain my own moral compass. And so I took a stand and I left.”

Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI)
Visit
Creator: Ike Hayman
Credit: Ike Hayman
SOURCE: Wikipedia

Mary Harris
Host & Managing Editor
What Next
PHOTO: Slate.com

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/03/child-migrant-labor-immigration-hillary-scholten.html

Listen here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1438906889

POLITICS

Why Child Labor Is Still Happening in the U.S.

Not just a thing of the past. Unsplash [In fact, it’s Arkansas GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s “vision of the future” now that she has eliminated those pesky “burdensome and obsolete” child labor laws!]
BY MARY HARRISMARCH 09, 20233:40 PMCongresswoman Hillary Scholten remembers exactly where she was when she realized her new job on Capitol Hill was about to get a lot more complicated. “My heart just sank,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what I was reading.”Scholten was reading the New York Times, a big investigation into immigrant child labor. The very first anecdote in this 5,000-word opus is about a 15-year-old girl bagging cereal on the graveyard shift in the Hearthside Food Solutions plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Scholten is a third-generation Michigander. She’s from Grand Rapids. And it wasn’t just that companies in Scholten’s hometown were employing kids. It was that many of these kids seemed to be living without their parents. And a lot of them were falling asleep in school because they had full-time jobs. The machines they were working on? They had been known to slice off workers’ fingers.Congresswoman Hillary Scholten remembers exactly where she was when she realized her new job on Capitol Hill was about to get a lot more complicated. “My heart just sank,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what I was reading.”Scholten was reading the New York Times, a big investigation into immigrant child labor. The very first anecdote in this 5,000-word opus is about a 15-year-old girl bagging cereal on the graveyard shift in the Hearthside Food Solutions plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Scholten is a third-generation Michigander. She’s from Grand Rapids. And it wasn’t just that companies in Scholten’s hometown were employing kids. It was that many of these kids seemed to be living without their parents. And a lot of them were falling asleep in school because they had full-time jobs. The machines they were working on? They had been known to slice off workers’ fingers.

“Especially as an attorney who has worked on these issues her entire career, it felt like a personal attack,” Scholten said.

On Wednesday’s episode of the show, I spoke with the former immigration attorney–turned–congresswoman about the broader powers she has now that’s she in D.C. and whether she will be able to use them. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Mary Harris: Rep. Hillary Scholten says the nuances of immigration have always been important to her. Before she was an attorney, she worked as a migrant advocate. But once she got her law degree, she took that experience one step forward, joining the DOJ.

Hillary Scholten: I was working at the Justice Department on immigration issues largely related to enforcement, figuring out how to make our laws more just, more fair, more humane.

You were working on immigration appeals, right?

Yeah, exactly. But the Board of Immigration Appeals also has jurisdiction over dealing with regulations. It’s the highest administrative agency dealing with immigration issues—not only one-off cases, but we set national precedent for things like asylum, dealing with children who are detained in the United States. It’s a very powerful agency. Not a lot of people realize how much influence it has. And so that’s significant because when Trump was elected, we saw such a marked change in the direction of the work, where the focus of the policies seemed to be cruelty for the point of cruelty. And I couldn’t continue to work there and uphold my oath to protect and defend the Constitution, let alone maintain my own moral compass. And so I took a stand and I left.

Scholten soon got a new job at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. But almost as soon as she arrived, her work—and the work of many other immigration attorneys across the country—was thrown into chaos. Things got especially bad as it became clear the Department of Homeland Security was separating migrant children from their parents at the border, leaving lawyers and advocates to figure out what to do next. That’s when Hillary Scholten started seriously considering a run for Congress.

At the height of the family separation crisis, our agency was responsible for helping reunite and represent so many children. Imagine a legal services waiting room that turned into a virtual day care center overnight with kids who didn’t know where their parents were. And there were a lot of reasons I raised my hand to run, but no doubt I can pinpoint the moment when I was like, “Oh, hell no, I got to do more.” It’s the height of the summer. My dear husband came to visit me at work. It was going to be a late night, and he brought me an iced coffee. And we were chatting, and we walked through our waiting room. He’s normally a pretty stoic guy, and he fell silent. And I turned and looked at him, and his eyes had just filled with tears. And I realized that we had walked past a set of three siblings, all dressed in their Sunday best, between the ages of 5 and 7. That’s how old our children were at the time. And he just said, “Hill, you see this stuff on the news. It is an entirely different level to look these children in the eye.”

One of our youngest clients was separated from his parents at 4 months old. You’re not just walking away from a parent. You’re being taken from their arms.

Five years later, this investigation by the New York Times has Scholten thinking about different ways to help migrant children. Just this past weekend, she returned to her district to connect with constituents and think about how she can intervene, now that her community’s child labor problem is no longer a secret. She can already see the way the news has rippled outward.

One of the saddest things about the fallout of all of this is that there has continued to be some real discontent within the immigrant communities here, where shining a light on the exploitation of children has also shined a light on the fact that there have been so many other individuals working without authorization in these factories. And as companies have started to look into who’s actually working here, their labor pool has vanished. Hearthside, after the Times ran the investigation, said they were going to be doing inspections on the manufacturing floor, and 75 percent of their workforce didn’t show up the next day.

. . . .

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

Read/listen to the full interview at the above links.

As Hillary says, the BIA is “a really powerful agency.” That’s exactly why the Trump Administration “packed” it with unqualified restrictionist “Appellate Judges” known for their anti-asylum bias and astronomical asylum denial rates!

That’s also why Biden, Harris, and Garland’s near-complete failure to “clean up the BIA” and the rest of the failed EOIR “judiciary” and bring in the “best legal minds in the business” to establish a model progressive expert judiciary is such a scandal and indicator of the repeated failure of Dem Administrations to take advantage of the transformational opportunities given them.

By contrast, whether we like it or not, the far right extremist GOP knows exactly how important the Immigration Courts are and accordingly acts decisively to weaponize, pack, “dumb down,” and co-opt them in their nativist battle to dehumanize and demonize migrants. This was a key “first step” in the GOP’s attack on all of the “others” in America! Transgender youth, African Americans, women, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and others being targeted by the GOP’s nationwide assault on their rights, humanity, and the truth about our history might look to the Biden Administration’s fecklessness in dealing with immigrants’ rights and human rights to understand how they are being “left out on a limb” by a Dem Administration — more interested in its re-election than in serving those who helped put them in office.

Hillary had the guts and moral courage to take a stand. Yet, Biden, Harris, Garland, Mayorkas and others in this Administration, not so much! Frankly, that’s appalling! 🤮

“It is an entirely different level to look these children in the eye.” This encapsulates the problems of immigration, human rights, child abuse, and racial injustice! Unlike Hillary, very few legislators, Federal Judges, Biden politicos, or GOP nativist Governors and AGs have ever had to get their “hands dirty” by “looking . . . in the eyes” of children and others whom they abuse, dehumanize, and bully on a regular basis!

Sarah Huckabee Sanders — Attribution: ROLLING BACK CHILD LABOR PROTECTIONS by Randall Enos, Easton, CT
Republished under license.

Contrast Hillary’s “hands on” experience and search for bipartisan practical solutions with the predictable stupidity and abuse by GOP Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a living incarnation of the “Peter Principle,” who recently and gleefully signed into law an insane provision reducing child labor protections in Arkansas while incredibly claiming that protecting children was “burdensome and obsolete!”

The law eliminates requirements for the state to verify the age of children younger than 16 before they can take a job.

Sanders believes the provision was “burdensome and obsolete,” spokeswoman Alexa Henning said in an emailed statement.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiDuP7XrtT9AhWMKFkFHZWmAx4QFnoECAsQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fpolitics%2F2023%2F03%2F08%2Fhuckabee-sanders-arkansas-child-labor%2F&usg=AOvVaw2hQBQWdV4EtGhbPKLyr8kn

Oliver Twist Workhouse — Ark. Gov. Huckabee Sanders’s MAGA “child welfare plan” has its Anglo-Saxon roots firmly planted in the famous British workhouses that many GOP politicos admire!
Public Realm

As part of their “willful blindness” to the deterioration of American democracy, the so-called “mainstream media” often likes to falsely portray GOP Governors as presenting a “saner” alternative to America’s leading liar/insurrectionist “The Donald.” But, as Sanders, DeSantis, Abbott, Youngkin, and others remind us on a regular basis, there are some REALLY BAD GOP Governors out there who are every bit as much a threat to America’s future as Trump!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

03-11-23

☠️🤮 “ANTI-WOKE” IS A COWARDLY SLOGAN FOR JIM CROW, WHITE SUPREMACIST, RACISM — So, Why Is The So-Called “Mainstream Media” Giving 21st Century GOP “Dixiecrats” Like Ron DeSantis & Greg Abbott A “Free Pass?”

Allison Wiltz writes in Medium:

https://link.medium.com/eUKQHqxW1xb

The anti-woke crusade is rooted in fear and ignorance, a mnemonic placeholder for the bigoted things most people wouldn’t dare say aloud. Black Americans have been using the term “woke” since the 1940s to describe a state of awareness toward racist policies and worldviews that negatively impact the Black community. However, many White people now use the term as a derogative slur, a cowardly way of spilling the beans while denying any beans were spilled.

. . . .

Saying you are anti-woke is a way of admitting you are anti-Black without feeling the backlash many outspoken racists receive. Likewise, anti-woke crusaders are promoting anti-democratic policies by controlling what topics schools and businesses can read and discuss without getting labeled a fascist for circumventing the First Amendment of the Constitution. America was founded by White men interested in securing their rights while denying that same access to Black people, women, and racial and ethnic minority groups. We don’t have to worship the founding fathers blindly, nor should any American. It seems many conservatives are afraid of saying the quiet part out loud, of admitting that their crusade on “woke” is really an attempt to diminish the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement, of framing progress as regressive. Americans should challenge more conservatives to define “woke” on their own terms because the more descriptions they provide, the more we can see through the smoke and mirrors.

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

Those with Medium access can read the complete article at the link.

Here’s one of my favorite comments on this article, from Walter Rhein: “When people say they are ‘anti-woke,’ I interrupt them and say ‘You mean ‘anti-black.’ They become enraged and act like they’re the victims (like racists always do).”

Cowardly insurrectionist racist oppressors and chronic liars bogusly claiming they are “victims,” perhaps of “the biggest witch hunt on history?” Sound familiar?

The far right’s war of hate directed against the “other” started with the White Nationalist war on immigrants. It’s called “Dred Scottification” of the other. Yet, the mainstream media downplays the real message and “normalizes” these vile attacks on our democracy. They “whitewash” the dangerous message of hate being promoted by DeSantis, Abbott, and their ilk.

Ron DeSantis Dave Grandlund PoliticalCartoons.com Republished under license Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are “campaigning” on an agenda of racism, hate, and White Supremacist grievance not seen since the late Gov. George Wallace. Yet, mainstream media has largely “normalized” that which would have been unacceptable and unthinkable only a few years ago! — Ron DeSantis
Dave Grandlund
PoliticalCartoons.com
Republished under license
Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are “campaigning” on an agenda of racism, hate, and White Supremacist grievance not seen since the late Gov. George Wallace. Yet, mainstream media has largely “normalized” that which would have been unacceptable and unthinkable only a few years ago!

Even the Biden Administration fails to “connect the dots” between the White Nationalist restrictionist war on asylum seekers of color they have adopted from Trump and Miller and the extremist right’s attack on Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, LGBTQ, women, teachers, Jews, Muslims, health care professionals, journalists, and everyone else “White Supremacist nation” perceives as a threat to their kakistocracy. In that way, this Dem Administration becomes part of problem, not the solution.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

03-09-23

🤮INSURRECTIONIST MANIAC REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH) STAGES GROTESQUE BORDER FARCE AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE! — Surprise: Nobody Showed! — “JJ” Praises Biden’s Scheme To “Kill Asylum While (Falsely) Claiming To Protect It!”☠️

Clown Parade — Led by a notorious insurrectionist, GOP cortège, in full regalia, heads into border battle against I-589-carrying “invaders” determined to exercise their rights under U.S. and international law. “Desperate people of color trying to do things the right way and threatening to invoke legal rights are the single greatest threat today to White Nationalist America,” said one cortège member! “Those seeking to use our laws as they were intended to gain the protection we promised, and then scheming to work hard, pay taxes, provide services, innovate, raise their families, enrich our culture, and contribute to the common good are an existential threat to American exceptionalism,” said one of the beclowned troupe! PHOTO: Public Domain

https://flip.it/tQBUIE

Joan McCarter in The National Memo:

House Republicans, led by loudest maniac Jim Jordan, had high hopes of stealing some of President Joe Biden’s thunder after his historic surprise trip to Kyiv, Ukraine. “Oh, yeah,” you could hear them squeaking. “We’ll show him.” So in the best tradition of nativist, isolationist know-nothingism, they headed for the southern border to put on a show of hunting for the crisis of the hordes invading “our” country. What they got was … not that.

“As they rumbled along the entry port of San Luis, a dam along the Colorado River and more desolate sections of the U.S. border between Arizona and Mexico, though, their search came up empty,” a reporter on the scene described. “Hours later, immigration officials would spot a group crossing north, but it was long after Congress members had retired for the night.”

This was part of what they’re calling a “field hearing” by the House Judiciary Committee, explaining Jordan’s, ahem, leadership. (Seriously, they need to rethink having this guy as their mascot. Does anyone, could anyone, find this guy compelling?) The “convoy” included “more than a dozen congressional Republicans, a large contingent of staffers and a handful of reporters.” Having turned the trip into some kind of sick safari, the group thwarted their own goal.

“Jordan’s group was told that around 4,000 immigrants cross the U.S. border near Yuma each day, but its conspicuous presence thwarted the expedition’s goal of spotting immigrants attempting an unobtrusive entry.” You don’t say. They did spot a bus parked across the border, however. No one came out of it to make a run for the border.

No Democrats participated in what ranking committee Democrat Jerry Nadler called a “stunt hearing,” though he did say that some Democrats from the committee would go to the border next month to to “hear from the community and government officials on the ground.”

The big convoy also help put the lie to the GOP’s government spending obsession. This is the third trip to the border by some contingent of GOP House members in the new Congress, with Barely Speaker Kevin McCarthy having already gone to try to score points, as well as members of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

The Homeland Security Committee has what they’re calling a “border bootcamp” for Republican freshmen members, and the Oversight Committee has plans to go in the near future, too. That’s one way to stop illegal crossings: Just keep sending down convoys of GOP representatives to play border patrol.

All that’s pretty expensive. The GOP Judiciary Committee alone has requested $262,400 for travel this session. In 2022, with Democrats in charge of the committee, they spent $7,986.

When it comes to actual border policy rather than publicity and preening, they’ve got nothing. Or rather they’ve got an interparty fight, as Gabe Ortiz reported. Their first go at an immigration bill “was so extreme it derailed itself, after so-called moderates refused to sign on.”

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

If the GOP were really serious about cutting wasteful spending, they could “ground” Jordan and his traveling White Nationalist circus!

Notably, however, JJ is one of the few politicos in either party to endorse (somewhat tepidly) Biden’s totally ill-advised proposal to “deter” refugees from fleeing their countries (actually, that’s what refugees “do”) and invoking their right to seek asylum. See https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/jim-jordan-rare-praise-biden-adminstration-border.

Why would a Dem President curry favor for his border policies from an anti-democracy, White Nationalist, election-denying blowhard, eschewing the rule of law, human decency, and the expert advice of many who voted for him in the process? Got me on that one!

“The White House must be really proud of getting endorsements from guys like Jordan and Chad Wolf (a/k/a “Wolfman”),” one human rights wag reportedly quipped!

Democrats! Has there ever been a more frustrating party when it comes to human rights, backbone, and carrying out promises, not to mention using the brainpower and resources available to solve problems, rather than lamely “gimmicking” them? Honestly!🤯

In a (perhaps unexpectedly) shrewd move, House Judiciary Dems took a pass on this GOP clown show. It would be a good idea, however, for Dems to go to the border, without the Ringling Bros, Barnum & Bailey act, observe the human carnage caused by the wrong-headed (not to mention illegal) approach of the last two Administrations, and interact with some of those humans affected, including asylum seekers, local officials, residents, dedicated advocates, and NGO personnel. The latter two have been about the ONLY ones trying to uphold the rule of law and to inject some common sense and much needed humanity into this unnecessarily chaotic situation caused by our Government’s abandoning our legal and moral obligations toward those fleeing persecution — over two Administrations.

Border experts have lots of great ideas to address the border in a humane, lawful, practical way, consistent with our humanitarian obligations. See, e.g.,https://immigrationcourtside.com/2023/02/22/🏴☠️☠️🤮-the-end-of-asylum-ignoring-the-advice-of-asylum-experts-and-progressive-dems-biden-administrati/. The Biden Administration appears to have little interest in doing things the right way. But, House Dems should listen to the experts and act accordingly!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

03-03-23

🇺🇸⚖️🗽 GROUPS LEADING RESISTANCE 🛡⚔️ TO BIDEN’S “MILLER LITE” ASSAULT ON ASYLUM SEEK COMMENTS OPPOSING LATEST ASYLUM-BASHING, SCOFFLAW PROPOSALS!

Here’s the link to the “comment website:”

https://immigrationjustice.quorum.us/campaign/44910/

“I’m gone, but my ‘evil spirit’ lives on in the West Wing! They have even ‘one-upped’’ me with a ‘family separation app’ called CBP One! Never has inflicting gratuitous cruelty been so easy!” Attribution: Stephen Miller Monster by Peter Kuper, PoliticalCartoons.com

The Biden proposal has picked up somewhat tepid endorsements from the likes of Trumpsters DHS official Chad Wolf and leading GOP insurrectionist Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). Tells you all you really need to know about just how cruel and counterproductive these harebrained proposals are!

These are the folks that the Biden administration is pandering to while ignoring and disrespecting experts and asylum advocates who have centuries of collective experience working on asylum and the border. They also have plenty of good ideas for real asylum/human rights/border reforms that will combat cruelty and promote orderly compliance with the rule of law. The Biden Administration just isn’t interested in, or perhaps capable of, “doing the right thing.”

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

Here’s the text of my “custom revision” of the standard comment posted on the website:

I am a retired US DOJ attorney with more than 35 years of government experience, all of it in the immigration field, mostly in senior positions. I have been involved in immigration and human rights, in the public and private sectors, for five decades

My last 21 years were spent as an EOIR Judge: eight years as an Appellate Immigration Judge on the BIA (six of those years as BIA Chair), and 13 years as an Immigration Judge at the (now legacy) Arlington Immigration Court. I was involved in the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980 as well as developing implementing regulations and setting precedents thereunder.

I state unequivocally that these unnecessary proposed regulatory changes are a disavowal of more than four decades of U.S. (and international) asylum law as well as a shocking betrayal of the promise by the Biden Administration to stand up for the rights of legal asylum seekers and end the White Nationalist attempt by the Trump Administration to kill asylum without legislation.

The proposed rule is contrary to well-established United States law regarding the right to seek asylum in our country. There is absolutely no basis in law for the proposed “presumption of denial” for those who seek asylum outside a port of entry or who have transited other countries (as most have) without seeking asylum.

Indeed, the Administration’s approach is in direct contravention of the INA, which establishes rigorous criteria for designating “safe third countries” for asylum seekers. Only Canada has met those rigorous criteria to date, and even then only for a very limited class of applicants.

The idea that Mexico or other countries in Central America that asylum seekers customarily transit on the way to our southern border are “safe havens” for asylum seekers is patently absurd and counterfactual! Indeed, all legitimate experts would say that these are some of the most dangerous countries in the world — none with a fairly functioning asylum system.

Individuals are specifically entitled by the Refugee Act of 1980, as amended, to access our asylum system regardless of how they enter, as has been the law for decades. They should not be forced to seek asylum in transit to the United States, especially not in countries where they may also face harm. The ending of Title 42—itself an illegal policy—should not be used as an excuse to resurrect Trump-era categorical bans on groups of asylum seekers.

As you must be aware, those policies were designed by xenophobic, White Nationalist, restrictionists in the last Administration motivated by a desire to exclude and discriminate against particular ethnic and racial groups. That the Biden Administration would retain and even enhance some of them, while disingenuously claiming to be “saving asylum,” is beyond astounding.

The rule will also cause confusion at ports of entry and cause chaos and exacerbate backlogs in our immigration courts. Even worse, it will aggravate the already unacceptable situation by making it virtually impossible for most asylum seekers to consult with pro bono counsel before their cases are summarily rejected under these flawed regulations.

People who cannot access the CBP One app are at serious risk of being turned away by CBP, even if the rule says otherwise. Additionally, every observer has noted that the number of “available appointments” is woefully inadequate. In many cases, observers have noted that this leads to “automated family separation.” Rather than fixing these problems, these proposed regulations will make things infinitely worse.

Additionally, as was demonstrated by the previous Trump Transit Ban, the rule is likely to create confusion and additional backlogs at the immigration courts as individual judges attempt to apply a complicated, convoluted rule.

Under the law, the U.S. Government has a very straightforward obligation: To provide asylum seekers at the border and elsewhere, regardless of nationality, status, or manner of coming to the U.S., with a fair, timely, opportunity to apply for asylum and other legal protections before an impartial, expert, adjudicator.

The current system clearly does not do that. Indeed, EOIR suffers from an “anti-asylum,” often misogynist “culture,” lacks precedents recognizing recurring asylum situations at the border (particularly those relating to gender-based persecution), and tolerates judges at both levels who lack asylum expertise, are not committed to due process and fundamental fairness for all, and, far from being experts, often make mistakes in applying basic legal standards and properly evaluating evidence of record, as noted in a constant flow of “reversals and rebukes” from Circuit Courts.

We don’t need more mindless “deterrence” gimmicks. Rather, it’s past time for the Administration to reestablish a functioning asylum system.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever! The treachery of an Administration that abandons humane values, and fears bold humanitarian actions, never!

PWS

02-26-23

🗽DON’T “NORMALIZE” INHUMANITY & SCOFFLAW TREATMENT OF ASYLUM SEEKERS AT OUR BORDERS! — Heidi Altman, Policy Director, NIJC, Reflects On Administration’s “Miller Lite” Proposal To Deter Legal Asylum Seekers From Seeking Protection, Episode 34 Of The “Lawful Assembly Podcast,” With Rev. Craig Mousin of DePaul University!

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

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1744949/12312323Lawful Assembly Podcast

Episode 34: Support Humanitarian Asylum Welcome

FEBRUARY 23, 2023 CRAIG B. MOUSIN SEASON 1 EPISODE 34

Lawful Assembly Podcast

Episode 34: Support Humanitarian Asylum Welcome

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24:29

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LAWFUL ASSEMBLY PODCAST

Episode 34: Support Humanitarian Asylum Welcome

FEB 23, 2023 SEASON 1 EPISODE 34

Craig B. Mousin

In this interview, Rev. Craig B. Mousin, an Adjunct Faculty member of DePaul University’s College of Law, Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Program, and the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy interviews Heidi Altman, the Policy Director of the National Immigrant Justice Center (www.immigrantjustice.org). Ms. Altman discusses a proposed rule that will effectively preclude most asylum-seekers from safely and effectively applying for asylum in the United States. She advocates for humanitarian asylum welcome. She previously served as the legal director for the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and was a Teaching Fellow in the immigration clinic at Georgetown University Law School.

ACTION STEPS

1. Invite friends and family to learn how the proposed rule will undermine refugee protection and encourage them to respond to their elected representatives and the Biden administration urging withdrawal of the proposed rule.

2. The Sanctuary Working Group of the Chicago Religious Leadership Network currently serves and advocates alongside newly arrived asylum seekers in the Chicagoland area. There are many impactful ways you can help asylum seekers, from providing sponsorship and temporary housing to covering legal fees and advocating for policy change. Interested individuals, faith communities, or organizations may contact CRLN staff/consultant David Fraccaro at davidfraccaro99@gmail.com to talk about ways to partner together in supporting and protecting our newest neighbors.

RESOURCES

“Solutions for a Humane Border Policy,” National Immigrant Justice Center, January 17, 2023: https://immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/solutions-humane-border-policy

“Proposed Ban on Asylum Violates US Law and Catholic Social Teaching,” Catholic Legal Immigration Network, February 22, 2023: https://www.cliniclegal.org/press-releases/proposed-ban-asylum-violates-us-law-and-catholic-social-teaching

“Biden Asylum Ban Will Endanger Refugees, Center for Gender and Refugee Rights, February 21, 2023: https://cgrs.uchastings.edu/news/biden-asylum-ban-will-endanger-refugees

The proposed rule is scheduled for publication on February 23, 2023: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2023-03718.pdf

Craig Mousin volunteers with the National Immigrant Justice Center. We welcome your inquiries or suggestions for future podcasts. If you would like to ask more questions about our podcasts or comment, email us at: mission.depaul@gmail.com

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

Thanks, Craig and Heidi for a very interesting and informative session!

Taylor Swift — T. Swift. Loss of chance to attend her latest concert due to Ticketmaster SNAFU caused immediate bipartisan Congressional outrage and hearings! Loss of chance to plead for life because of DHS CBP One App SNAFU, not so much! Dehumanization of our fellow humans degrades our society.
LOS ANGELES – Swift at 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 14, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Glenn Francis/Pacific Pro Digital Photography) Creative Commons License.

Here are “my takeaways:”

Asylum seekers have a legal right, established by the Refugee Act of 1980 and international conventions, to seek asylum at our border or in the U.S., regardless of status and/or nationality;
The Trump and Biden Administrations have abrogated this right without legislation;
The Trump Administration’s anti-asylum actions and intentional dehumanization of asylum seekers was rooted in White Nationalist nativism;
Despite recognition during the 2020 campaign of the invidious motivation for Trump’s anti-asylum policies, the Biden Administration has retained, or even enhanced, the dehumanization and denial of rights to asylum seekers at the border;
Over the past two Administrations, acceptance of the basic rights and obligations of the U.S. toward asylum seekers, incorporated in the Refugee Act of 1980, has been eliminated or reduced to a superficial “shell” (“asylum in name only,” as some advocates have termed Biden’s latest proposed anti-asylum border policies);
By abandoning the framework set forth in the Refugee Act of 1980, the Trump and Biden Administrations have re-injected the ad hoc approach, disorder, nationality bias, and ideological preferences at the border that the Refugee Act of 1980 was specifically enacted to eliminate;
There is much under-appreciated support for welcoming, fairly treating, and helping refugees and asylum seekers among Americans in communities throughout our nation;
NGOs and experts have dozens of great ideas for restoring and improving the legal right to seek asylum in fair, humane, non-discriminatory ways which they have shared or are happy to share with the Biden Administration;
The Biden Administration to date has shown little if any interest in adopting and implementing better humanitarian solutions for asylum seekers at the border;
Both parties lack leaders with the integrity and courage to stand up for the legal and human rights of asylum seekers;
We must continue to discuss ways to break the cycle of dehumanization, cruelty, and scofflaw treatment of asylum seekers and replace it with enhanced humanitarian procedures and a welcoming culture, in accordance with the Refugee Act of 1980, the U.N. Convention and Protocol, and the very best traditions of our nation of immigrants.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-24-23

😎 IT’S “ANDY B” TIME AGAIN! — FRESH “ALL TOO TRUE SATIRE” FROM ONE OF AMERICA’S BEST: “Fox News Announces Acquisition of Kevin McCarthy”

Andy Borowitz in the New Yorker:

Fox News Announces Acquisition of Kevin McCarthy

Andy Borowitz
Political Satirist
The New Yorker

By Andy Borowitz

February 23, 2023

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NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—Fox News Channel announced that it has completed its acquisition of the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.

Rupert Murdoch, the network’s majority owner, said that he was “delighted” by the purchase of McCarthy and noted that Fox had snapped him up at an attractively low price.

“It helped that there were no other bidders,” he said.

But, even as Fox moved McCarthy onto its corporate ledger, some Wall Street analysts predicted that the network would rue the day that it acquired the congressman.

“Kevin McCarthy will be Rupert Murdoch’s worst investment since MySpace,” one analyst said.

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/fox-news-announces-acquisition-of-kevin-mccarthy?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Borowitz_02232023&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd67c363f92a41245df49eb&cndid=48297443&hasha=8a1f473740b253d8fa4c23b066722737&hashb=26cd42536544e247751ec74095d9cedc67e77edb&hashc=eb7798068820f2944081a20180a0d3a94e025b4a93ea9ae77c7bbe00367c46ef&esrc=right_rail_borowitz&utm_term=TNY_Borowitz

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When you’re talking today’s wacky, insurrectionist, existentially dangerous GOP, the line between truth and satire is sometimes difficult to locate!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-23-23

⚖️🗽🧑🏻‍⚖️👩‍💼 MODELING EOIR’S POTENTIAL IN DENVER! — Judge Brea C. Burgie & Attorney Alexandra Katsiaficas Show How Good Judging & Effective Advocacy Can Combine For A Gender-Based Asylum Grant To Female Refugee From El Salvador!

Violence Against Women — “The DOJ issues a hollow statement condemning FGM. But, when it comes to building on a 27-yr-old precedent to help gender-based refugees, they have been largely indifferent to suffering and the dire need for protection.”
PHOTO: Creative Commons 4.0

Dan Kowalski from LexisNexis Immigration Community sent in this recent asylum victory from the Denver Immigration Court:

IJ Burgie 1-24-23

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

Hats off to Judge Burgie and Attorney Alexandra Katsiaficas for showing how effective advocacy and good judging can save lives and “move” cases at the “retail level” of EOIR.

This decision is comprehensive, straightforward, understandable, and logical. This is exactly the type of precedent that the BIA should be (but isn’t) issuing and enforcing on a consistent, nationwide basis! Why isn’t EOIR getting the job done under Garland?

While Judge Burgie didn’t cite Matter of A-R-C-G- on asylum based on domestic violence, she did cite a number of my “favorite precedents” from the long-gone but not totally forgotten “Schmidt-Board:” Matter of Kasinga, Matter of O-Z- & I-Z-, Matter of D-V-, and Matter of S-P-, as well as the BIA’s oft-cited but seldom followed “seminal” asylum case Matter of Acosta, which was the starting point for Kasinga and other favorable asylum precedents of the past.

Judge Burgie also cited and followed favorable 10th Circuit precedent. She got the “unwilling or unable to protect,” “internal relocation,” and “nexus” issues correct. She used the regulatory presumption based on past persecution effectively. Significantly, she also included a correct additional analysis of why this case, and others like it, should be granted based on “egregious past persecution” (“Chen grant”) even in the absence of a current well-founded-fear. Most of these cases should be “easy grants” preferably at the Asylum Office, but if not, at EOIR.

Instead, some IJs and many BIA panels “invent” reasons to deny that mock asylum law and distort the reality of conditions for women in the Northern Traingle and elsewhere!

I recently commented elsewhere on the irony of Garland’s DOJ issuing a “pro forma declaration” endorsing “Zero Tolerance for FGM Day,” while doing such a poor overall job of actually protecting those who have suffered that and other forms of gender based persecution. Action over hollow rhetoric, please!

Seems to me EOIR didn’t do a very good job of “building on the saving potential” of Matter of Kasinga, 21 I&N Dec. 357 (BIA 1996), my “landmark” opinion finding that FGM could be a basis for granting asylum. Indeed, after the “Ashcroft purge” removed those of us BIA judges committed to protecting refugees suffering from gender based persecution, the BIA intentionally misconstrued Kasinga and shamefully tried to limit it.

So transparently horrible was this effort that one of Ashcroft’s Bush II successors, AG Mukasey, hardly a voice for progressive jurisprudence and women’s human rights, finally had to intervene to put a stop to the BIA’s deadly nonsense. See Matter of A-T-, 24 I&N Dec. 617 (A.G. 2008). This was only after after blistering criticism of the “post-purge” BIA’s disingenuous approach by some of Judge Mukasey’s “former Article III superiors” on the Second Circuit. See Bah v. Mukasey, 529 F.3d 99, 124 (2d Cir. 2008) (“The BIA refers, in passing, to the act of female genital mutilation as “reprehensible,” . . . but its entirely dismissive treatment of such claims in these cases belies any sentiment to that effect.” Straub, Circuit Judge concurring).

Judge Staub’s criticism of the BIA’s shallow and disingenuous treatment of too many asylum claims, particularly those based on gender persecution, remains just as true today under Garland as it was then. “Throwaway lines” — basically “boilerplate” —disingenuously expressing sympathy, but then misconstruing facts and law to deny life-saving protection, are no substitute for competent, fair judging at EOIR!

More than a quarter-century after Kasinga, I still don’t see much commitment at DOJ/EOIR to consistently protecting women from gender-based persecution. That being said, some IJs, particularly (but not only) those with expertise gained by representing asylum seekers, like Judge Burgie, are doing a good job of applying Cardoza, Kasinga, A-R-C-G-, D-V-, O-Z-&I-Z-, the regulatory presumption, expert testimony, and an honest reading of country conditions to grant desperately-needed protection in gender-based cases. The BIA, not so much.

Also, while issuing this statement, DOJ is “sitting on” gender based regulations, promised by President Biden on “day 1” to be delivered by the Fall of 2021! Reportedly, there is considerable “Miller Lite” restrictionist opposition within the Administration to treating protection claims for gender-based refugees fairly, generously, and consistently. See, e.g., https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-biden-asylum-limits-us-mexico-border-arrivals/.

Kind of makes me wonder what, if anything, Dems REALLY stand for when the chips are down, human lives are at stake, and courageous, informed, bold leadership is required! GOP White Nationalist nativist bullies are only too happy to express their disdain for the rights and contempt for the humanity of all vulnerable refugees. They specifically target women.

But, when it comes to standing up for the legal and human rights of asylum seekers, most of them already written into our laws, Dems often “hide underneath the table.” That’s particularly true of this Administration’s incredibly poor and spineless approach to asylum at the Southern Border and their failure to address the asylum disaster at EOIR.

And, it’s not that Biden’s morally and legally vapid approach to asylum seekers has won any support from the right, progressives, or independents. Almost everyone is suing or threatening to sue the Administration about some aspect of their hapless, mushy, often self-contradictory handling of asylum. It’s a traditional, perhaps endemic, problem that once elected, Dems have a hard time distinguishing friends from foes. At least on immigration, they spend far too much time catering to the views and bogus criticisms of the latter while ignoring the informed views and experiences of the former.

Judge Burgie is a Barr appointee, but has a diverse background that includes not only service as an EOIR JLC and fraud and abuse prevention counsel, but also time representing and advocating for refugees and asylum seekers. Her asylum grant rate has gone up steadily over three years on the bench and currently stands at approximately 75%, well within the range I’d expect from a competent, expert IJ handling a non-detained docket.

That’s about 2X the national average grant rate of 37.5%. And, the latter is “up” from its artificially suppressed rate under Trump! Better EOIR judges at the “grass roots level” can make a difference and save lives even in the absence of leadership from Falls Church and “Main Justice!”

As this case confirms, there is “substantial judicial potential” on the the EOIR bench, most of it at the trial level. That’s particularly true of some of Garland’s most recent appointments who are widely-recognized and universally-respected asylum experts — “practical scholars” if you will.

But, EOIR still has not reached the “critical mass” of outstanding jurists necessary to “turn this broken system around” in the absence of leadership, positive examples, and operational reforms “from the top!”

That’s why I advocate for “change from below as the way to go” to save some lives and institutionalize fair judging and best practices at EOIR. So, NDPA heroes, keep those applications flowing for upcoming vacancies on the Immigration Bench, at all levels. I want YOU to bring justice to the broken “retail level” of our legal system! See, https://immigrationcourtside.com/2023/01/12/-i-want-you-to-be-a-u-s-immigration-judge/.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-06-23

The 5th Circuit didn’t mince any words in its latest (inexplicably) unpublished, 24-page takedown of EOIR’s ridiculous “judicial” failure with lives at stake!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

From Think Immgration:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

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From Politico:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

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Melissa Del Bosque in The Border Chronicle:

The Right to Seek Asylum in El Paso: A Q&A with Marisa Limón Garza, Executive Director of Las Americas

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Robert Reich writes on Substack:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

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Clarence Thomas Gifts

Cartoonist: Dave Whamond

Republished under license

Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner write on Substack:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

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From HuffPost:

Liberals Take Control Of Wisconsin Supreme Court

Brandon Johnson, Progressive Union Organizer, Elected Mayor Of Chicago

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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Allison Wiltz writes in Medium:

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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Joan McCarter in The National Memo:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Here’s the link to the “comment website:”

Here’s the text of my “custom revision” of the standard comment posted on the website:

🇺🇸Due Process Forever! The treachery of an Administration that abandons humane values, and fears bold humanitarian actions, never!

Related posts:

LISTEN HERE:

Here are “my takeaways:”

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Andy Borowitz in the New Yorker:

Fox News Announces Acquisition of Kevin McCarthy

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Dan Kowalski from LexisNexis Immigration Community sent in this recent asylum victory from the Denver Immigration Court:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts: