Category: Mary Kenney

🏴‍☠️KAKISTOCRACY SLAMMED: FEDERAL COURT BLASTS REGIME’S INTENTIONAL, ILLEGAL UNDERMINING OF DUE PROCESS IN IMMIGRATION COURT — ORDERS IMMEDIATE CHANGE! — Regime’s “delay in processing A-File FOIA requests . . . . undermines the fairness of immigration proceedings, particularly for the vast number of noncitizens who navigate our immigration system without assistance of counsel.”

Mary Kenney, Deputy Director, National Immigration Litigation Alliance (“NILA”) writes:

Hello all –

 

NILA, NWIRP, AIC and the Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin are thrilled to announce that the district court just granted declaratory and injunctive relief in our nationwide class challenge to A-File FOIA delays, Nightingale v. USCIS. The court orders:

  • Declaratory relief due to Defendants DHS, USCIS and ICE’s pattern or practice of failing to make timely A-File FOIA determinations;
  • Injunctive relief permanently enjoining Defendants from further failing to adhere to the statutory deadlines for A-File FOIA requests;
  • That Defendants to make determinations on all backlogged FOIA requests within 60 days; and
  • That Defendants submit quarterly compliance reports to the Court and class counsel going forward.

 

Here are some great findings from the Court:

  • Defendants’ “delay in processing A-File FOIA requests . . . . undermines the fairness of immigration proceedings, particularly for the vast number of noncitizens who navigate our immigration system without assistance of counsel.”
  • “A comprehensive remedy is needed and is long overdue.”
  • “[S]ince 2017 these defendants have employed aggressive immigration enforcement policies that made an increasing [A-File FOIA]workload predictable and expected. The unfortunate reality is that FOIA is the only realistic mechanism through which noncitizens can obtain A-Files. Given the critical importance of the information in A-Files to removal defense and legalizing status, it is not at all surprising that the number of A-File FOIA requests have increased along with this increase in immigration enforcement.”
  • “USCIS also complains that it recently tried to increase its fees through a new regulation that could have added more resources to its FOIA budget, but that effort is currently preliminary enjoined in this District. . . . . This argument is particularly troubling as it insinuates that FOIA processing is entirely dependent on the fees paid by the very people who are harmed by the defendants’ delays.

 

A copy of the decision is available here.

 

Mary Kenney

National Immigration Litigation Alliance

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

Congrats to Mary and everyone else involved in this extraordinary “team effort” to hold the immigration bureaucracy (now “kakistocracy”) accountable after years of unacceptable and illegal conduct which has directly undermined the rule of law and immigrants’ rights!

So, let’s summarize the absurdity, and not let the “malicious incompetents” at EOIR off the hook, either:

  • With well over 1 million backlogged cases, many pending for years, EOIR chooses to “expedite and prioritize” “not quite ready for prime time” recent cases, without giving the private parties adequate time to prepare, or even get lawyers in many cases;
  • In “cahoots” with DHS, EOIR insures that cases will be scheduled without regard to the delays in getting the necessary file material from DHS via FOIA requests;
  • EOIR fails to impose reasonable discovery rules on DHS, nor do they insist, as any ”real” court would, that no case will be scheduled for a merits hearing until DHS complies with respondents’ reasonable requests for file materials;
  • USCIS, once a “self-funding agency,” improperly diverts resources to bogus racist inspired, enforcement activities;
  • As a result of this gross mismanagement, USCIS falsely claims “bankruptcy,” and illegally tries to increase FOIA fees, a move properly blocked by Federal Courts;
  • USCIS then falsely blames respondents for the discovery delays caused by its own misappropriation of resources and racist policies.

The solution: The Biden Administration must immediately oust the White Nationalist kakistocracy ☠️  at DHS and EOIR and replace it with competent experts from the NDPA who will restore order, rationality, professionalism, efficiency, and integrity to a dysfunctional system that has undermined the public interest and common good.

 

It’s not rocket science! Just competence, morality, and humanity.

Congrats to my friend Zachary Nightingale, Partner at Van Der Hout LLP, in San Francisco, who was the “lead named plaintiff” in this “sure to be famous” case. The “Nightingale rule” and “getting the Nightingales” are likely to become synonymous with what passes for “discovery” in Immigration Court, at least until we get Article 1.

Job Opportunity: Clock Repair Technicians Wanted. Start Date: January 21, 2021. Location: DHS & EOIR. Duties: Fix broken “asylum work authorization clock 🕰” to account for reality that most major delays in completing asylum hearings consistent with due process are caused by the Government’s incompetence, elevation of racist enforcement initiatives over due process and fundamental fairness, and “Aimless Docket Reshuffling,” NOT by asylum applicants and their (often pro bono or “low bono”) representatives. Draft legislation to repeal this irrational, unnecessary, and counterproductive statute.

Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-18-20

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