"The Voice of the New Due Process Army" ————– Musings on Events in U.S. Immigration Court, Immigration Law, Sports, Music, Politics, and Other Random Topics by Retired United States Immigration Judge (Arlington, Virginia) and former Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals Paul Wickham Schmidt and Dr. Alicia Triche, expert brief writer, practical scholar, emeritus Editor-in-Chief of The Green Card (FBA), and 2022 Federal Bar Association Immigration Section Lawyer of the Year. She is a/k/a “Delta Ondine,” a blues-based alt-rock singer-songwriter, who performs regularly in Memphis, where she hosts her own Blues Brunch series, and will soon be recording her first full, professional album. Stay tuned! 🎶 To see our complete professional bios, just click on the link below.
Hon. Cecelia M.Espenoza Former Appellate Immigration Judge, BIA Source: Denverdemocrats.org
DISTRICT 4:
Candidate
Total Votes
% Votes
Cecelia Espenoza (D)
20,806
80.5%
Jack Daus (R)
5,042
19.5%
SOURCE: AZCENTRAL.com
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You go, my friend and colleague! Thanks for running and for standing up for a better, fairer America! Building a “values based movement” starts at the “grass roots level.” You’re getting it done, Cecelia!
Congratulations again and my utmost appreciation for your absolutely stellar, four-decade, high-impact career in applied scholarship on immigration, human rights, and justice in America. Your influence, which I trust will continue unabated into retirement, has been a huge positive for our nation and our world.
As I previously mentioned, I am sorry that I will be unable because of previous commitments to celebrate in person or online with you and your many admirers at Cornell Law on November 8. But, I know it will be a “love-fest” whether in the form of “roast” or “conferring of regalia!”
You are the epitome of what I have termed the “practical scholar” — someone who uses creativity, extraordinary learning, and masterful command of a complex subject to solve problems, achieve actual results in the real world, inspire others, and produce positive trends. I have truly treasured our friendship and association going back over four decades to your time at Interpreter Releases, Immigration Briefings, and Federal Publications. We, of course, shared the mentorship of the late, great former BIA Chair and Editor of Interpreter Releases Maury Roberts, the friendship and professional association with the late Juan Osuna who played a major role in our respective careers, as well as our mutual association with Sue Siler who worked with me during my “Jones Day era.”
I assume that you recollect helping and encouraging me to set a “footnote record” with my article on employer sanctions for Immigration Briefings as well as our work together on some updates for your treatise Immigration Law & Procedure, and the now long in the past Federal Publications “holiday bashes” for authors and editors!
Our friendship and association continued beyond my “private practice phase” into my tenure as BIA Chair and then into my “next chapter” at the “Legacy Arlington Immigration Court.” Following my retirement, I was delighted to accept your kind invitation to be part of the Berger International Programs Lecture Series at Cornell Law in March 2017. We also had a chance to strategize and talk about”applied law” with your wonderful Clinic students who were engaged in some really challenging and important cases!
Professors Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer & Steve Yale Loehr show off their “no ties look” at Cornell Law, March 2017.
I also appreciated having a chance to see your spectacular campus and to chat with you informally over meals.Your book “Green Card Stories,” which you “gifted” to me at the time, eventually because one of the sources and inspirations for an adult enrichment class on a cultural anthropological and legal approach to American immigration history that I co-taught with my friend and colleague Dr. Jennifer Esperanza at Lawrence University’s Bjorklunden Seminars.
No, it’s not the Tower of London, but the “Tower of Law” @ Cornell (not to be confused with the “Falls Church Tower”). March 2017
Of course in addition to your many scholarly publications and Clinic successes, you have been a tireless presenter and public voice for truth, accuracy, scholarship, and humane solutions to thorny immigration and human rights issues at a time when myths, disinformation, and fear about these topics scandalously have become “normalized” in our political and media discourse. Indeed, I have “featured” your activities, including your heartfelt tribute to Juan Osuna, on my blog immigrationcourtside.com no less than 45 times (and I probably missed a couple)! I also greatly admire and appreciate you and others having the guts and integrity to “speak truth to power and set the record straight” even when powerful currents are pushing in the opposite direction.
Recently, I was happy to be able to share an evening with you and Amy during the DC Tribute Dinner for our mutual friend and inspiration Doris Meissner. I will also take full credit for shaming you into wearing a coat and tie to the function. After all, somebody has to maintain standards among the ranks of the New Due Process Army (“NDPA”).
In closing, thank thank you again, Steve, for your more than four decades of friendship, support, encouragement, scholarship, and unswerving commitment to using law as a tool for humane practices, due process, inspiring the younger generations, and overall making our nation and our world a better place! I wish you, Amy, and your family all the best in retirement and look forward to many years of continuing association in the cause of justice.
Congratulations again, due process forever, and best wishes, always,
Michelle N. Mendez, ESQ Director of Legal Resources and Training National Immigration Project, National Lawyers Guild PHOTO: NIPNLGVictoria Neilson NDPA SUPERSTAR ATTORNEY PHOTO: CLINIC
Michelle writes:
The American Immigration Lawyers Association has just released its first ever book on immigration court trial skills. The book is authored by my colleague Victoria Neilson and myself, and was reviewed by several retired immigration judges, including the Hon. Dana Leigh Marks. It grew out of a collaboration between the National Immigration Project and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, through which we have been providing intensive trial skills training courses in the context of immigration court for several years.
We hope the book will become a go-to resource for immigrant defenders as they prepare for individual hearings and think through rules of evidence, trial strategy, and best practices for questioning, objections, closing arguments, and more.
The book is available for purchase as an e-book or print book. It will also be posted on AILALink in a couple of months.
What an important and monumental contribution to “practical scholarship!”
I look forward to appearing with Michelle on an Immigration Court practice panel with Aimee Mayer-Salens & Sarah Owings at AILA New England in Boston this Friday, Nov. 8!
With lots of help from our friends, the Round Table has become a “Powerful Force of Nature,” carving out a spot for due process even along the most wild and rugged coasts! PHOTO: PWS Maine Collection“Our Fearless Leader,” Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase Jeffrey S. Chase Blog Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges
“Sir Jeffrey” Chase forwarded this note of appreciation from one of the all-star advocates who represented The Round Table in drafting an amicus brief:
You, Paul and the Roundtable played a central role in this decision. Beyond the persuasive amicus brief, your group—along with . . . . —gave me the confidence to pursue the due process claim . . . . Your advocacy is admirable and much needed; it also has an impact beyond just the individual cases you support as an amicus. . . . . [T]his case has been one of the most impressive collaborative efforts I’ve had the opportunity to be involved with [in my decade of professional experience.] Thank you again for your interest and support of this important case, as well as your work in this space more broadly.
This is also a great space to once again thank all of the top flight legal talent, law firms, NGOs, and legal clinics that have donated their time and talents pro bono to the cause of due process, equal justice for all, and advancing best practices. Indeed, you have “given us a voice” — one that has proved to have an outsized impact on our American justice system.
Working with our wonderful“partners in due process and professional excellence” has been a total joy and fulfilling career opportunity for each of us! We never, ever forget what we owe to your skill and generous donation of time, resources, and effort. Just as we are committed to insuring that all individuals appearing in Immigration Court — the essential “retail level” of our justice system — have a right to be heard, YOU have insured that WE will be heard — loudly and clearly for a long time to come! Thank you again from the bottom. of our “collective hearts!”💕
The Center for Migration Studies is proud to present Karen T. Grisez Esq. with the Humanitarian Service Award, in recognition of her extraordinary commitment to the protection of migrants and refugees, impact and leadership in the practice of immigration law, and tireless dedication to justice. Ms. Grisez has served as Chair of the American Bar Association’s (ABA’s) Commission on Immigration, is a member of the Advisory Board of the ABA’s Immigration Justice Project in San Diego, and is a former co-chair of the ABA Section of Litigation’s Immigration Litigation Committee.
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The Center for Migration Studies (CMS) is a New York-based educational institute devoted to the study of international migration, to the promotion of understanding between immigrants and receiving communities, and to public policies that safeguard the dignity and rights of migrants, refugees, and newcomers. For more information, please visit www.cmsny.org.
Many congrats to all who worked on this multi-year, intensive, cooperative effort to achieve justice that should never, ever have gotten to this point IF EOIR and OIL were competently staffed and administered by Garland! Interesting, that even the most “conservative” Circuits often tire of the constant unprofessional, “deny protection for any reason” nonsense shoved at them by Garland’s DOJ. Perhaps, that’s a “basis for hope” as we appear to be moving into a wasteful “bipartisan political world of mindless and lawless restrictionism and denial of fundamental rights to migrants.” Here’s hoping for the best!
A Helping Hand.jpg Image depicts a child coming to the aid of another in need. Once we have climbed it is essential for the sake of humanity that we help others do the same. It is knowing that we all could use, and have used, a helping hand. Safiyyah Scoggins – PVisions1111 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 While some politicos and voters have abandoned Traditional Judeo-Christian values in favor of a cruel and demonstrably ineffective response to forced migration, the rest of us must hold true to our “better angels.”
IRC, Documented, launch resource platform for NYC asylum seekers and migrants: Documented.info
Legacy media has been providing service journalism focused on middle-class and wealthier communities for decades, and Documented is proud to bring this tradition of service journalism to low-income immigrant communities who have often been left out of the conversation.
Over the past year, Documented has been working with the International Rescue Committee to launch a digital platform called Documented.info (sneak peak link). This new digital platform is designed to provide asylum seekers and migrants in New York City with reliable, multilingual information covering everything from access to shelter and mental health resources, employment eligibility, and labor rights to how to navigate the asylum process and find legal support.
Anyone familiar with Documented knows that this is not a departure from how we’ve served immigrant readers since we launched in 2018. During the pandemic, it became clear that the immigrant community urgently needed practical, actionable information to address their concerns, whether about the legal system, government programs, or even basic necessities like where to find food. We received so many questions that it made sense to start documenting the answers we were giving.
This led to the creation of a collection of resource guides, explainers, and articles, all designed to address the questions we were being asked. To ensure accuracy and relevance, we collaborated with immigration lawyers, advocates, experts in the field, and individuals familiar with immigrant communities, allowing us to provide a comprehensive breakdown that directly addressed the communities’ needs.
Documented’s staff, including Rommel H. Ojeda, who’s our correspondent for Spanish-speaking communities, began interacting with readers and immigrant communities on Documented’s WhatsApp platform. He then began to populate Documented’s website with resources to help the immigrant and undocumented population in New York City find information about legal representation, financial relief, and more. That guide grew into a list of hundreds of helpful resources on our website, which consist of information about education, child care, employment, workers rights, finances, food aid, health, safety, housing, shelter, legal services, scams, and misinformation, to name a few.
“When New York City had asylum seekers coming in, we saw that a lot of the obstacles they were facing were also related to the guides that we had already created for migrants that were here five to 10 years before them,” Ojeda said. “I think just having this constant dialog with the community where we are answering their questions through experts, we’re also able to provide the guides to new people in the sense that we can send it to them as soon as they contact us. With this new partnership, we are able to continue doing that work, but on a larger scale.”
Documented.info addresses the unique challenges asylum seekers and immigrants — especially those from underserved backgrounds — face in navigating complex legal systems and services. Immigrants can message their questions to Documented.info via popular messaging platforms Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger. Journalists and experts respond — in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and French at launch — and share actionable resources, vetted services and original, targeted reporting. The platform aims to close critical information gaps, counter misinformation affecting immigrant communities and build trust.
“I’m pretty glad that we have the Haitian Creole version because we have thousands of newly arrived Haitian immigrants who came to New York, especially under the Humanitarian Parole Program,” said Ralph Thomassaint Joseph, Documented’s correspondent for non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean communities, who has been leading our engagement with communities on Nextdoor.
And there’s more. Continue reading on Documented to see what leaders at the International Rescue Committee and Documented have to say about the new Documented.info digital platform.
Have tips on furthering this story? Share your thoughts with us by responding to this email or sending us a message at earlyarrival@documentedny.com
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Many thanks to all the NDPA warriors involved in this wonderful cooperative effort. We need to be asking why our politicos and national governance is failing so miserably to face and promote the truth about asylum and other aspects of legal migration and to take actions for the common good, rather than squandering resources, promoting cruelty and lawlessness, and“picking on the most vulnerable” to gain a perceived political upper hand?
Beyond that, we need to be planning NOW on how to prevent a repeat of this year’s utterly disgraceful, totally toxic, wrong-headed, badly misleading, and blatantly dishonest treatment of, and “non-dialogue” about, the immigration, human rights, and equal justice issues by politicos of both parties during this election season! This bogus dialogue was scandalously and unprofessionally parroted and aided by the “MSM!” 🤮 No matter who wins in November, we must strive to do better in the future — for everyone’s sake and for the good of our nation!🇺🇸⚖️🗽
NOVEMBER 8, 2024 for a DAY-LONG EVENT in the Landis Auditorium Room 184 Myron Taylor Hall Cornell Law School.
To celebrate the career of Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr and his contributions to the field of immigration law.
“The (Im)possibility of Immigration Reform?,” will feature three panels and a light-hearted roast of Professor Yale-Loehr. Click HERE to view the agenda.
The conference will include lunch and a reception. Articles written for the conference will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Cornell International Law Journal.
REGISTER TODAY
If you haven’t already registered, please register to attend in person HERE. Space is limited and filling up fast as you can imagine.
Or click HERE if you can’t attend in person and would like to register for the webinar.
Thank you,
CENTERS & PROGRAMS TEAM
Administrative Assistant | Centers & Programs | Cornell Law School
I am delighted to announce some exciting changes coming to this blog. As “Courtsiders” know, I have been “on sabbatical” since this May, with reduced postings, while my wife Cathy and I focus on travel and other, perhaps less uplifting, aspects of proceeding through our retirement years. I decided that I can no longer devote the time, energy, and “emotional involvement” (a/k/a “Gonzo Journalism”) to operating Courtside as a “daily” with new blog content every day (or almost every day). I have also “upped” my postings on Linkedin, which I have found to be an “easier” platform for my “quick thoughts.”
At the same time, I don’t want the “Voice of Courtside” and particularly the “online archives” of more than 5,500 blog posts, some of which are personal recollections and anecdotal immigration history that will otherwise “disappear” when I do, to be lost to posterity.
Happily, my friend, noted immigration law maven, and distinguished “practical scholar” Dr. Alicia Triche has come to the rescue by agreeing to join me as “Co-Editor” of Courtside! We aspire to keep the blog operating in a new and somewhat different way that would not become an undue burden on the time of either of us.
Our general goal is for Alicia to contribute several more in-depth, analytical “thought pieces” on immigration law each month, while I would contribute occasional posts “as the spirit moves me.” We would also encourage contributions from others featuring “practical scholarship” that might help or inspire other members of our “New Due Process Army” and/or analyze trends that do not otherwise get covered in the “Mainstream Media.” Additionally, we are hoping by “combining our contacts” to solicit more “feature content” by other experts in the field. So, please let us know if you have contributions you think would be helpful to Courtside’s readers.
Dr. Alicia Triche Superlawyer, Co-Editor, immigrationcourtside.com Memphis, TN
Here is Alicia’s (a/k/a “Delta Ondine”) detailed biography:
Dr. Alicia Triche is a nationally recognized US immigration attorney who has practiced removal defense is a wide range of contexts throughout her storied legal career. Her most notable victory is Zometa-Orellana v. Garland, 19 F.4th 970 (6th Cir. 2021), the ground-breaking Sixth Circuit case involving domestic violence-based refugee protection. In May, 2022, the Federal Bar Association’s Immigration Law Section named her “Lawyer of the Year.”
Triche is currently based in Memphis, Tennessee, where she maintains a boutique practice focused solely on legal research and writing for her own clients and fellow attorneys. In recent years, she provided briefing in two (rare) resounding Fifth Circuit victories: Lopez-Ventura v. Sessions, 907 F.3d 306 (5th Cir. 2018) and Aben v. Garland, 113 F.4th 457 (5th Cir. 2024).
The “Dr.” part of Triche consists of a 2013 Oxford D.Phil. in international refugee law. At Oxford, she served on the executive editorial board of the Oxford Commonwealth Law Journal, the department’s flagship graduate legal publication. For several years, she also served as editor-in-chief of the “Green Card,” the official newsletter of the FBA’s immigration law section.
When her D.Phil was completed, Dr. Triche found herself living in Memphis, Tennessee, where she had happened to obtain a part-time job as a non-profit attorney/adjunct clinical professor. In a twist-of-fate, the Delta Blues called out to her. Instead of (as originally planned) pursuing legal academia, she became “Delta Ondine,” a blues-based alt-rock singer-songwriter. Ondine performs regularly in Memphis, where she hosts her own Blues Brunch series, and she will soon be recording her first full, professional album.
Here’s a report on the night’s activities from AYUDAS’s amazing Executive Director Paula Fitzgerald:
Dear Friends,
I hope you enjoyed our screening of The Courtroom as much as I did. The panel discussion connected us back to Ayuda’s mission and the greatest challenges our clients face as they navigate the legal system in an unfamiliar language.
I want to give a big thanks some special supporters who make this evening possible:
A special thank you to Georgetown University’s Community Engagement Manager and Ayuda’s Advisory Board Member, Erick Castro, for coordinating this reception and film screening, as well as Georgetown University for hosting this event in their new Capitol Campus building.
We’re honored to have had Waterwell Productions with us, specifically Co-Founder & Board Chair Arian Moayed and Managing Director Sarah Scafidi. Thank you for sharing this powerful story with Ayuda’s community.
Thank you to the Honorable Paul Schmidt for helping us bring The Courtroom to DC and sharing your connection to the film.
A moment of appreciation for our stellar panelists, Edgar and Marilyn, and wonderful moderator, Sandra. Thank you all for closing out the evening with an engaging conversation.
A warm round of applause to each of you for joining us. It was truly a delightful evening and I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to connect with many of you.
Are you interested in learning more about Ayuda’s advocacy program? Email us at advocacy@ayuda.com. Are you interested in volunteering? Check out our volunteer portal for current opportunities. Are you interested in making a gift to support Ayuda’s mission? Visit our website or email us atdevelopment@ayuda.com.
AYUDA/GEORGETOWN “THE COURTROOM”
Warm regards,
Paula Fitzgerald
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Here’s the text of my opening remarks:
Ayuda’s Film Screening of The Courtroom – Opening Remarks by Paul Wickham Schmidt
Georgetown University, McCourt School of Public Policy
September 18, 2024
Good evening and welcome everyone! Thanks for coming out to support Georgetown’s partnership with Ayuda.
My name is Paul Wickham Schmidt, and I’ve been given the privilege to introduce this powerful film, The Courtroom. Before I introduce a special guest, who is no stranger to the film and silver screen, I would like to share why this story is so important to me. My experience has landed me in an interesting corner of many of tonight’s themes and key players in making this event possible.
I was appointed as a federal immigration judge and served for 21 years, at both the trial and appellate levels. During my time as an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law, I’ve written extensively about immigration law. And, I’m currently a proud Advisory Board member for Ayuda, an organization that I truly care about and has deep roots in this community.
In fact, Ayuda helped all of us during my tenure in the “Legacy” Arlington Immigration Court with their superior pro bono representation. You will witness this evening the critical, life-saving and future-determining, role played by great legal representation in Immigration Court.
And, if you don’t already know, you will be astounded to learn that in Immigration Court individuals, including infants and toddlers, face trial for their lives without the right to appointed counsel! I want you to imagine how this case might have come out if this individual had been required to represent herself throughout her various legal proceedings. Yet, that is the predicament in which far, far too many individuals now find themselves.
I just read a TRAC Syracuse report that fewer than 15% of those ordered deported in Immigration Court in August 2024 were represented. I find that appalling! It’s actually a regressive trend since I left the bench. That’s why the role played by organizations like Ayuda and the teaching function of the CALS Asylum Clinic here at Georgetown Law are so completely essential to American Justice at what I call the “retail level.”
Now, I’m not here to read my resume. Instead, I will share why The Courtroom holds so much significance for us. The late film critic Roger Ebert once said, “the movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” The classic legal dramas like “12 Angry Men,” or “To Kill A Mockingbird,” for example, give us great insight into the devastating experience of being tried for a crime one did not commit.
But never had I seen a filmmaker put the empathy machine to work in Immigration Court. That is, until I learned about The Courtroom from my friend and colleague retired Immigration Judge Jeffrey S. Chase of New York. He actually served as an informal advisor on the production and played an important “cameo role” in the earlier award-winning stage versions of The Courtroom, as did other of our retired judicial colleagues.
Many of us will be fortunate enough never to have to endure a removal proceeding as a subject ourselves. We will never understand what it’s like to face the fear of being separated from our children, our families, our jobs, and our communities: In the words of the Supreme Court “all that makes life worth living!” (Ng Fung Ho v. White | 259 U.S. 276 (1922)).
The film you’re about to watch tells one woman’s story confronting these terrors, with the utmost compassion. The “script” is a verbatim transcript of an actual immigration case, brought to life by the great actors, directors, and producers at Waterwell.
When the credits roll, I hope you’ll remember that The Courtroom is much more than a story. It’s real-life drama, “living theater” as I used to describe it to my Georgetown Law students – and right now, more than 3 million immigrants undergoing deportation proceedings are living it, along with their families, friends, co-workers, and other community members whom they interact with on a daily basis.
It’s with great honor that I get the opportunity to introduce our next speaker. He’s an actor, director, and the screenplay writer of our feature presentation. He has received two Tony Award nominations and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and you might recognize him from Marvel Cinematic Universe. Please give a warm round of applause for Waterwell Co-Founder, Arian Moayed!
Arian, I really, really appreciate your taking time out of your hectic schedule to be with us tonight for this important D.C. Area premiere!
Well, friends, since “inception” on December 22, 2016:
Neatly 7 1/2 years elapsed;
Three different Administrations;
5,526 posts (including this one);
1,152 comments;
43 “Pages;”
403 subscribers;
Over 1,000,000 “views” (estimated);
More than 140,400 “blocks” by my hard-working “spam catcher!”
It’s time for me to take a break from Courtside to “rest, refresh, and refocus” as they say in the “sabbatical business.” After all, I’ve been “retired” since June 30, 2016, going on eight years!
To mark the occasion, here’s a “reprint” of one of my favorites from that first month, December 2016:
“Immigration advocates have repeatedly criticized the Obama administration for its increased reliance on detention facilities, particularly for Central American families, who they argue should be treated as refugees fleeing violent home countries rather than as priorities for deportation.
They also say that the growing number of apprehended migrants on the border, as reflected in the new Homeland Security figures, indicate that home raids and detentions of families from Central America isn’t working as a deterrent.”
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The “enforcement only” approach to forced migration from Central America has been an extraordinarily expensive total failure. But, the misguided attempt to “prioritize” cases of families seeking refuge from violence has been a major contributing factor in creating docket disfunction (“Aimless Docket Reshuffling”) in the United States Immigration Courts.
And, as a result, cases ready for trial that should have been heard as scheduled in Immigration Court have been “orbited” to the end of the docket where it is doubtful they ever will be reached. When political officials, who don’t understand the Immigration Court and are not committed to its due process mission, order the rearrangement of existing dockets without input from the trial judges, lawyers, court administrators, and members of the public who are most affected, only bad things can happen. And, they have!
PWS
12/31/16
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True today as it was then!
🇺🇸 Thanks for reading and engaging, best wishes and, of course, “Due Process Forever!”
Professor Benitez’s colleague Professor Paulina Vera reports on LinkedIn:
Finally don’t have to keep this a secret anymore! I nominated Professor Benitez because he’s the best boss and mentor and he deserves all the recognition for his contributions to clinical education and immigration law. I’m glad AILA agreed!
Since choice of law is dependent on venue in Immigration Court proceedings, the controlling circuit law is not affected by a change in the administrative control court and will only change upon the granting of a motion to change venue. Matter of Garcia, 28 I&N Dec. 693 (BIA 2023), followed.
“In a decision dated October 24, 2023, the Immigration Judge denied the respondent’s application for deferral of removal under the regulations implementing the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). The respondent, a native and citizen of Morocco, has appealed that decision. The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) has not responded to the appeal. Because we agree with the respondent that additional fact-finding and analysis are needed and the Immigration Judge misapplied choice of law precedent, we will remand these proceedings for the entry of a new decision. … The record reflects that the respondent has been detained at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center (“Moshannon”) in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, throughout these proceedings. The proceedings commenced with the filing of a Notice to Appear (“NTA”) on April 18, 2023, at the Cleveland, Ohio Immigration Court, which is within the jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. … After the respondent’s individual hearing on October 20, 2023, the Immigration Judge applied Third Circuit law and denied deferral of removal under CAT. … The respondent argues that the Immigration Judge erroneously applied Third Circuit law rather than Sixth Circuit law. We review this issue de novo. See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(d)(3)(ii) (2020). For the reasons discussed below, we agree with the respondent that the Immigration Judge applied the incorrect circuit’s law. … On remand, the Immigration Judge should reevaluate the respondent’s claim under Sixth Circuit law and apply relevant Board precedent, with consideration to the respondent’s appellate arguments concerning the respondent’s gender identity and sexual orientation. See Matter of C-G-T-, 28 I&N Dec. 740, 745 (BIA 2023) (explaining that “when considering future harm, adjudicators should not expect a respondent to hide” the respondent’s sexual orientation).”
Great job, Jennifer! Once again, it’s worth asking ourselves how successful arguments of this kind could ever be made by an unrepresented respondent. If, as is painfully obvious to even a casual observer, the answer is “they couldn’t,” then where is the due process in an overloaded, corner-cutting court system where lack of representation is actually on the increase, despite truly heroic efforts by the private and pro bono bars?
I also find the last sentence of the above summary very helpful. While it certainly states the correct rule regarding sexual orientation cases, my sense is that this part of the Matter of C-G-T- precedent is often ignored at the Immigration Court level and not always corrected by the BIA on appeal. So, it’s certainly worth re-emphasizing!
The BIA’s opinion was written by Appellate Immigration Judge Gorman for a panel that also included Appellate Immigration Judge Greer and Temporary Appellate IJ Crossett.
(CNN) — Some of Sebastian Corral’s memories have faded. But the 91-year-old remembers his 1953 arrival in the US as if it were yesterday.
How workers like him were forced to strip naked and sprayed with insecticide.
How their hands were inspected to make sure they were qualified for the hard labor that awaited them.
How unwelcome he and so many others felt even though they’d been invited across the border by the US government.
“You felt humiliated. You felt like you were nothing, even though you’d come to work and lift yourself up,” Corral told CNN in a recent interview via Zoom from his home in Vado, New Mexico.
Memories of those first moments in America came rushing back for Corral this month during a dramatically different visit to the place where he took his first steps in the country more than 70 years ago.
This time, officials were unveiling plaques designating the former Rio Vista Bracero Reception Center in Socorro, Texas, as a National Historic Landmark. And Corral was a guest of honor.
. . . .
Today, he describes the long journey that began at Rio Vista with pride:
“I came as a bracero. After being a bracero, then I was illegal for some years. After being illegal, then I was a permanent resident. Now I am a citizen.”
In some ways, Rio Vista wasn’t like Corral remembered when he returned this month. The buildings were more worn-down — some “pure ruins,” Corral says. But what Corral noticed most wasn’t the buildings; it was how differently he felt being there.
“I was not the same person as before,” he says.
So much had changed since those first days when he was a young man waiting for a rancher to arrive at Rio Vista with work.
He’d harvested cotton, and driven tractors, and picked beets and cucumbers as a bracero. He’d lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Texas during his years in the program. Once, an El Paso restaurant had refused to serve him because he was Mexican. He’d been an undocumented immigrant for decades. He’d washed dishes and prepped food in a Los Angeles restaurant. He’d worked at dairy farms in California. He’d become a legal resident after President Reagan signed a law granting him and millions of others amnesty. He’d finally brought his wife and children to the US after years of separation. He’d saved enough money to buy land for all of them to build homes nearby. He’d had 14 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.
And just two years ago, he’d finally become a US citizen after decades of knowing he was American, nearly 70 years after his first arrival in the United States.
All of this went through Corral’s mind as he revisited Rio Vista on May 11. And in the mix of emotions that hit him, he felt anger at some points, but also, contentment.
Some of the buildings around him were in ruins as they awaited renovation. But Corral was standing in the Rio Vista courtyard with generations of his family beside him.
And he saw something else: the life that he built.
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Read the complete story at the link.
The thing that stands out time after time: The strength, character, and triumph of individual immigrants over laws and actions often intended to exploit, dehumanize, and/or discourage them!
The 1924 Immigration Act vilified, dehumanized, and barred many of those immigrants who have made America great, like Italian Americans being demeaned in this cartoon. Yet, some descendants of those unfairly targeted appear oblivious to the mistakes of the past and willing to inflict the same immoral lies, harm, and suffering on today’s migrants. IMAGE: Public RealmEduardo Porter Columnist and Editorial Board Member Washington Post PHOTO: WashPost
“I think that we have sufficient stock in America now for us to shut the door.”
That sounds like Donald Trump, right? Maybe on one of his campaign stops? It certainly fits the mood of the country. This year, immigration became voters’ “most important problem” in Gallup polling for the first time since Central Americans flocked to the border in 2019. More than half of Americans perceive immigrants crossing the border illegally as a “critical threat.”
Yet the sentiment expressed above is almost exactly 100 years old. It was uttered by Sen. Ellison DuRant Smith, a South Carolina Democrat, on April 9, 1924. And it helped set the stage for a historic change in U.S. immigration law, which imposed strict national quotas for newcomers that would shape the United States’ ethnic makeup for decades to come.
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The renewed backlash against immigration has little to offer the American project, though. Closing the door to new Americans would be hardly desirable, a blow to one of the nation’s greatest sources of dynamism. Raw data confirms how immigrants are adding to the nation’s economic growth, even while helping keep a lid on inflation.
Anyway, that horse left the stable. The United States is full of immigrants from, in Trump’s memorable words, “s—hole countries.” The project to set this in reverse is a fool’s errand. The 1924 Johnson-Reed immigration law might have succeeded in curtailing immigration. But the restrictions did not hold. From Presidents Johnson to Trump, efforts to circle the wagons around some ancestral White American identity failed.
We are extremely lucky it did. Contra Sen. Ellison DuRant Smith’s 100-year old prescriptions, the nation owes what greatness it has to the many different women and men it has drawn from around the world to build their futures. This requires a different conversation — one that doesn’t feature mass expulsions and concentration camps but focuses on constructing a new shared American identity that fits everyone, including the many more immigrants who will arrive from the Global South for years to come.
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Gordon F. Sander Journalist and Historian PHOTO: www.gordonsander.com
Gordon F. Sander, journalist and historian, also writes in WashPost, perhaps somewhat less optimistically, but with the same historical truth in the face of current political lies and gross misrepresentations:
Johnson and Reed were in a triumphant mood on the eve of their bill’s enactment. “America of the melting pot will no longer be necessary,” Reed wrote in the Times. He remarked on the new law’s impact: “It will mean a more homogenous nation, more self-reliant, more independent and more closely knit by common properties and common faith.”
The law immediately had its intended effect. In 1921, more than 200,000 Italians arrived at Ellis Island. In 1925, following the bill’s enactment, barely 6,000 Italians were permitted entry.
But there were less intended consequences, too, including on U.S. foreign relations. Although Reed insisted there was nothing personal about the act’s exclusion of Japanese people, the Japanese government took strong exception, leading to an increase in tensions between the two countries. There were riots in Tokyo. The road to Pearl Harbor was laid.
During the 1930s, after the eugenics-driven Nazis seized control of Germany, the quotas established by the act helped close the door to European Jews and others fleeing fascism.
At the same time, the law also inspired a small but determined group of opponents led by Rep. Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.), who were committed to overturning it. Celler’s half-century-long campaign finally paid off in 1965 at the Statue of Liberty when, as Celler looked on, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act, which ended national origin quotas.
But with anti-immigration sentiment on the rise and quotas once again on the table, it’s clear that a century after its enactment, the ghost of Johnson-Reed isn’t completely gone.
Gordon F. Sander is a journalist and historian based in Riga, Latvia. He is the author of “The Frank Family That Survived: A 20th Century Odyssey” and other books
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Many thanks to my friend and immigration maven Deb Sanders for alerting me to the Sander article. I strongly urge everyone to read both pieces at the links above.
Perhaps the most poignant comment I’ve received about these articles is from American educator, expert, author, and “practical scholar” Susan Gzesh:
And because of the 1924 Act, my grandparents lost dozens of their siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews to the Holocaust in the 1940s because Eastern European Jewish immigration to the US had been cut off. They would have been capable of sponsoring more family to come to the US in the late 1920s and 30s, but there was no quota for them.
I have no words to describe my feelings about so-called experts who would praise the 1924 Act. I know that Asian Americans must feel similarly to my sentiments.
Well said, Susan!
Susan Gzesh American scholar, educator, expert, author PHOTO: U. Of Chicago
I’ll leave it at that, for you to ponder the next time you hear Trump, DeSantis, Abbott, and the like fear-monger about the bogus “invasion,” spout “replacement theory,” and extoll the virtues of extralegal cruelties and dehumanization inflicted upon “the other” — typically the most vulnerable who areseeking our legal protection and appealing to our senses of justice and human dignity! And, also you can consider this when the so called “mainstream media” pander to these lies by uncritically presenting them as “the other side,” thereby echoing “alternative facts!”
It’s also worth remembering this when you hear Biden, Harris, Schumer, Murphy, and other weak-kneed Dem politicos who should know better adopt Trumpist White Nationalist proposals and falsely present them as “realistic compromises” — as opposed to what they really are —tragic acts of political and moral cowardice!
Eventually, as both of the above articles point out, America largely persevered and prospered over its demons of racism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-immigrant nationalism. But, it would be wrong to view this “long arc” analysis as “zeroing out” the sins and horrors of our past.
Susan Gzesh’s relatives died, some horribly and painfully, before their time. That can’t be changed by future progress. Nor can the children they might have had or the achievements they never got to make to our nation and the world be resurrected.
As Susan mentions, the 1924 Act also reinforced long-standing racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans that led to the irreversible harm inflicted by the internment of Japanese American citizens, continuing Chinese Exclusion, and a host of state laws targeting the Asian population and making their lives miserable. Belated recognition of the wrongfulness and immorality of these reprehensible laws and actions does nothing for their past victims.
Many Irish, Italian, and other Catholics and their cherished institutions died, lost property, or were permanently displaced by widespread anti-Catholic riots brought on and fanned by the very type of biased and ignorant thinking that undergirded Johnson-Reed. They can’t be brought back to life and their property restored just by a “magic wave of the historical wand.”
U.S. citizens of Mexican-American heritage were deported and dispossessed, some from property their ancestors had owned long before there was even a United States. Apologizing to their descendants and acknowledging our mistakes as a nation won’t eliminate the injustices done them — ones that they took to their graves!
Despite the “lessons of the Holocaust,” America continues to struggle with anti-Semitism and anti-Islamic phobias and indifference to human suffering beyond our borders.
And, of course, the poisonous adverse impacts of slavery on our nation and our African-American compatriots continue to haunt and influence us despite disingenuous claims to the contrary.
Dan Kowalski Online Editor of the LexisNexis Immigration Law Community (ILC)Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase Jeffrey S. Chase Blog Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges
My friends immigration experts Dan Kowalski and Hon. Jeffrey Chase also had some “choice words” for the “false scholars” who extol the fabricated “benefits” of White Nationalism and racism embodied in “laws” that contravened the very meaning of “with liberty and justice for all” — something to reflect upon this Memorial Day. See https://dankowalski.substack.com/p/true-colors.
Thank you, Dan! In memory of my Gzesh, Wolfson, Kronenberg, and Kissilove relatives who were victims of the Holocaust – after their U.S.-based relatives failed to get visas for them.
Heed the lessons of history, enshrine tolerance, honor diversity, and “improve on past performance!”We have a choice as to whether or not to repeat the mistakes of the past — to regress to a darker age or move forward to a brighter future for all!Make the right one!
