HON. JEFFREY CHASE ON HOW THE BIA “BLEW OFF” THE SUPREMES — Matter of BERMUDEZ-COTA, 27 I&N Dec. 441 (BIA 2018) — Is The BIA Risking Docket Disaster To Please Sessions?

https://www.jeffreyschase.com/blog/2018/9/1/the-bia-vs-the-supreme-court

The BIA vs. the Supreme Court?

Although it hasn’t caught the attention of the public or the media, the Supreme Court’s June 21 decision in Pereira v. Sessions has inspired immigration lawyers this summer, giving reason to hope and dream. Unfortunately, the case’s importance gets lost in the details to those not proficient in the field of immigration law. The issue that the Supreme Court agreed to decide was a narrow one: whether a Notice to Appear (i.e. the document that must be served by DHS on the Immigration Court in order to commence removal proceedings) that lacks a time and a date of the initial hearing is sufficient to invoke the “stop-time rule” that would prevent a noncitizen from accruing the 10 years of continuous presence in the U.S. needed to apply for a relief from deportation called cancellation of removal. If you are a layperson, I’m sure I’ve already lost you. But read on, as what preceded doesn’t really matter for purposes of our discussion; the important part is yet to come.

BIA precedent decisions that are subpar in their rationale are often upheld by circuit courts because of something called Chevrondeference. Chevron refers to a 1984 Supreme Court case requiring courts to defer to the interpretation of statutes by federal agencies that are specifically charged with administering the statute in question. The Board of Immigration Appeals is a part of one of the agencies (EOIR) charged with administering immigration laws; therefore, under Chevron, its decisions are owed deference by the circuit courts, even if those courts disagree with the BIA’s decision or would have reached a different outcome themselves. But before such deference is owed, the decision must pass a two-step test. First, the reviewing court must find that the statute the BIA is interpreting is ambiguous. This is important, because if the statute is clear on its face, there is no basis for the agency to have to interpret that which needs no interpretation. Only if the court determines that the statute is in fact ambiguous does it apply the second step of the test, which is whether the agency’s interpretation is reasonable.

I’m pretty certain that I’ve lost even more readers in the preceding paragraph. I thank those of you who are still with me for your patience. In Pereira, the statute involved is section 239(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which states what information the Notice to Appear (i.e. the document needed to commence removal proceedings) must contain. In a 2011 precedent decision, the BIA had interpreted that statute to mean that the time and date of the initial hearing were not critical elements, and that their inclusion was not required to trigger the stop-time rule. Six federal circuits accorded Chevron deference to the BIA’s interpretation. The lone exception was the Third Circuit. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case to resolve this split. In an 8-1 decision (in which even Justice Gorsuch, Trump’s appointee, joined the majority), the Court sided with the Third Circuit. The Court explained that no Chevrondeference was due because the statute was crystal clear, as it said in no uncertain terms that a time and a date are among the information a Notice to Appear must contain.

Finally, here is the really important part. In its decision, the Supreme Court stated that a notice that does not contain a time and date of hearing “is not a notice to appear” under section 239(a). The highest court in the land did not say that it is not a notice to appear only for some narrow purpose; it bears repeating that it said without such information, the document is not a Notice to Appear.

Those of you who are still reading might feel let down about now. You’re saying “That’s it? Where is the big payoff I was promised? I’ll never get those three minutes of my life back that I just wasted reading jibberish about some kind of stopping rule that I still don’t understand.” So here is where I hope I make it worthwhile. All of us immigration lawyers read the above sentence and instantly thought the same thing: if the Supreme Court just said that a notice without a time and date is not a Notice to Appear, than almost every one of our collective clients were never properly put into removal proceedings. The Supreme Court decision mentioned that when asked what percentage of NTAs issued in the past three years lacked a time and a date, the government responded “almost 100 percent.” There are presently close to 750,000 cases pending before immigration courts, and there were hundreds of thousands of cases already decided by those courts over the past 15 or 20 years that also involved NTAs missing the time and date. And the courts are now going to have to find that nearly all of those proceedings were invalid. Old removal orders will have to be reopened and terminated. Almost all pending cases will have to be terminated. Although DHS will at least intend to restart all of those hearings over by now serving each individual with an NTA that does contain a time and date, how long might that take to accomplish? And even if they are placed into proceedings again, those who were previously denied relief get a second chance. Perhaps this time with a different judge, a better lawyer, and more equities in their favor?

So in a year in which the Attorney General has tried to remake immigration laws to his own liking, and continues to assault the independence of the only judges he directly controls; in which children have been unapologetically separated from their parents at the border, in which victims of domestic violence have been told the rapes and violent abuses they have suffered are will get them no protection in the U.S.A., Pereira allowed us to dream of pushing a “restart” button, a “do-over.” Attorneys began filing motions to terminate. The response of immigration judges was mixed, with some agreeing with the argument and terminating proceedings; while others said no, Pereira was only meant to apply to the narrow technical issue of the “stop-time” rule, and not to the broader issue of jurisdiction.

Of course, the BIA needed to weigh in on this issue. I had no doubt that the Board would rule with the latter group and find that proceedings need not be terminated. And of course, on Friday, that’s just what they did. The response from the legal community has been one of outrage. First of all, it normally takes 18 months or longer for the BIA to issue a precedent decision; it can sometimes take them many years. Here, the Board issued its decision in two months. As one commenter pointed out, it reads like a college freshman paper written at midnight. Considering the importance of the issue, the Board truly abandoned its legal responsibility by cranking out such a poorly written decision that fails to address (much less adequately analyze) most of the major issues raised by Pereira.

While I could go on and on with what is wrong with the BIA decision (issued on a Friday afternoon before the Labor Day weekend, the better to sneak under the radar), I’ll just focus here on one point. The decision (written by Board Member Molly Kendall Clark), cites the applicable regulation (8 C.F.R. section 1003.14(a)), which states that “Jurisdiction vests, and proceedings before an Immigration Judge commence, when a charging document is filed with the Immigration Court by the Service.” As background, another section of the regulations defines “charging document” to include a “Notice to Appear.” The documents in question here all purport to be Notices to Appear, and do not meet the definition of any other charging document described in the regulation. Kendall Clark writes that the regulation does not specify what information must be contained in the charging document at the time it is filed with the Immigration Court, “nor does it mandate that the document specify the time and date of the initial hearing before jurisdiction will vest.”

Really? Because the U.S. Supreme Court just said, very clearly, that a notice lacking a time and date of hearing is not a Notice to Appear. How is it OK for the BIA to just ignore a crystal clear holding of the Supreme Court?

The answer is that in the mind of the BIA’s judges, the Supreme Court doesn’t have the ability to fire them, while the Attorney General does. The other truth is that while BIA judges have been removed under Republican administrations for being too liberal, none has ever suffered any consequences under Democratic administrations for being too conservative. Although I’m in the liberal camp, I’m not saying that the BIA is not entitled to reach a conservative conclusion. But it can’t so blatantly disregard the law (in particular, a decision of the Supreme Court) out of self-preservation or political expediency.

The next step will be appeal of the issue to the various circuits. In light of Pereira, there should be no Chevron deference accorded to the Board’s latest decision. However, should another circuit split result, this issue may end up before the Supreme Court again.

Copyright 2018 Jeffrey S. Chase. All rights reserved.

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Here’s a copy of the BIA’s precedent decision in

Matter of BERMUDEZ-COTA, 27 I&N Dec. 441 (BIA 2018):

3935

Want to see a better, more logical approach that would have honored the Supremes’ reasoning in Pereira? Here’s a succinct, well-reasoned opinion from Judge Elizabeth Young of the San Francisco Immigration Court that refutes each ICE argument and shows why the BIA’s approach in Bermudez is likely to be rejected by at least some Circuit Courts.

IJ ORDER – SF IJ terminated under Pereira – very clear reasoning – Nameless

(Thanks to Professor Alberto Benítez of the GW Law Immigration Clinic for sending this along.)

That no BIA Appellate Immigration Judge was willing to argue the much more logical and legally defensible approach presented in Judge Young’s decision illustrates how little real deliberation or debate remains at today’s BIA. Basically, a deliberative tribunal that no longer dares or cares to publicly deliberate in setting precedents and that decides the vast majority of non-precedent cases as “panels of one.”

As Jeffrey points out, the BIA and ICE appear to be on self-created course for a potential “Pereira II.” That, in turn, could result in hundreds of thousands of cases being subject to remand or reopening for termination. On the other hand, if ICE just reserved the NTA now, as suggested at the end of Judge Young’s opinion, the whole problem could largely be avoided. Go figure!

Yet another example of how the backlog is unlikely to diminish as long as the Immigration Courts remain in DOJ, and particularly with Jeff Sessions as the AG.

PWS

09-02-18

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM PROFESSOR ALBERTO BENITEZ @ GW LAW: Two More Northern Triangle Lives Saved By Asylum Grants in Arlington – Giving Lie To the Trump Administration/Restrictionist Claim That Northern Triangle Refugees Are “Economic Migrants” — No, The Vast Majority Are “Legitimate Refugees” Being Screwed Over By Our Government’s Skewed, Dishonest, Immoral, & Often Illegal Policies

Friends,

Please join me in congratulating GW Immigration Clinic alum Shira Zeman, ’12, who won an asylum grant for a Central American Mom and her 5 year-old son earlier this week. Please see the attached picture, which I use with permission. Gang members threatened to kill Mom if she did not allow them to use her son in gang activities. These same gang members murdered one of Mom’s neighbors, a police officer, after he refused to allow a family member to join the gang. Mom testified for over an hour, after which the ICE trial attorney told the Immigration Judge she did not oppose asylum. Shira said: “He’s 5 now, but he had just turned 3 when they tried to ‘recruit’ him so he could be used as a drug mule.”

Intense. This installation is a must-see. Being in the ‘hielera,’ and in the ‘desert’ witnessing nighttime arrests by the Border Patrol, was beyond belief. Visitors were in tears and one fell to her knees. I read this Washington Post article prior to my visit but I was unprepared for the experience.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/alejandro-g-inarritus-virtual-reality-voyage-is-dcs-most-intriguing-experience-right-now/2018/04/11/d2714380-3c04-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html?utm_term=.8f8162e02386

**************************************************
Alberto Manuel Benitez
Professor of Clinical Law
Director, Immigration Clinic
The George Washington University Law School
650 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 994-7463
(202) 994-4946 fax
abenitez@law.gwu.edu
THE WORLD IS YOURS…
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Congratulations to Shira Zeman, Esq., of Zeman & Petterson PLLC, Falls Church, VA. I’m awed by the legal accomplishments and lives saved by Shira and her law partner Rachel Petterson! Hard to believe that she’s only six years out of law school!

We hear it all the time from Trump, Sessions, Nielsen, CIS, FAIR, GOP White Nationalist right wingers, right-wing media, and perhaps most disturbingly sometimes officials at EOIR and Immigration Judges. These aren’t “real refugees,” just folks coming here to work.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Make no mistake about it, these are “real refugees” intentionally being given the shaft by our biased and unfair Government and in far too many cases being denied the life-saving protection to which they are entitled under both U.S. and international law!

In my experience, few individuals, particularly women and children, undertake the long, dangerous, and uncertain journey from the Northern Triangle to our Southern Border unless they are forced migrants. Indeed, I found that many of the individuals coming from the Northern Triangle were doing fine economically and would have vastly preferred to stay in their homes, rather than being relegated to sometimes menial “entry-level” jobs even when they are able to be released in the U.S. Successful students sometimes lose credit in U.S. school systems and must “start over again” in lower grades or special programs.

Indeed, perhaps ironically, their success helped make them very visible, distinct, and attractive targets for both persecution by the gangs and sometimes also for extortion and mistreatment by corrupt police and government officials in the Northern Triangle. Others were perceived by the gangs to be actual or potential political leaders in the “anti-gang movement.” Moreover, as gangs increasingly become involved in the political process in the Northern Triangle, opposition to gangs takes on heavy political implications.

No, this case is not an “aberration or an exception.” There are lots of similar or identical “moms and kids” out there from the Northern Triangle fighting every day for their very lives in a system already rigged against them and which Jeff Sessions has pledged to make even more unfair and more “user unfriendly.”

The things that allowed this “mom and child’ to succeed are:

Representation by a great lawyer like Shira;
Freedom from detention;
Adequate time to prepare and document the case;
A fair, knowledgeable Immigration Judge not biased against or dismissive of Northern Triangle asylum seekers;
An experienced DHS Assistant Chief Counsel committed to a fair application of asylum law and unafraid to recognize when further litigation or appeal would be counterproductive for both the individual and the court system.

An Attorney General truly interested in upholding the rule of law and our Constitution would be working to replicate what happened in this case elsewhere and to look for ways in which refugees like this could be recognized without having to go to a final merits hearing before an Immigration Judge. He or she would also be encouraging others in the Administration to focus on addressing the problems in the Northern Triangle causing this humanitarian migration, instead of focusing solely on fruitless attempts to discourage and deter the vulnerable migrants themselves.

But, that would an Attorney General “OTJS” — “Other Than Jeff Sessions.”

PWS

04-23-18

HATS OFF (ONCE AGAIN) TO THE “GOOD GUYS” — GW Law Clinic Saves More Lives In Gang-Related Case! — This Is What US Asylum Law Could & Should Be!

Friends,

Please join me in congratulating Immigration Clinic student-attorney Dana Florkowski and her client, S-M, from El Salvador. This morning, after a three-hour hearing, immigration judge (IJ) Quynh Vu Bain granted the asylum application of S-M and her eighteen year-young daughter. The ICE trial attorney waived appeal so the grant is final. This was the fourth asylum grant won by the student-attorneys this semester. Fifteen lives have been saved.

S-M and her abuser met and lived together in the USA. After repeated beatings, rapes, and verbal abuse, S-M called the police, which lead to the abuser’s removal to El Salvador. After his return to El Salvador, the abuser and his brother, who have connections with the Mara 18 gang, threatened to kill S-M’s mother and daughter, who remained there, unless S-M rejoined him. Despite her concerns, S-M decided to return to El Salvador because, as she testified, “I would rather put my life at risk than my daughter’s.” S-M’s US citizen son, the son of her abuser, accompanied her to El Salvador. After her return, the beatings, rapes, and verbal abuse continued. S-M decided to flee El Salvador after the abuser threatened to kill her and turn her daughter over to the Mara 18 gang to be raped. Sadly, S-M and her daughter fled so quickly she had to leave behind her son. During this morning’s hearing, the IJ said she was troubled by S-M’s voluntary return to El Salvador. Dana explained that the return was not voluntary, and she cited the psychological evidence of the abuser’s control over S-M. The IJ concluded that S-M’s return to El Salvador was under duress. Now that S-M and her daughter are safe, the student-attorneys will work to reunite her son, now nine, with her.

Congratulations also to Alyssa Currier, Karoline Núñez, and Jonathan Bialosky, who previously worked on this case.

**************************************************
Alberto Manuel Benitez
Professor of Clinical Law
Director, Immigration Clinic
The George Washington University Law School
650 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 994-7463
(202) 994-4946 fax
abenitez@law.gwu.edu
THE WORLD IS YOURS…

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Lots of good things at work here!

Great representation. Scholarly judging from Judge Bain (certainly how I remember her from Arlington). And, kudos to the DHS Assistant Chief Counsel in Arlington for waiving appeal when justice has been done. This is the way I remember the ICE OCC in Arlington — skilled litigators who properly required critical examination of all claims but also had an overall commitment to fairness, justice, and making the system work!

This is actually a “casebook study” of how the asylum system in Immigration Court is supposed to work. It still could work this way in many, perhaps eventually most, cases if Sessions and the politicos at DOJ would just get out of the way and let the Immigration Judges, respondents’ Counsel, and the DHS Assistant Chief Counsel do their jobs!

Thanks again to Professor Benitez and his team at GW and to all the other clinical, pro bono, “low bono,” and other counsel out there striving every day to see that our justice system actually delivers justice.

PWS

03-08-18

ANOTHER WIN FOR THE “GOOD GUYS” (A/K/A NDPA) — GW Law Immigration Clinic Scores U Visa Win!

“Please join me in congratulating Immigration Clinic client C-R, from Venezuela. His U nonimmigrant visa application, filed on April 30, 2014, was granted Wednesday. C-R will be eligible to adjust status to lawful permanent residence in three years. U nonimmigrant visas are available to aliens who within the USA have been victims of criminal activity, and who have been helpful to law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting that crime. C-R was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of his ex-wife. Reports are that there are at least 90,000 U visa applications pending at USCIS.

Jessica Leal, Jonathan Bialosky, Sarena Bhatia, Chen Liang, Mark Webb, and Paulina Vera have worked on this case.

**************************************************
Alberto Manuel Benitez
Professor of Clinical Law
Director, Immigration Clinic
The George Washington University Law School
650 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 994-7463
(202) 994-4946 fax
abenitez@law.gwu.edu
THE WORLD IS YOURS…”
**************************************************

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Congrats to all involved!

I’m proud to say that Paulina Vera and Jessica Leal are “distinguished alums” of the Arlington Immigration Court Internship Program as well as “charter members” of the New Due Process Army (“NDPA”)!

These guys keep proving my point: with time and access to good representation, probably the majority of those who flee from the so-called Northern Triangle are eligible for immigration relief of some type.

Consequently, a rational Attorney General, committed to Due Process, would work to insure that such individuals are released after initial screening and able to go to locations where pro bono counsel are readily available and where cases are scheduled in a manner that they can be completely prepared and presented efficiently. Individuals with counsel reliably appear in Immigration Court as scheduled. He would also encourage the issuance of more favorable precedents leading to more expedited grants of relief and facilitate Immigration Judges working with DHS to have cases taken off the Immigration Court docket and granted by DHS, either at the Asylum Office or elsewhere in USCIS on an expedited basis.

Instead, Sessions treats refugees and asylum seekers as if they were criminals and seeks to use the detention system to prevent individuals from obtaining counsel and achieving due process. His misuse of the Immigration Courts as part of a DHS enforcement regime to discourage individuals from asserting their statutory and Constitutional rights is nothing short of reprehensible!

PWS

02-28-18

ARLINGTON IMMIGRATION COURT: ANOTHER WIN FOR THE GOOD GUYS! – GW CLINIC HELPS EL SALVADORAN WOMAN & CHILDREN GET ASYLUM!

Friends,

Please join me in congratulating Immigration Clinic student-attorney Julia Navarro, and her client, F-R, from El Salvador. This afternoon, Immigration Judge Emmett D. Soper granted F-R’s asylum application. The ICE trial attorney waived appeal so the grant is final. Granted asylum along with F-R were her twelve and nine year-young sons, who live with her, and her husband, who remains in El Salvador.

F-R testified that the Mara 18 gang tried to recruit her then ten-year young son, but that he refused. As a result, he was beaten, resulting in visible injuries. However, he refused to tell F-R who beat him, and why. Finally, after repeated beatings, he told F-R. She confronted the gang members and asked them to leave her son alone. In response, they burned her with lit cigarettes on her chest, stomach, and arms. In addition, they demanded that she pay them $5,000. And they continued to beat her son. F-R went to the police twice, but nothing was done. Finally, after further beatings of her son and renewed demands for the $5,000, F-R and her husband decided that she and her two sons should come to the USA. After she left El Salvador, the gang members poisoned two of her dogs, whom, she testified, she considered part of her family. At the conclusion of her direct examination, Julia asked F-R if she would confront the gang members again, and she said yes, because “my children are my life, and I would give my life for theirs.”

Congratulations also to Sarah DeLong, Dalia Varela, Jengeih Tamba, and Jonathan Bialosky, who previously worked on this case.

**************************************************
Alberto Manuel Benitez
Professor of Clinical Law
Director, Immigration Clinic
The George Washington University Law School
650 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 994-7463
(202) 994-4946 fax
abenitez@law.gwu.edu
THE WORLD IS YOURS…
**************************************************

Congrats to all involved!

Once more proving my point that with great representation, time to prepare, and a fair Immigration Court, many, perhaps the majority, of the so-called “Northern Triangle Gang Cases” are highly grantable!

This definitely calls into question the Administration’s use of unnecessary detention, unwarranted criminal prosecutions, expedited removal, denial of access to counsel, detention courts, and “removal quotas” to “discourage” valid claims for protection. The Administration’s policies are an overt attack on Due Process and the Rule of Law! Harm to the most vulnerable among us is harm to all of us!

Three cheers for the “New Due Process Army!”

PWS

02-23-18

ANOTHER DUE PROCESS ASYLUM VICTORY FOR THE GW IMMIGRATION CLINIC AT THE ARLINGTON IMMIGRATION COURT!

Professor Benitez reports:

“Friends,

Please join me in congratulating Immigration Clinic student-attorney Solangel González, who this afternoon won a grant of asylum for her clients, N-R and her two minor children, from El Salvador. The ICE trial attorney waived appeal so the decision is final. The immigration judge (IJ), Quynh Vu Bain, commenced today’s proceeding in the above manner.

N-R was threatened by the MS gang in her country because of her familial relationship with her uncle, who was murdered by the gang. After her uncle’s body was discovered, N-R called the police. While discussing the murder with a police officer a gang member walked by and saw the discussion. During the discussion, however, the police officer told N-R that it was best if she dropped the matter because, if they found out she filed a complaint, the gang could kill her kids. N-R later was told by a gang associate that she and her kids would be killed if she pursued the complaint. Out of caution, N-R moved with her children to another part of El Salvador, but the gang continued to look for her. Finally, N-R and her children fled to the USA. N-R testified that the gang members continue to look for her.

Congratulations also to Alyssa Currier, Karoline Núñez, Chen Liang, and Jonathan Bialosky, who previously worked on this case.

NOTE: While waiting in the lobby for her case to be called, Solangel escorted a respondent, who didn’t know where to go and who didn’t know who her lawyer was, to her assigned court room, thus avoiding a potential in absentia removal order.

**************************************************
Alberto Manuel Benitez
Professor of Clinical Law
Director, Immigration Clinic
The George Washington University Law School
650 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 994-7463
(202) 994-4946 fax
abenitez@law.gwu.edu
THE WORLD IS YOURS…”

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Congrats to all involved! It also illustrates one of the points that I repeatedly make. With good representation, adequate time to prepare, a good judge who knows asylum law and takes individuals’ rights seriously, and a conscientious Assistant Chief Counsel representing the DHS, many of the Central American asylum claims are very “winnable” under the law. That’s why detaining individuals in poor conditions in locations where competent pro bono counsel is not readily available and cases are being “raced through” to minimize detention expenses and maximize removal statistics is so unfair and such an obvious violation of due process.

Also, this is the Judge Quynh Vu Bain that I remember as a former colleague at the Arlington Immigration Court: fair, scholarly, hard-working, kind, and Due Process oriented. My Georgetown Law student observers remarked on how welcoming she was and how she went out of-her way to make sure that everyone in the courtroom understood what was happening and why.

Despite Sessions’s disdain for individual rights of migrants (particularly vulnerable asylum seekers) and Due Process, and his fanatic emphasis on using the U.S. Immigration Courts as mere tools of DHS enforcement, there are many U.S. immigration Judges out there working conscientiously every day to provide fairness and Due Process to vulnerable migrants while laboring under some of the highest stress levels and worst working conditions faced by any judges in America!

America needs an independent Article I United States Immigration Court dedicated to guaranteeing “fairness and due process for all” now!

DUE PROCESS FOREVER!

PWS

01-19-18

SUCCESS: GW ASYLUM CLINIC SAVES A LIFE AT ARLINGTON IMMIGRATION COURT!

“Friends,

Please join me in congratulating Immigration Clinic student-attorney Gisela Camba, and her clients M-A and K-C, from Honduras. This afternoon, after a three-hour hearing, Immigration Judge Robert P. Owens granted the clients’ asylum application.

K-C, then fourteen years of age, was accosted and threatened three times by a gang member while walking to school. The gang member threatened to kidnap her, if she didn’t go with him voluntarily, and then kill her and her family. After the third threat, her Mom, M-A, fled with her to the USA. K-C, now sixteen, testified that around that time a girl in her neighborhood had been kidnapped by gang members and never heard from again.

Congratulations also to Sameen Ahmadnia, Dalia Varela, Sarah DeLong, Jonathan Bialosky, and Rachael Petterson, who previously worked on this case.

**************************************************
Alberto Manuel Benitez
Professor of Clinical Law
Director, Immigration Clinic
The George Washington University Law School
650 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 994-7463
(202) 994-4946 fax
abenitez@law.gwu.edu
THE WORLD IS YOURS…”

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Congrats, Professor, to you and your students! You are true members of the New Due Process Army!

PWS😎😎😎

01-11-18

GO SEE “DUE PROCESS IN ACTION” (FEATUIRING THE FABULOUS GW LAW IMMIGRATION CLINIC STUDENT ATTORNEYS) AT THE U.S. IMMIGRATION COURT IN ARLINGTON, VA IN 2018!

HERE’S “THE SCHEDULE:”

Spring 2018 ICHs – Immigration Clinic

#	DATE/TIME	Client Name	Student-Attorney	Immigration Judge	Type of Case	Country of Origin
1	01/11/2018 at 1pm	M-A-A-	Gisela Camba	IJ Owens	Asylum (PSG-Family )	Honduras
2	01/18/2018 at 1pm	N-R-	Solangel Gonzalez	IJ Bain	Asylum (PSG- Family)	El Salvador
3	02/07/2018 at 1pm	M-C-C-	Caroline Hodge	IJ Soper	Cancellation of Removal (Non-LPR)	Mexico
4	02/14/2018 at 1pm	F-R-	Julia Navarro	IJ Soper	Asylum (PSG –Family)	El Salvador
5	03/07/2018 at 9am	S-M-B-	Dana Florkowski	IJ Bain	Asylum (PSG-DV)	El Salvador
6	03/07/2018 at 9am	S-N-, Y-N-, C-N-	TBD	IJ Bryant	Asylum/U Visa	Honduras
7	03/15/2018 at 9am	B-R-S-	Phuong Tran	IJ Owens	Asylum (PSG – former police officer)	El Salvador
8	04/02/2018 at 1pm	R-I-	Ami Patel	IJ – Unassigned	Asylum (Religion)	Egypt
9	04/24/18 at 1pm	M-M-P-	Fatimah Hameed	IJ Burman	Asylum (PSG – Family)	Honduras

Friends,

Happy New Year.

The link to the Arlington Immigration Court follows, and the list of the Immigration Clinic Individual Calendar Hearings (ICHs) in the spring is attached. You are welcome to attend any and all of the ICHs. Your students, colleagues, etc., are welcome too. No RSVP is required but I do suggest you check with Paulina Vera (pnvera@law.gwu.edu) and/or me a day or two before to confirm (or not) that the hearings will go forward.

https://www.justice.gov/eoir/arlington-immigration-court

**************************************************
Alberto Manuel Benitez
Professor of Clinical Law
Director, Immigration Clinic
The George Washington University Law School
650 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 994-7463
(202) 994-4946 fax
abenitez@law.gwu.edu
THE WORLD IS YOURS…
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I can personally testify that having a chance to observe the GW Immigration Clinic in person is a treat and a lesson in “how to prepare an Immigration Court case the right way!”

Thanks to my good friend and neighbor Professor Alberto Benitez and his distinguished colleague Paulina Vera (also a former Arlington Intern and “Charter Member” of the “new Due Process Army”) for passing this along and for what they are doing for future generations of lawyers and Due Process in America!

PWS

01-05-18

REAL DUE PROCESS MAKES A STUNNING DIFFERENCE! – NY PROJECT FINDS THAT REPRESENTED IMMIGRANTS ARE 12X MORE LIKELY TO WIN CASES!

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/9/16623906/immigration-court-lawyer

Dara Lind reports for VOX

“Omar Siagha has been in the US for 52 years. He’s a legal permanent resident with three children. He’d never been to prison, he says, before he was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention — faced with the loss of his green card for a misdemeanor.

His brother tried to seek out lawyers who could help Siagha, but all they offered, in his words, were “high numbers and no hope” — no guarantee, in other words, that they’d be able to get him out of detention for all the money they were charging.

Then he met lawyers from Brooklyn Defender Services — part of the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, an effort to guarantee legal representation for detained immigrants. They demanded only one thing of him, he recalls: “Omar, you’ve got to tell us the truth.”

But Siagha’s access to a lawyer in immigration court is the exception.

There’s no right to counsel in immigration court, which is part of the executive branch rather than the judiciary. Often, an immigrant’s only shot at legal assistance before they’re marched in front of a judge is the pro bono or legal aid clinic that happens to have attorneys at that courthouse. Those clinics have such limited resources that they try to select only the cases they think have the best shot of winning — which can be extremely difficult to ascertain in a 15-minute interview.

But advocates and local governments are trying to make cases like Siagha’s the rule, not the exception. Soon, every eligible immigrant who gets detained in one of a dozen cities — including New York, Chicago, Oakland, California, and Atlanta — will have access to a lawyer to help fight their immigration court case.

The change started at Varick Street. The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project started in New York City in 2013, guaranteeing access to counsel for detained immigrants.

According to a study released Thursday by the Vera Institute for Justice (which is now helping fund the representation efforts in the other cities, under the auspices of the Safe Cities Network), the results were stunning. With guaranteed legal representation, up to 12 times as many immigrants have been able to win their cases: either able to get legal relief from deportation or at least able to persuade ICE to drop the attempt to deport them this time.

So far, cities have been trying to protect their immigrant populations through inaction — refusing to help with certain federal requests. Giving immigrants lawyers, on the other hand, seemingly makes the system work better. And if it works, it could leave the Trump administration — which is already upset with the amount of time it takes to resolve an immigration court case — very frustrated indeed. (The Department of Justice, which runs immigration courts, didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

Immigration court is supposed to give immigrants a chance for relief. In reality … it depends.

As federal immigration enforcement has ramped up over the past 15 years, nearly every component of it has gotten a sleek bureaucratic upgrade, a boatload of money, and heightened interest and oversight from Congress. But immigration court has been overlooked as everything else has been built up around it.

The reason is simple. Chronologically, most immigrants have to go through immigration court after being apprehended and before being deported. But bureaucratically, immigration courts are run by the Executive Office for Immigration Review, housed in the Justice Department instead of by the Department of Homeland Security. And when it comes to money and bureaucratic attention, that makes all the difference in the world.

From the outside, the striking thing about immigration court is how slow it is — lawyers already report that hearings for those apprehended today are scheduled in 2021. That’s also the Trump administration’s problem with it; the federal government is sweeping up more immigrants than it did in 2016 but deporting fewer of them.

But it doesn’t seem that way from the inside, to an immigrant who doesn’t have any idea what’s going on — especially one who’s being kept in detention.

This is the scene that Peter Markowitz accustomed himself to, as a young immigration lawyer at the Varick Street courtroom in New York: “People brought in, in shackles, with their feet and hands shackled to their waist, often not understanding the language of the proceedings, having no idea of the legal norms that were controlling their fate — being deported hand over fist.”

I know he’s not exaggerating; in my first morning watching immigration court proceedings in Minneapolis in 2008, I saw at least 10 detainees get issued deportation orders before lunch. Almost none had lawyers. Sometimes the judge would pause and explain to the detainee, in plain English, what was really going on — but she didn’t have to, and sometimes she wouldn’t bother.”

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Read Dara’s full article at the link.

No lawyer = no due process. Rather than trying to hustle folks out of the country without a full and effective chance for them to be heard — in other words, true Due Process — Jeff Sessions should be changing the Immigration Court system to put less reliance on detention and detention center “kangaroo courts” and more emphasis on insuring that each individual scheduled for a hearing has fair and reasonable access to competent counsel.

I totally agree that due process can’t be put on a “timetable,” as Sessions and his crew at the DOJ seem to want. As observed by none other than Chief Justice John Roberts — certainly no “bleeding heart liberal” —“It takes time to decide a case on appeal. Sometimes a little; sometimes a lot.” Nken v. Holder, 556 U.s. 418 (2009). That’s even more true on the trial level.

I have a somewhat different take on whether representation and providing full due process will ultimately slow down the system. In the short run, represented cases might take longer than unrepresented ones (although I personally found that not invariably true). However, as noted by Chief Judge Katzmann, lack of representation both promotes wrong, and therefore unfair, results, but also inhibits the proper development of the law. (Perhaps not incidentally, I note that Chief Judge Katzmann actually took time to attend and participate in Annual Immigration Judge Training Conferences back in the day when the “powers that be” at DOJ and EOIR deemed such training to be a necessary ingredient of a fair judicial system — something that was eliminated by Sessions’s DOJ this year. Apparently, new, untrained Immigration Judges can be expected to “crank out” more final orders of removal than trained judges.)

When I was in Arlington, the vast majority of the non-detained respondents were represented, and the majority of those got some sort of relief — in other words, won their cases to some extent. As time went on, this development required the DHS to adjust its position and to stop “fully litigating” issues that experience and the law told them they were going to lose.

That, in turn, led to more efficient and focused hearings as well as decisions to drop certain types of cases as an exercise of prosecutorial discretion. Had that process been allowed to continue, rather than being artificially arrested by the Trump regime, it could well have eventually led to more efficient use of docket time and alternate means of disposing of cases that were “likely losers” or of no particular enforcement value to the DHS or the country at large.

By contrast, “haste makes waste” attempts to force cases through the system without representation or otherwise in violation of Due Process often led to appellate reversals, “do-overs,” and re-openings, all of which were less efficient for the system than “doing it right in the first place” would have been!

In my view (echoed at least to some extent by my colleague retired Judge Jeffrey Chase), more conscientious publication of BIA precedents granting asylum could and should have taken large blocks of asylum cases off the “full merits” dockets of Immigration Judges — either by allowing them to be “short docketed” with the use of stipulations or allowing them to be favorably disposed of by the DHS Asylum Offices.

No system that I’m aware of can fully litigate every single possible law violation. Indeed, our entire criminal justice system works overwhelmingly from “plea bargaining” that often bears little if any resemblance to “what actually happened.” Plea bargaining is a practical response that reflects the reality of our justice system and the inherent limitations on judicial time. And effective plea bargaining requires lawyers on both sides as well as appropriate law development as guidance that can only happen when parties are represented. The absurd claim of Sessions and the DHS that the law allows them no discretion as to whether or not to bring certain categories of removal cases is just that — absurd and in direct contradiction of the rest of the U.S. justice system.

The current policies of the DHS and the DOJ, which work against Due Process, rather than seeking to take advantage of and actively promote it, are ultimately doomed to failure. The only question is how much of a mess, how many wasted resources, and how much pain and unfairness they will create in the process of failing.

Andrea Saenz, mentioned in the article is a former Judicial Law clerk at the New York Immigration Court. I have always admired her clear, concise, “accessible” legal writing — much like that of Judge Jeffrey Chase — and have told her so.

I am also proud that a number of attorneys involved in the “New York Project” and the Brooklyn Defenders are alums of the Arlington Immigration Court or my Georgetown Law RLP class — in other words, charter members of the “New Due Process Army!” They are literally changing our system, one case and one individual life at a time. And, they and their successors will still be at it long after guys like Jeff Sessions and his restrictionist cronies and their legally and morally bankrupt philosophies have faded from the scene.

Thanks to my friend the amazing Professor Alberto Benítez from the GW Law Immigration Clinic for sending me this item!

PWS

11-10-17

“DYNAMIC DUO” LEADS “GW IMMIGRATION CLINIC BRIGADE” OF THE NEW DUE PROCESS ARMY (“NDPA”) INTO ACTION – ADVANCING AND DEFENDING DUE PROCESS RIGHTS FOR OUR MOST VULNERABLE RESIDENTS WHILE TEACHING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LAWYERS! — PLUS SPECIAL BONUS: Text of My Presentation To Clinic Entitled “RECLAIMING THE VISION – A PLAN FOR ACTION”

Alberto M. Benítez

Before joining the Law School faculty as director of the Immigration Clinic in 1996, Professor Benítez was on the faculty of the legal clinics at Chicago Kent College of Law and Northwestern University School of Law. Prior to becoming a clinician, he was a staff attorney at the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, as well as an intern at the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Professor Benítez teaches Immigration Law. In addition, in the summers he has taught at the law schools of the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and the Universidad Panamericana, in Mexico City. In the spring 2003 semester Professor Benítez was a visitor at the Boyd School of Law of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, assisting in the development of that law school’s immigration clinic.

Professor Benítez has devoted his entire legal career to working in the public interest, generally with aliens, and so he is familiar with immigration law in its proper context. Evictions, domestic violence, public benefits, etc., these are areas of law that influence the decisions made by the aliens. Professor Benítez was fortunate early in his career to be associated with several supportive, dedicated lawyers who enabled him to learn and progress from them. Therefore, he tries to pass on what he learned and how he learned it to his students, in particular the “learn by doing” system that his early colleagues used with him. That said, students will get out of their experience in this clinic and from their association with Professor Benítez what they put into it.

An Introduction to the United States Legal System by Professor Alberto Benitez

Paulina Vera

Paulina Vera, Esq. supervises Immigration Clinic law students and provides legal representation to asylum seekers and respondents facing deportation in Immigration Court. She previously served as the only Immigration Staff Attorney at the Maryland-based non-profit, CASA. Paulina is a 2015 graduate of The George Washington University Law School. During law school, she was a student-attorney at the Immigration Clinic and worked with Professor Benitez. She also interned at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), American Immigration Council, and the Arlington Immigration Court. Paulina is admitted to practice law in Maryland and before federal immigration tribunals.

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FORGET SESSIONS’S BOGUS SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST “DIRTY IMMIGRATION LAWYERS” — THESE ARE THE “REAL FACES” OF AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW TODAY, FIGHTING TO PROTECT THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF ALL AMERICANS! — AND THEY AREN’T INTIMIDATED BY A DISINGENUOUS AND FEAR-MONGERING ATTORNEY GENERAL!

I was pleased to be invited to speak to the GW Immigration Clinic on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017.

I am, of course, particularly proud of my good friend the amazing Paulina Vera, who is a distinguished alum of both the GW Immigration Clinic and the Arlington Immigration Court Legal Intern Program!

Here’s what I said:

RECLAIMING THE VISION – A PLAN FOR ACTION

BY PAUL WICKHAM SCHMIDT

UNITED STATES IMMIGRATON JUDGE (Retired)

The George Washington Law School Immigration Clinic

Washington, DC.

Nov. 2, 1017

Good afternoon, and thanks so much to you and my good friend and Alexandria neighbor Professor Alberto Benitez for inviting me. I want to express my deep appreciation for all of the great help that your Clinic gave to vulnerable migrants and to the Judges of the U.S. Immigration Court in Arlington, VA in carrying out our due process mission over the years that I was on the bench, from 2003 to 2016. I’m also delighted that the amazing Paulina Vera, a “distinguished alum” of the Arlington Immigration Court Internship Program is your Assistant Instructor.

Professor Benitez tells me that all of you have read my recent article from Bender’s Immigration Bulletin entitled “Immigration Courts: Reclaiming the Vision.” I of course was referring to the noble vision of “being the world’s best administrative tribunals guaranteeing fairness and due process for all.”

As you also know, my article set forth a “five step” program for achieving this: 1) a return to Due Process as the one and only mission – ditching the current political manipulation of the courts; 2) an independent Article I Court structure, to replace the current outmoded “agency structure” in the DOJ: 3) professional court management along the lines of the Administrative Office for U.S. Courts and merit-based selection of judges; 4) an independent appellate body that functions in the manner of an Article III court, not as an “Agency Service Center;” and 5) an e-filing system to replace the current “files in the aisles.”

The question is how do we get there from here. Sadly, the individual who should be pushing these reforms, our Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has shown absolutely no interest in meaningful court reforms or protecting due process, beyond rather mindlessly proposing to throw many more new untrained judges into an already dysfunctional and disturbingly inconsistent judiciary and to force a system already careening out of control to “pedal even faster.” That’s a program for failure. Moreover, in my view, Sessions has demonstrated through his public statements and actions to date a clear pro-enforcement and anti-immigrant bias that makes him the wrong individual to be in change of a due process court system.

The other group who should be solving this problem is Congress. Immigration Court reform should be a bipartisan “no-brainer.” Both sides of the “immigration debate” should want a fair and efficient Immigration Court system that fully complies with due process, gets the results correct, and doesn’t accumulate huge backlogs. Unfortunately, however, Congress currently seems preoccupied with other issues that well might be less important to our country but more “politically expedient.” Although there is a fine draft “Article I Bill” floating around “The Hill,” prepared by the Federal Bar Association with input from the National Association of Immigration Judges, to date I am aware of no actual Congressional sponsor who has “thrown it in the hopper.”

So, do we abandon all hope? No, of course not! Because there are hundreds of newer lawyers out there who are former Arlington JLCs, interns like Paulina, my former students, and those who have practiced before the Arlington Immigration Court, and folks like you who have had the great leadership of Professor Benitez and others like him in Immigration, Refugee, and Asylum clinics throughout the country!

They form what I call the “New Due Process Army!” And, while my time on the battlefield is winding down, they are just beginning the fight! They will keep at it for years, decades, or generations — whatever it takes to force the U.S. immigration judicial system to live up to its promise of “guaranteeing fairness and due process for all!”

What can you do to get involved now? The overriding due process need is for competent representation of individuals claiming asylum and/or facing removal from the United States. Currently, there are not nearly enough pro bono lawyers to insure that everyone in Immigration Court gets represented.

And the situation is getting worse. With the Administration’s planned expansion of so-called “expedited removal,” lawyers are needed at earlier points in the process to insure that those with defenses or plausible claims for relief even get into the Immigration Court process, rather than being summarily removed with little, if any, recourse.

Additionally, given the pressure that the Administration is likely to exert through the Department of Justice to “move” cases quickly through the Immigration Court system with little regard for due process and fundamental fairness, resort to the Article III Courts to require fair proceedings and an unbiased application of the laws becomes even more essential. Litigation in the U.S. District and Appellate Courts has turned out to be effective in forcing systemic change. However, virtually no unrepresented individual is going to be capable of getting to the Court of Appeals, let alone prevailing on a claim.

So, what you are doing here at the GW Immigration Clinic directly supports the Immigration Court reform movement by insuring that the system will not be able to continue to run over the rights of the unrepresented or underrepresented and that individuals who are unfairly denied relief at the Immigration Court and BIA levels are positioned to seek review in the independent Article III Courts.

I also have been working with groups looking for ways to expand the “accredited representative” program, which allows properly trained and certified individuals who are not lawyers to handle cases before the DHS and the Immigration Courts while working for certain nonprofit community organizations, on either a staff or volunteer basis. Notwithstanding some recently publicized problems with policing the system, which I wrote about on my blog immigrationrcourtside.com, this is a critically important program for expanding representation in Immigration Courts. Additionally, the “accredited representative” program is also an outstanding opportunity for retired individuals, like professors, who are not lawyers to qualify to provide pro bono representation in Immigration Court to needy migrants thorough properly recognized religious and community organizations.

Even if you are not practicing or do not intend to practice immigration law, there are many outstanding opportunities to contribute by taking pro bono cases. Indeed, in my experience in Arlington, “big law” firms were some of the major contributors to highly effective pro bono representation. It was also great “hands on” experience for those seeking to hone their litigation skills.

Those of you with language and teaching skills can help out in English Language Learning programs for migrants. I have observed first hand that the better that individuals understand the language and culture of the US, the more successful they are in navigating our Immigration Court system and both assisting, and when necessary, challenging their representatives to perform at the highest levels. In other words, they are in a better position to be “informed consumers” of legal services.

Another critical area for focus is funding of nonprofit community-based organizations and religious groups that assist migrants for little or no charge. Never has the need for such services been greater.

But, many of these organizations receive at least some government funding for outreach efforts. We have already seen how the President has directed the DHS to “defund” outreach efforts and use the money instead for a program to assist victims of crimes committed by undocumented individuals.

Undoubtedly, with the huge emphases on military expansion and immigration enforcement, to the exclusion of other important programs, virtually all forms of funding for outreach efforts to migrants are likely to disappear in the very near future. Those who care about helping others will have to make up the deficit. So, at giving time, remember your community nonprofit organizations that are assisting foreign nationals.

The Federal Bar Association (“FBA) has been a strong moving force for court reform resulting in an Article I U.S. Immigration Court. So, becoming a “student member” of the FBA and getting involved with our local chapter is another way to support reform.

Finally, as an informed voter and participant in our political process, you can advance the cause of Immigration Court reform and due process. For the last 16 years politicians of both parties have largely stood by and watched the unfolding due process disaster in the U.S. Immigration Courts without doing anything about it, and in some cases actually making it worse.

The notion that Immigration Court reform must be part of so-called “comprehensive immigration reform” is simply wrong. The Immigration Courts can and must be fixed sooner rather than later, regardless of what happens with overall immigration reform. It’s time to let your Senators and Representatives know that we need due process reforms in the Immigration Courts as one of our highest national priorities.

Folks the U.S Immigration Court system is on the verge of collapse. And, there is every reason to believe that the misguided “enforce and detain to the max” policies being pursued by this Administration will drive the Immigration Courts over the edge. When that happens, a large chunk of the entire American justice system and the due process guarantees that make American great and different from most of the rest of the world will go down with it.

In conclusion, I have shared with you the Court’s noble due process vision and my view that it is not currently being fulfilled. I have also shared with you my ideas for effective court reform that would achieve the due process vision and how you can become involved in improving the process.

Now is the time to take a stand for fundamental fairness’! Join the New Due Process Army! Due process forever!

Thanks again for inviting me and for listening. I’d be happy to take questions or listen to suggestions.

(11-05-17)

Here’s a link to the above text:

RECLAIMING THE VISION – A PLAN FOR ACTION

PWS

11-05-17

JOB OPENING: Director of The International Human Rights Clinic at UVA Law!

http://jobs.virginia.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=82468

Click at the above link for a full job description and instructions on how to apply. This would be a super opportunity for an experienced member of the New Due Process Army who wants to enter the field of clinical instruction or for those who are already teaching and would like to move to Charlottesville and become associated with one of the nation’s top law school!

Thanks to Professor Alberto Benitez of the GW Law Immigration Clinic for passing this along!

PWS

09-20-17

ATTN NEW DUE PROCESS ARMY: Apply for an Equal Justice Works Fellowship, Host Organization: University of Maryland SAFE Center for Human Trafficking Survivors Deadline: Wednesday, August 9, 2017!

The University of Maryland Support, Advocacy, Freedom, and Empowerment (SAFE) Center for Human Trafficking Survivors is seeking a candidate to apply for a SAFE Center-hosted Equal Justice Works Fellowship. Third-year law students, recent law school graduates, and experienced attorneys with a demonstrated commitment to public interest law are eligible to apply. About the University of Maryland SAFE Center (Host Organization) The University of Maryland SAFE Center is a direct services, research, and advocacy center on human trafficking. Through in-house service provision and collaboration with partners, the Center provides comprehensive social, legal, mental health, medical, and economic empowerment services to sex and labor trafficking survivors regardless of nationality, age, or gender. The SAFE Center is located in College Park, Maryland. Learn more on our website: www.umdsafecenter.org. About the Equal Justice Works (EJW) Fellowship Program The Equal Justice Works Fellowship program funds public interest attorneys for two years at a host organization in an effort to close the justice gap on pressing social issues. The host organization provides training, support, supervision, and health insurance and other standard employee benefits. The Application Process Candidates who are interested in applying for an EJW Fellowship to work at the SAFE Center must apply to the SAFE Center by August 9, 2017. The SAFE Center will choose a candidate with whom to apply for an EJW fellowship. The candidate and the SAFE Center will work together to develop the project listed below, and will collaborate on the EJW application. The candidate will submit that application to EJW by September 27, 2017. If the application is successful, the EJW Fellow will begin work on the project at the SAFE Center in September 2018. For more information on the EJW application process, please see http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/post-grad/equal-justice-works-fellowships/apply. Proposed Project Outreach and Legal Services for Forced Labor Victims: This project focuses on survivors of labor trafficking in Maryland and the metropolitan Washington DC area. Labor trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery that involves forcing, coercing, or defrauding a person into involuntary servitude in restaurants, factories, farms, hotels, beauty salons, private homes as domestic workers, family-run businesses, and other industries. Victims are typically forced to work extremely long hours under inhumane conditions, with few or no days off, for little or no money. They are controlled by threats, violence, fake debts, isolation, and other methods. Labor trafficking is occurring in Maryland and the metropolitan DC area but it is largely under-identified, underreported and under-prosecuted. This project will involve direct legal immigration services, outreach, and advocacy on labor trafficking. The EJW Fellow will represent labor trafficking victims in applying for T visas and other forms of immigration relief. The EJW Fellow will create Know Your Rights materials and conduct presentations for relevant community organizations and agencies in the metropolitan DC area in order to increase identification of labor trafficking victims. The EJW Fellow will also identify legislative and policy gaps on labor trafficking in the DC metropolitan area and assist in proposing solutions. Candidate Qualifications:  Demonstrated commitment to public interest law.  Demonstrated interest in human trafficking, immigration, civil rights, labor rights, women’s rights, or other social issues.  Excellent research, writing, and oral communication skills.  Highly self-motivated, well organized, detail-oriented, and flexible.  Ability to work well with culturally diverse populations.  Have a strong work ethic and a positive attitude.  Agree to sit for the Bar Exam the summer after graduating law school.  Foreign language ability preferred but not required. To apply, please send a resume, cover letter, 5-10 page writing sample, and a copy of your academic transcript (unofficial) to safecenter@umd.edu by Wednesday, August 9, 2017.

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GO FOR IT!

Thanks to Professor Alberto Benitez of GW Law for sending this my way.

PWS

08-04-17

JOIN THE NEW DUE PROCESS ARMY! — Kids In Need Of Defense (“KIND”) Has Two FANTASTIC Opportunities In Baltimore!

Carly Sessions of KIND and Professor Alberto Benitez of GW Law provided me the following:

From: Carly Sessions <csessions@supportkind.org>
Date: Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 8:58 AM
Subject: Openings at the KIND Baltimore Office
To: “abenitez@law.gwu.edu” <abenitez@law.gwu.edu>

Hi Professor Benitez,

Hope all is well. I’m writing to let you know that the KIND Baltimore office has two really great opportunities right now. One for a Senior Direct Representation Attorney and one to head up our Pro Bono Program. Those jobs and other openings are posted here: https://supportkind.org/jobs/. Would you share with your network? If anyone has questions they are welcome to reach out to me. Thanks!

Carly Sessions, Esq.*

Interim Staff Attorney

Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)

1800 N. Charles St, Ste. 810

Baltimore, MD 21201

Tel: (443) 961-7365 Fax: (410) 646-8019

E-mail: csessions@supportkind.org

*Licensed to practice law in the state of Maryland.

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These are great opportunities. And, a huge additional benefit is that the successful candidates will be working with two of the “Charter Enlistees in the New Due Process Army,” the wonderful Carly Sessions and the amazing Jennifer Jaimes, Supervising Attorney. Both Jennifer and Carly were Legal Interns at the Arlington Immigration Court. I can attest that they are two of the smartest, nicest, and most dedicated lawyers anyone could ever want as colleagues. So, don’t wait, sign up now!

JAMESTOWN NY POST-JOURNAL: GW Law Immigration Clinic Students Sarah DeLong & Maley Sullivan On “Bridging The Gap” With Immigrants!

http://www.post-journal.com/opinion/2017/04/bridging-the-gap-between-us-and-immigrants/

“As third-year law students and student-attorneys of the Immigration Clinic at The George Washington University Law School, we have the honor of representing immigrants from around the world while guiding them through our very complex immigration system.

Through this experience, we’ve learned that immigrants are just like us. They share our values of family and community; education and opportunity; freedom and security. They’re individuals who are trying to make the best decisions for themselves and for their loved ones.

But in many ways immigrants are not like us. There are some things that you and I will never fully understand. There are some things that we, having grown up under the cloak of privilege afforded us by our status as natural born citizens of the United States, will never have to endure.

So how do we bridge this gap? Why should we take time from our uniquely challenging lives to appreciate and understand our privilege? To what end?

For many student-attorneys, the answer is simple: I am an immigrant. I was an immigrant. My parents are or were immigrants. For the two of us, and countless others, however, what we view as our obligation to welcome and accommodate immigrants has been challenged regularly by our government, our communities, and even our families.

. . . .

We have learned countless lessons from working in the Immigration Clinic. Not the least, we have learned that, although our privilege may protect us from ever having to stand in the shoes of our clients, it has afforded us the extraordinary opportunity to confront the status quo and encourage reconciliation.”

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I encourage everyone to read the complete article at the link. Thanks to Professor Alberto Benitez of the GW Immigration Clinic for bringing this to my attention. And, thanks to Sarah and Maley for your caring, your insights, and all that you are doing for America.

PWS

04-09-17

“Come Together” — A Great New 1-Min. Video From The GW Immigration Clinic All-Stars! — “Why We Are Motivated To Work for Immigrants!”

GW Immigration Clinic 2017 – Medium

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Looks like lots of new recruits for the “New Due Process Army.” These guys are the real “heart and soul” of today’s American law. Thanks to Professor Alberto Gonzalez for sending this in.

PWS

04/03/17

The BIA vs. the Supreme Court?

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Immigration court is supposed to give immigrants a chance for relief. In reality … it depends.

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Paulina Vera

I was pleased to be invited to speak to the GW Immigration Clinic on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017.

I am, of course, particularly proud of my good friend the amazing Paulina Vera, who is a distinguished alum of both the GW Immigration Clinic and the Arlington Immigration Court Legal Intern Program!

Here’s what I said:

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