🇺🇸🗽THE TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTS: Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) & Rep-Elect Hillary Scholten (D-MI) Are Models For A Durable Democratic Majority! — Humane Values, Active Listening, Practical Problem-Solving, Community Unity, Integrity, Individual Freedom, Responsibility, Organization, Persistence, Moral Courage, Indefatigable Energy, Amazing Work Ethic, Unselfish Public Service, Kindness, Compassion, Caring, Never Forgetting Where You Came From = A Winning Formula That Other Dems Could Emulate!

From Jennifer Rubin @ WashPost on Abigail:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/09/spanberger-virginia-win-centrist-democrat/

. . . .

During her victory remarks on Tuesday night, Spanberger spoke of her “deep and abiding love for the country” and a “profound sense of responsibility.” The former CIA agent reiterated that the country was founded on “a dream” that it need not bound by the past or be ruled by kings and queens. Quoting Benjamin Franklin’s admonition that the constitutional convention delivered a republic “if you can keep it,” she declared, “We must all work hard to keep it.”

As a moderate, Spanberger has managed to balance fidelity to Democratic causes such as investment in green energy and the preservation of abortion rights with an independent, reform-minded streak that sometimes put her at odds with party leadership. (Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, has not allowed a floor vote on Spanberger’s bill that would ban House members and their spouses from holding individual stocks.)

With this win, Spanberger reaffirms her status as a rising star in the party. Her formula — bipartisan problem solving, strong national security credentials, anti-corruption crusading and support for women’s reproductive rights — has proved successful. But she also had another advantage: a Democratic record of legislative success, including the infrastructure bill, the Chips and Science Act, an expansion of veterans’ health care and measures to reduce prescription drug prices.

. . . .

Rep-Elect Hillary Scholten
Democrat
Michigan 3rd District

Here’s what Hillary had to say in her victory statement:

It’s a new day in West Michigan. I have officially been elected to represent West Michigan in Congress.

Make no mistake: this is a historic victory. We flipped a crucial House seat from red to blue, elected West Michigan’s first-ever Democratic Congresswoman, and sent a strong message that will not tolerate anti-democratic, anti-American extremism here.

I am a proud fourth-generation West Michigander. I know we’re a community that values service over self, building up over tearing down, and unity over division. We’re a community that cares for its poor, supports its vulnerable, and welcomes the stranger. A community where differences are not feared, but valued.

My promise to you is that I will never forget where I come from or who I work for. I will always show up for my community and look forward to getting to work serving West Michiganders.

Forever thankful,
Hillary

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

By sharp contrast, the GOP has no known values: divide, bully, lie, demean, hate, misinform, blame, deny, discriminate, humiliate, oppress, smear, shame. Those aren’t values: just highly negative attributes!

The GOP did claim concern about inflation and the economy. But, they offered no coherent plan for addressing it in any practical, bi-partisan manner.

Instead, they promised to wreck Government, mindlessly oppose anything Biden proposes, and even threatened to collapse the worldwide economy by “playing chicken” with the artificially-created “debt ceiling.”

To the extent that any GOP candidate could explain their economic “plan” (most couldn’t or wouldn’t), it was a muddled variation of proven-to-fail “trickle down economics.” Yup, the same nonsense and bureaucratic doublespeak that has destroyed the British economy and led the Conservatives to be a laughingstock of “unstable government by clowns🤡!” Basically slash programs that benefit everybody to reward fat-cats with more un-needed and unfunded tax breaks.

Do we really need to make guys like Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, McConnell, and the “geniuses” who invented “cryptocurrency” richer? Make sense? Of course not! I doubt that there is a shortage of “investment capital” in the U.S. right now.

Is preventing IRS from processing returns in a timely manner and collecting back-taxes owed really the key to reducing budget deficits? Preposterous! Yet GOP pols say so!

Undoubtedly, we need prudence, responsibility, and focus in government spending — from both parties. As working mothers, Abigail and Hillary know a thing or two about making responsible fiscal decisions and insuring that their constituents get the most bang for each hard-earned tax dollar spent. And neither is afraid to speak out against “fraud, waste, and abuse” in any and all forms!

As former Federal civil servants, they recognize the need for cutting waste and getting more value for each dollar. In that respect, I think that requiring competent management, accountability, expertise, innovative customer service, and focused enforcement in the hugely expensive yet highly wasteful, ineffective, and often counterproductive immigration bureaucracy would be a good starting point for achieving much more without drastic resource increases.

It doesn’t hurt that Abigail and Hillary are really really smart and use their brains to help others and society rather than for self-aggrandizement or to lord it over others. Tough as they are, they are also nice, kind, and compassionate. In other words, non-ideologues.

Go, Abigail and Hillary! Make America the best that we can be: A diverse society and powerful nation where everyone can reach their full potential, independence, and self-sufficiency, not just the “chosen few!”

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-12-22

🤯 “HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUILDING BACKLOG” — Latest BIA Miscue On Retroactivity in 7th Cir. Sure To Generate Re-openings, Remands, & Other Forms Of Backlog Enhancing, Due Process Denying “Aimless Docket Reshuffling!” — Garland’s Inexcusable Mis-Management Of EOIR Is Boiling Over Among Dem Base!

From Dan Kowalski @ LexisNexis Immigration Community:

Daniel M. Kowalski

8 Nov 2022

retroactivity

cimt

CA7 on CIMT, Retroactivity: Zaragoza v. Garland

Zaragoza v. Garland

“Dulce Zaragoza, a native and citizen of Mexico and a lawful permanent resident of the United States, pleaded guilty to the Indiana offense of criminal neglect of a dependent after locking her six-year-old son in a closet for six hours. She was sentenced to one year in jail suspended to time served plus 30 days, with the remainder of the sentence to be served on probation. After completing her sentence, she traveled abroad and presented herself for admission when she returned. The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) found her inadmissible based on the neglect conviction, which the agency classified as a “crime involving moral turpitude.” 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I). She was placed in removal proceedings. Zaragoza fought removal on several grounds, with her arguments expanding as the proceedings progressed. Before the immigration judge, she argued that the Indiana neglect offense does not qualify as a crime involving moral turpitude. The judge disagreed and entered a removal order, and Zaragoza appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA” or “the Board”). In the meantime, she petitioned the state court to modify her sentence. Her purpose was to bring herself within the so-called “petty offense” exception to inadmissibility, which is available to first-time offenders sentenced to six months or less. Id. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(ii)(II). The state court obliged and reduced her one-year sentence to 179 days. With that order in hand, Zaragoza argued before the BIA that Indiana’s neglect offense is not a crime involving moral turpitude, and regardless, the petty-offense exception applies. The BIA rejected both arguments, agreeing with the immigration judge that the Indiana offense is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude, and further holding that the sentence-modification order was not effective to establish Zaragoza’s eligibility for the petty-offense exception. For the latter conclusion, the Board relied on a recent decision of the Attorney General declaring that state-court sentence modification orders are effective for immigration purposes only if based on a legal defect in the underlying criminal proceeding. Matter of Thomas & Thompson (“Thomas”), 27 I. & N. Dec. 674, 690 (Att’y Gen. 2019). Zaragoza sought reconsideration, this time adding two more arguments: (1) the phrase “crime involving moral turpitude” is unconstitutionally vague; and (2) the Attorney General’s decision in Thomas is impermissibly retroactive as applied to her. The BIA disagreed on both counts. Zaragoza petitioned for review in this court, reprising the entire array of arguments she presented to the Board. We agree with the BIA’s resolution of all issues but one: applying Thomas in Zaragoza’s case is an impermissibly retroactive application of a new rule. We therefore remand to the BIA for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

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

Commentary from Kevin A. Gregg, ESQ:

Kevin A. Gregg

• 1st

Partner at Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli & Pratt P.A. & Host of Immigration Review Podcast

2d • Edited •

2 days ago

Crimmigration attorneys, get your motions ready.

At least in Chicago! Matter of Thomas and Thompson CANNOT be applied retroactively in the Seventh Circuit!

Sentence modifications/clarifications/European vacations obtained pre-T&T and that comply with Matter of Cota Vargas/Song/Estrada must be recognized for immigration purposes!

Also, when will A.G. Garland weigh in on Matter of Thomas and Thompson? The time is now.

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

When the BIA starts not with the correct legal concept that retroactivity is disfavored in the law, but rather with “how can we best help DHS Enforcement and/or curry favor and job security from our political ‘handlers’ at DOJ,” “bad things are going to happen.” And, they do, over and over!

There are plenty of well-qualified “practical scholars” out here who understand retroactivity in the immigration context and would get these basic questions right in the first instance without bothering the Courts of Appeals or generating disorder, inconsistency, and unnecessary backlog! Why hasn’t Garland recruited them to be the “New and Improved BIA” that would actually be driven by legal expertise, practical scholarship, due process, and fundamental fairness? The latter are qualities that EOIR and DOJ claims it seeks in Immigration Judges. But, it’s not the reality that practitioners too often actually face in todays dysfunctional, inefficient, and hopelessly backlogged EOIR.

The public and those subject to substandard judging and often dehumanizing treatment by EOIR are suffering — amazingly, now more than ever! When will Garland do his job and reform his courts to conform to due process, fundamental fairness, best interpretations of law, and best practices?

The latter desirable qualities, actually necessary for any legitimate judiciary, are certainly NOT descriptive of today’s broken EOIR! Garland and his lieutenants might consider themselves “above the fray!”

But, my already over-stuffed e-mailbox is “lighting up” with EOIR horror stories from experienced, long-time practitioners who are questioning whether they can continue practicing in the hostile, lawless, “no due process,” “no customer service,” “no common sense,” “blame the victim” environment that Garland has allowed to mushroom, and sometimes even encouraged, at EOIR.

I mentioned the term “Dedicated Docket” at an Executive Session of a major NGO recently. The anger and disgust that it provoked from those actually “doing the job” of fighting for justice in Garland’s broken system was palpable!

Why is a Democratic Administration that is, despite beating expectations in the midterms, still hanging on by a thread, inflicting this type of disrespect, pain, and suffering on its own loyal supporters? How will this self-created legal, Constitutional, human rights disaster play out moving toward 2024!

“The EOIR HQ Tower” needs a complete shake-up and replacement of those who have demonstrated their inability to get the job done with those who can! The latter are out here. But, the worse Garland lets his system get, the harder and most costly (dollars and lives) it will be to fix it!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-11-22

🆘 ATTN NDPA: THE FUTURE IS NOW! — AS PRACTITIONER ANGER AND FRUSTRATION WITH GARLAND’S DYSFUNCTIONAL “COURTS” BOILS OVER, GETTING YOURSELF “ON THE BENCH” & FORCING RATIONALITY, DUE PROCESS, & FUNDAMENTAL FAIRNESS “FROM THE INSIDE” IS THE BEST, PERHAPS ONLY, OPTION AT PRESENT! — Here Are 10 Chances To do Just That!

Waiting for Godot — Waiting for Merrick Garland and his “Clueless Crew” at DOJ to fix the dysfunctional Immigration Courts will be an exercise in futility.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0

Garland is a disgraceful failure as our nation’s top lawyer; Congress is deadlocked and uninterested in solving immigration and human rights problems; Federal Courts, these days often “stacked” with far-right ideologues, too often look the other way at gross violations of due process, overt racism, misogyny, and bad interpretations as long as it’s “only migrants of color” (“non-persons” in the view of some) and their lawyers whose lives are being trashed. At best, the Circuits provide widely inconsistent review and results — perhaps not quite as bad as EOIR, but still far beyond anything that would be acceptable if migrants were actually treated as “persons” as the Constitution clearly provides.

I receive some desperate anecdotal complaints about the absurdly broken system and unprofessional conduct by some IJs and EOIR officials here at “Courtside.”

Here’s a recent one from a long-time practitioner that more or less sums up Garland and the Biden Administration’s incredibly disreputable mal-administration of EOIR:

Everything at EOIR is such a disgrace. It is now very difficult for me to appear before IJs, as I have complete contempt for the agency. It is so much worse now than when Trump was in charge. But of course, EOIR could care less, and obviously, this IJ could care less as well…

“Much worse now than when Trump was in charge!” Let that sink in folks!

As I’ve said before, “This just isn’t right!” But, we seem to be dealing with three branches of “Government” who have simply turned their collective backs on the Constitution, the rule of law, common sense, and the fundamental obligations of decency that human beings owe to each other. They also deny the truth: That immigrants are and will continue to be an essential part of the fabric of our society. So, many have asked me “What’s the answer?”

Storm the fort “from the inside!” Use your superior knowledge, organizational, and problem solving skills to get on the Immigration Bench and get paid to do things the right way, help force systemic change over time, save some very deserving lives, and help preserve and improve our democracy at the same time.

One of the few advantages of working in an “out of control” system is this: there isn’t much control. That often motivates sloppy work, corner-cutting, and a “who cares” approach.

But, it can also motivate and allow those with the skills and moral integrity to “do the right thing,” to put due process first, solve problems (satisfying), and institute “best practices” rather than worst practices in YOUR courtroom, even if only on a case-by-case basis. And, guess what? Things that “work” and efficiently resolve problems in your courtroom do impact the rest of the system!

Eventually, it can lead to demands to stop doing things the same old wrong and unfair way and start start treating others fairly and with dignity. Surprisingly, despite persistent bureaucratic myths to the contrary, doing things the right way and treating everyone fairly is more efficient than repeating the same old mistakes, based on the same old discredited “deterrence myths,” over and over. Recognizing and timely granting deserving cases is the very best, totally overlooked, way of cutting backlog and forcing the system to be more efficient without stomping on anyone’s rights or humanity!

Sure, the EOIR system only superficially claims to be interested in efficiency. What they really want is the “appearance of efficiency” with the ability to shift blame for problems to the “victims” of their incredibly poor performance!

But, eventually enough folks in the right places can get the idea that doing things the right way could actually be better for the system than repeating past mistakes and covering up. The latter gets stressful, even for politicos and bureaucrats who have made careers out of avoiding accountability and responsibility. And, there are certainly plenty of those in today’s EOIR and DOJ.

So here are 10 great opportunities to “get on the inside” and start fixing justice in America and the critical “retail level.”

Seven open IJ positions:

Working for the U.S. Department of Justice allows you to make a difference every day through public service. As an immigration judge you provide due process while deciding cases that have immediate impact. Next week, EOIR will announce the opportunity to apply for immigration judge positions. EOIR will post the vacancy announcement to USAJobs and announce it via the IJ Jobs listserv. The announcement will offer opportunities for immigration courts in the following locations:

Adelanto, CA

Concord, CA

Imperial, CA

San Francisco, CA

LaSalle, LA

Boston (Lowell), MA

El Paso, TX

If you would like to learn more about qualifications and the process for becoming an immigration judge, please visit our informational page.

Here are three Assistant Chief Judge (“ACIJ”) positions:

https://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/job/assistant-chief-immigration-judge-10

It is REALLY important that great attorneys of all genders and ethnic groups apply for these important positions. EOIR has NEVER been representative of either the communities it serves or the talent and diversity of the private immigration/human rights bar. The “bureaucratic excuse” has been that the “pool” of USG applicants, particularly those from DHS and prosecutorial backgrounds, is always far “superior.”

I call BS! But, the only way to “prove it wrong” is if “the best and brightest” from the private sectors apply en masse.

EOIR will NOT improve voluntarily. Over the past two disgraceful years, Garland has proved that “beyond a reasonable doubt.” So, get on the inside and start changing this system to promote impeccable scholarship, due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices from the inside and from “the bottom up!”

Because, waiting for Merrick Garland and his “clueless” crew @ DOJ and EOIR to get the job done for equal justice and racial justice in America will be like “Waiting for Godot.” And, we all know how that turns out.

Apply now! Ask questions later!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-10-22

☠️🪦🏴‍☠️ AMERICA’S BORDER “POLICY:” PASS MORE BODY BAGS, PLEASE! — Cynical GOP Lies, Bumbling Dems, Bad Righty Judges, Deadlocked Congress, Public Indifference To Human Suffering & Reality Prove A Deadly Concoction For Legal Asylum Seekers!

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2022/nov/06/us-mexico-border-body-bags-pile-up?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Alexandra Villarreal reports for The Guardian:

. . . .

Along the 2,000-mile (3,219km) boundary between the US and Mexico, the 2022 fiscal year proved the deadliest on record for people trying to make unauthorized crossings of this heavily patrolled international line.

In just 12 months, more than 800 migrants lost their lives in search of a better one as they disappeared beneath the tumultuous waters of the Rio Grande, succumbed to blistering summer heat, crashed in a smuggler’s vehicle, tumbled from a border barrier, or otherwise had their travels violently cut short.

In Eagle Pass’s regional enforcement sector alone, border patrol agents discovered more than 200 dead migrants between October 2021 and the end of July, compared to an already heartbreaking 34 bodies during the entire 2020 fiscal year.

Ahead of this week’s crucial midterm elections, Republicans have manipulated these harrowing statistics as yet another opportunity to make much ado about what various rightwing players call Joe Biden’s “open border policies”, accusing his administration of incompetence that is causing “body bags [to] keep piling up”.

It’s close to sealed by a hostile combination of pandemic-era public health measures cynically retooled as federal immigration control and mass policing by state troops who arrest, jail and criminalize migrants.

Cruelly, these hardline deterrence mechanisms advanced by both Democrats and Republicans have probably only made the US’s south-west border bloodier.

Current US policy is predicated on a false assumption that if only the consequences for crossing the south-west border are severe enough, people will stop trying.

For decades, presidential administrations with disparate political views have unified under the paradigm of prevention through deterrence, erecting physical and legal obstacles to discourage people from crossing.

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Deterrence as a strategy has informed some of the US’s most controversial immigration policies, from separating families, to detaining children, to stranding asylum seekers in dangerous Mexican border towns.

But desperate people still find ways to make it on to US soil: last fiscal year, Customs and Border Protection documented nearly 2.38m enforcement encounters at the southern border, a record high causing headaches for Biden as conservatives accuse the president of being “lax” on border crime.

The truth is more complex, and not at all lax. More than a million of last fiscal year’s border enforcement encounters were processed under Title 42, now invoked as a federal immigration enforcement tool but originally disguised as a public health measure amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The policy allowed the Trump and now the Biden administrations to expel huge numbers of people from the US without even letting them ask for asylum, seemingly in violation of domestic and international law.

Far from ending unauthorized migration, the invocation of Title 42 has in fact dramatically inflated the number of encounters at the US-Mexico border, as people who are expelled feel compelled to cross again – and again, and again. Sometimes, relentless migrants have been so determined to complete their journeys that they have risked life and limb dozens of times, fueling a political and humanitarian disaster.

Yet even though these expulsions have proved ill-advised both optically and ethically, Biden has now expanded the use of Title 42 by adding Venezuelans to the list of nationalities targeted for return to Mexico, an apparent betrayal of his campaign promises to uphold the legal right to seek asylum and a paradox as his administration ostensibly fights to sunset the practice in court.

. . . .

And both parties continue to police people seeking security and opportunity over violence, persecution and poverty as if they’re national security threats.

In the shadow of it all, the corpses amass.

Back in Eagle Pass, locals like Rosalinda Medrano who have lived for decades along a porous border understand that migrants have and will always come or, increasingly, die trying.

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“Even though there’s one fence, and another fence, and so many troopers, and the national guard, and you name it – Border Patrol, here and there and everywhere – it’s not gonna stop these families,” she said, adding simply: “They want a better life.”

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

Read the complete article at the link, in which Alexandra points to the numerous achievable solutions that both parties eschew — for political reasons — some cynical, dishonest, and racist (GOP) — others cowardly (Dems). None of what Alexandra reports will come as news to faithful readers of Courtside, or, indeed, to anyone who has taken the time to actually study and reflect on America’s decades of expensive, inhumane, “deterrence policies.”

Fact is, existing law, if correctly applied and administered, offers some obvious ways to start solving the problem:

Robust realistic “overseas” refugee programs in the Western Hemisphere — 150,000 would be a modest start — rather than the piddling, restricted numbers now slowly doled out by the Biden Administration.
Reopen legal ports of entry to legal asylum seekers, as required by law, to incentivize and reward them for not seeking to cross between ports of entry.
Staff the Asylum Office and the Immigration Courts with real experts in asylum law (there are plenty of well-qualified lawyers now in the private sector) who are committed to due process and can rapidly recognize and grant the many meritorious cases. Then, individuals are admitted in legal status, on their way to green cards, rather than aimlessly wandering the US with government-issued packets of misinformation (or no information at all) waiting for hearings that will come either too soon or too late, but never in a reasonable manner and often with incorrect preordained results designed to abuse the legal system as an “enforcement deterrent.” (NOTE: To act as an incentive/reward for appearing at ports of entry, the asylum system must be credible, transparent, and timely — something that no Administration has achieved to date, but which is possible with more vision, leadership, and better personnel making decisions.)
Work with, bolster, support, and learn from the many NGOs in the U.S. to insure that asylum seekers are informed of their obligations, represented on their applications, and resettled, mostly away from the borders to areas that need them, in an orderly fashion.
Additional huge benefit: Despite the lies and myths spread by nativists, increasing legal immigration (including refugees and asylees) is one of the few potentially effective ways that the “political branches” of Government have to address inflation without causing recession. See, e.g., https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-covid-immigration-makes-inflation-worse-recession-outlook-jobs-supply-2022-10.

“Even though there’s one fence, and another fence, and so many troopers, and the national guard, and you name it – Border Patrol, here and there and everywhere – it’s not gonna stop these families,” she said, adding simply: “They want a better life.”

We can, and must, do better than “more body bags” as a matter of national policy! Migrants aren’t going to stop coming. That, we can’t change in the long run — no matter how many lies, myths, and distortions nativists throw out there, and no matter how fast spineless Dem politicos run from or attempt to hide the truth. But, we can deal with reality in a more humane, practical, realistic manner that will serve our nation’s, and humanity’s, interests into the future.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-10-22

🇺🇸🗽👍🏼🌟⭐️💫♥️ COMING TO D.C. IN JAN! — REP-ELECT HILLARY SCHOLTEN (D-MI) BRINGS “DOWN HOME” VALUES, COURGE, SMARTS, INTEGRITY, REAL PATRIOTISM, & PROVEN PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS TO A CONGRESS THAT URGENTLY NEEDS THEM — “She’s One Tough, Gutsy ‘NDPA Mom!’” — First Dem To Win In Grand Rapids In Over Three Decades!

Many, many, many congrats, endless appreciation, and thanks for what you have accomplished, my friend!

https://mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2022/11/hillary-scholten-defeats-trump-backed-john-gibbs-for-west-michigan-congressional-seat.html

Hillary Scholten defeats Trump-backed John Gibbs for West Michigan congressional seat

Updated: Nov. 09, 2022, 4:05 a.m.|Published: Nov. 09, 2022, 2:11 a.m.

21

Hillary Scholten (D) and John Gibbs (R) face off for Michigan 3rd Congressional District seat

By Brian McVicar | bmcvicar@mlive.com Melissa Frick | mfrick@mlive.com

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Hillary Scholten will become the first Democrat to represent Grand Rapids in Congress since 1977 after defeating Trump-backed Republican John Gibbs in a race that’s drawn national attention.

Scholten, an immigration attorney from Grand Rapids who worked in the U.S. Department of Justice during the Obama administration, defeated Gibbs 53% to 44%, according to unofficial results from the Associated Press.

The AP called the race for Scholten just before 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, with 63% of votes counted.

Scholten campaigned as a common-sense, problem-solving candidate who supports abortion rights, lowering the cost of health care and prescription drugs, and protecting Social Security and Medicare. Scholten cast Gibbs as an extreme candidate focused overturning the 2020 election results and “doing Donald Trump’s bidding on West Michigan.”

Scholten could not immediately be reached for comment early on Wednesday, Nov. 9. Her campaign spokesperson, Larkin Parker, said Scholten would be live-streaming a speech this morning.

Gibbs took to Twitter after AP called the race, saying “we believe this call is premature.”

“There are plenty more votes outstanding and we expect the vote count to go well into Wednesday,” said Gibbs, who grew up in Lansing and served in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during Trump’s presidency.

The last time a Democrat was elected to represent Grand Rapids in Congress was 1974. Attorney Richard Vander Veen was elected that year, in what was then the 5th Congressional District. He replaced U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford, who resigned from the seat to become vice president during Richard Nixon’s second term.

. . . .

After the polls closed Tuesday, Scholten spoke to supporters at Paddock Place, a restaurant and event venue in Grand Rapids. She described her campaign as a unifying effort to draw in voters from both sides of the political spectrum, as opposed to the “divisiveness” of her opponent’s campaign.

“This campaign has, and continues to build, something new here in West Michigan,” Scholten said. “A new political home for people on the right, the left, the center, who are tired of politics as usual, who are ready to cast aside the old frame of division, ‘us versus them,’ and join hands together for a better, brighter West Michigan for all of us.”

. . . .

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

Hillary has always been a widely respected “bridge builder.” She’s intellectually powerful, value-driven, dynamic, “tough as nails,” yet always kind and compassionate!

To my knowledge, she’s the first NDPA stalwart and first BIA employee to be elected to Congress. I hope she inspires others who share her values to enter the political arena and help those of us who believe in rational, practical, people and values-centered government and equal justice for all to save America from extremist ideologues!

🇺🇸 Congrats again and Due Process Forever! Practical, human values, and the courage to stand-up for them against lies and tyranny CAN win elections!

PWS

11-09-22

⚖️ THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-07-22 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Managing Attorney, NIJC — HEADLINERS: Analysts Agree: Immigrants Are “Political Toast” Regardless of Midterms’ Outcome — Neither Party Sees Legal Immigration, Human Rights, Rule of Law, Racial Justice As “Electoral Winners!” — Garland’s DOJ “On A Roll” In Courts Of Appeal, Snuffing Asylum Claims in 2d (2x), 3rd, 8th, & 9th Circuits!

Weekly Briefing

This briefing is designed as a quick-reference aggregation of developments in immigration law, practice, and policy that you can scan for anything you missed over the last week. The contents of the news, links, and events do not necessarily reflect the position of the National Immigrant Justice Center. If you have items that you would like considered for inclusion, please email them to egibson@heartlandalliance.org.

CONTENTS (jump to section)

NEWS

LITIGATION & AGENCY UPDATES

RESOURCES

EVENTS

NEWS

Analysts Don’t Expect Significant Changes in Immigration Policy After the Midterms

VOA: The three analysts said that no one is willing to form a framework to write immigration legislation because they do not see an electoral advantage. See also Democrats Twist and Turn on Immigration as Republicans Attack in Waves; Canada plans record immigration targets amid labour crunch.

Attention Travelers: New Rules Will Require More Caution When Entering USA

Forbes: Evidently, USCBP is eliminating the passport entry stamp to streamline the entry process. So now, foreign nationals will only have access to the Form I-94 website as proof of their lawful immigration status.

Abrupt New Border Expulsions Split Venezuelan Families

NYT: The decision to expel Venezuelans under a pandemic-era policy that allows swift expulsions, previously applied mainly to Mexicans and Central Americans, has had the unintended effect of trapping many Venezuelan families on opposite sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. See also Tougher US Asylum Laws Trigger Drop in Venezuelan Migrants Traveling Through Panama; Migrants Encounter ‘Chaos and Confusion’ in New York Immigration Courts; Nearly 500 Venezuelans admitted to U.S., thousands approved via new plan.

Accounts of migrants’ documents being confiscated by border officials prompt federal review

CBS: The department confirmed the review when asked to respond to accounts from migrants who told “60 Minutes” that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials along the U.S.-Mexico border kept their documents, despite agency policy instructing agents to return migrants’ personal property unless they are fraudulent.

130+ Civil Rights Groups Call On President Biden To Include Immigrants In Pardon Process

NIJC: More than 130 immigration, criminal justice, and civil rights organizations released a letter today urging the Biden administration to include immigrants in the pardon process.

Over 100 Orgs Want Visits For Detained Immigrants Restored

Law360: More than 100 immigrant rights organizations are urging the Biden administration to fully reinstate visitation at immigration detention facilities, saying in a Thursday letter that visitation is crucial for detainees’ mental health and monitoring human rights violations.

ACLU condemns Texas Border Patrol agents’ use of pepper balls against protesting migrants

SA Current: The ACLU is condemning the actions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents allegedly caught on video firing pepper balls at a group of Venezuelan migrants protesting along the banks of the Rio Grande River near El Paso.

LITIGATION & AGENCY UPDATES

2nd Circ. Won’t Review Honduran Man, Son’s Asylum Request

Law360: The Second Circuit on Wednesday declined to review a decision denying an asylum application from a Honduran man and his son who claim they will be killed by gang members if they return home, finding the Board of Immigration Appeals properly reviewed the immigration judge’s decision.

2nd Circ. Won’t Revive Ecuadorian’s Asylum Bid

Law360: The Second Circuit on Tuesday backed the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeal’s decision to apply a persecution motive standard used in asylum requests to an Ecuadorian’s withholding of removal request, saying it was reasonable for the agency to do so.

3rd Circ. Nixes Asylum Over Evangelical Christianity Link

Law360: The Third Circuit on Tuesday knocked down a Guatemalan man’s asylum bid after concluding he failed to back up his fears of violence in the Central American nation based on gang recruitment efforts and his rejection of gangs due to his evangelical Christian faith.

8th Circ. Denies Family’s Asylum Bid Over Gang Fears

Law360: The Eighth Circuit has upheld a Board of Immigration Appeals ruling that denied a family asylum based on alleged gang threats for lack of evidence that the government of El Salvador could not or would not protect them.

9th Circ. Upholds Ruling Denying Bisexual Man Asylum

Law360: A Mexican citizen who said police and criminal gangs would torture him for being bisexual and suffering from mental illness if he is deported a third time

9th Circ. Backs Juvenile Immigrant Adjudication Deadline

Law360: The Ninth Circuit on Thursday backed an order requiring U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to adjudicate Special Immigrant Juvenile petitions within 180 days, rejecting the government’s argument that a lower court relied on “stale evidence” and disregarded hardship considerations.

States Cry Foul Over Steep Drop In Title 42 Haitian Expulsions

Law360: Republican state attorneys general accused the Biden administration of violating an injunction requiring it to repel migrants from the border under pandemic-era restrictions, saying a sharp drop in Haitian expulsions indicated the administration was selectively lifting the so-called Title 42 border block.

DHS Begins Limited Implementation of DACA Final Rule

AILA: On 10/31/22, DHS began limited implementation of the DACA final rule. USCIS will continue to accept and process applications for deferred action, work authorization, and advance parole for current DACA recipients. Due to litigation, USCIS will accept but cannot process initial DACA requests.

EOIR 30-Day Notice and Request for Comments on Proposed Revisions to Forms EOIR-42A and EOIR-42B

AILA: EOIR 30-day notice and request for comments on proposed revisions to Form EOIR-42A and Form EOIR-42B. Comments are due 12/5/22. (87 FR 66326, 11/3/22)

EOIR 30-Day Notice and Request for Comments on Proposed Revisions to Form EOIR-31A

AILA: EOIR 30-day notice-and-comment period for proposed revisions to Form EOIR-31A, which allows an organization to seek accreditation or renewal of accreditation of a non-attorney representative to appear before EOIR and/or DHS. Comments are due by 12/5/22.

CIS Ombudsman Introduces Revised Form for Requesting Case Assistance

AILA: The CIS Ombudsman’s Office updated the DHS Form 7001, Request for Case Assistance, used for requesting case assistance.

RESOURCES

AILA: Practice Alert: DOS Updates Visa Appointment Wait Times Page to Include Additional Categories Including Applications Being Processed through Interview Waiver

AILA Policy Brief: Case Management: An Effective and Humane Alternative to Detention

CLINIC: Frequently Asked Questions: EADs for Afghans

CLINIC: Frequently Asked Questions on the Venezuelan Parole Process

DOJ OIG: Audit of the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s Electronic Case Management System Awards

ILRC: New Options for Survivors of Trafficking and Domestic Violence

ILRC: Alert-October 2022 Changes to USCIS FORM N-648 and to the USCIS Policy Manual

NIJC: FAQ: Post-Win Information For Asylees And Pro Bono Attorneys (National Cases)

OpenBorders: The Free Immigration Guide (App)

EVENTS

11/8/22 SIJS-based Adjustment of Status with Delinquency or Crimes

11/9/22 CMS: 2022 Hybrid Academic and Policy Symposium, Building Our Common Home: Honoring the Dignity and Resilience of Migrants

11/10/22 Punishing Trauma: Incident Reporting and Immigrant Children in Government Custody

11/10/22 Immigration Pro Bono: You Don’t Need to Know It All on Day One

11/14/22 ASISTA: Navigating Systems with your Immigrant Survivor Clients

11/15/22 NIJC’s Fall Pro Bono Asylum Training

11/15/22 AILA: Parole Potpourri

11/16/22 Introduction to Conditional Permanent Residence and Filing the I-751

11/16/22 NIJC Lunch & Learn For Pro Bono Attorneys In Indiana

11/16/22 AILA: New EOIR Limited Representation Regulations Are Here: How Do They Change My Practice?

11/17/22 EOIR: Chicago Stakeholder Session

11/17/22 NLG: Updates on Terrorism-Related Inadmissibility Grounds (TRIG) with guest speaker, Jay Gairson

11/18/22 Fall 2022 Asylum Conference

11/18/22 AILA: Borders Imposed: Indigenous Communities and Immigration

11/29/22 Building an Asylum Claim

11/30/22 CGRS Preserving the Record for Appeal in a Fear-of-Return Claim

12/6/22 Emerging Strategies for Prolonged Detention

12/6/22 Immigration Reform: Might Past Be Prologue?

12/7/22-12/8/22 Defending Survivors: Strategies for Immigrant Survivors Seeking Justice

12/7/22 Parole in Immigration

12/13/22 The Effects of Absences on Naturalization

12/13/22 USCIS: Asylum Quarterly Stakeholder Engagement

12/14/22 Hot Topics in Asylum Law

12/14/22 CLINIC Working Through Vicarious Trauma With Self-Care Strategies

12/15/22 NLG: Obtaining Criminal Records with guest speaker, Gabriela Kahrl

01/19/23 NLG: Top Ethical Issues Facing Legal Representatives in Removal Hearings with guest speaker, Retired Immigration Judge Dana Marks

To sign up for additional NIJC newsletters, visit: https://immigrantjustice.org/subscribe.

You now can change your email settings or search the archives using the Google Group. If you are receiving this briefing from a third party, you can visit the Google Group and request to be added. If you receive an error, make sure you click request access.

Elizabeth Gibson (Pronouns: she/her/ella)

Managing Attorney for Capacity Building and Mentorship

National Immigrant Justice Center

A HEARTLAND ALLIANCE Program

224 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60604
T: (312) 660-1688| F: (312) 660-1688| E: egibson@heartlandalliance.org

www.immigrantjustice.org | Facebook | Twitter

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

Supposedly, the main political issues right now are the economy and inflation. But, the economy and inflation are largely determined by the Fed, markets, global conditions, weather, and a certain amount of pure luck — all things beyond the direct control of the political branches of the USG.

As mentioned by Chuck Todd on last Sunday’s NBC “Meet the Press,” many experts say that the most effective tool that the Administration and Congress have to improve the economy without triggering a recession is to increase legal immigration — sooner rather than later. But, neither party is interested. The GOP sees an anti-immigrant stance as a key to political success. And, the Dems are “actively disinterested” in the issue. So, the opportunity passes.

But, the reality is that, in the long run, no amount of shipping containers, walls, prisons, family separations, deportations, exclusions to death or despair, hate rhetoric, or restrictive legal roadblocks will halt the future flow of human migration, and not incidentally, the internal relocation in America as certain areas become “unlivable.”

According to a government report published in today’s Washington Post:

The U.S. can expect more forced migration and displacement

Already, the authors of Monday’s report said, major storms such as Hurricane Maria, as well as extended droughts that strained lives and livelihoods, have led people to leave their homes in search of more-stable places.

In the hotter world that lies ahead, they write, additional climate impacts — along with other factors such as the housing market, job trends and pandemics — are expected to increasingly influence migration patterns.

“More severe wildfires in California, sea level rise in Florida, and more frequent flooding in Texas are expected to displace millions of people, while climate-driven economic changes abroad continue to increase the rate of emigration to the United States,” the report finds.

Such shifts are inherently complicated and fraught.

Several Indigenous tribes in coastal regions, facing fast-rising seas, have already sought government help to relocate, but have struggled to do so without significant hurdles.

“Forced migrations and displacements disrupt social networks, decrease housing security, and exacerbate grief, anxiety and mental health outcomes,” the authors write.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/07/cop27-climate-change-report-us/

Neither political party appears serious about addressing these migration realities — already underway. The ideas that we can wall ourselves off, invest in “sending countries,” detain, and deport our way out of migration are not “solutions.”

Failure to act boldly and expansively on legal immigration will create a huge class of exploitable, disenfranchised, extralegal residents and plenty of work for border agents, internal police, righty judges, and jailers. It will also be a huge boon to smugglers and cartels who basically will “own” the American migration franchise. But, in the long run, building a large “underground humanity” won’t be enough to offset the “downside” of lacking a robust, realistic, orderly, legal immigration process.

Eventually, those nation-states that figure out how to harness, welcome, and distribute the power of human migration will rule the future. Right now, America’s leaders, of both parties, seem wedded to a “sure to fail” approach of either opposing or ignoring the realities and unlimited potential of human migration. Too bad — for all of us!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-08-22

🗽⚖️ RACIAL INJUSTICE IN AMERICA: RIGHTS GROUPS BLAST ADMINISTRATION’S INDIFFERENCE TO LIVES, LEGAL & HUMAN RIGHTS OF BLACK MIGRANTS!👎🏿 — “Despite your commitment to racial equity, your administration has continued and is poised to expand the discriminatory and anti-Black policies of the past. Your administration has the power to turn the page on these harmful and discriminatory policies.”

From Laura Lynch @ NILC:

Org. Sign-On Letter to the Admin re: Haitians in Guantánamo Bay or third country agreements

Hi everyone –

This morning, Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) along with 288 immigration, civil rights, human rights, and faith-based organizations, sent a letter to President Biden urging him to protect Haitian asylum seekers. In the letter, organizations urged the administration to not send Haitians seeking safety back to Haiti, third countries, or detain them in Guantánamo Bay.

Julia Ainsley from NBC news just published a story featuring this letter, Immigration and rights groups ask Biden administration not to send Haitian migrants to Guantanamo facility.

Julia Edwards Ainsley
NBC News Correspondent

Immediate Asks:

1. Please use this HBA toolkit to amplify the (1) letter and the (2) NBC news article on social media.

2. Please share the letter with your media contacts using this organizational template letter release from HBA and NILC.

▪Here is a link to the HBA/NILC Letter Release that was just sent out.

Thank you to everyone that contributed to this effort and to all the organizations that joined this critical letter!

Laura Lynch

Senior Immigration Policy Attorney

National Immigration Law Center

Phone: (202) 579-8163 I Email: lynch@nilc.org

Pronouns: She/Her

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

Read the letter at the above link.

Pretty much says it all! A Dem Administration abandons the values of racial justice and immigrant justice for some “strategy” that sure escapes me.

It’s not like continuing to “beat up” on Haitians and other migrants of color and threatening to inflict even more extreme violations of legal and human rights than the Trump Administration has garnered ANY support or acceptance from the far right. They continue to characterize all Administration policies as “open borders,” although nothing could be further from the truth.

Additionally, failure to reinstitute and improve the rule of law at the border for legal asylum seekers has failed to create an orderly process for screening asylum seekers at ports of entry or for refugee status outside the U.S. and timely and generously processing valid claims for protection. The result has been a loss of an important group of legal immigrants who could have helped reduce inflation and improved the economic outlook. At the same time, shifting asylum screening away from legal ports of entry has overburdened the Border Patrol by forcing everyone seeking protection to cross the border between ports of entry.

As a related point, I defy anyone to explain on what basis some asylum seekers apprehended at the border are allowed to enter and pursue claims and others similarly situated are orbited back into danger with no process whatsoever. It’s certainly NOT the result of the prompt screening by USCIS Asylum Officers that Congress mandated, but the Trump and Biden Administrations have ignored — to everyone’s detriment.

This resulting “disorder at the border” has NOT attracted independent voters to the Administration’s immigration stance.

At the same time it has driven an unwise and entirely unnecessary wedge between the Administration and 1) Democrats who want “order at the border” and a reduction in extralegal entries; 2) Democrats who believe in strictly honoring our legal, Constitutional, treaty, and human rights obligations to asylum seekers regardless of race; and 3) Democrats who believe that both 1) and 2) are achievable!

I have no idea what the Biden Administration’s “vision” of border law and policy is. But, I can tell you for sure that it’s NOT working and that more, harsher, racially discriminatory enforcement without reinstating our refugee and asylum systems and reforming the totally dysfunctional Immigration Courts is NOT the answer!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-05-22

⚖️ REPRESENTATION WORKS IN IMMIGRATION COURT: Why Isn’t Garland’s EOIR Promoting & Enabling It Rather Than Engaging In More “Aimless Docket Reshuffling?”

Atenas Burrola Estrada
Author
American Immigration Council
PHOTO: American immigration council.org

https://immigrationimpact.com/2022/10/27/immigrants-win-cases-pro-bono-justice-campaign/

71% of Immigrants Win Their Cases Thanks to Pro Bono Volunteers with the Immigration Justice Campaign

Posted by Atenas Burrola Estrada | Oct 27, 2022 | Due Process & the Courts, Immigration Courts

Every year at the end of October, legal service providers come together to celebrate Pro Bono Week. It is a dedicated opportunity to acknowledge the amazing work that our volunteers do—work that is the foundation of the American Immigration Council’s Immigration Justice Campaign. In an immigration system that is set up to make it almost impossible for certain groups of people to win, pro bono volunteers are one of the bastions helping overwhelmed legal service providers hold the line for due process and justice.

From the solo practitioner doing pro bono work to learn a new skill, to the corporate law firm partner who has incorporated pro bono as part of their practice for two decades, our volunteers run the gamut. Everyone makes a difference—from the law students interpreting between classes and homework to the community members who volunteer simply because they care. Every single volunteer is integral to the Justice Campaign’s work—and we thank them for their time and dedication.

Since its creation in 2017, the Justice Campaign and our volunteers have walked alongside hundreds of immigrants in their fight for justice and due process in the United States.

This year alone, over 200 Justice Campaign volunteers have:

Worked on 221 cases for detained individuals in 14 detention centers across the country.

Worked on 335 cases for non-detained individuals across 32 states of residence.

Served clients from 30 countries of origin who speak 19 different languages.

And with these volunteers’ help:

71% of clients have won their immigration case.

85% of clients asking for release from detention have won that release from an immigration judge.

Nationally, only 40% of people win their immigration cases, and only 32% win their release from an immigration judge. Those numbers are even lower for people without an attorney. Detained immigrants without an attorney only have about an 11% chance of winning release.

This small example of Justice Campaign clients and volunteers shows the immediate impact that pro bono work has on clients’ lives. Without the dedication of our pro bono volunteers, many of these individuals would have had to move forward alone. Statistically speaking, that means most probably would have lost.

The past several years have been difficult for most of the world in so many ways. And yet, pro bono volunteers continue showing up every day, allowing the Justice Campaign to continue serving clients, help people get out of detention, fight their cases—and for many, win. To the hundreds of volunteers who have worked with the Justice Campaign, this year and every year, thank you. We could not do this work without you.

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

This reality bears little resemblance to the myths and false narratives about the impact of representation put out by nativists and parroted by EOIR during the Trump years. Nor does it match the gimmicks and poor planning of the Biden Administration, which continues to operate on the false assumption that the vast majority of asylum cases in Immigration Court will be denials.

While this sample is probably too small to be statistically valid, it certainly supports the view that the current mess at EOIR unjustly leaves behind many asylum seekers and other individuals entitled to relief just because they are unrepresented or poorly represented. It also make them much more likely to remain in detention, costly for both them and the Government.

It would make sense for EOIR and the Biden Administration to work cooperatively with the pro bono and low bono bar to prioritize and increase representation and to then prioritize represented cases that are most likely to result in grants of relief. Those cases are likely to proceed faster (without any due-process-denying “gimmicks”), less likely to be appealed, and would seldom reach the Courts of Appeals. An overall efficient way to use resources.

Additionally, EOIR should be working more closely with VIISTA Villanova and others who have developed “scalable” programs for training accredited representatives to increase quality representation in Immigration Court.

Instead, with yet another round of mindless “Aimless Docket Reshuffling” on steroids, EOIR has instigated an unnecessary and counterproductive “pitched battle” with advocates across America. Go figure!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-04-22

THE GIBSON REPORT — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Managing Attorney, NIJC — HEADLINER: Biden Administration Hatches Plans To Dump On Haitian Refugees; Abuses Of Black Detainees; Stranded Venezuelans — Once In Office, The Biden-Harris Racial & Immigrant Justice Campaign “Talk Doesn’t Walk!” 🤬

Weekly Briefing

This briefing is designed as a quick-reference aggregation of developments in immigration law, practice, and policy that you can scan for anything you missed over the last week. The contents of the news, links, and events do not necessarily reflect the position of the National Immigrant Justice Center. If you have items that you would like considered for inclusion, please email them to egibson@heartlandalliance.org.

CONTENTS (jump to section)

NEWS

LITIGATION & AGENCY UPDATES

RESOURCES

EVENTS

PRACTICAL UPDATES

New I-765 and I-589 are mandatory starting next week: Starting Nov. 7, 2022, USCIS will only accept the 07/26/22 editions.

NEWS

With a possible surge of Haitian migrants ahead, the Biden admin is weighing holding them in a third country or at Guantánamo

NBC: The Biden administration is weighing options to respond to what could soon be a mass exodus of migrants from Haiti, including temporarily holding migrants in a third country or expanding capacity at an existing facility at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to two U.S. officials and an internal planning document reviewed by NBC News.

Thousands of Venezuelans are stranded in Mexico after the U.S. shut doors to them

NPR: Tens of thousands of Venezuelans are stranded south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. recently shut the door to them and is returning most Venezuelans who arrive seeking asylum to Mexico. See also Venezuelans struggle with new reality in Tijuana after expulsions from United States.

At least 853 migrants died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in past 12 months — a record high

CBS: The figure, which far exceeded the previous record of 546 migrant deaths recorded by Border Patrol in fiscal year 2021, is likely an undercount due to data collection limits, migration policy analysts said.

Report: Abuse reports by Black immigrant detainees are disproportionately high

LA Times: After analyzing the records of nearly 17,000 calls between 2016 and 2021 from its national immigrant detention hotline, Freedom for Immigrants released a report Wednesday that it and other advocacy groups say indicates a pattern of racism and abuse toward Black migrants.

Hundreds of Thousands at Imminent Risk of Deportation and Family Separation After Negotiations in Ramos v. Mayorkas Collapse

ACLU: After 16 months of negotiations, settlement talks between the Biden administration and plaintiffs in Ramos v. Mayorkas officially collapsed yesterday afternoon, leaving more than 260,000 people at risk of deportation. Beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and their US citizen children first brought the lawsuit in 2018 after Trump revoked protections for individuals from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, and later for Nepal and Honduras.

U.S. removes Trump-era barriers to citizenship-test waivers for disabled immigrants

NPR: After months of public feedback, the federal agency has shortened and simplified its disability waiver, which is used to exempt immigrants with physical, mental or learning disabilities from the English and civics test requirements.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey Defies Biden With Border Wall Made of Shipping Containers

Intercept: On Monday, Gov. Doug Ducey began dropping the first of thousands of shipping containers along a 10-mile stretch of national forest in open defiance of federal authorities. In the days since, the Republican governor has transformed a remote section of rugged desert into what looks like a junkyard.

Poll finds broad support in battleground states for legalizing unauthorized immigrants

CBS: Seventy-three percent of surveyed voters in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin said they backed giving immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission an opportunity to “earn” lawful status and ultimately citizenship if they meet certain requirements, including passing background checks.

The Migrant Crisis, Eric Adams and Politics 101

NYT: Adams said he’s hopeful that changes President Biden recently announced to federal immigration policy could help reduce the flow of migrants to New York. See also Migrant crisis is ultimate test of NYC schools; Asylum seekers facing legal challenges.

LITIGATION & AGENCY UPDATES

9th Circ. Says It Can’t Hear Salvadoran’s ‘Transit Bar’ Case

Law360: A split Ninth Circuit declined to revive the asylum bid of a Salvadoran man ordered deported after traveling through Guatemala and Mexico before entering the U.S., saying its hands were tied when it came to reviewing expedited removal orders.

Split 9th Circ. Orders New Look At Guatemalan’s Torture Claim

Law360: A split Ninth Circuit has ordered the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider a Guatemalan man’s deportation relief bid, saying the agency wrongly ruled out government acquiescence in the man’s account of being tortured by Guatemalan police officers.

10th Circ. Declines Review Of 1999 Deportation Order

Law360: The Tenth Circuit declined to review a former conditional green card holder’s challenge of a 1999 deportation order, saying his chances of tossing the decades-long order stopped at the immigration courts due to his unlawful reentries into the U.S.

USCIS Retracts T Visa Denial After Judge’s Rebuke

Law360: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved a Mexican woman’s application for a T visa, designated for sex trafficking victims, after an Illinois federal judge faulted the agency’s earlier refusal to accept an immigration judge’s waiver of inadmissibility, the woman said.

Juvenile Migrants Differ From Trafficking Victims, Judge Says

Law360: A California federal judge tossed an equal protection claim brought by young immigrants who were abused or neglected by their parents, dismissing on Wednesday their argument that the government was unfairly treating them differently from trafficking victims in doling out work authorization.

Florida judge orders DeSantis to hand over migrant flights records

Politico: The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but lawyers representing the Florida Center for Government Accountability said they anticipated there would be an appeal.

Mastermind behind massive marriage fraud conspiracy sentenced to 10 years in prison

ICE: The organization was responsible for organizing well over 500 sham marriages in exchange for substantial amounts of money solely for the alien beneficiary to obtain immigration benefits.

Senate Dems Seek To Expand Haitian Deportation Shield

Law360: Senate Democrats called on the Biden administration to broaden Haitian immigration protections to cover Haitians who have fled political and economic turmoil over the past year, saying Wednesday that conditions in Haiti have only worsened since the administration last offered relief

EOIR Announces 32 New Immigration Judges

EOIR: The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) announced the appointment of 32 immigration judges to courts in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

RESOURCES

AILA: Practice Pointer: Title 42 and Asylum Processing at the Southern Border

CLINIC: Updates on Requesting Immigration Court Records From EOIR

CLINIC: BIA Limits Section 237(a)(1)(H) Waiver for Conditional Residents in Removal Proceedings

CLINIC: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) COVID Policies

CLINIC: New Form N-648 and Policy Guidance on Disability Waivers

GAO: Immigration Detention: Actions Needed to Collect Consistent Information for Segregated Housing Oversight

NLG: Biden’s Marijuana Pardons: Who Do They Apply To?

NYT: 5 new children’s books about immigration

Pres Alliance: Uplifting Campus Resources: Effective Practices to Support Undocumented Students in Higher Education

EVENTS

11/1/22-11/15/22 Webinar Series: Fundamentals of Asylum Law

11/1/22 USCIS Stakeholder Engagement Form N-648, Medical Certification for Disability Exceptions

11/1/22 AILA: Filing and Litigating a Successful Circuit Court Appeal

11/2/22 Illegal Entry and Reentry Laws: Their Racism, Their Impact, and the Movement to End Them

11/2/22 TPS Updates

11/3/22 Drugs and Naturalization

11/3/22 AILA: I-601 Waivers in AOS Cases: Analysis and Practical Advice

11/4/22 Symposium: 40th Anniversary of Plyler v. Doe and Immigration Law in the United States

11/4/22 A Conversation with AILA Authors Ira Kurzban and Robert Pauw: Litigation, Recent Case Development, and More!

11/8/22 SIJS-based Adjustment of Status with Delinquency or Crimes

11/9/22 CMS: 2022 Hybrid Academic and Policy Symposium, Building Our Common Home: Honoring the Dignity and Resilience of Migrants

11/10/22 Immigration Pro Bono: You Don’t Need to Know It All on Day One

11/14/22 ASISTA: Navigating Systems with your Immigrant Survivor Clients

11/15/22 NIJC’s Fall Pro Bono Asylum Training

11/15/22 AILA: Parole Potpourri

11/16/22 Introduction to Conditional Permanent Residence and Filing the I-751

11/16/22 NIJC Lunch & Learn For Pro Bono Attorneys In Indiana

11/16/22 AILA: New EOIR Limited Representation Regulations Are Here: How Do They Change My Practice?

11/17/22 EOIR: Chicago Stakeholder Session

11/17/22 NLG: Updates on Terrorism-Related Inadmissibility Grounds (TRIG) with guest speaker, Jay Gairson

11/18/22 Fall 2022 Asylum Conference

11/18/22 AILA: Borders Imposed: Indigenous Communities and Immigration

11/29/22 Building an Asylum Claim

11/30/22 CGRS Preserving the Record for Appeal in a Fear-of-Return Claim

12/6/22 Emerging Strategies for Prolonged Detention

12/7/22-12/8/22 Defending Survivors: Strategies for Immigrant Survivors Seeking Justice

12/7/22 Parole in Immigration

12/13/22 The Effects of Absences on Naturalization

12/13/22 USCIS: Asylum Quarterly Stakeholder Engagement

12/14/22 Hot Topics in Asylum Law

12/14/22 CLINIC Working Through Vicarious Trauma With Self-Care Strategies

12/15/22 NLG: Obtaining Criminal Records with guest speaker, Gabriela Kahrl

01/19/23 NLG: Top Ethical Issues Facing Legal Representatives in Removal Hearings with guest speaker, Retired Immigration Judge Dana Marks

To sign up for additional NIJC newsletters, visit: https://immigrantjustice.org/subscribe.

You now can change your email settings or search the archives using the Google Group. If you are receiving this briefing from a third party, you can visit the Google Group and request to be added. If you receive an error, make sure you click request access.

Elizabeth Gibson (Pronouns: she/her/ella)

Managing Attorney for Capacity Building and Mentorship

National Immigrant Justice Center

A HEARTLAND ALLIANCE Program

224 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60604
T: (312) 660-1688| F: (312) 660-1688| E: egibson@heartlandalliance.org

www.immigrantjustice.org | Facebook | Twitter

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

When all else fails, picking on vulnerable Black Haitian refugees is always a popular way to buff up your “restrictionist creds” for Administrations of both parties. But, the GOP already has the White Nationalist/nativist vote locked up. So, what the Biden folks hope to get by throwing Haitians “under the bus” and driving back and forth over their bodies is a mystery to me.

Despite the gratuitous abuses heaped on Haitians by the USG and White Nationalist pols like Trump over the years, and the overall indifference of the Dems, Haitians are one of the most successful and well-assimilated immigrant groups in America. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjYiZXSk437AhXpLFkFHV09AWIQFnoECA8QAQ&url=https://www.cato.org/blog/haitians-assimilate-well-united-states&usg=AOvVaw2iOnJGCn89Lr7und5Cho6S

They are also the second largest political group among Black immigrants, following Jamaicans. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjYiZXSk437AhXpLFkFHV09AWIQFnoECCEQAQ&url=https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2015/07/20/haitian-americans-come-of-age-politically&usg=AOvVaw2iv_ZCo_fQAjBZT3qSLQgA

Hey, I’m only a retired Immigration Judge, not a political wonk. But, I can’t see what Biden and Harris stand to gain with their cruel, anti-Haitian policies.

Why not set up viable refugee programs in Haiti, as we did for Cubans, if we don’t want more refugees taking to the sea in leaky boats? Why not prioritize immigrant visa processing for qualified immigrants from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, the Northern Triangle, and other Western Hemisphere countries? Migration from these nations to the U.S. is a reality that benefits both the migrants and our nation. Why not use the tools at hand to channel legal immigration rather than flailing around with questionable built to fail “deterrents.”

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-01-22

🤯AMERICA NEEDS IMMIGRANT WORKERS: THE GOP LIES, DENIES, DEHUMANIZES, EXPLOITS — DEMS ARBITRARILY DEPORT POTENTIAL LEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHILE LEAVING OTHERS IN LIMBO WITH BUMBLING BUREAUCRACY & BROKEN COURTS — “Can’t Anyone Here Play This Game?”

Casey Stengel — “Can’t anyone here play this game?” The GOP lacks honesty and decency. The Dems lack vision and guts. The public is misinformed about the realities of immigration. Migrants and their supporters are caught in the crossfire of political failure!
PHOTO: Rudi Reit
Creative Commons

Lack of immigration reform hurts businesses and farmers, puts nation’s food supply at risk

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/elections/2022/10/30/immigration-reform-southern-border-farmers-congress-dreamers-midterms/8189018001/

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

Note the comments from immigration lawyer George Pappas in North Carolina.

The hostility is reflected in the immigration courts in Atlanta and in Charlotte, where the highest denial rates for asylum prevail,” he told USA TODAY. “They will not be talking about outsourcing workers or about education. The right wing base of the Republican party has used immigration as a political wedge issue to deflect attention and to deflect media, airwaves, and media space from real issues.

While undoubtedly the Immigration Courts in Atlanta and Charlotte do reflect the type of biased, anti-immigrant approach pushed by GOP politicos, today they are run by Dem AG Merrick Garland. He has failed to make needed reforms and changes at the top, starting with inept leadership from EOIR Headquarters and a precedent setting appellate board (BIA) that does not reflect the best-qualified expert judicial talent available who would implement due process, fundamental fairness, consistency, and best judicial practices nationwide.

Ironically, these values WERE once part of the “EOIR Vision,” abandoned and trashed by Administrations of both parties over the past two decades. For Dems who believe in the power of immigrants and immigrants’ tights, it’s now basically “Pogoland:” “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

A number of the public comments in the articles also show gross misconceptions about the nature of migration, the goals of the GOP, the reasons why migrants can’t apply for asylum in a safe, orderly manner at ports of entry, the immense benefits to both the workforce and society brought by family-based immigrants and those seeking to enter as refugees and asylees, and the relationship between an improved economy and a sensible, robust, realistic approach to immigration (eschewed by the GOP; bobbled by the Dems).

Both parties have squandered opportunities to acknowledge truth, make the current system work better, and create order at the border. Neither has a serious plan for reform on its agenda.

Unlike the Trump “shut the border/build the wall” racist fiasco, Biden’s initial US Citizenship Act of 2021 had some good ideas. But, after quickly “throwing it out there,” apparently as a sop to those who helped elect them, the Administration shoved it in a drawer and forgot about it. Instead, they pursued a mishmash of “built to fail gimmicks,” bureaucratic bungling, broken courts, poor legal positions, lack of vision, inept PR, and weak leadership.

The failure of the world’s leading “nation of immigrants” to discard and disavow the racist nonsense on immigration and come together on realistic, forward looking, generous, welcoming immigration policies makes our nation look bad and robs us of opportunities to improve the economy and build for the future.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-31-22

🤯BILL FRELICK @ THE HILL BLASTS BIDEN’S SCOFFLAW, ELITIST MISTREATMENT OF VENEZUELAN REFUGEES! — Welcome A Few Of The Well-To-Do, Give Others In Need The Screw! 🔩☠️ — Whatever Happened To The Refugee Act of 1980 & The Rule Of Law?

Too many Biden Administration Immigration officials appear to share Stephen Miller’s “upside down” view of the Statue of Liberty, in whole or in part! Why can’t they just follow the Refugee Act of 1980 and establish the robust, timely, generous legal approach to refugees and asylum seekers that best serves America?

https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/3704714-bidens-new-plan-no-help-for-desperate-venezuelan-refugees/

Refugees are people who flee for their lives. Escape from danger and abuse is usually chaotic, sudden, desperate. The Biden administration’s rollout of its new policy for Venezuelan refugees seems oblivious to this refugee reality and risks doing more harm than good.

. . . .

Announcing the program on Oct. 12, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said Venezuelans who enter irregularly “will be returned to Mexico.”

He didn’t mention — and appeared to disregard — U.S. law, which recognizes that anyone who arrives in the United States has the right to seek asylum “whether or not at a designated port of arrival” and “irrespective of such alien’s status.”

The impact of this announcement, “effective immediately,” was the summary return to Mexico without examination of their asylum claims of any Venezuelans entering the United States without authorization. Mexico has given no assurances that it will examine their refugee claims or provide asylum to those who fear return to Venezuela. In fact, the 4,050 Venezuelans expelled to Mexico since the implementation of the policy have been given visas valid for only one week and instructed to leave the country.

. . . .

With the Biden administration’s plan in effect, we might as well apply a blowtorch to Emma Lazarus’s welcoming poem at the foot of the Statue of Liberty and chisel in a new message: “Give me your well-rested, your well-to-do, your properly ticketed jet-setters yearning to breathe free.”

Bill Frelick is the refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch. Follow him on Twitter @BillFrelick.

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

Read Bill’s complete op-ed act the link. Bill is one of many “practical experts” who would do a much better job than current Administration politicos in establishing and running a refugee and asylum program that would comply with the law, due process, human dignity, and America’s best interests. Why is Biden following the lead of his “clueless (and spineless) crew?”

The Refugee Act of 1980 was enacted and amended to deal with these situations! Robust, realistic refugee programs outside the U.S. should encourage many refugees to apply, be screened abroad, and admitted legally.

Other refugees arriving at our border can be promptly screened for credible fear. Those who fail that test can be summarily removed in accordance with existing law.

Those who pass that test should have access to counsel and receive timely, expert adjudications, with full appeal rights, under the generous “well founded fear” (1 in 10 chance) international standard established by the Refugee Act. See, e.g., INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca (Supremes); Matter of Mogharrabi (BIA).

It’s not “rocket science!” With dynamic, experienced refugee experts running the system and “practical scholars” with expertise in refugee processing and human rights laws serving as USCIS Asylum Officers and EOIR judges at the trial and appellate levels the legal system should be flexible enough to deal with all refugee situations in an orderly manner.

Many, probably a majority, of today’s asylum seekers should be granted asylum and admitted to the U.S. in full legal status, authorized to work, and on their way to green cards and eventual citizenship. Like those admitted from abroad, they could also be made eligible for certain resettlement assistance to facilitate integration into American communities who undoubtedly will benefit from their presence.

The more robust, realistic, and timely our overseas refugee programs become, the fewer refugees who will be forced to apply for asylum at our borders. Also, real, bold, dynamic humanitarian leadership, including accepting our fair share of refugees and asylees, could persuade other countries signatory to the Geneva Refugee Convention to do likewise.

No insurmountable backlogs; no bewildered individuals wandering around the U.S. in limbo waiting for hearings that will never happen; few “no shows;” no long-term detention; no botched, biased “any reason to deny” decisions from unqualified officers and judges leading to years of litigation cluttering our legal system, no diverting Border Patrol resources from real law enforcement, no refugees huddled under bridges or sitting on street corners in Mexico!

It’s not “pie in the sky!” It’s the way our legal system could and should work with competent leadership and the very best available adjudicators and judges! It would support the proper, important role of refugees as an essential component of LEGAL IMMIGRATION, not an “exception” or “loophole” as racists and nativists like to falsely argue.

Instead of demonstrating the competence and integrity to use existing law to deal with refugee and asylum situations, the Biden Administration resorts to ad hoc political gimmicks. Essentially, the “RA80” has been repealed “administratively.” Effectively, we’re back to the “ad hoc” arbitrary approaches we used prior to ‘80 (which I worked on during the Ford Administration, and where I recollect I first heard of Bill Frelick).

I doubt that the late Senator Ted Kennedy, former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, and the rest of the group who helped shepherd the Refugee Act of 1980 through Congress would have thought that using Border Patrol Agents as Asylum Officers or packing the Immigration Courts and the BIA with judges prone to deny almost every asylum claim, regardless of facts or proper legal standards, was the “key to success!”

Congress specifically intended to eliminate the use of parole to deal with refugees except in extremely unusual circumstances, not present here. Biden’s latest ill-advised gimmick violates that premise. It’s totally inexcusable, as the refugee flow from Venezuela is neither new nor unpredictable. I was granting Venezuelan asylum cases before I retired in June 2016. Even then, there were legions of documentation, much of it generated by the USG, condemning the repressive regime in Venezuela and documenting the persecution of those who resisted!

A better AG would say “No” to these improper evasions of existing law. But, we have Merrick “What Me Worry” Garland! His botching of the Immigration Courts has been combined with a gross failure to stand up for equal justice for migrants (particularly those of color) across the board! America and refugees deserve better from our chief lawyer.

The Refugee Act of 1980 actually provides all the tools and flexibility the Biden Administration needs to establish order on the border and properly and fairly process refugees and asylees. Why won’t they use them?

Alfred E. Neumann — AG Merrick Garland has “looked the other way” while the Biden Administration flaunts applicable protection laws in and outside the U.S. He also runs a dysfunctional “court system” where anti-asylum bias, worst practices, poorly qualified decision makers, and grotesque inconsistencies undermine the legal rights of asylum seekers and other refugees. Doesn’t America deserve more competence from its top lawyer?
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-28-22

☠️💀⚰️DEATH VALLEY DAYS: ASYLUM SEEKERS & LAWYERS FACE HARSH CONDITIONS IN QUEST FOR ASYLUM IN GARLAND’S DYSFUNCTIONAL EOIR — Bad Law, Bias, Incompetence, Inconsistency, & Indifference To Humanity Among Obstacles — The Majority Perish Along The Way! — “Courtside” Takes You “Inside The Numbers” Of TRAC’s “New Look” IJ Asylum Reports — New Format, But Same Old Broken & Unfair System!

Here’s the TRAC “New Format” IJ Asylum Report:

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/judgereports/

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

INSIDE THE NUMBERS FOR THE TRAC 10-09-22 IJ REPORT

NOTE: Does not account for: IJs no longer on the bench; IJs appearing in more than one location; differences among detained, non-detained dockets; profiles of high and non-high-denying courts excluded locations with fewer than four IJs listed. No guarantee of accuracy for my “hand count” — but, in accordance with the old government motto, “I did the best I could under the circumstances.”

Precipitous unexplained rise in nationwide denial rate since FY 2012, from 44.5% to 63.3%, even though human rights conditions in most so-called “sending countries” remained horrible and in some cases significantly deteriorated. See for FY2012 stats, https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/306/
Lots of “Nay-Sayers” on the Immigration Bench:
- 92 IJs denied asylum 90% or more of the time.
- Another 94 IJs denied 85-90% of the time.
- Total of 186 “High Deniers” — those who denied 85% or more — significantly (21.7% or more) above already inexplicably high 63.3% national rate.
High Denying Courts (majority of IJs listed denied 85%+)
- Atlanta (including ATD-Detained) (10 of 10 IJs)
- Charlotte (6 of 8 IJs)
- Conroe (5 of 9 IJs)
- Houston (19 of 22 IJs)
- Houston-Greenspoint (4 of 5 IJs)
- Jena (6 of 6 IJs)
- LA – North (8 of 11 IJs)
- Los Fresnos (5 of 6 IJs)
- Lumpkin (5 of 7 IJs)
- Memphis (6 of 11 IJs)
- Miami (20 of 31 IJs)
- Miamii – Krome (7 of 9 IJs)
Non-High-Denying Courts (all, or almost all, listed IJs denied less than 85%)
- Adelanto (5 IJs)
- Arlington (3 of 25 IJs High Deniers)
- Bloomington (1 of 13 IJs High Denier)
- Boston (1 of 15 IJs High Denier)
- Baltimore (1 of 16 IJs High Denier)
- Batavia (1 of 4 IJs High Denier)
- Chicago (1 of 16 IJs High Denier)
- Denver (2 of 8 IJs High Deniers)
- Detroit (4 IJs)
- Elizabeth (5 IJs)
- Imperial (5 IJs)
- New York (46 IJs, 0 High Deniers) **
- New York Detained (17 IJs, 1 High Denier)
- Newark (3 of 16 IJs High Deniers)
- Otay Mesa (7 IJs)
- Pearsall (5 IJs)
- Philadelphia (8 IJs)
- Portland OR (4 IJs)
- San Francisco (2 of 27 High Deniers)
- Seattle (8 IJs)
- Tacoma (5 IJs)
- Van Nuys (1 of 7 IJs High Denier)
Telling stats: 99.1%, 97.4%, 94.3% 90.4% — Asylum denial rates for four BIA Appellate Immigration Judges listed in the chart who continue to serve on Garland’s BIA. No wonder asylum seekers are saddled with bad law and sloppy, one-sided appellate review within Garland’s dysfunctional EOIR.
Best courts for asylum seekers: Generally in the Northeast and Northern California: Arlington, Boston, Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Newark, San Francisco, Chicago.
Worst places for asylum seekers: Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Houston, Louisiana.
Mind-blowing stat: Compare the performance of IJs in Arlington and Baltimore with those in Charlotte, all within the 4th Circuit.
Observations:
- New York, followed by San Francisco, appear to be the largest and best functioning courts with respect to actually following the generous standards for asylum seekers set forth by the Supremes in Cardoza-Fonseca, enunciated (but seldom followed) by the BIA in Mogharrabi, and to a large extent incorporated into sporadically enforced regulations.
- In NY, 46 IJs, 0 High Deniers, 24 listed IJs granted at least 50% or more of the cases, denial rates ranging from 7.1% to 83.5%, still a rather mind-boggling range.The 24 IJs in the 50% or more grant range would seem like a good place for Garland to look for a model for rebuilding EOIR as a fair, due-process-oriented, subject matter expert court. He doesn’t seem interested in doing that, but it could be done with better leadership.
- Although generally one would expect Detention Courts to be in the “High Denier” category, that’s not always the case. Courts like NY-Detained, Elizabeth, Adelanto, Otay Mesa, and Pearsall, all had some significant asylum grant rates. Conversely, several predominantly non-detained courts like Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, and Houston were unseemly “dead zones” for asylum seekers. Garland’s failure to address the gross inconsistencies and abuses of asylum law going on in those and other “High Denier Courts” is disgraceful.
Overall, this is a statistical picture of a failed and dysfunctional court system where critical life or death decisions depend more on where you are and who your judge or BIA “panel” is than on the quality of the evidence or the state of the law. It has failed to deliver on its promise of being a court of widely acknowledged subject matter experts who will guarantee due process, fundamental fairness, and best judicial practices for all on some of the most important and life-determining decisions in American jurisprudence. It’s bad; and not significantly improving under the Dems!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-28-22

⚖️👩🏽‍⚖️ ESTABLISHED “PRACTICAL SCHOLARS” JUDGE SCOTT E. BRATTON (NY — Broadway), JUDGE DENISE HUNTER (Sacramento), & JUDGE BECCA A. NIBURG (Hyattsville) LEAD CLASS OF 32 NEW IMMIGRATION JUDGE APPOINTMENTS — Despite Improved “Balance,” Those With Government Backgrounds Continue To Dominate Garland’s Picks For “Life Or Death” Judgeships! — Bolder Action Required To Stem Dysfunction, Bad Judging Flowing From Garland’s Broken Courts! — Migrant Justice & Racial Justice Can’t Wait!

Judge Scott E. Bratton of the NY Broadway Immigration Court was a “regular” before me when I was assigned to the Cleveland docket. Always well-prepared, collegial, and an outstanding brief writer and oral advocate, he had no hesitation in going to the Article III Courts when necessary on behalf of his clients. He also has a sense of humor and perspective. This great appointment should have come long ago. But, better late than never!

Judge Denise M. Hunter of the Sacramento Immigration Court collaborated with now GW Law Professor Cori Alonso Yoder and me on “hands-on CLE in immigration” for the DC Bar. Following my retirement, she, Cori, and I met for lunch to “strategize” ways to make due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices the “norm” in Immigration Court, rather than the exception it continues to be! She’s now in a position to lead and teach by example to make that happen in a system where justice too often continues to be a mere “afterthought,” if that!

Judge Becca A. Niburg of the Hyattsville Immigration Court is a “self described immigration nerd” — in other words, a distinguished practical scholar in immigration, human rights, and due process for all! In addition to private practice and serving with two of the premier human rights NGOs in the DMV area, Catholic Charities & Kids in Need of Defense (“KIND”), Becca has a rich background as an immigration adjudicator at the appellate level of USCIS and as a litigator in the Office of Immigration Litigation at DOJ. She combines “insider knowledge” of the failing Government immigration bureaucracy with the skills, courage, determination, and “outside perspective” to make bureaucracy work for the common good, often in spite of itself. Can’t think of an organization more in need of that perspective these days than Garland’s dysfunctional EOIR!

Here’s a complete list of appointments with bios from EOIR:

https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1546941/download

Here’s the “group profile:”

12 Judges from predominantly private sector backgrounds;
20 Judges from predominantly government sector backgrounds (primarily DHS & DOJ, but also state and local governments and other Federal agencies);
26 Judges with known immigration experience;
6 Judges with no obvious immigration experience on their resumes — all 6 from government sector backgrounds.

This is a marked improvement over the Obama and Trump Administrations where EOIR judicial appointments ran approximately 9:1 in favor of those from government! It’s also a needed improvement over the Trump Administration’s oft-criticized tendency to place too many individuals without significant immigration experience on the EOIR bench in the apparent belief that they would be more willing to “follow orders, shut up, deny, and deport.” The precipitous drop in asylum approvals during the Trump years, despite worsening conditions for refugees worldwide, proved that there was some basis for this anti-asylum assumption.

Nevertheless, Garland’s selections tend to remain significantly “over-weighted” toward those from government. I always believed that the excuse of DOJ officials for the over-appointments from government given during the Obama Administration — that the applicant pool from government was so much better — was pure unadulterated BS!

Since retiring and having an opportunity to work more closely with super talented private practitioners on Round Table briefs, CLE, articles, litigation strategy, proposals for legislative reform, and clinical and classroom teaching, I can say without a doubt that the talent level out here in the private/NGO/academic section is “through the roof” — astounding — particularly compared with the intellectual and legal output of EOIR! If more of these “leading lights” — of American law (NOT “just Immigration law”) aren’t on the “short list” for the Immigration Court and replacing most of the current BIA, that’s a problem with Garland’s recruiting process, NOT with the non-government “talent pool.”

Did the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation just “wait to see who might apply” for Federal Judge positions — starting with the Supremes! Hell no! They “groomed” their “preferred judicial selections” for years, decades even, far in advance of any known vacancies.

If you remember, Brett Kavanaugh believed that a seat on the Supremes was his “birthright” — since about age 10 or something like that. He bemoaned the fact that nasty Dems questioning his qualifications might deprive him of his “preordained destiny.” One can never accuse right-wing zealots of not having a well-developed “sense of entitlement.” They act on it, and apologize to nobody! Compare that with Dems!

By contrast, Dems are absolutely clueless about both the importance and potential of the Immigration Courts — including the BIA, a nationwide appellate court, essentially the “12th or 13th Circuit” depending on how you count. With absolute control of these important “retail level” courts for 10 of the past 14 years, the Dems have done an extraordinarily poor job of filling judgeships with the best-qualified, progressive, most due-process-committed candidates — scholarly, practical judges who would take equal justice and racial justice in America seriously! Additionally, such individuals would be “primed, experienced, and ready” for Article III appointments when the opportunities arose!

By contrast, in the four years they controlled EOIR, Sessions, Barr, and their “acting fill-in flunkies” did an extraordinary job of weaponizing and reshaping the Immigration Courts — starting with the BIA — in “Stephen Miller’s image.” In the process, they created total dysfunction and chaos at EOIR, heaped abuse and injustice on vulnerable asylum seekers ( predominantly individuals of color, many women and children), twisted immigration law into a “Milleresque” anti-immigrant mess, demoralized and punished lawyers, busted the judges’ union, forced some of the best most qualified judges off the bench, and undermined our entire justice system. They even got EOIR to “cook” their statistics to support the nativist myth that “nobody qualifies for asylum” — ergo, all asylum seeks and their lawyers are fraudsters!

I’m on the record, many times over, as being no fan of Stephen Miller! But, his aggressive, energetic, focused, “take no prisoners,” “ignore the opposition” approach to de-constructing our immigration and justice systems certainly was more effective than anything else I have witnessed over my decades in and out of Government! He understood that time could be short, and he had to do as much damage as possible in that allotted to him. He literally was totally engaged in killing asylum and asylum seekers until the exact minute he left the White House! Dems, on the other hand, disturbingly, exhibit no leadership, urgency, sense of purpose, dynamic energy, confidence in the rightness of their cause, or plan when it comes to immigration.

“You can’t do that” was a challenge to Miller — not a deterrent! He not only did it, but got away with it!

He didn’t “study” things or fool around attempting to build support outside his “base.” If nothing else, Miller “gave lie” to the off-repeated “bureaucratic mantra” that “change takes time.”

He undid decades of hard work by those engaged in making the “Refugee Act of 1980” functional in a matter of weeks or months! And, the inept immigration bureaucracy and non-existent immigration leadership under the Biden Administration has been stymied, or simply “contented no-shows,” on undoing much of Miller’s damage!

Faced with this exceptionally well-documented disaster, and it’s undeniable corrosive impact on our democracy, Garland has been largely MIA, or AWOL might be a better term. “Action” isn’t a word readily associated with Merrick Garland.

Garland’s glacial, largely disengaged, timid, ineffective approach to EOIR reform and reconstruction is perhaps typical of Democrat Administrations and their overall approach to immigration, human rights, and racial justice in the 21st Century. But, that doesn’t make it the RIGHT approach, for the party, the Federal Judiciary, our nation’s future, and, most important, for the individuals seeking justice in Garland’s EOIR wasteland and their long-suffering attorneys.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-27-2

🤯🤮👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽☠️ THIS JUST ISN’T RIGHT! — GARLAND’S “HALLOWEEN HOUSE OF HORRORS @ EOIR” & THE PUNISHMENT HE & HIS UNQUALIFIED, OUT OF TOUCH JUDGES ARE INFLICTING ON VULNERABLE HUMANS & ATTORNEYS DOING THEIR JOBS HAS TO END!

Grim Reaper — As someone who has not represented asylum seekers in his “Houses of Horror” and who disdains engaging with those who have, Merrick Garland has shown that he is unqualified to be Attorney General of the US. His “Clown Courts” are now “Houses of Horror” that are no joke, particularly for those who have to deal with his beyond dysfuntional mess on a daily basis! Reaper Image: Hernan Fednan, Creative Commons License

I received this from a practitioner in response my earlier post about Garland’s ongoing scheduling and due process fiasco @ EOIR:

Glad you wrote this. It has been so hard. I am working 7 days a week and feel like I am losing my mind. Hopefully they start making changes, because how this is currently going is just not sustainable. Many of the Judges are not granting the continuances or making you go to the IH and giving you a hard time about it. Multiple Judges told me a month or even less notice was “plenty of time.” O boy!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-26-22

🤯 BREAKING: DUE PROCESS MELTDOWN @ EOIR: 140 PRACTITIONERS, EXPERTS, ACADEMICS, NGOs PROTEST GARLAND’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL & UNETHICAL “SCHEDULING” & “AIMLESS DOCKET RESHUFFLING” (“ADR”) ON STEROIDS IN IMMIGRATION COURTS!

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Special

Oct. 26, 2022

“Due process cannot exist if an attorney does not have sufficient time and advance notice to prepare for a case.”

The above is an elementary statement of the minimum requirement for due process in any court setting! Yet, in the “wacky world of Garland’s EOIR” 🤯 it is being knowingly and intentionally violated hundreds of times each day!

Not only does this inhibit effective professional representation of those fortunate enough to have lawyers, but it actively discourages attorneys from taking on cases in Immigration Court, particularly those acting in a pro bono or low bono capacity. How will we interest and inspire new lawyers to get into the practice when this is the way they can expect to be treated? It’s a truly disgusting and disgraceful development!

The following letter from a consortium of practitioners, academics, and NGO leaders protests the insane, due-process-denying lack of notice and the “Aimless Docket Reshuffling on steroids” ongoing @ EOIR and makes suggestions for constructive changes to restore at least some order to Garland’s dysfunctional courts. In my view, this situation raises huge Constitutional, ethical, and policy issues affecting all justice in America! It also illustrates the incredibly poor judgement and dismissive attitude of the Biden Administration and Garland’s DOJ in approaching the most serious “life or death” issues involving human rights and racial justice!

Among the signers:

NJ AILA chapter signed on, former judges, Rocky Mountain Advocacy Network, professors, CGRS, ASAP (150,000 members), NC Justice Center, etc. Attorneys practicing in every state + DC + Puerto Rico ended up signing-on to this letter.

I am a signatory. As you know, many of us believe that the ongoing intentional deterioration of due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices at EOIR is a preventable national disgrace that is undermining equal justice and democratic institutions in America. Consequently, I think it is critical to keep this issue “in the public eye” and to demand constructive, common sense reforms at EOIR.

The “constructive suggestions” contained in the letter are great! But, it’s a colossal waste of time and resources to have unqualified bureaucrats, far removed from the actual practice before these dysfunctional “courts,” unilaterally institute these ill-advised, unethical, due-process denying changes. Then, it’s left to the “outside experts” to drop everything and “plead and beg” for common sense and sanity from an arrogant, dysfunctional system!

The American justice system can’t continue to afford to let this wasteful and highly counterproductive “clown show” 🤡 go on unabated! It’s up to everyone who cares about equal justice in America (NOT just immigration practitioners) to demand that Merrick Garland get rid of the incompetents at EOIR and replace them with expert administrators and real, well-qualified judges who are “practical scholars” in the law, understand the needs of justice, and will reform this broken system to work for the best interests of everyone in America!

Here’s a copy of the letter, as sent:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kb25xExBERwZG65EbGZ9iR29UoQiGLL6/view?usp=sharing

🇺🇸“Due Process Forever!”

Paul⚖️🗽😎

10-26-22

From Jennifer Rubin @ WashPost on Abigail:

Here’s what Hillary had to say in her victory statement:

Go, Abigail and Hillary! Make America the best that we can be: A diverse society and powerful nation where everyone can reach their full potential, independence, and self-sufficiency, not just the “chosen few!”

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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From Dan Kowalski @ LexisNexis Immigration Community:

Commentary from Kevin A. Gregg, ESQ:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

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Apply now! Ask questions later!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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Alexandra Villarreal reports for The Guardian:

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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Many, many, many congrats, endless appreciation, and thanks for what you have accomplished, my friend!

Hillary Scholten defeats Trump-backed John Gibbs for West Michigan congressional seat

🇺🇸 Congrats again and Due Process Forever! Practical, human values, and the courage to stand-up for them against lies and tyranny CAN win elections!

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🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

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From Laura Lynch @ NILC:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

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71% of Immigrants Win Their Cases Thanks to Pro Bono Volunteers with the Immigration Justice Campaign

Posted by Atenas Burrola Estrada | Oct 27, 2022 | Due Process & the Courts, Immigration Courts

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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Lack of immigration reform hurts businesses and farmers, puts nation’s food supply at risk

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

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Here’s the TRAC “New Format” IJ Asylum Report:

INSIDE THE NUMBERS FOR THE TRAC 10-09-22 IJ REPORT

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Here’s a complete list of appointments with bios from EOIR:

Here’s the “group profile:”

12 Judges from predominantly private sector backgrounds;

20 Judges from predominantly government sector backgrounds (primarily DHS & DOJ, but also state and local governments and other Federal agencies);

26 Judges with known immigration experience;

6 Judges with no obvious immigration experience on their resumes — all 6 from government sector backgrounds.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

I received this from a practitioner in response my earlier post about Garland’s ongoing scheduling and due process fiasco @ EOIR:

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Special

Oct. 26, 2022

“Due process cannot exist if an attorney does not have sufficient time and advance notice to prepare for a case.”

Here’s a copy of the letter, as sent:

🇺🇸“Due Process Forever!”

Related posts: