Immigration Courts – Page 21 – immigrationcourtside.com

⚖️🏴‍☠️ SEPARATION OF POWERS DISAPPEARS AS SUPREME RIGHTY POLITICOS TAKE OVER IMMIGRATION POLICY, IMPOSE BOGUS NATIVIST AGENDA — “[P]olicymakers of last resort,” per Justice Neil Gorsuch!

Jay Kuo
American Author, Producer, CEO of The Social Edge
PHOTO: Facebook

Torture — Some righty judges get all the way to the Supremes while remaining indifferent to the wrongful suffering of humanity from their bad judging!y
Photo by David R. Badger, Creative Commons

https://open.substack.com/pub/statuskuo/p/scotus-just-deployed-its-most-potent?r=330z7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

From “The Status Kuo” by Jay Kuo:

Time and again, the current Supreme Court has waded into what should be a political fight, using its broad power to effectively freeze or rewind the clock. In so doing, it has often locked in the worst possible outcome, then leveraged its busy and lengthy docket to unacceptably extend that outcome.

It did this with the Texas vigilante enforced abortion law, allowing a facially unconstitutional restriction to remain on the books and actively in place, effectively shutting down reproductive health services across the state. It did it again by staying lower federal court orders that had struck down unconstitutional racial gerrymanders in the South, permitting illegal maps to disenfranchise African American voters. That was at least four seats that should have been minority opportunity districts—enough to cost the Democrats the House majority. And on Tuesday, SCOTUS pulled this trick once more, this time leaving in place a draconian Trump-era pandemic immigration ban, broadly known as Title 42, that the Biden administration wanted gone and that a federal judge already had ordered lifted.

In so doing, the Court further revealed itself as precisely what it should not be: a political powerbroker and, as even conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch noted in dissent, a group of “policymakers of last resort.”

What’s the story behind Title 42, and how does this most recent ruling get things upside down? What will it mean for the thousands of desperate migrant families camped in dangerous conditions at the border? And what should we expect next from Congress and the White House? I explore these and some key takeaways from the decision.

. . . .

It is next-level hypocrisy that red state leaders, who during the pandemic eschewed all manner of basic preventative health measures at great cost to human life, should now champion a policy that cites the virus as the reason to expel millions of theoretical carriers. The idea that Mexico was somehow a greater vector for disease and infection than the red states of America is also both deeply cynical and plainly counterfactual.

From a policy standpoint, the notion that certain states can claim they would suffer special harm from the lifting of Title 42 and that this somehow gives them standing to stop the government in its tracks threatens to upend our entire federal system. In every policy decision by federal authorities there are winners and losers, from taxation to infrastructure spending to rules around land and water use. Immigration, and the states which allegedly are most affected by it, should receive no special dispensation or consideration. Giving these states a voice and standing in this instance sufficient to hamstring the government would be premised on nothing but the Court’s apparent political priorities, and not sound federal principles.

Finally, the crisis at the border truly requires a bipartisan political solution, but no comprehensive immigration reform bill has passed Congress since 1986. Today, the “problem” of immigration has become a useful political tool for Republicans around which to rally their base and with which to fundraise. Unsurprisingly then, they appear to have no real interest in actually trying to solve the problem through legislation. As Secretary Pete Buttigieg has observed, this will remain the case so long as the problem of immigration is more useful to them than the solution.

The upshot is, we likely will continue to see misery at our border and buses of migrants sent by governors Abbott of Texas and DeSantis of Florida dropped off in liberal bastions like Martha’s Vineyard or in front of Vice President’s Harris’s home in D.C. The Biden Administration will still continue to work quietly behind the scenes to lessen the impact of Title 42 and to argue in court for ending the policy. But whether SCOTUS will relinquish its de facto policymaking role to the proper branches of government remains unclear.

Jay Kuo is the CEO of The Social Edge, a digital publishing and social media company based in New York City. Jay is head of “Team Takei,” managing engagement with Star Trek legend George Takei’s 23 million Facebook, Instagram and Twitter followers. Jay is also the composer, lyricist and co-librettist for the Broadway musical Allegiance as well as the librettist on the Broadway-bound Indigo, the first musical to feature and star a teenage girl on the autism spectrum. Jay is also a two-time Tony-winning co-producer for the hit musical Hadestown and the critically acclaimed, epic play The Inheritance.

Apart from his Broadway and social media work, Jay is a published author, an avid political blogger, and a partner in Gaingels LLC, the nation’s largest private investment syndicate. While he worked as an attorney, Jay was an appellate litigator admitted to practice before the Ninth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court.

Jay has served on the boards of the Northern California ACLU and the Bay Area Lawyers Individual Freedom, and he argued the first Ninth Circuit challenge to the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Jay currently serves on the national board of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization serving the LGBTQ+ community.

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

Read Jay’s complete, very clear and understandable, analysis of the Title 42 charade at the link.

These ivory tower right wing zealots in robes exempt themselves from the human pain and suffering that their horrible judging causes. Judges are supposed to solve problems. This gang makes them worse!

Lets’ repeat it again: The idea that this “esoteric issue,” raised at the last second, by corrupt GOP AGs who aren’t even parties to this case, claiming largely phantom “harm” that pales in relation to the well-documented life-threatening harm suffered by legal asylum seekers every day, merits an indefinite stay that inflicts yet more unconscionable harm, even death, upon the most vulnerable among us, is as illegal as it is patently absurd.

That it was imposed by five judges on our highest Court, who are suppose to uphold our Constitution and individual rights against government overreach is something that should be of grave concern to all who believe in American democracy, particular future generations who will have to live with the shame and damage inflicted by these out of touch far-right jurists!

Better judges for a better America! Why should judges who have never participated in the “retail level of our justice system” — by representing individuals in our broken, biased, and dysfunctional Immigration Courts — be ensconced on our highest Court and given life or death power over persons they wrongfully treat as less than human and whose legal and human rights they so shamelessly deny?

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-30-22

👍🏼 ⚖️🗽“CHANGE COMES FROM THE GROUND UP” — Expert Yale-Loehr Reinforces Schmidt & Friends! — EOIR Judgeships 👩🏻‍⚖️👨🏽‍⚖️ Are A Great Place To Start “Grass Roots Due Process Improvements!”

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/outsidenews/posts/expert-change-happens-from-the-ground-up

Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr
Cornell Law

Expert: “Change Happens From The Ground Up”

Victor Reklaitis, MarketWatch, Dec. 22, 2022

“Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell showed last week that he’s thinking about how recent lower immigration has factored into the ongoing U.S. labor shortage, but he said it’s not appropriate for the Fed to call for increased legal immigration to help alleviate the shortage. Could his remarks, careful as they were, somehow move the needle on immigration policy? His comments came as one new bipartisan proposal for immigration reform flopped in Congress, and some analysts say they aren’t optimistic about progress on immigration next year in a divided Washington. Still, others see Powell’s remarks having a small effect. … Powell’s answer could be seen as part of a slow process that eventually results in long-awaited fixes to the U.S. immigration system, according to Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law at Cornell Law School. “To me, it’s like water dripping on a rock,” Yale-Loehr told MarketWatch in an interview. “A single drop of water, whether it’s from Fed Chairman Powell or somebody else, won’t make a difference by itself. But if enough drips of water from other people and other studies consistently show that immigration can help our labor shortages and improve our economy, then I hope that will move the needle so that Congress will seriously take up immigration reform in 2023.” … The Cornell professor also suggested that grassroots efforts eventually might end up spurring U.S. lawmakers to do more. “A lot of change happens from the ground up, rather than the top down — if you think about civil-rights legislation in the 60s, the Environmental Protection Act of 1970, the antiwar efforts,” he said. “It was because people really protested the existing framework that they forced Congress to make changes in those areas. And so too, I think that if more Americans stood up and said, ‘We need immigration reform,’ I think that that would help persuade Congress to actually put pen to paper and make some significant changes.””

Compare with my recent post on the need and opportunity to get more NDPA experts on the immigration bench @ EOIR. https://immigrationcourtside.com/2022/12/21/%f0%9f%91%a9%f0%9f%8f%bb%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%91%a8%f0%9f%8f%bd%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f-five-attorneys-with-recent-experience-representing-individuals-in-immigration-court-among-garland/

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

What better place to start forcing some long overdue changes than by getting more NDPA “practical scholar/experts” onto the EOIR bench where lives are on the line every minute of every working day? There are lots of ways to do justice at the “retail level” despite, or perhaps because of, the indifference of those in charge!

Folks, approximately a decade ago, the asylum grant rate at EOIR exceeded 50%! When grants of withholding (many the result of the 1-year-bar on asylum) and CAT were added in, almost 2/3 of asylum applicants who got a merits determination received some form of legal protection!

The vast majority of these cases were not appealed to the BIA. Slowly, but steadily, the EOIR system “at the retail level” was committing to expertise, sound scholarship, due process, fundamental fairness, faithful application of the generous legal principles established in Cardoza, Mogharrabi, and the regulatory presumption of future future persecution based on past persecution.

For years, those precedents and that regulation were resisted by many EOIR judges who continued, in practice, to apply the higher “more likely than not” standard rejected in Cardoza. But, following a series of savagely critical reversals of EOIR asylum denials by the Courts of Appeals the ground started to shift toward a more generous, proper, and correct interpretation of asylum law. Notably, those Court of Appeals “roastings” came after AG John Ashcroft “purged” the BIA in 2003 of appellate judges who spoke out for a better legal interpretation of asylum laws — one that faithfully followed Cardoza, Mogharrabi, and international standards!

As I used to tell my Georgetown Law students, a quarter century after the Supremes’ landmark decision in INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, establishing the generous “well-founded fear” standard for asylum (reasonable likelihood = 10% chance) and the BIA’s implementation of that standard in Matter of Mogharrabi (asylum can be granted even where it is significantly unlikely that persecution will occur) the more generous standard was actually achieving “traction” at EOIR!

The law hasn’t changed very much since 2012. But, the progress toward a “Cardoza/Mogharrabi compliant” interpretation and application of asylum law halted and regressed substantially during the last part of the Obama Administration and during the Trump era.

What did change, for the worse, was the attitude of politicos, who have seen the Immigration Courts as captive “tools” to deter asylum seekers and “send negative messages” rather than insuring that they function as due-process-oriented, independent, subject matter expert, courts of law. The qualifications of those selected as Immigration Judges were “watered down” to favor high-volume government prosecutorial experience over demonstrated expertise in immigration and asylum laws and “hands on” experience representing individuals before EOIR.

Not surprisingly, asylum grant rates dropped precipitously during the Trump years. Although they have rebounded some under Biden, they still remain below the 2012 levels. It’s certainly not that conditions have substantially “improved” in major “sending countries.” If anything, conditions are worse in most of those countries than in the years preceding 2012.

So, if the law hasn’t changed substantially and conditions haven’t improved, what has caused regression in asylum grant rates at EOIR? It comes down to poor judging, accompanied by inadequate training, too much emphasis on “churning the numbers over quality and correctness,” and a BIA that really doesn’t believe much in asylum law and lacks the expertise and commitment to consistently set and apply favorable precedents and end disgraceful inconsistencies and “asylum free zones” that continue to exist.

Some of the most disgraceful, intentional asylum misinterpretations by Sessions and Barr now have been reversed by Garland. Unfortunately, he failed to follow-up to insure that the correct standards are actually applied, particularly to recurring circumstances. It’s one of many reasons that the Biden Administration struggles to re-establish a fair and efficient legal asylum system at the Southern Border — notwithstanding having two years to address the problems!

But, it doesn’t have to be this way! Recently, a number of notable “practical scholar experts” have been appointed to the Immigration Judiciary. When such well-qualified jurists reach a “critical mass” in the expanding EOIR, systemic changes and improvements in practices and results will happen.

The “dialogue” among Immigration Judges from government backgrounds and those from the private/NGO sector will improve. Lives will be saved. Life-threatening inconsistencies and wasteful litigation to correct basic mistakes at all levels of EOIR will diminish. The EOIR system will resume movement toward the former noble, but now long abandoned, vision of “through teamwork and innovation, being the world’s best administrative tribunals, guaranteeing fairness and due process for all!”

So, warriors ⚔️🛡of the NDPA, make those applications for EOIR judgeships! Storm the tower from below! Make a difference in the lives of others and help save our democracy! If not YOU, then who?👩🏻‍⚖️👨🏽‍⚖️⚖️🗽🇺🇸

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-23-22

🏰🏴‍☠️“FORTRESS EUROPE” HAS RECEDED FROM U.N. REFUGEE CONVENTION — SPOILER ALERT: It Hasn’t Gone Well! — The US Appears Wedded To The Same Path Of Failure & Deadly Human Rights Abuses!☠️⚰️

Chico Harlan & Stefano Pitrelli report for WashPost:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/19/migration-europe-numbers-increase/

CROTONE, Italy — On a continent that has spent years trying to cut off undocumented immigration — using fences, surveillance, financial incentives and sometimes even brute force — the close-the-door strategy is faltering

Migration across the Mediterranean has crested to the highest level in five years. New nationalities, most notably from Egypt, have joined the stream of people seeking escape to Europe. And hard-line border policies are merely driving smugglers to adapt: Soon after Greek authorities instituted a practice of harsh pushbacks, boats departing Turkey began charting a longer route — bypassing Greece and heading instead to Italy’s Calabrian coast, an area that used to see almost no arrivals.

“Here comes another,” a law enforcement official at the port of Crotone said one recent morning, watching a vessel with 80 people come into view, just four hours after the arrival of a boat with 81 others.

France accepts migrant rescue ship rejected by Italy as tensions flare

The European Union’s desire to obstruct migration on multiple fronts was reflected in a collection of deals cobbled together in the aftermath of a 2015 mass-scale wave from Africa and the Middle East. And, for a while, the strategy appeared to be working: Mediterranean crossings dipped dramatically. The issue lost political primacy, depriving nationalist parties of kindling.

But an increase in arrivals this year is showing the limits of a Fortress Europe strategy — and reviving the highly contentious issue of how to handle and divvy up those who make it to the E.U. and its borderless travel zone.

“Europe’s expectations were based on a wrong assumption — that mobility across the Mediterranean could be stopped or limited, so it would no longer be politically relevant,” said Roberto Cortinovis, a migration specialist at the Center for European Policy Studies. “And that is impossible.”

. . . .

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

Some of the same things are happening here. Nativist/restrictionists, largely, but not exclusively, from the GOP, keep pushing failed “deterrence only” enforcement policies. And, the USG keeps “investing” in them despite decades of proven failure and deadly human results.

Ironically, today should have been the end of the illegal and abominable Title 42 charade. But, as with past fictional “deadlines” for termination, it didn’t happen.

Even today, nativist GOP Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) seeks to “sink” the Omnibus Budget Bill with a “poison pill” amendment that would require the Biden Administration to extend the deadly and illegal Title 42. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3784529-mike-lee-title-42-drama-holds-up-omnibus-passage/

Just to put Lee’s outrageous abuse of the law and human rights in perspective, remember that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan recently concluded, on a voluminous record, that the use of Title 42 to deny migrants’ legal rights at the border was: 1) an illegal pretext from the beginning, and 2) causes “stomach churning” dire, irreparable harm, including rape, torture, and death, to legal asylum seekers. Essentially, nativist politicos like Lee are trying to force the Biden Administration to commit even more egregious human rights violations — on top of the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, they have already committed by enforcing Title 42 over the past two years.

While Lee’s scurrilous and totally misguided amendment is likely to fail, another almost equally bad one, sponsored by Sen. Sinema (I-AZ) to extend Title 42 indefinitely (till a “better plan” is in effect, which will never happen, particularly if the GOP has anything to say about it), is also up for a vote. “Lost in the shuffle” is the simple fact that we have existing laws that could and should be used to timely grant refugee to those legally qualified while expeditiously and summarily removing those with no credible claim. That the Biden Administration has failed to develop a viable plan for re-implementing existing law (which had been in effect for decades before being illegally abrogated by Trump) over the past two years should not be confused with impossibility!

As Nolan Rappaport recently said over on The Hill, “Title 42 is a distraction, not the solution. . . . . And Title 42 didn’t prevent a surge in the number of illegal crossings.” https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/3782869-bidens-border-crisis-title-42-is-a-distraction-not-the-solution/.

Far from it, as many experts have pointed out, illegally “closing” ports of entry to asylum seekers has made unauthorized entry the “sole and exclusive” way for asylum seekers to exercise their rights! Yet, nativist politicos, the media, and even the Biden Administration ignore or mister present this truth.

As the International Organization on Migration has said, ““Migration is inevitable, necessary and desirable.” https://www.iom.int/news/migration-inevitable-necessary-and-desirable-opening-exhibition-iom-hague. It can be controlled and channeled with wise, realistic, and humane decisions. But, it won’t be stopped by walls, prisons, deportations, racist nationalistic rhetoric, militarization of borders, or cruel and inhumane laws and restrictionist policies.

Or, as I have said before, “We can diminish ourselves as a nation, but it won’t stop human migration.” Sure, the U.S. needs comprehensive, robust immigration reform that recognizes the inevitably and mutual benefits of human migration. But, particularly with a GOP House, it’s not on the horizon.

In the meantime, it is incumbent on the Biden Administration to make existing laws and policies work to timely, efficiently, and humanely screen refugees and asylum seekers at our borders. Those who qualify should be admitted in a reasonable period of time rather than aimlessly sent to wander the U.S. waiting for interviews from USCIS or hearings from EOIR that might never happen because of mismanagement and lack of vision in the current system. Those who don’t have credible claims should be subject to the summary removal procedures of the current law.

That the Biden Administration has, to date, lacked the competence, vision, and expertise to make the existing laws work in an acceptable manner is a shame. Ultimately, it’s one they won’t be able to “run away from” no matter how hard they try!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-22-22

👩🏻‍⚖️👨🏽‍⚖️ FIVE ATTORNEYS WITH RECENT EXPERIENCE REPRESENTING INDIVIDUALS IN IMMIGRATION COURT AMONG GARLAND’S ELEVEN NEW JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS

In addition to these five, two other recently appointed Immigration Judges had private practice experience in immigration before becoming Government attorneys.

Round Table maven (and VERY proud new grandfather 😎) “Sir Jeffrey” S. Chase gave a special “shout out” to Judge Gioia M. Maiellano, now of the NY Federal Plaza Immigration Court.

Gioia M. Maiellano, Immigration Judge, New York – Federal Plaza Immigration Court

Gioia M. Maiellano was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in December 2022. Judge Maiellano earned a Bachelor of Science in 1994 from Fordham University and a Juris Doctor in 1998 from Brooklyn Law School. From 2021 to 2022, she was a solo practitioner handling immigration cases. From 2017 to 2021, she served as an Administrative Law Judge with the Department of Finance, City of New York. From 2015 to 2016, she served as an asylum officer with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In 2015, prior to joining USCIS, she served as pro bono counsel for the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project. From 2013 to 2015, she worked in private practice with the Law Office of Carmen DiAmore-Siah in Honolulu representing individuals before the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and USCIS. From 2003 to 2013, she served as an assistant chief counsel, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, DHS, in New York. In 2002, she worked with the Law Office of Amir Alishahi in New York. From 2000 to 2001, she served as a staff attorney with the European Roma Rights Center, in Budapest, Hungary. Prior to that, she served as a law clerk with the Office of the Prosecutor at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, The Netherlands. Judge Maiellano is a member of the New York State Bar.

Here are the bios of all the new judges:

https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1558986/download

Congrats to all!👏

As experts like my friends Judge Chase, Professor Debbie Anker, and LexisNexis Guru Dan Kowalski say, EOIR is an organization where positive change is more likely to “come from below than from above.” Unfortunately, that makes it a painfully slow process for those still suffering in the substandard conditions that Garland permits in his Immigration Courts.

Nevertheless, as more and more judges join the bench with recent experience actually working their way through this dysfunctional system to obtain justice for their clients, the resistance to mis-applying BIA and Circuit precedents favoring individuals will grow. Additionally, the legal standards will be correctly applied at the “first level,” unrealistic requirements on individuals and their lawyers will diminish, due process, fundamental fairness, and efficiency will advance, and the disgraceful anti-immigrant, anti-asylum, deny, deport, and deter “culture” at EOIR — actively promoted under Sessions and Barr — will diminish over time.

Moreover, when Article I eventually comes, a more diverse and better-qualified group of IJs likely will be initially “grandfathered.” That’s another reason why Garland’s “slow moving train” in improving the quality of EOIR Judges at all levels has been so totally frustrating.

Should have and could have happened over the past two years with better leadership and vision from Garland and his subordinates. But, given the dismal state of immigration institutions and policies over the past six years, I’ll treat anything that isn’t “bad news” as “good news!”

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-21-22

🤯“The words egregious and illegal don’t go far enough!” — LATEST SCREW-UP BY DHS ENDANGERS CUBAN ASYLUM SEEKERS!

Hamed Aleaziz reports for the LA Times:

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-12-19/cuba-immigrants-deported-asylum-leak

The Department of Homeland Security inadvertently tipped off the Cuban government this month that some of the immigrants the agency sought to deport to the island nation had asked the U.S. for protection from persecution or torture, officials said Monday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are now scrambling to foreclose the possibility that the Cuban government could retaliate against individuals it knows sought protection here. The agency has paused its effort to deport the immigrants in question and is considering releasing them from U.S. custody.

The accidental disclosure to the Cuban government is an example of any asylum seeker’s “nightmare scenario,” said Robyn Barnard, associate director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First.

Many immigrants who seek safety in the U.S. fear that gangs, governments, or individuals back home will find out that they did so and retaliate against them or their families. To mitigate that risk, a federal regulation generally forbids the release of personal information of people seeking asylum and other protections without sign-off by top Homeland Security officials.

“The words egregious and illegal don’t go far enough,” Barnard said. “And this is not any foreign government, but a government we have irrefutable evidence routinely detains and tortures those they suspect of being in opposition to them.”

An even larger breach of confidentiality last month led directly to the surprising disclosure to the Cuban government. Less than three weeks ago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials accidentally posted the names, birth dates, nationalities and detention locations of more than 6,000 immigrants who claimed to be fleeing torture and persecution to the agency’s website.

. . . .

Anwen Hughes, director of legal strategy at Human Rights First, has years of experience comforting asylum seekers who are worried that their home countries will find out about their applications.

“They come in nervous, shaking and afraid their relatives could get arrested,” Hughes said.

Hughes has long told her clients that they should feel secure that their information would be protected.

But the most recent disclosures have given her pause.

“I don’t want to say things that won’t be true,” she said. “It is important that these assurances be meaningful.”

ICE’s November disclosure of the 6,252 names had already triggered a massive effort by the agency toinvestigate the causes of the error andreduce the risk of retaliation against immigrants whose information was exposed.

. . . .

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

Read Hamed’s complete article at the link.

Robyn Barnard
Associate Director of Refugee Advocacy
Human Rights First
PHOTO: Linkedin

Thanks for speaking out so forcefully, Robyn! There is Fourth Circuit case law holding that breaches of confidentiality can give rise to entirely new asylum claims that require evaluation by adjudicators.

As cogently pointed out by Anwen, problems like this also diminish confidence in the system. That, in turn, undermines efforts by advocates to assure asylum applicants that they should use the legal system, rather than being afraid of it. This is also something that the Government should be doing, but isn’t!

For example, right now at the southern border, thousands of asylum applicants are waiting patiently in Mexico, many in dangerous and substandard conditions, for Title 42 to end so they can appear at legal ports of entry and present their claims in an orderly and legal manner. This right for “any individual, regardless of status” to apply for asylum, is guaranteed by law. Every stay or delay in the lifting of Title 42 undermines the credibility of the entire system.

As cogently found by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, asylum applicants have been illegally denied this “life or death right” to apply for asylum in an orderly manner at the border since 2020, first by the Trump Administration and now by the Biden Administration. Tellingly, the GOP nativist politicos (and, sadly, some Dems) promoting continuing abuse of Title 42 have abandoned the original Trump claim that it was a “public health measure.” They now openly present it as a “border management tool” something that it clearly was never intended to be!

Contrary to the nativist blather, the unlawful suspension of the legal asylum system at ports of entry has actually driven irregular entries, rather than discouraging them! Additionally, nativists and many member of the media fail to acknowledge that, even without Title 42, the existing law grants DHS extraordinarily authority to “summarily remove” asylum seekers if they can’t establish a “credible fear“ of asylum in an interview by a trained and well-qualified Asylum Officer.

This process was designed to take place within a relatively short period of time, at or near the border, after the individual has indicated a fear of return upon initial encounter with an Immigration Inspector at a port of entry or to a Border Patrol Agent. Those who “fail” the credible fear process can be summarily removed by DHS without formal removal proceedings before an Immigration Judge (although there is a right to request a brief review by an Immigraton Judge of the Asylum Officer’s negative decision).

Additionally, under recently enacted regulations, Asylum Officers can now grant asylum to those who pass credible fear if they find that the generous “well-found fear” standard has been met. This also has the potential of avoiding full Immigration Court hearings. Unfortunately, however, DHS to date has failed to “leverage” this ability to rapidly grant asylum, even though the potential volume of asylum seekers has been evident for many months, if not years!

It’s also notable, in contravention of many nativist politico claims, that individuals crossing the border to seek asylum often voluntarily turn themselves in to the Border Patrol so that they can get the legal screening that the Government has been improperly denying them under Title 42.

Life threatening mistakes, two years without a plan to restore the rule of law for asylum seekers, inaccurate data, bad legal rulings, many poorly qualified judges, inadequate training, failure to use and leverage refugee programs, screwed up priorities, regressive thinking, lack of expertise, no commitment to protection, unending backlogs, absence of inspiring dynamic leadership: The Biden Administration’s inept and morally vapid approach to human rights is a life-threatening mess!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-20-22

🇺🇸⚖️🗽👍🏼REV. CRAIG MOUSIN @ DePAUL WITH A HOLIDAY MESSAGE: “FEAR NOT!” — Listen To Craig On The “Lawful Assembly” Podcast Here!

From ImmigrationProf Blog:

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2022/12/craig-mousin-on-immigration-reform.html

Click this link to listen to immigration law professor Craig Mousin’s podcast Lawful Assembly. He makes the case for not pitting demands for border security against immigration reform and justice for asylum seekers.

.

Mousin explores how the claim for a fully secure border has stalled immigration reform for over three decades. He calls for comprehensive immigration reform to address many of the issues the failed policies of detention and deportation have been unable to resolve.

KJ

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

Thanks Craig for speaking truth when so many are spreading false information and advocating trading human rights that aren’t ours to give away for “benefits” that should be conferred on their own merits with no “strings attached.”

Unhappily, even the normally reliable and sensible Greg Sargent @ WashPost is spouting some of this absolute nonsense! He speaks of indefinitely extending massive violations of legal and human rights (“Title 42”), prisons for asylum seekers (“processing centers”), and expedited dockets (“deportation railroads without due process”) as if they are “OK trade-offs” for so-called “immigration reform.”

Notably, there is nothing now stopping the Administration from processing more refugees outside the U.S., providing grants to innovative organizations like “VIISTA Villanova” for training more qualified pro bono asylum representatives without having to rely exclusively on law schools, replacing poorly qualified Asylum Officers and Immigration Judges with asylum and human rights experts, appointing a new expert BIA qualified to establish affirmative precedents to guide Asylum Officers, IJs, and lawyers on both sides in how to recognize, document, and grant asylum in accordance with the generous intent of the law and the U.N. Convention on which it is based, providing grants to NGOs for systemic resettlement of asylees and applicants away from the border, targeting and prosecuting human smugglers, and expeditiously removing those arriving at or near the border who can’t establish a “credible fear” of persecution.

That the Administration has failed to bring in the necessary visionary, dynamic, competent leadership to accomplish any of the foregoing, and that a Dem-controlled Congress has failed in its oversight responsibilities and to push the Administration to fulfill its legal obligations to asylum seekers is a question of competence and will, NOT the fault of asylum seekers and their advocates. Nor is it a basis to reduce the already unfairly and illegally compromised rights of asylum seekers

Craig basically echoes some of the themes I set forth this week in my “Dissenting Opinion!”

🗽DISSENTING OPINION: TRADING AWAY REFUGEE RIGHTS & DUE PROCESS FOR LONG OVERDUE DREAMER PROTECTIONS IS “NOT OK!”

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-17-22

🤯TRAC: GARLAND’S IMMIGRATION COURT BACKLOG HITS 2 MILLION: More Judges, More Completions, Less Representation, Defective BIA, Mindless Mal-Administration = More Backlog!

Michigan Stadium, America’s largest, holds 107,601. It would take approximately 20 Michigan Stadiums to hold all the 2,000,000 + folks waiting for hearings in Garland’s dysfunctional and backlogged Immigration Courts! And, that doesn’t include their families, communities, employers, co-workers and others affected by their fates! If Garland were the managing partner of a law firm or the CEO of a business, he would be “long gone.” Why aren’t competence and accountability “minimum requirements” for America’s chief lawyer?
Michigan Stadium Photo by Andrew Horne, Creative Commons License

Here’s the latest from TRAC Immigration:

TRAC — EOIR Backlog 2 million

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

Quick takes:

Even at this accelerated completion rate, on an annualized basis, I calculate that EOIR will still be building backlog at a rate of nearly 300,000 annually, based on 800,000 new receipts from DHS.
At approximately 700 completions/year/judge (EOIR’s figure), EOIR would need approximately 400 additional, fully trained, fully productive IJs on the bench just to “break even” and stop creating more backlog.
Nearly 800,000 asylum cases are sitting in the backlog, many ready to try and pending for years. With a better BIA and better trained IJs who actually applied Cardoza-Fonseca, Mogharrabi, and the regulatory presumptions of well-founded fear properly (instead of being “programmed to deny”) the vast majority of these old asylum cases could be prioritized and granted in short hearings.
Even with today’s broken, biased, and unconstitutionally inconsistent Immigration Courts, migrants prevail against deportation in approximately 60% of cases! This suggests that the majority of the Immigration Court’s cases could be prioritized and resolved in the migrant’s favor without lengthy hearings IF the system had a better BIA, better IJs, better training, better practices, and a better working relationship with the private bar and DHS.
Far too few bonds are being granted, and insufficient attention is being paid to inconsistencies in the bond process.
Only an infinitesimally small percentage, .56%, of new cases filed by ICE involve allegations of criminal conduct. This suggests continuing problems with the way ICE allocates enforcement resources and chooses to use Immigration Court time.

Earlier this year, I had predicted that Garland would top the 2 million backlog mark by the end of August 2022. https://wp.me/p8eeJm-7dT

I was off by 3 months, as it actually took him until the end of November 2022 to achieve this negative landmark.

Nevertheless, some things are clear: This system is “beyond FUBAR!” It needs professional leadership, a new appellate board, better judges, better training, better utilization of the private bar, smarter, more creative and innovative practices, and authority to “rein in” in out of control ICE Enforcement. All the same things experts said were needed back at the time of Biden’s election! Ignoring expert advice has resulted in just the continuing, mushrooming disaster at EOIR and in our legal system that experts predicted!

Over two years, Garland has shown that he is not the person for the job. Nor have his political subordinates shown any aptitude for addressing the festering management, legal, and quality control problems @ EOIR!

Experts and advocates should be pushing the Administration and Dems in Congress for a change in leadership at the DOJ! Every day of failure means more backlog, more injustice, more frustration, more lives endangered, and a growing threat to American democracy — from those sworn to protect and uphold it, but aren’t getting the job done!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-16-22

🗽⚖️🇺🇸👍🏼 NDPA WINS AGAIN: CARLA ESPINOZA CRUSHES GARLAND ON CAT IN 5TH — Conservative Circuit Wearies Of BIA’s Lawless Approach: “Complete Lack of Discussion of…Evidence”

Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:

CA5 Blasts BIA for “Complete Lack of Discussion of…Evidence” in Mexican CAT Case

Aguado-Cuevas v. Garland (unpub.)

https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unpub/21/21-60574.0.pdf

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca5-blasts-bia-for-complete-lack-of-discussion-of-evidence-in-mexican-cat-case#

“Oscar Aguado-Cuevas, a Mexican national, petitions for review of the BIA’s decision affirming a denial of his application for relief under the Convention Against Torture. For the reasons below, we GRANT the petition, VACATE the BIA’s decision, and REMAND this case for further consideration of Aguado-Cuevas’s petition for CAT protection. … Aguado-Cuevas filed an application for relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), arguing that his uncles and cousins in Mexico were cartel members who would kill him if he returned. In September 2020, Aguado-Cuevas, his father, and an expert witness testified in support of Aguado-Cuevas’s CAT application. … Aguado-Cuevas signed a cooperation agreement and began cooperating with federal authorities. Aguado-Cuevas’s cooperation, including his agreement to testify against Adolfo Jr. and CJNG, was leaked to the media and publicized online. … [A]n expert witness testified that Aguado-Cuevas’s chances of potential risk or torture upon returning to Mexico were “[e]xtremely high to [a] near certainty” due to his informant and debtor status. … [T]he BIA erred by not applying the correct legal framework in which it must show that it meaningfully considered “relevant substantial evidence supporting the alien’s claims.” … Although we remand primarily for the BIA to reconsider the state involvement prong of the CAT analysis, we note that both parties acknowledge that the BIA’s likelihood of torture analysis suffers from similar deficiencies. Accordingly, to the extent that the BIA finds that Aguado-Cuevas has shown the requisite level of state involvement upon remand, we order the BIA to also consider the likelihood of torture prong under the proper legal framework. … Aguado-Cuevas claims that he will be murdered by CJNG as punishment for being an informant and debtor following his drug-related activities in the U.S. Concerning the likelihood of torture, Aguado-Cuevas argues—and the Government agrees—that the BIA should have more closely considered evidence of Aguado-Cuevas’s actions in the U.S. that could characterize him to CJNG as an informant and debtor. Specifically, the BIA did not properly consider evidence that (1) Aguado-Cuevas owed CJNG $120,000 after his botched deal; (2) Aguado-Cuevas was identified by the media as an informant in the prosecution of a CJNG member; (3) a text message identified Aguado-Cuevas as a potential target of the CJNG; (4) a residence where Aguado-Cuevas stayed was ransacked; and (5) CJNG routinely kills debtors and informants. Such evidence goes directly to Aguado-Cuevas’s arguments of likelihood of torture as an informant and debtor; such a theory hinges not on events in Mexico but on his actions in the U.S., making him a particular target for torture by CJNG. The BIA failed to properly consider these pieces of evidence. … The complete lack of discussion of the aforementioned evidence suggests that the BIA has not met this standard. As before, the BIA should remand to the IJ for additional factfinding if necessary.”

[Hats way off to Superlawyer Carla Espinoza!]

Carla Espinoza ESQUIRE
Chicago Immigration Advocates Law Offices

—

Daniel M. Kowalski

Editor-in-Chief

Bender’s Immigration Bulletin (LexisNexis)

cell/text/Signal (512) 826-0323

@dkbib on Twitter

dan@cenizo.com

Free Daily Blog: www.bibdaily.com

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

Many congrats and thanks Carla! There is an”epidemic” of botched CAT cases being “outed” by the Circuits. This one was so horribly mishandled, that even OIL couldn’t defend it!

Yet, the “downbeat goes on” as Garland feigns ignorance of the institutionalized injustice @ EOIR being carried out in his name! On his watch, the BIA has gone from “any reason to deny” to “no reason whatsoever for denying.”

Apparently, as long as the BIA staff attorney drafts the decision so the individual loses, it really doesn’t matter to the “signatory appellate judge” at the BIA what goes above the “bottom line.”

It’s a heck of a way to “run the railroad” 🚂 with human lives at stake and an ever growing, out of control, 2 million case backlog! After 2.5 years bouncing around the EOIR system, this particular case is headed back to the IJ in a never ending quest for competent judging, due process, and fundamental fairness. All three of the foregoing are elusive qualities at Garland’s EOIR!

Garland’s so-called “dedicated dockets” gimmick has been a total failure from a due process and fundamental fairness standpoint. See, e.g., https://trac.syr.edu/reports/704.

The only “dedicated docket” that Garland REALLY needs at EOIR is one dedicated to getting the results right in the first instance! But, that readily achievable objective (although NOT without major, long over due personnel changes in “management,” the BIA, and among some IJs) appears of little interest to Garland or the Biden Administration. Thus, the latest Dem Administration appears content to let the dysfunctional EOIR system limp on spewing injustice, bad law, and insurmountable backlogs on its downward spiral!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-13-22

⚖️📚 WHAT MAKES LAW TEACHING WORTHWHILE! — SPOILER ALERT: It Isn’t US News & World Reports Rankings — “One law student at a time”

Student note to a pair of immigration professors:

Forgot to thank both of you for an amazing semester! This class has helped me not feel too down about law school and not judge my intelligence. I liked that both of you show the human side of law. Thank you for not only showing us that the subject is based on people, but also teaching in a way that showed you were approachable. I love that both of you know how to turn off the legal side and just talk to students about ordinary life, which has helped a lot in my ability to approach other professors. And, you both taught in a language that I can actually understand. Thanks again and I hope to have other professors like the two of you in the future!”

From a student in our Immigration Law I course. Thursday was the final class of the semester.

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

This is one reason why the NDPA has been such a formidable force for due process and against Government human rights abuses and “bad law.”

It also shows why more and more immigration and immigration clinical professors are not only receiving tenure, but are “moving up the leadership ladder” at their institutions.

Immigration law teaching has been far, far ahead of the curve in teaching “law you can use” and practical skills that not only spell success in legal practice but in all aspects of life. One of these is taking complex subjects and breaking them down into understandable terms and pieces that make sense and relate to human experience.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-11-22

🗽DISSENTING OPINION: TRADING AWAY REFUGEE RIGHTS & DUE PROCESS FOR LONG OVERDUE DREAMER PROTECTIONS IS “NOT OK!”

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Exclusive

Dec. 6, 2022

I dissent.

I was outraged when I read in this morning’s Washington Post about the horrible “Sinema/Tillis misnamed immigration compromise” (actually a “sellout”) being negotiated during the lame duck session of Congress. In short, that proposal apparently would trade long overdue protection for “Dreamers” for the rights and lives of refugees and asylum seekers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/05/congress-working-strike-last-minute-immigration-deals/

Incredibly, in the face of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s findings that the intentional illegal use of Title 42 had resulted in countless clear violations of the legal rights of asylum seekers, subjecting them to a litany of horrors and abuses that he described as “dire harm,” these legislators would extend those abuses for an indefinite period! That’s notwithstanding evidence not only of the irreparable harm that Title 42 has caused, but also the rather obvious fact that once we “normalize” those abuses, they will never end.

There will always be another fabricated reason for extending the Title 42 charade. Indeed, once we start mischaracterizing abuse as “law,” we can’t even call it “abuse” and hold the abusers accountable! That’s all part of the dehumanizing or “Dred Scottification” process!

Additionally, in the place of a functioning working asylum and refugee system, the proposal would eventually substitute so called “processing centers” and “expedited procedures” to railroad asylum seekers out of the country without due process. And, it wouldn’t address the total dysfunction and denial of due process in our Immigration “Courts” by enacting another long overdue provision: the “Lofgren Article I Immigration court bill!” What a farce!

Let’s be clear about what’s happening here! The legal and human rights of refugees and asylum seekers are not “ours” to trade away for relief for another deserving group that has long been irrationally denied! “Processing centers” are a euphemism for “immigration prisons” — part of the “New American Gulag.” “Expedited processing” is a euphemism for “railroading.” Both detention and artificially expediting dockets have been proven to be ineffective and unjust, over and over. Yet, here we go again!

My outrage turned to shock and dismay when I learned that some erstwhile defenders of due process, human rights, and racial justice for asylum seekers (incredibly) thought that this type of immoral compromise was a “good idea!” Not me!

Restrictionist/nativist Dems masquerading as “moderates” are a huge problem. They play right into the GOP’s hands.

When committing crimes against humanity or giving away refugees’ rights becomes a “strategy,” “option,” or “bargaining chip,” we’re lost as a nation. And, that’s exactly where we’re heading with horrible, immoral proposals like this.

Human rights and due process are non-negotiable! And, I guarantee that extending Title 42, building additional Gulag (rather than making the existing legal asylum and refugee systems work), and railroading asylum seekers will empower smugglers and lead to further growth of our underground population.

Human migration won’t be stopped by ineffective and immoral “deterrence.” And, although many hate the idea, refugees basically “self-select” and are driven by forces beyond our immediate control.

Refugees are, by definition, folks who can’t return! So, there is no reason to believe that true refugees (of which there are many) are going to be “deterred.” They might be “incentivized” to seek refuge in particular, relatively safe, places; but, nobody seems interested in a “carrot” approach — even though the “stick approach” has failed and continues to do so!

Look at the folks who continue to die in vessels in the Mediterranean even though they are fully aware that they are unwanted and that the EU will stop at no cruelty to keep them out.

And, examine the wealth of documentation that folks forced to “remain in Mexico” — and apply under what we know to be a corrupt and inadequate system — are systematically abused and exploited.

This time, we’re not just “pushing the St. Louis out to sea.” We’re torpedoing her and watching the passengers drown. And Dems are a huge part of the problem!

Other (soon to be former) progressive Democrats might choose to “go along to get along” with heaping additional abuses on largely defenseless refugees and asylum seekers. But, not me! I dissent!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-06-22

🤯☠️LARGELY OVERLOOKED “NUGGET” IN TRAC’S LATEST ASYLUM “DATA DUMP” SHOWS SCOPE OF BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S FAILURE TO BRING DUE PROCESS, PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE, VISION TO BROKEN ASYLUM SYSTEM!

Trump Dumping Asylum Seekers in Hondiras — Despite two years of blather and broken promises, the Biden Administration’s approach to asylum at the border hasn’t advanced much over Trump’s. That’s a shame, because the tools and expertise to fix the system are available, yet largely ignored by the Administration. It might come to a head on Dec. 22.
Artist: Monte Wolverton
Reproduced under license

https://trac.syr.edu/whatsnew/email.221129.html

As experts predicted, the Biden Administration’s poorly-conceived and ineptly implemented “expedited asylum dockets” have sharply diminished favorable outcomes and due process for asylum seekers in a broken system already stacked against them. This preventable disaster is particularly acute for the too many unrepresented applicants who have little chance of relief in a system designed to reduce them to dehumanized denial statistics.

But, the real “sleeper” here is that over three quarters of the cases “referred” by the Asylum Office are GRANTED by the Immigration Courts. This shows a gross “over-referral” of cases to the Immigration Courts that could and should be expeditiously granted at the Asylum Office. The Administration’s regulation change to give Asylum Officers more authority to grant asylum at the first instance has not had the positive effects it should have.

Of course, the Administration’s unforgivable failure to “leverage” asylum grants for recently arrived refugees cripples their border response and creates fodder for GOP White Nationalist xenophobes. It builds unnecessary backlogs and promotes “aimless docket reshuffling” in Garland’s disgracefully dysfunctional and hopelessly backlogged EOIR!

But, beyond that, this statistic also projects that a large part of EOIR’s largely self-inflicted “asylum backlog” consists of clearly grantable, represented “affirmative” asylum cases referred by the Asylum Office. Rather than working with the private bar to identify and prioritize these cases in an orderly, professional manner for expedited grants, Garland has done the exact opposite!

The problem of mass over-referral to EOIR by the Asylum Office is hardly “today’s news.” Indeed, in 2016, the year I retired from the bench, 83% of the “affirmative” referrals by the Asylum Office were GRANTED in Immigration Court! https://www.statista.com/statistics/234398/affirmative-asylum-case-grant-rate-by-us-immigration-courts/ And, that was with a BIA setting precedents that were generally, and quite incorrectly, unfavorable to asylum seekers. Of course the latter problem has also gotten worse in the intervening years.

As I have pointed out before, despite two years to reform and improve the asylum system at both DHS and EOIR, the Biden Administration appears woefully unprepared to reinstitute the rule of law for asylum seekers on December 22 in a manner that is fair, efficient, reasonable, and humane. Failure to solve the long-festering problem of under-granting asylum and over-referring cases to EOIR is just part of the overall ineptitude, lack of dynamic leadership, absence of vision, and, frankly, moral vapidity of the Biden Administration on human rights and racial justice.

Failure to timely and competently grant asylum at the first instance is a major driver of disorder and backlogs at both USCIS and EOIR. That’s basically “Good Government 101,” apparently not required to work on immigration in this Administration.

The process requires close coordination and cooperation with NGOs and the pro bono bar for representation (essential for due process), quick identification and granting of strong cases, and orderly resettlement (in place of the random bussing by GOP grandstanding governors curiously empowered by the Biden Administration’s lack of leadership).

But, if there is a plan by the Administration to involve the private sector in a positive manner, it’s certainly a secret. That’s tragic, as the imbalance in experience, expertise, and competence between the private bar, where it resides, and the Administration, where it doesn’t, has reached incomprehensible levels!

I always hope for the best, even when it’s against the odds. But, if disaster and massive human rights violations unfold on and after Dec. 22, expect the Biden Administration, like Trump, to blame everybody but themselves.

The job of creating order out of disorder is likely to fall primarily on NGOs and advocates at or near the border. As always, the first priority is saving as many refugee lives as possible. But, the next priority is to hold the Biden Administration accountable and not let them shift the blame for their self-created disorder at the border and the predictable, yet avoidable, mess they appear determined to create!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-02-22

🇺🇸🗽⚖️ MORE CA 2 REMANDS: NDPA STARS 🌟 MOSELEY & GETACHEW LATEST TO BEST GARLAND’S MESSED UP “COURTS” — BIA Applies Wrong Standards In Yet Another CAT Case, Blows “Changed Circumstance” In Asylum Case, Overlooks & Misconstrues Evidence, Omits Analysis In Unseemly “Race To Wrongly Deny” Life Or Death Cases! — Garland Shrugs Off Legal Debacle Unfolding Every Day on His Watch!

The Hook
Managers yank highly-paid big league pitchers who aren’t getting the job done! When will Garland finally “get out the hook” for his deadly underperforming BIA?
PHOTO CREDIT: © BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons

Dan Kowalski reports from LexisNexis Immigration Community:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca2-on-cat-standard-of-review-omorodion-v-garland

CA2 on CAT, Standard of Review: Omorodion v. Garland

Omorodion v. Garland (unpub.)

“The IJ granted Omorodion’s application for deferral of removal under the CAT and, after an initial remand by the BIA, reaffirmed that decision. In July 2018 the BIA vacated the IJ’s grant of CAT relief and ordered Omorodion removed, concluding that Omorodion did not show that she would suffer torture or that public officials would acquiesce in her torture. … First, Omorodion argues that the BIA mischaracterized and ignored key evidence. We agree. … The BIA also erred by failing to apply the clear error standard in its review of the IJ’s “predictive finding that [Omorodion] would suffer torture by or with the acquiescence of the Nigerian government.” … The BIA erred as a matter of law when it overlooked such evidence and rejected the IJ’s predictive finding. To summarize, we grant the petition and remand because the BIA overlooked material components of the record and misconstrued others. See Xiao Kui Lin v. Mukasey, 553 F.3d 217, 220 (2d Cir. 2009). Should the BIA vacate the IJ’s grant of CAT relief on remand, it should explain where it identifies clear error in the IJ’s factfinding based on the totality of the record. If any vacatur is not due to clear error, the BIA must otherwise “provide sufficient explanation to permit proper appellate review” of its decision. Hui Lin Huang, 3 677 F.3d at 137. For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is GRANTED, the BIA’s decision is VACATED, and the case is REMANDED for further proceedings consistent with this order.”

[Hats off to Tom Moseley!]

Thomas Moseley ESQUIRE
NPPA Icon
Newark, NJ

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

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca2-on-cat-standard-of-review-omorodion-v-garland

CA2 on Asylum, Changed Circumstances: Perez Nagahama v. Garland

Perez Nagahama v. Garland (unpub.)

“We remand for the agency to conduct the required factfinding and analysis regarding the reasonableness of Perez Nagahama’s delay in filing her asylum claim following her changed circumstances. An asylum applicant must file an asylum “application . . . within 1 year after the date of . . . arrival in the United States.” 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(2)(B). There is an exception for “changed circumstances which materially affect the applicant’s eligibility for asylum.” Id. § 1158(a)(2)(D). Where there is such a change, the applicant must file an application “within a reasonable period given those ‘changed circumstances.’” 8 C.F.R. § 1208.4(a)(4)(ii). The IJ concluded and the BIA assumed that Perez Nagahama’s circumstances changed materially when she began living as openly gay in April 2015. What is a reasonable period for filing after a changed circumstance is a fact-specific inquiry: IJs should make specific “findings of fact with respect to the particular circumstances involved in the delay of the respondents’ applications” to determine the reasonableness of the delay. Matter of T-M-H- & S-W-C-, 25 I. & N. Dec. 193, 195–96 (B.I.A. 2010). … Perez Nagahama has raised a reviewable question of law that the agency failed to apply the proper standard because it did not consider her specific circumstances before concluding that her delay was unreasonable. … The agency did not conduct the required factfinding and analysis. … Here, the IJ did not make findings of facts regarding the reasonableness of the delay in light of the attendant circumstances. The BIA should have remanded to the IJ to consider whether the delay was reasonable. … Instead, the BIA made its own factual determinations that Perez Nagahama beginning to live as openly gay did not make her delay reasonable and that the other facts she pointed to were not related to this underlying changed circumstance. Compounding this issue, the BIA gave no reasoning for its conclusion that the relevant circumstance made her delay unreasonable.”

[Hats off to Genet Getachew!]

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

Clearly, the BIA’s performance in this and other recent CA remands is far below even the “good enough for government work” mantra that prevails at Garland’s dysfunctional EOIR! Why does Garland think “NOT good enough for government work” is “good enough for due process for ‘persons’ who happen to be foreign nationals” with the their lives at stake in his “smashed to smithereens” piece of our “justice” system?

The only way Garland gets to where his EOIR is today is by “Dred Scottification:” That is, intentionally treating “persons” (“humans”) in his Immigration Courts as “non –persons” under the Due Process Clause of our Constitution. If that sounds like a “Stephen Miller wet dream”🤮 (grotesque as that image undoubtedly is), it’s because that’s exactly what it is! How does a Dem Administration get away with this affront to due process, equal protection, and racial justice in America?

Kind of makes me wonder what they taught at Harvard Law (Garland’s alma mater) and other so-called “elite” law schools. I daresay that virtually all law students I have encountered in teaching immigration and refugee law for a number of years at Georgetown Law would have done better than the BIA had these cases been on my final exams.

The BIA’s inability to fairly and competently apply basic legal standards, honestly and professionally evaluate evidence of record, give asylum applicants the “benefit of the doubt” to which they are entitled under international standards, provide positive practical expert guidance on granting relief, eliminate “asylum free zones,” promote uniform outcomes, and develop and enforce “best judicial practices” is a major factor in the incredible two million case backlog that Garland has built in Immigration Court! His failure to take corrective action by replacing the BIA with competent, expert, unbiased appellate judges is a major breach of both ethical standards and his oath of office! How does he get away with it?

Thousands of asylum applicants at our border are being illegally returned to danger! Individuals with valid claims to be in the United States are routinely being denied relief for specious reasons and clear misapplications of basic legal standards in his “courts” — powerful indicators of systemic bias that should have been forcefully addressed by Garland on “day one” of his tenure at EOIR, as experts recommended.

Garland’s victims’ lives are irrevocably ruined or even ended! Misery is inflicted on their family, loved ones, and American communities! Dedicated lawyers working overtime to save lives are mistreated by Garland’s courts and traumatized by sharing the horrible consequences to their clients of systemic inferior judging! America is denied legal immigrants we need!

Our Federal justice system is overwhelmed with wasteful and never-ending litigation of immigration cases that should have been timely granted in the first instance and bad policies that never should have seen the light of day. In this respect, note that the IJ actually got it right in Omorodion! Then, in attempting to accommodate DHS and achieve an illegal removal, the BIA completely botched it on appeal! Even where justice prevails at the “retail” level, the BIA screws it up!

Yet Garland just shows up for work and draws his paycheck as if this were the way “justice” is supposed to work in America and fixing it is “below his pay level!” Gimmie a break!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, many congrats and much appreciation to NDPA stalwarts Tom Moseley and Genet Getachew!

I am particularly honored to recognize the litigation greatness of my long-time friend, former INS colleague, and NDPA litigation icon 👍🏼🗽 Tom Moseley. He honed his complex litigation skills as an INS Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY during my tenure as Deputy General Counsel and Acting General Counsel at the “Legacy INS.”

Since leaving INS decades ago, Tom has been a tower of “practical impact litigation” and “Life-Saving 101” in New Jersey and beyond. Thanks for all you do, my friend!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-01-22

🇺🇸THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-29-22 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Managing Attorney, NIJC — HEADLINER: After Two Years Of Dithering & Ongoing Human Rights Abuses, Biden Administration Heading For Failure In Re-Instituting Rule Of Law For Legal Asylum Seekers @ S. Border, According To Many Experts!

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

Biden administration preps for a rocky end to Trump-era immigration rule

Politico: Experts in the immigration field say they’re expecting a stressful and chaotic transition when a court-ordered deadline to end the Trump directive is hit, one that could drive a new rush to the border and intensify GOP criticism. See also States move to keep court from lifting Trump asylum policy.

U.S. talking to Mexico, other countries to facilitate return of Venezuelan migrants

Reuters: The United States is in talks with Mexico and other countries to facilitate the return of Venezuelan migrants to their homeland, a senior U.S. official said in a call with reporters on Tuesday.

ICE Detains More Individuals

TRAC: The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, which currently houses single adults (mostly females) has more than doubled the number of individuals it is holding since September. ICE reports this facility run by CoreCivic now has the largest average daily population of detainees (1,562) in the country

Homeland Security chief could face impeachment in GOP-led House if he does not resign, Kevin McCarthy warns

CBS: McCarthy also threatened to use “the power of the purse and the power of subpoena” to investigate and derail the Biden administration’s immigration and border policies, saying Republican-led committees would hold oversight hearings near the U.S.-Mexico border.

LITIGATION & AGENCY UPDATES

CA2 CAT Remand: Lopez De Velasquez V. Garland

LexisNexis: “Remand is required in this case because the BIA did not give consideration to all relevant evidence and principles of law, as those have been detailed by this Court’s recent decision in Scarlett v. Barr, 957 F.3d 316, 332–36 (2d Cir. 2020). … Because Mejia did not fear torture at the hands of the Guatemalan authorities, the relevant inquiry is whether government officials have acquiesced in likely third-party torture. To make this determination, the Court considers whether there is evidence that authorities knew of the torture or turned a blind eye to it, and “thereafter” breached their “responsibility to prevent” the possible torture.”

CA2 on CAT, Honduras: Garcia-Aranda v. Garland

LexisNexis: “Having reviewed both the IJ’s and the BIA’s opinions, we hold that the agency did not err in finding that Garcia-Aranda failed to satisfy her burden of proof for asylum and withholding of removal, but that the agency applied incorrect standards when adjudicating Garcia-Aranda’s CAT claim.”

3rd Circ. Says Jargon, Other Flaws Didn’t Prejudice CAT Bid

Law360: The Third Circuit has backed a decision denying a Dominican man’s bid for deportation relief based on his fear of being tortured, saying the procedural flaws he claimed tainted his proceedings — including the use of legal jargon and a videoconferencing glitch — did not prejudice him.

8th Circ. Finds Persecution Evidence Lacking In Asylum Bid

Law360: An English-speaking Cameroonian lost her chance to stay in the U.S. after the Eighth Circuit ruled that she failed to provide enough evidence showing that military officers had attacked her for her presumed support of Anglophone separatists.

CA9 Appeal Waiver Remand: Phong v. Garland

LexisNexis: “Without record evidence that Phong orally waived his right to appeal before the IJ, we decline to address his alternative arguments that any waiver was unconsidered, unintelligent, or otherwise unenforceable. Rather, we remand to the BIA to develop the record on the waiver issue and, if it deems it appropriate, to consider Phong’s remaining arguments in the first instance.”

No Second Bite At Bond Needed For Detainee, 9th Circ. Says

Law360: A divided Ninth Circuit on Monday ruled that the federal government was not constitutionally required to provide a Salvadoran immigrant a second bond hearing amid his prolonged detention during removal proceedings, while also bearing the burden to show he was a flight risk or danger to the community.

Immigrants, DHS settle case seeking activist targeting info

AP: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has agreed to pay a Vermont-based immigrant advocacy organization $74,000 in legal fees to settle a lawsuit seeking information about whether advocates were being targeted by immigration agents because of their political activism.

USCIS Extends and Expands Fee Exemptions and Expedited Processing for Afghan Nationals

USCIS: Today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it is extending and expanding previously announced filing fee exemptions and expedited application processing for certain Afghan nationals.

RESOURCES

NIJC’s Fall Pro Bono Asylum Training, Nov. 2022

DHS: State Immigration Data Sheets include immigration benefits data across topics for all 50 states

EVENTS

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

1/10/23 CLINIC: Comprehensive Overview of Immigration Law (COIL)

1/11/22 Preventing and Responding to RFEs and NOIDs for U and VAWA Cases

1/19/23 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

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

Folks, it’s about re-instituting the law and screening system for legal asylum seekers which was in effect, in one form or another, for four decades before being illegally abrogated by the Trump Administration’s abusive use of Title 42. Outrageously, after promising to do better during the 2020 election campaign, the Biden Administration has “gone along to get along” with inflicting massive human rights violations under the Title 42 facade until finally ordered to comply with the law by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan last month.

One of Judge Sullivan’s well-supported findings was that the scofflaw actions by both Trump and Biden officials had resulted in knowingly and intentionally inflicting “dire harm” on legal asylum applicants:

Sullivan wrote that the federal officials knew the order “would likely expel migrants to locations with a ‘high probability’ of ‘persecution, torture, violent assaults, or rape’ ” — and did so anyway.

“It is unreasonable for the CDC to assume that it can ignore the consequences of any actions it chooses to take in the pursuit of fulfilling its goals,” Sullivan wrote. “It is undisputed that the impact on migrants was indeed dire.”

Contrary to the “CYA BS” coming from Biden Administration officials, making the law work at the Southern Border requires neither currently unachievable “reform” legislation nor massive additions of personnel! It does, however, require better personnel, expert training, accountability, smarter use of resources, and enlightened, dynamic, courageous, principled, expert leadership currently glaringly lacking within the Biden Administration.

The Administration’s much ballyhooed, yet poorly conceived, ineptly and inconsistently implemented, “revised asylum regulations” have also failed to “leverage” the potential for success, thus far producing only an anemic number of “first instance” asylum grants. This is far below the rate necessary for the process significantly to take pressure off the backlogged and dysfunctional Immigration Courts, one of the stated purposes of the regulations! Meanwhile, early indications are that Garland’s ill-advised regulatory time limits on certain arbitrarily-selected asylum applications have further diluted quality and just results for EOIR asylum decisions. That, folks, is in a system where disdain for both of these essential judicial traits is already rampant!

It’s not rocket science! It was well within the capability of the Biden Administration to establish a robust, functional asylum system had it acted with urgency and competency upon taking office in 2021:

Better Asylum Officers at USCIS and Immigration Judges at EOIR — well-qualified asylum experts with practical experience in the asylum system who will timely recognize and grant the many valid asylum claims in the first instance;
Cooperative agreements with NGOs and pro bono organizations to prescreen applications in an orderly manner and represent those who can establish a “credible fear;”
A new and improved BIA of qualified “practical scholars” in asylum law who will establish workable precedents and best practices that honestly reflect the generous approach to asylum required (but never carried out in practice or spirit) by the Supremes in Cardoza-Fonseca and the BIA itself in its long-ignored and consistently misapplied precedent in Mogharrabi;
An orderly refugee resettlement program administered under the auspices of the Feds for those granted asylum and for those whose claims can’t be expeditiously granted at the border and who therefore must present them in Immigration Court at some location away from the border.

The Biden Administration has nobody to blame but themselves for their massive legal, moral, and practical failures on the Southern Border! With House GOP nativist/restrictionists “sharpening their knives,” Mayorkas, Garland, Rice, and other Biden officials who have failed to restore the legal asylum system shouldn’t expect long-ignored and “affirmatively dissed” human rights experts and advocates to bail them out!

The massive abrogations of human rights, due process, the rule of law, common sense, and human decency that the GOP espouses — so-called enforcement and ineffective “deterrence” only approach — will NOT resolve the humanitarian issues with ongoing, often inevitable, refugee flows!

But, the Biden Administration’s inept approach to human rights has played right into the hands of these GOP White Nationalist politicos. That’s an inconceivable human tragedy for our nation and for the many legal refugees we turn away without due process or fair consideration of their life-threatening plight! These are refugees — legal immigrants — who should be allowed to enter legally and help our economy and our nation with their presence.

If we want refugees to apply “away from the border,” we must establish robust, timely, realistic refugee programs at or near places like Haiti, Venezuela, and the Northern Triangle that are sending us refugees. In the Refugee Act of 1980, Congress actually gave the President extraordinary discretionary authority to establish refugee processing directly in the countries the refugees are fleeing. This was a significant expansion of the UN refugee definition which requires a refugee to be “outside” his or her country of nationality. Yet, no less than the Trump and Obama Administrations before, President Biden has failed to “leverage” this powerful potential tool for establishing orderly refugee processing beyond our borders!

Meanwhile, down on the actual border, a place that Biden, Harris, Mayorkas, Garland, Rice, and other “high level architects of failed asylum policies” seldom, if ever, deign to visit, life, such as it is, goes on with the usual abuses heaped on asylum seekers patiently waiting to be fairly processed.

A rational observer might have thought that the Biden Administration would use the precious time before Dec. 22, 2022, reluctantly “gifted” to them by Judge Sullivan, to pre-screen potential asylum seekers already at ports of entry on the Mexican side. Those with credible fear and strong claims could be identified for orderly entries when legal ports of entry (finally) re-open on Dec. 22. Or, better yet, they could be “paroled” into the U.S. now and expeditiously granted asylum by Asylum Officers.

This would reduce the immediate pressure on the ports, eliminate unnecessary trips to backlogged Immigration Courts, and expedite these refugees’ legal status, work authorization, and transition to life in the U.S.

I have no idea what the Biden Administration has done with the time since Judge Sullivan “gifted” them a stay. The only noticeable actions have been more BS excuses, blame-shifting, and lowering expectations.

But, in reality, by their indolent approach to humanitarian issues and the law, in the interim the Administration has consciously left the fate of long-suffering and already “direly-harmed” legal asylum seekers to the Mexican Government. According to a recent NBC News report, the Mexican Government forcibly “rousted” many awaiting processing at a squalid camp near the border and “orbited them’ to “who knows where.” https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/mexican-authorities-evict-venezuelan-migrants-from-border-camps-155516485544

Judge Sullivan might want to take note of this in assessing how the Biden DOJ has used the “preparedness time” that he reluctantly granted them following his order.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-29-22

⚖️ APTLY-CAPTIONED U.S. v. TEXAS WILL TEST SUPREMES’ WILLINGNESS TO STAND UP AGAINST TRUMP’S OUTLAW FEDERAL JUDGES & RACIST GOP STATE AGs!

Trump Judges — Trump Federal Judges Tilt Against Democracy
Republished under license

https://apple.news/AT659B9r2TJqCsmk0-8ONZw

A Trump judge seized control of ICE, and the Supreme Court will decide whether to stop him

Judge Drew Tipton’s order in United States v. Texas is completely lawless. Thus far, the Supreme Court has given him a pass.

By Ian Millhiser | November 27, 2022 8:00 am

In July, a Trump appointee to a federal court in Texas effectively seized control of parts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that enforces immigration laws within US borders. Although Judge Drew Tipton’s opinion in United States v. Texas contains a simply astonishing array of legal and factual errors, the Supreme Court has thus far tolerated Tipton’s overreach and permitted his order to remain in effect.

Nearly five months later, the Supreme Court will give the Texas case a full hearing on Tuesday. And there’s a good chance that even this Court, where Republican appointees control two-thirds of the seats, will reverse Tipton’s decision — his opinion is that bad.

The case involves a memo that Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas issued in September 2021, instructing ICE agents to prioritize undocumented immigrants who “pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security and thus threaten America’s well-being” when making arrests or otherwise enforcing immigration law.

A federal statute explicitly states that the homeland security secretary “shall be responsible” for “establishing national immigration enforcement policies and priorities,” and the department issued similar memos setting enforcement priorities in 2005, 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2017.

Nevertheless, the Republican attorneys general of Texas and Louisiana asked Tipton to invalidate Mayorkas’s memo. And Tipton defied the statute permitting Mayorkas to set enforcement priorities — and a whole host of other, well-established legal principles — and declared Mayorkas’s enforcement priorities invalid. This is not the first time that Tipton relied on highly dubious legal reasoning to sabotage the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

. . . .

Even when the law offers no support for the GOP’s preferred policies, in other words, the Court permits Republicans to manipulate judicial procedures in order to get the results they want. The Texas attorney general’s office can handpick judges who they know will strike down Biden administration policies, and once those policies are declared invalid, the Supreme Court will play along with these partisan judges’ decisions for at least a year or so.

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

Once the GOP got the upper hand on the Federal Bench, the “traditional” conservative case for “judicial restraint” went straight down the tubes under an assault by righty ideologues eager to “do in” precedents, laws, and Executive policies that don’t fit their “out of the mainstream” political agenda, no matter how thinly reasoned or often counterfactual their “cover” might be.

And, as usual, Dems have been slow on the uptake about getting younger, staunch defenders of democracy and our Constitution on the bench to counteract the right-wing’s Article III takeover.

As this article points out, the Supremes’ questionable “shadow docket” is manipulated by the Court’s righty majority improperly to favor GOP scofflaw tactics, even where they ultimately can’t concoct a legal basis to uphold them on the merits.

⚖️🗽👩🏻‍⚖️Better judges for a better America!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-28-22

⚖️ TWO MORE CAT REMANDS FROM 2D CIR.

Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca2-on-cat-honduras-garcia-aranda-v-garland#

CA2 on CAT, Honduras: Garcia-Aranda v. Garland

Garcia-Aranda v. Garland

“Karla Iveth Garcia-Aranda petitions for review of two decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) denying asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Garcia-Aranda, a native and citizen of Honduras, testified before an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) that she and her family had been threatened, kidnapped, and beaten by members of the Mara 18 gang while a local Honduran police officer was present. Garcia-Aranda sought asylum and withholding of removal, arguing that the gang had persecuted her because she was a member of the Valerio family, which ran its own drug trafficking ring in Garcia-Aranda’s hometown. She also sought protection under CAT based on an asserted likelihood of future torture at the hands of the gang with the participation or acquiescence of the local Honduran police. Having reviewed both the IJ’s and the BIA’s opinions, we hold that the agency did not err in finding that Garcia-Aranda failed to satisfy her burden of proof for asylum and withholding of removal, but that the agency applied incorrect standards when adjudicating Garcia-Aranda’s CAT claim. Accordingly, the petition for review is DENIED IN PART and GRANTED IN PART, the decisions of the BIA are VACATED IN PART to the extent they denied Garcia-Aranda’s claim for CAT protection, and the case is REMANDED to the BIA for further proceedings consistent with this decision. … Because of these legal errors, we grant the petition as to Garcia-Aranda’s claim for protection under CAT and vacate the BIA’s decisions regarding CAT protection. See Rafiq v. Gonzales, 468 F.3d 165, 166–67 (2d Cir. 2006) (remanding a CAT claim for proper application of Khouzam). On remand, we direct the agency to consider, in light of all testimony and documentary evidence, whether Garcia-Aranda will more likely than not be tortured by, or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of, any public official (or other person) acting under color of law. As more fully described above, that means considering questions such as whether it is more likely than not that the gang will torture Garcia-Aranda, including meeting all the harm requirements for torture under section 1208.18(a), and whether it is more likely than not that local police acting under color of law will themselves participate in those likely gang actions or acquiesce in those likely gang actions. The BIA is also instructed to remand to the IJ for any additional factfinding that is necessary for the BIA to make its determination.”

[NOTE: This PFR was filed in 2018! Hats off to Heather Axford and team!]

Heather Axford
Senior Staff Attorney
Central American Legal Assistance
Brooklyn, NY

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

https://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/460814d0-f0ab-44e7-aa08-3e5c9842322a/3/doc/19-228_so.pdf

Lopez De Velasquez v. Garland

“Petition for review of a December 26, 2018 decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) vacating a July 27, 2017 decision of an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) granting Petitioners’ application for asylum and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the petition for review is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. Accordingly, the decision of the BIA is VACATED in part, and the case is REMANDED for proceedings consistent with this summary order. … Remand is required in this case because the BIA did not give consideration to all relevant evidence and principles of law, as those have been detailed by this Court’s recent decision in Scarlett v. Barr, 957 F.3d 316, 332–36 (2d Cir. 2020). … Because Mejia did not fear torture at the hands of the Guatemalan authorities, the relevant inquiry is whether government officials have acquiesced in likely third-party torture. To make this determination, the Court considers whether there is evidence that authorities knew of the torture or turned a blind eye to it, and “thereafter” breached their “responsibility to prevent” the possible torture. Scarlett, 957 F.3d at 334 (quoting Khouzam v. Ashcroft, 361 F.3d 161, 171 (2d Cir. 2004)); see 8 C.F.R. § 1208.18(a)(7). … Here, record evidence raises questions as to the Guatemalan government’s inability to protect Mejia, insofar as it indicates that Mejia sought assistance from Guatemalan police and was told that they could not protect her and she should simply hide in her home. … Insofar as the BIA ruled without the benefit of Scarlett, a remand is warranted before this Court conducts any review. We therefore remand for the sole purpose of allowing the BIA to decide, after reasoned consideration of the record, whether the Guatemalan police’s inability to protect Mejia constituted acquiescence.”

[Hats off to Mike Usher!]

Mikhail Usher, Esq.
Senior Partner
The Usher Law Group PLLC
My & New Jersey
PHOTO: Usher Law Group

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

Congrats to NDPA superstars Heather and Mike!

Here’s commentary from my Round Table colleague Hon. “Sir Jeffrey” Chase on Heather’s performance on Garcia-Aranda v. Garland:

“Heather is a remarkable litigator who did a remarkable job on this case – it was a tough panel that had basically ruled out asylum from the start; it was most impressive to hear Heather persuade the judges over the course of oral arguments as to the CAT standard (during which one of the judges repeatedly referenced proposed Trump regs that had never taken effect, but were nevertheless listed on the government’s eCFR as if it had).

Best, Jeff“

And, here’s my response:

“Heather is truly an NDPA superstar. And, I’m proud that she got her start appearing at the Arlington Immigration Court!

DPF

P”

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-27-22

From “The Status Kuo” by Jay Kuo:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Chico Harlan & Stefano Pitrelli report for WashPost:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Hamed Aleaziz reports for the LA Times:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

From ImmigrationProf Blog:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Here’s the latest from TRAC Immigration:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:

CA5 Blasts BIA for “Complete Lack of Discussion of…Evidence” in Mexican CAT Case

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Student note to a pair of immigration professors:

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

🗽DISSENTING OPINION: TRADING AWAY REFUGEE RIGHTS & DUE PROCESS FOR LONG OVERDUE DREAMER PROTECTIONS IS “NOT OK!”

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Exclusive

Dec. 6, 2022

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Dan Kowalski reports from LexisNexis Immigration Community:

CA2 on CAT, Standard of Review: Omorodion v. Garland

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

⚖️🗽👩🏻‍⚖️Better judges for a better America!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

Related posts: