Category: The Gibson Report

THE GIBSON REPORT — 06-03-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

Elizabeth Gibson
Elizabeth Gibson
NY Legal Assistance Group

THE GIBSON REPORT — 06-03-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

 

TOP UPDATES

 

Trump Is Considering Denying Asylum To Immigrants Who Travel Through A Third Country

Buzzfeed: The Trump administration is considering a proposal that would bar asylum for those who transit through a third country, a potential major escalation in the administration’s attempts to deter asylum-seekers, according to sources close to the administration.

 

Trump says U.S. to impose 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports beginning June 10 in dramatic escalation of border clash

WaPo: The White House plans to begin levying the import penalties on June 10 and ratchet the penalties higher if the migrant flow isn’t halted. Trump said he would remove the tariffs only if all illegal migration across the border ceased, though other White House officials said they would be looking only for Mexico to take major action. See also White House Releases Statement from President Trump Regarding Emergency Measures to Address the Border Crisis.

 

BIA: IJ can dismiss proceedings where meritless asylum used as path to cancellation

BIA: An Immigration Judge has the authority to dismiss removal proceedings pursuant to 8 C.F.R. § 239.2(a)(7) (2018) upon a finding that it is an abuse of the asylum process to file a meritless asylum application with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for the sole purpose of seeking cancellation of removal in the Immigration Court.

 

Vermont Service Center (VSC) no longer entertains requests for supervisory review

VSC: Generally speaking, the Vermont Service Center (VSC) no longer entertains requests for supervisory review of requests for evidence (RFEs), via this email hotline or any other method. If your client disagrees with the RFE or believes that the requested evidence has already been submitted, they may wish to indicate this in their response to the RFE. They may also wish to resubmit the requested evidence. Any information submitted will be reviewed by the adjudicating officer.

 

Trump Memo Requires Immigrants’ Sponsors to Reimburse Government for Welfare

U.S. News: President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum that will direct federal agencies to enforce a longstanding rule requiring the sponsors of legal immigrants to reimburse the government for any public benefits the immigrant uses, such as Medicaid and food stamps.

 

ICE Uses Solitary Confinement on Immigrants Who Are Transgender, Suicidal

AIC: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials regularly place detained immigrants into prolonged solitary confinement, despite findings that such confinement is a form of torture.

 

U.S. Requiring Social Media Information From Visa Applicants

NYT: Visa applicants to the United States are required to submit any information about social media accounts they have used in the past five years under a State Department policy that started on Friday.

 

Deceased G.O.P. Strategist’s Hard Drives Reveal New Details on the Census Citizenship Question

NYT: Files on those drives showed that he wrote a study in 2015 concluding that adding a citizenship question to the census would allow Republicans to draft even more extreme gerrymandered maps to stymie Democrats.

 

State Department to launch new human rights panel stressing ‘natural law’

Politico: The Trump administration plans to launch a new panel to offer “fresh thinking” on international human rights and “natural law,” a move some activists fear is aimed at narrowing protections for women and members of the LGBT community.

 

TSA sending up to 400 workers to southern border, but says it won’t slow air travel

USA Today: The Transportation Security Administration is preparing to send up to 400 workers to the southern border to assist with the rising number of Central American migrants, but officials say the move shouldn’t affect air travel as the summer travel season gets underway.

 

Trump administration to send DHS agents, investigators to Guatemala-Mexico border

WaPo: The Department of Homeland Security personnel will work as “advisers” to Guatemala’s national police and migration authorities, and they will aim to disrupt and interdict human smuggling operations, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a plan that has not been made public. U.S. authorities hope that the effort will cut off popular routes to the United States and deter migrants from beginning their journeys north through Mexico.

 

Hundreds Of Immigrants Detained At Southern Border Brought To NYC-Area Jails

Gothamist: Hundreds of immigrants detained at the southern border have been transferred to jails in the New York City area in the last few weeks, as the Trump administration takes unprecedented steps to manage a growing number of migrants seeking entry to the United States.

 

Trump Administration Separates Some Migrant Mothers From Their Newborns Before Returning Them to Detention

Rewire: Advocates also report that some asylum seekers in the Western District of Texas who have given birth in USMS custody were forced to hand over their newborns to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). Reuniting with their newborn hinges on their release from federal custody, and whether they can access legal help to navigate the child welfare system.See also ‘He Started Calling Me Papa Again’: A Separated Migrant Father and Son Reunite After 378 Days Apart; Over 200 Allegations of Abuse of Migrant Children; 1 Case of Homeland Security Disciplining Someone; and Customs and Border Protection is buying 2.2 million baby diapers for its new migrant tent city

 

Trump’s Crackdown on Illegal Immigration: 11 Employers Prosecuted in the Past Year

NYT: The Trump administration’s crackdown on unauthorized immigration has resulted in the prosecution of tens of thousands of people entering the country illegally. But new data suggests that the government has not prioritized the prosecution of employers, whose jobs represent the biggest lure for those crossing the southern border to reach the United States.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

Immigration in the Supreme Court: Cert Petition in DACA Rescission Case, Cert Granted in Border Shooting Case

ImmProf: The Trump Administration is seeking Supreme Court review of a Fourth Circuit decision rejecting the administration’s attempt to rescind DACA.  Here is the cert petition. In addition, the Supreme Court has granted cert in Hernandez v. Mesa, which asks whether the family of a Mexican teen killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in a cross-border shooting can sue the officer for damages (case page at this link).

 

AG Refers Two BIA Cases to Himself and Solicits Amici on Judicial Alteration of a Criminal Conviction or Sentence

The AG invites amici on whether judicial alteration of a criminal conviction or sentence should be taken into consideration in determining the immigration consequences of the conviction. Comments due by 7/12/19. Matter of Thomas and Matter of Thompson, 27 I&N Dec. 556 (A.G. 2019) AILA Doc. No. 19052900

 

Daughter of immigration detainee who died in custody sues Hudson County, its jail

NorthJersey: The daughter of a man who died while in immigration custody filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday against Hudson County and its jail, where he was held before he died of internal bleeding at a local hospital.

 

Documents Related to Lawsuit Seeking to Make Unpublished BIA Decisions Publicly Available

NYLAG filed a memo in support of its motion for summary judgment. (NYLAG v. BIA, 5/24/19) AILA Doc. No. 18102232

 

Matter of ANDRADE JASO and CARBAJAL AYALA, 27 I&N Dec. 557 (BIA 2019)

An Immigration Judge has the authority to dismiss removal proceedings pursuant to 8 C.F.R. § 239.2(a)(7) (2018) upon a finding that it is an abuse of the asylum process to file a meritless asylum application with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for the sole purpose of seeking cancellation of removal in the Immigration Court.

 

BIA Remands to IJ to Consider Continuance Request by Respondent with Pending U Visa Petition

Unpublished BIA decision vacates denial of continuance where IJ did not make preliminary determination whether respondent was prima facie eligible for U visa. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Gomez-Alfaro, 7/31/18) AILA Doc. No. 19052995

BIA Holds Criminal Judgment Entered In Absentia Not a Conviction for Immigration Purposes

Unpublished BIA decision holds that an administratively entered judgment of guilt due to the respondent’s failure to appear in court does not qualify as a conviction for immigration purposes. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Davies, 7/30/18) AILA Doc. No. 19052895

 

BIA Affirms IJ’s Decision to Terminate Removal, Finding Fraud Conviction Not a CIMT

In an unpublished BIA decision, the BIA affirmed the Immigration Judge’s decision to terminate removal proceedings, finding that the crime of fraud under $5,000, in violation of section 380(1)(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada is not a CIMT. Courtesy of Richard Hanus. AILA Doc. No. 19052834

 

BIA Reopens and Terminates Proceedings Sua Sponte in Light of Intervening Ninth Circuit Decision

Unpublished BIA decision reopens and terminates proceedings sua sponte in light of holding in United States v. Robinson, 869 F.3d 933 (9th Cir. 2017), that assault under Wash. Rev. Stat. 9A.36.021 is not a crime of violence. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Ibrahim, 8/7/18) AILA Doc. No. 19052896

 

BIA Holds Making False Statement to Firearms Dealer Not a Firearms Offense

Unpublished BIA decision holds that making false statement to firearms dealer under 18 USC §924(a)(1)(A) is a not a firearms offense because it applies to dealers who falsify their own records. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Lopez, 8/17/18) AILA Doc. No. 19053135

 

BIA Holds Texas Online Solicitation of a Minor Not an Aggravated Felony

Unpublished BIA decision holds that online solicitation of a minor under Tex. Penal Code 33.021 is not aggravated felony sexual abuse of a minor or attempted sexual abuse of a minor because it does not require a victim under 16 years of age. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Adeeko, 8/14/18) AILA Doc. No. 19053132

 

K-D-T-, AXXX XXX 140 (BIA May 2, 2019) (unpublished)

BIA: Vacates order rescinding LPR status because respondent was not given opportunity to cross-examine ex-spouse or USCIS officer who took her statement

 

CA1 Rejects Procedural Due Process Challenge of Petitioner Removed to Ireland in 2018

The court found that the petitioner, a citizen of Ireland who had entered the United States as a child and had overstayed his visa, was not entitled to a presumption of prejudice, and that he could not make a particularized showing of prejudice. (O’Riordan v. Barr, 5/22/19) AILA Doc. No. 19052831

 

CA2 Finds Immigration Detainees Released from Custody Without Discharge Planning Adequately Stated a Fourteenth Amendment Claim

The court vacated the district court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ complaint alleging that the defendants’ failure to engage in discharge planning for the plaintiffs’ serious medical needs prior to release violated their substantive due process rights. (Charles v. Orange County, 5/24/19) AILA Doc. No. 19053130

 

CA4 Finds BIA Distorted Record in Denying Asylum to Salvadoran Woman Abused by Partner

The court held that the BIA had disregarded and distorted significant portions of the record when it found that the petitioner had failed to establish that the Salvadoran government was unwilling or unable to protect her from persecution. (Orellana v. Barr, 5/23/19) AILA Doc. No. 19052832

 

CA5 Upholds Asylum Denial to Ex-Law Enforcement Official from Honduras

The court held that substantial evidence supported the BIA’s determination that petitioner, who had been a police officer in Honduras, had failed to show a nexus between the alleged persecution he suffered and his membership in a particular social group. (Martinez Manzanares v. Barr, 5/24/19) AILA Doc. No. 19052833

 

CA7 Finds DHS’s Failure to Include Date and Time in NTA Was Not a Jurisdictional Flaw

The court held that DHS’s failure to include the time and date of the petitioner’s hearing in the Notice to Appear (NTA) was a failure to follow a claim-processing rule, not a jurisdictional flaw, and that petitioner did not timely object to DHS’s misstep. (Ortiz-Santiago v. Barr, 5/20/19) AILA Doc. No. 19052803

 

CA9 Says NTA That Is Defective Under Pereira Cannot Be Cured by a Subsequent Notice of Hearing

The court held that a Notice to Appear (NTA) that is defective under Pereira v. Sessions cannot be cured by a subsequent Notice of Hearing, and therefore does not terminate the residence period required for cancellation of removal. (Lorenzo Lopez v. Barr, 5/22/19) AILA Doc. No. 19052872

 

CA9 Finds Petitioner’s Continuous Residency Did Not Commence with Grant of Parole

The court held that petitioner had failed to show that his 1997 parole constituted an “admission in any status,” and thus found he had not obtained the requisite seven years of continuous residency in the United States to be eligible for cancellation of removal. (Alanniz v. Barr, 5/20/19) AILA Doc. No. 19052871

 

D.C. District Court Vacates a Portion of USCIS’s July 2017 MAVNI Policy

The district court held that USCIS’s policy of declining to naturalize Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) applicants until the Defense Department and the Army had determined they were suitable for service violated the Administrative Procedure Act. (Nio v. DHS, 5/22/19) AILA Doc. No. 19052839

 

EOIR Issues Memo on Its Strategic Caseload Reduction Plan

EOIR issued a redacted version of its strategic caseload reduction plan pursuant to an AILA FOIA request. AILA Doc. No. 19021932

 

U.S. Border Patrol Creates New Position to Support Border Patrol Agents

CBP announced the creation of a new Border Patrol Processing Coordinator position designed to perform administrative tasks related to the intake and processing of individuals apprehended by Border Patrol agents and brought back to stations. AILA Doc. No. 19052837

 

USCIS to Close All International Offices By 2020

USCIS will close its international offices, starting with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and Manila in the Philippines. All offices, including the main district offices for the separate regions, are scheduled to close by March 10, 2020. Watch this page as AILA tracks which offices are closed. AILA Doc. No. 19053131

 

RESOURCES

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, June 3, 2019

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Saturday, June 1, 2019

Friday, May 31, 2019

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Monday, May 27, 2019

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

Thanks Elizabeth.

 

PWS

06-07-19

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT – 02-10-20 – Compiled by Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group: Deporting to Death; “Orbiting” Immigrants to Laos; “Judges” Failing To Meet Deportation Quotas;  ICE Shoots Man in the Face; Using Force In the Gulag; Federal Judge Outs Regime’s Scofflaw Detainers As Regime Inflicts Arbitrary Punishment on New Yorkers for Resisting Overreach; BIA Tanks Again; EOIR Ups “Aimless Docket Reshuffling;” & Other Tales of Abuse From White Nationalist Nation!
  2. THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-05-18 — COMPILED BY ELIZABETH GIBSON ESQ, NY LEGAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT
  3. THE GIBSON REPORT — 12-31-18 — Compiled By The Always Amazing Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  4. 🇺🇸THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-02-20 — Prepared By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Trump/Miller Bogus Public Charge Rule Enjoined Again; CBP Turns Back More Than 13,000 Unaccompanied Kids Using COVID-19 As Cover For Child Abuse; John Oliver With The Incredibly Ugly 🤮 Truth About The Trump-Miller Racist Assault On Asylum & Humanity ☠️⚰️— Other News From America Teetering On The Brink After 4-Years Of Trump Regime Misrule, Cruelty, Corruption, & Undermining Of Democracy!🏴‍☠️

THE GIBSON REPORT — 05-20-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Project

THE GIBSON REPORT — 05-20-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Project

TOP UPDATES

DOS Human Rights Reports Relocated

There are several dead links after a DOS website redesign. But the reports are still available. It’s also worth checking out the EOIR country conditions research index.

 

Trump Outlines ‘Merit-Based’ Immigration Plan, Still Far From Becoming Law

NPR: The plan would prioritize merit-based immigration, limiting the number of people who could get green cards by seeking asylum or based on family ties. But it would keep immigration levels static, neither increasing or decreasing the number of people allowed to legally enter the U.S. each year.

 

Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Has Blunted Police Efforts to Be Tough on Crime

NYT: Last year, fewer immigrants applied for [U] visas — the first annual decline since 2007 — in what law enforcement officials and lawyers called a sign that immigrants were growing wary of helping the police and prosecutors.

 

Acting secretary blocked Stephen Miller’s bid for another DHS shake-up

WaPo: An attempt by President Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller to engineer a new shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security was blocked this week by Kevin McAleenan, the department’s acting secretary, who said he might leave his post unless the situation improved and he was given more control over his agency, administration officials said. See also Before Trump’s purge at DHS, top officials challenged plan for mass family arrests.

 

Trump suddenly takes a softer line on verifying immigrant documentation status

WaPo: “E-Verify is going to be possibly a part of it,” Trump replied. “The one problem is E-Verify is so tough that in some cases, like farmers, they’re not — they’re not equipped for E-Verify. I mean, I’d say that’s against Republicans. A lot of the Republicans say you go through an E-Verify.”

 

Association of Immigration Judges Says DOJ’s “Myths v. Facts” Fact Sheet Filled with Errors and Misinformation

On May 13, 2019, the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) responded to EOIR’s Myths vs. Fact memo issued on May 8, 2019. Their response outlines key assertions made in the EOIR memo that “mischaracterize or misrepresent the facts.” AILA Doc. No. 19051334

 

SSA Resumes Sending No-Match Letters in March 2019

In March of 2019, the Social Security Administration (SSA) began mailing notifications to employers identified as having at least one name and Social Security Number (SSN) combination submitted on wage and tax statement (Form W-2) that do not match its records. AILA Doc. No. 19051500

 

Border Patrol flies hundreds of migrants to California

Wash Times: The U.S. Border Patrol said Friday that it would fly hundreds of migrant families from south Texas to San Diego for processing and that it was considering flights to Detroit, Miami and Buffalo, New York. See also CBP Releases Statement on Transferring People in Border Patrol Custody to Southwest Border Locations and Florida Mayor Suggests Putting Immigrants Up At Trump Hotels.

 

Mexican Government Helped Surveillance Effort On Journalists, Attorneys, and Others at U.S.-Mexico Border

NBC: A government review of how journalists, attorneys, immigration advocates, and activists were monitored and tracked by U.S. border agencies confirms the Mexican government had a major role in the controversial tracking program.

 

Administration considers next steps in DNA testing on the border

CNN: DHS ran the DNA pilot program to help identify and prosecute individuals posing as families in an effort to target human smuggling. The Rapid DNA testing, as it’s known, involves a cheek swab and can, on average, provide results in about 90 minutes.

 

Activists Press for More City Funding for Immigrants in 2020 Budget

Coixes of NYC: Only weeks before the city will announce how its $92 billion budget for fiscal year 2020 will be allocated, pro-immigrant groups are clamoring for more resources for vital programs that support vulnerable communities.

 

Bill would penalize employers who report workers’ immigration status

Newsday: A new bill that has picked up key support in the State Legislature would make it a misdemeanor for an employer to report the “suspected citizenship or immigration status” of an employee to federal authorities.

 

Nogales border agent calls migrants ‘subhuman,’ ‘savages’ in text messages

Tuscon: The statements were made in a text message sent by Agent Matthew Bowen, 39, who is accused of knocking down a Guatemalan man with his Border Patrol vehicle on Dec. 3, 2017, and then lying in a report about the incident, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson.

 

He voted for Trump. Now he and his wife raise their son from opposite sides of the border

LA Times: He knew Trump planned to get tough on immigration — building a wall and deporting drug dealers, rapists and killers. He never imagined anyone would consider his sweet stay-at-home wife a “bad hombre.”

 

The little-noticed surge across the US-Mexico border: Americans heading south

Nola: Mexico’s statistics institute estimated this month that the U.S.-born population in this country has reached 799,000 – a roughly fourfold increase since 1990. And that is probably an undercount. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City estimates the real number at 1.5 million or more.

 

More immigrants became US citizens last year even as immigration policies tightened

Quartz: More than 544,000 immigrants became US citizens in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2018, overall a 15% increase from the same period a year ago, according to the latest data from the US Department of Homeland Security. The largest year-to-year increase occurred in the first quarter of 2018, however there was a slight decrease in the third quarter. See also Immigrant soldiers now denied US citizenship at higher rate than civilians.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

Documents Related to Lawsuit Seeking to Make Unpublished BIA Decisions Publicly Available

The government filed a memo in support of its motion to dismiss, along with declarations from Cynthia Crosby, Deputy Chief Clerk for the BIA, and Joseph Schaaf, the Supervisory Attorney Advisor who manages EOIR’s FOIA Unit. (NYLAG v. BIA, 5/3/19) AILA Doc. No. 18102232

 

ACLU Uncovers Dangerous And Abusive Conditions At Border Patrol Detention Facility

ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and the ACLU Border Rights Center filed an administrative complaint concerning the mistreatment of migrants detained at Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol facilities.

 

CA2 Finds Conspiracy in the Second Degree in New York Is an Aggravated Felony

The court denied the petition for review, finding that the petitioner’s conviction for conspiracy in the second degree to commit a felony—namely, murder in the second degree—under New York law constitutes an aggravated felony. (Santana-Felix v. Barr, 5/9/19) AILA Doc. No. 19051638

 

CA5 Finds BIA Did Not Err in Declining to Evaluate Reformulated PSG

The court affirmed the BIA’s order denying the petitioners’ applications for asylum and withholding of removal, finding that the BIA did not err by refusing to consider the petitioners’ reformulated particular social group (PSG) on appeal. (Cantarero-Lagos, et al., v. Barr, 5/6/19) AILA Doc. No. 19051637

 

CA7 Says It Lacks Jurisdiction to Review Prior Removal Order in Reinstatement Proceedings

The court dismissed the petition for review, holding that, under the plain language of 8 USC §1231(a)(5), it lacked jurisdiction to review the petitioner’s underlying 2005 removal order in the context of his reinstatement proceedings. (Villa v. Barr, 5/9/19) AILA Doc. No. 19051642

 

ICE Announces 206-Count Indictment Criminally Charging 96 People in Marriage Fraud Case

ICE announced that 50 people are in law enforcement custody after a federal grand jury returned a 206-count indictment criminally charging 96 people for their alleged roles in a large-scale marriage fraud scheme. AILA Doc. No. 19051432

 

DHS OIG Finds Data Quality Improvements Needed to Track Adjudicative Decisions

DHS OIG issued a report on CLAIMS3, its electronic system of record, and found that USCIS has not implemented an effective process to track adjudicative decisions and ensure data integrity, noting that USCIS cannot reliably track decisions back to the officer responsible for those decisions. AILA Doc. No. 15051671

 

Practice Alert: Non-Receipt of USCIS I-797 Approval Notices from the NBC

AILA updated its practice alert with a summary of engagement with the NBC on this issue. In early May 2019, the NBC confirmed that their Interim Case Management System (ICMS) Team will review the issue and take action to address it if necessary. AILA Doc. No. 18102905

 

DHS Notice of Re-Establishment of Matching Program with New York Department of Labor

DHS notice of the re-establishment of a matching program between USCIS and the New York Department of Labor to verify the immigration status of non-U.S. citizens who apply for federal unemployment benefits. Comments are due 6/17/19. (84 FR 22510, 5/17/19) AILA Doc. No. 19051771

 

Albany, NY Jurisdiction Change Details

USCIS: Applicant cases from the zip codes in the following counties will be permanently realigned from the New York City, NY Field Office to the Albany, NY Field Office: Ulster, Dutchess, Sullivan, Orange, and Putnam.  This permanent change will go into effect on Monday, May 27, 2019 and will apply to all immigration benefit types adjudicated in the field office, including naturalization applications and adjustment of status (green card) applications and petitions.  The Albany, NY Field Office is located at 1086 Troy-Schenectady Road in Latham, N.Y.

 

Newark, NJ Temporary Caseload Shift

USCIS: A portion of application cases filed by applicants from Kings and Richmond counties, which are usually adjudicated at the Brooklyn, NY Field Office, will be temporarily realigned to the Newark, NJ Field Office.  This temporary change will occur in June 2019.  The caseload shift to Newark, NJ applies ONLY to naturalization applications (Form N-400 – Application for Naturalization). Applicants will complete their naturalization interview and civics test at the Newark, NJ Field Office on 970 Broad Street in Newark.

 

Immigration Court Closures

EOIR: The immigration judge conference will be taking place on June 19th and 20th this year. Hearings on those dates will be rescheduled.

 

RESOURCES

 

·         AILA Submits Amicus Brief Arguing Term “CIMT” Is Impermissibly Vague

·         ICE Issues Guidance on Investigating the Potential U.S. Citizenship of Individuals Encountered by ICE

·         Avoiding Disciplinary Action for Requesting Multiple Continuances in Immigration Court

·         CBP Releases Officer’s Reference Tool Documents

·         AILA and Partners Submit Amicus Brief on Destruction of Records and Legislative Decriminalization

·         Public Charge Changes at USCIS, DOJ, and DOS

·         Bite-Sized Ethics: Final Orders, Enforcement Priorities, and Moving to Evade Arrest

·         Practice Alert: Erroneous Rejections of Form I-765 for Liberians with DED

·         A Year Inside MS-13

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, May 20, 2019

·         State of Play in Immigration Policy

Saturday, May 18, 2019

·         Fourth Circuit rules DACA rescission unlawful

·         Acting secretary blocked Stephen Miller’s bid for another DHS shakeup

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Does the United States Need to Invest More in Border Enforcement? by Donald Kerwin and Robert Warren

Friday, May 17, 2019

·         Joining Ninth, Fourth Circuit Finds Trump Administration’s Rescission of DACA Unlawful

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Customs, Immigration, and Rights: Constitutional Limits on Electronic Border Searches by Laura Donahue

Thursday, May 16, 2019

·         More military rejected for US citizenship than civilians

·         White House to unveil proposal to overhaul immigration system

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

·         Indonesia: Where Moms Go Abroad To Work, Leaving Kids Behind

·         Immigration Article of the Day: The Trump Administration and the Law of the Lochner Era by Mila Sohoni

·         Colorado now offering state financial aid to undocumented studentsNew America: Understanding the Catalysts for Citizenship Application

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

·         U Visa Applications Down

·         Former Immigration Judges Tear Into ‘Shocking’ EOIR Paper

·         Before Trump’s purge at DHS, top officials challenged plan for mass family arrests

Monday, May 13, 2019

·         New study confirms well-established findings that there is no connection between crime and undocumented immigration

·         Mandatory E-Verify to be Proposed by Trump Administration?

 

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

Thanks, Elizabeth.

PWS

05-22-19

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT FOR 12-18-17 – RECOGNIZING: The Absolutely Amazing ELIZABETH GIBSON Of The NY Legal Assistance Group and ALL She Does For Fairness, Justice, & Due Process! — MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF OUR MOST VULNERABLE!
  2. THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-09-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Project — Why Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan Should End Up In Jail If He Follows Trump’s Unlawful & Unconstitutional Plans!
  3. THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-29-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  4. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚖️🗽🇺🇸FORMER DEPUTY AG DON AYER, JUDGE MIMI TSANKOV AMONG “HEADLINERS” AT TIMELY UPCOMING NY CITY BAR ASSN. EVENT: “Rule of Law Forum – Preserving the Rule of Law in an Age of Disruption” — Register Now, Right Here!

THE GIBSON REPORT — 05-13-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

THE GIBSON REPORT — 05-13-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

TOP UPDATES

 

Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy Can Continue, the Ninth Circuit Rules

Lawfare: On May 7, the Ninth Circuit stayed an injunction against the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. That policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), requires the return of certain migrants to Mexico pending a full immigration court hearing.

 

More Immigrants Are Giving Up Court Fights and Leaving the U.S.

Marshall Project: Last year, voluntary departure applications reached a seven-year high of 29,818 applications. In the Atlanta court, which hears cases of Irwin detainees like Zamarrón, the applications grew nearly seven times from 2016 to 2018.

 

De Blasio Defends Expanded Cooperation With ICE For ‘Serious Crimes’

Gothamist: Under a local law, the police and jails will already cooperate with ICE if they’ve detained someone convicted of any these 170 violent crimes. De Blasio said it’s appropriate to add seven more to that list because of state legislation since the 2014 law went into effect.

 

ICE announces program to allow local law enforcement to make immigration arrests

The Hill: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday announced a new program that would allow local law enforcement officers to start arresting and temporarily detaining immigrants on behalf of the agency, even if established local policies prevent them from doing so.

 

U.S. asylum screeners to take more confrontational approach as Trump aims to turn more migrants away at the border

WaPo: The Trump administration has sent new guidelines to asylum officers, directing them to take a more skeptical and confrontational approach during interviews with migrants seeking refuge in the United States. It is the latest measure aimed at tightening the nation’s legal “loopholes” that Homeland Security officials blame for a spike in border crossings.

 

HUD Says Its Proposed Limit on Public Housing Aid Could Displace 55,000 Children

NYT: Thousands of legal residents and citizens, including 55,000 children who are in the country legally, could be displaced under a proposed rule intended to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving federal housing assistance, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

 

Pentagon Shifts $1.5 Billion to Border Wall From Afghan War Budget and Other Military Projects

NYT: The acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, notified Congress on Friday that he intended to shift $1.5 billion that had been designated for the war in Afghanistan and other projects to help pay for work on President Trump’s border wall. See also Shanahan says military won’t leave until border is secure.

 

White House launches new uphill bid to overhaul immigration

AP: Though similar efforts have failed to garner anywhere near the support necessary, Trump hopefully invited a dozen Republican senators to the White House to preview the plan, which was spearheaded by senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. See also White House may include mandatory E-Verify in immigration proposal.

 

Fact-checking the Trump administration’s immigration fact sheet

WaPo: The five-page document, released this month, attempts to debunk 18 claims about immigration to the United States. In some cases, it seems more as though EOIR officials are misusing the fact-checking format to make a point about issues that no one is mischaracterizing.  See also  HRF Notice of Rejection of EOIR Factsheet (attached).

 

Trump administration makes a mockery of asylum system

The Hill: The Trump administration has been contemptuous of refugees and asylum seekers from its earliest days. In recent weeks, as White House adviser Stephen Miller has reportedly exerted greater influence in the White House, we have witnessed a dismantling of protections our country has held dear for decades.

 

Border detention cells in Texas are so overcrowded that U.S. is using aircraft to move migrants

WaPo: Overcrowding at Border Patrol stations in South Texas has become so acute in recent days that U.S. authorities have taken the rare step of using aircraft to relocate migrants to other areas of the border simply to begin processing them, according to three Homeland Security officials. See also Inside Texas’ New Migrant Tent Facility.

 

Pediatrician Who Treated Immigrant Children Describes Pattern of Lapses in Medical Care in Shelters

ProPublica: How prepared is the Trump administration for an influx of unaccompanied minors at the border? A new complaint shows shelters in New Jersey were already failing to respond when kids got hurt or sick.

 

Feds in Southern Arizona turn attention to family fraud at border

Tuscon: Last week, the Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector reported more than 700 fraudulent family claims since October. Homeland Security Investigations sent a team of special agents to Yuma in late April to investigate those claims. See also ICE Reallocates Resources to Investigate Use of Fraudulent Documents at Southwest Border.

 

Who Killed Claudia Gomez?

Marie Claire: A year ago this month, a 20-year-old Guatemalan woman seeking opportunity in the U.S. was shot dead by a Border Patrol agent in Texas. A video of the killing went viral on Facebook and spurred a media outcry, yet neither the agent’s name nor why he opened fire has ever been made public. In the first of our series on women and migration, we ask, will her family ever get justice?

 

How Has Immigration Changed in the Last 100 Years?

AIC: 21st century immigrants tend to be more educated, have a more diverse range of skills, and know more English than those in previous generations.

 

Federal Court Stops USCIS Policy Harmful to Students and Exchange Visitors

AIC: The policy could radically changed how the agency determines when a foreign student or exchange visitor is “unlawfully present” in the United States.

 

She Stopped to Help Migrants on a Texas Highway. Moments Later, She Was Arrested.

NYT: As the Trump administration moves on multiple fronts to shut down illegal border crossings, it has also stepped up punitive measures targeting private citizens who provide compassionate help to migrants — “good Samaritan” aid that is often intended to save lives along a border that runs through hundreds of miles of remote terrain that can be brutally unforgiving.

 

Democrats ask federal watchdog to examine ‘unprecedented’ immigration backlog

WaPo: More than 80 Democratic members of Congress have asked the Government Accountability Office to conduct an investigation into the “record-breaking” backlog of immigration cases pending under the Trump administration.

 

Mayor de Blasio Unveils NYC Care Card, Details Progress Toward Launch of Guaranteed Health Care

NYC: When NYC Care launches in the Bronx on August 1, residents will be able to use their NYC Care Card to receive their own doctor, get preventative screenings and tests, and connect to a 24/7 service to help make appointments. An estimated 300,000 New Yorkers are currently ineligible for health insurance, including people who can’t afford insurance and undocumented immigrants, and will be able to enroll in NYC Care.

 

Trump taps Mark Morgan, former Obama official who supports border wall, to head ICE

WaPo: At DHS, Morgan is viewed as a capable and hard-charging law enforcement official, but he was widely resented during his Border Patrol tenure by the agency’s senior officials and union chief Brandon Judd.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

As Trump continues to push deportations, a fight over data goes to court

LA Times: The class-action lawsuit, which represents broad categories of people who have been or will be subjected to detainers, alleges the databases that agents consult are so badly flawed by incomplete and inaccurate information that ICE officers should not be allowed to rely on them as the sole basis for keeping someone in custody.

 

Post Acosta BIA Decision (attached)

Listservs: The government argued that, because the client’s convictions were on appeal pursuant to a late filed notice of appeal – that per Acosta we needed to rebut the finality presumption by providing evidence that the client’s appeal related to the merits or a ‘substantive defect’ in the proceedings. We provided an affidavit from the criminal appeal attorney stating that she “expected to challenge the client’s case on the merits”. At the BIA, we argued that a NY late-filed notice of appeal is essentially a direct appeal because under NY Criminal Procedure – it becomes a direct appeal once it is granted. We also argued that even if it wasn’t a direct appeal, we had rebutted the presumption of finality with our affidavit from the criminal appeal attorney. The BIA punted on the first issue and decided that the presumption of finality had been rebutted sufficiently in this case.

 

Court rules immigrants can be deported for marijuana crime

AP:  A federal appeals court has ruled that California’s legalization of marijuana doesn’t protect immigrants from deportation if they were convicted of pot crimes before voters approved the new law in 2016.

 

Justice Department’s Four-Year Effort To Strip Citizenship From Kansas Man Flops In Federal Court

Intercept:  In a 17-page order, U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia of the District of Kansas wrote that the federal government failed to meet the high burden of proof required to strip citizenship. “The overriding issue with plaintiff’s case is a lack of reliable, clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence about what happened during defendant’s immigration-related interviews and what information was material to the interviewers,” Murguia wrote.

 

Presidential Proclamation 9880 Extending Proclamation 9822 for 90 Days

President Trump issued a proclamation extending the suspension and limitation from Proclamation 9822 for an additional 90 days, which would begin running if the injunction against the interim final rule at 83 FR 55934 were to be lifted. (84 FR 21229, 5/13/19) AILA Doc. No. 19051300

 

USCIS Notice on Continuation of Documentation for Beneficiaries of TPS Designations for Nepal and Honduras

USCIS notice that DHS will not terminate TPS for Honduras or Nepal pending final disposition of the appeal in Ramos v. Nielsen. The notice further announces that DHS is extending the validity of TPS-related documentation for Nepalese TPS beneficiaries through 3/24/20. (84 FR 20647, 5/10/19) AILA Doc. No. 19051033

 

DHS Final Rule Exempting “Criminal History and Immigration Verification” System of Records from Privacy Act

DHS final rule exempting portions of the “DHS/ICE–007 Criminal History and Immigration Verification (CHIVe)” System of Records from one or more provisions of the Privacy Act. The final rule is effective 5/9/19. (84 FR 20240, 5/9/19) AILA Doc. No. 19051034

 

HUD Proposed Rule on Verification of Immigration Status of Recipients of Public Housing Assistance

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed rule which would require the verification of the eligible immigration status of all recipients of assistance under HUD’s public housing programs who are under the age of 62. Comments are due 7/9/19. (84 FR 20589, 5/10/19) AILA Doc. No. 19051030

 

USCIS Updates Policy Manual Guidance Regarding Services USCIS Provides to the Public

USCIS issued PA-2019-03, updating policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding services USCIS provides to the public, including general administration of certain immigration benefits, online tools, and up-to-date information. Guidance is effective immediately and comments are due by 5/24/19. AILA Doc. No. 19051031

 

EOIR 60-Day Notice and Request for Comments on Form EOIR-26

EOIR 60-day notice and request for comments on proposed revisions to Form EOIR-26, Notice of Appeal From a Decision of an Immigration Judge. Comments are due 7/8/19. (84 FR 19960, 5/7/19) AILA Doc. No. 19050730

 

DOS Final Rule on Requests for Waivers of Inadmissibility

DOS final rule modifying the non-statutory requirement for consular officers to refer §212(d)(3)(A)(i) waiver requests to the Department of State for consideration based on an applicant’s request by limiting the requirement to certain specified circumstances. Effective 5/6/19. (84 FR 19712, 5/6/19) AILA Doc. No. 19050601

 

USCIS 60-Day Notice and Request for Comments on Proposed Revisions to Form N-648

USCIS 60-day notice and request for comments on proposed revisions to Form N-648, Medical Certification for Disability Exceptions. Comments are due 6/25/19. (84 FR 17870, 4/26/19) AILA Doc. No. 19050632

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, May 13, 2019

Sunday, May 12, 2019

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Friday, May 10, 2019

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Monday, May 6, 2019

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

There is plenty of stuff about our evil, immoral, scofflaw Administration in this edition of Elizabeth’s report that ought to make us sick to our collective stomachs.

I strongly recommend that you read my choice for “Article of the Week” — “Trump Administration makes a mockery of our asylum system” in The Hill, written by my friends Anna Gallagher and Victoria Nielson of CLINIC.  Here’s an excerpt:

For an administration that claims to believe in the rule of law, it has shown little interest in following domestic and international asylum law. If Border Patrol agents are willing to slam the door on asylum seekers, where asylum officers would not, the administration may win political points with its base. In the end, the United States loses, as our executive branch simply stops following laws it doesn’t like. As the number of displaced persons around the world rises to its highest levels since World War II, if the United States finds ways to sidestep its obligations under international law, other countries will do the same. With each new affront to our moral obligations as a nation, the “lamp beside the golden door” held high by the Statue of Liberty fades towards darkness.

Anna Gallagher is the executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.

Victoria Neilson is managing attorney in CLINIC’s Defending Vulnerable Populations Program.

PWS

05-16-19

Related posts:

  1. HOW “AMERICA’S KILLER COURTS” PROMOTE “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” — HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: TRUMP & HIS WHITE NATIONALIST SYCOPHANTS & TOADIES TOUT LAWLESS POLICIES THAT VIOLATE LEGAL OBLIGATIONS & HELP KILL, RAPE, TORTURE THOSE RETURNED TO EL SALVADOR — Supremes & Article III Judiciary Complicit In Gross Human Rights Violations! 
  2. FOUR TODDLERS RESCUED BY PRO BONO LAWYERS FROM DEADLY SITUATION IN CBP CUSTODY — Putrid, Unsanitary, Repressive Conditions Causing Lifetime Harm To Other Traumatized Kids — But, Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost Wants You To Know That She’s Not Taking Responsibility For The Humanitarian Disaster Intentionally Engineered On Her Watch!
  3. GROSS NATIONAL DISGRACE: “A Fucking Disaster That Is Designed to Fail”: How Trump Wrecked America’s Immigration Courts — Fernanda Echavarri Reports For Mother Jones On How Our Failed Justice System Daily Abuses The Most Vulnerable While Feckless Legislators &   Smugly Complicit Article III Judges Look On & Ignore The Human Carnage They Are Enabling — “ Two days after US immigration officials sent her to Tijuana, she was raped.”
  4. 18 YEARS AFTER 09-11, THE “BAD GUYS” ARE WINNING THE BATTLE TO DESTROY AMERICAN JUSTICE & SPLIT THE COUNTRY! — Here’s The Disturbing Proof Of What Passes For “Justice” In America Today!

THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-29-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-29-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

TOP UPDATES

 

Court Rules Immigrant Activist Ravi Ragbir’s First Amendment Rights May Have Been Violated

Gothamist: A federal appeals court has found Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may have violated immigrant activist Ravi Ragbir’s First Amendment rights when it tried to deport him last year.

 

Judge accused of helping an undocumented immigrant escape an ICE officer

CNN: A Massachusetts judge and a former court officer are accused of helping a twice-deported undocumented defendant elude immigration authorities by slipping out a rear courthouse door…They face counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, obstruction of a federal proceeding, aiding and abetting, according to an indictment in US District Court in Boston. MacGregor was also charged with one count of perjury.

 

DHS: More than 1,600 migrants have been returned to Mexico

CNN: The individuals have been returned under the Migrant Protection Protocols policy, informally known as Remain in Mexico, that requires some asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their immigration hearing.

 

DHS draft proposal would speed deportations

Politico: The Homeland Security Department is weighing a plan to bypass immigration courts and remove undocumented immigrants who cannot prove they’ve been present continuously in the U.S. for two years or more.

 

ICE Faces Migrant Detention Crunch as Border Chaos Spills Into Interior of the Country

NYT: Another idea, drafted in a memo from Mr. McAleenan in his new capacity as the acting homeland security secretary, would ask the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review to dedicate most or all of its resources toward processing the cases of detained immigrants — temporarily pausing the court proceedings of anyone who has already been released into the country. The memo has not yet been sent, according to the official who disclosed it

 

Nations targeted by U.S. for high rates of visa overstays account for small number of violators

WaPo: Trump on Monday issued a presidential memo that declared visa overstay rates “unacceptably high” and calling them a “widespread problem.” … But some analysts say targeting these countries would have little impact on the total number of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Using the percentage of overstays as a measure also disproportionately targets African nations — 13 of the 20 countries are in Africa — while avoiding political conflicts with larger and more powerful countries, such as China and India.

 

ICE is holding $204 million in bond money, and some immigrants might never get it back

WaPo: Numerous immigration attorneys said the system for reclaiming the funds is mystifying and nearly impossible to navigate without a lawyer or English-language proficiency, and some who pay the bonds are unlikely to see the money again.

 

Deported to the Wrong Country—For a Crime He May Not Have Committed

Daily Beast: A longtime legal resident of the United States may have been deported to the wrong country for a crime he didn’t commit—all due to what a foreign court has determined could be a case of mistaken identity.

 

Asylum seekers forced to stay in Mexico have been robbed, kidnapped, and beaten.

TXMonthly: The pace of MPP hearings in El Paso is expected to increase this week. Migrant advocates warn that the legal system isn’t prepared for what is coming.

 

HUD Proposes to Evict Citizens and Immigrants from Public Housing if They Have Undocumented Family Members

AIC: HUD’s new proposed regulation would make it so that any family currently receiving a public housing benefit or subsidy, including Section 8 vouchers, would automatically be ineligible for any housing benefit if even one member of their family living in the house is undocumented.  Under the new system, every family member’s immigration status would be screened through the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system if they are under the age of 62 and currently live in subsidized housing.

 

Polarized Florida Senate passes bill to ban ‘sanctuary cities’

Miami Herald: Under this bill, local law enforcement would be required to honor federal law enforcement’s request for an “immigration detainer,” meaning a request that another law enforcement agency detain a person based on probable cause to believe that the person is a “removable alien” under federal immigration law. The bill would essentially make the “request” a requirement.

 

Watchdogs hit a wall in accessing once-available immigration data

HCN: Since its creation in 1989, journalists, members of Congress, government agencies and researchers have seen Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) as a vital tool for watchdogging the federal government…But in early April, the organization hit a wall: Its requests for information about asylum and immigration cases weren’t getting through.

 

Border Patrol expands fingerprinting of migrant children

AP: U.S. border authorities say they’ve started to increase the biometric data they take from children 13 years old and younger, including fingerprints, despite privacy concerns and government policy intended to restrict what can be collected from migrant youths.

 

US builds migrant tent city in Texas as Trump likens treatment to ‘Disneyland’

Guardian: The main frames of two large tents popped up last week. They are expected to hold up to 500 migrants amid a level of chaos at the border that has unfolded under the Trump administration’s immigration policies. See also Pentagon set to expand military role along southern border.

 

Asylum seekers released without CFIs

From the Listservs: Attorneys in Arizona and Texas indicate that many asylum seekers are being released without having had CFIs.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

CA2 Says Outspoken Critic of ICE May Challenge Imminent Deportation Through Writ of Habeas Corpus

The court held that the appellant stated a cognizable constitutional claim, and that although Congress intended to strip all courts of jurisdiction over his claim, the Suspension Clause requires that he can bring his challenge through the writ of habeas corpus. (Ragbir v. Homan, 4/25/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042607

 

CA2 Upholds Asylum Denial to Petitioner Convicted of First-Degree Assault in Connecticut [And Rejects Pereira Claim]

The court held that the petitioner’s conviction for first-degree assault in Connecticut was an aggravated felony, and that the invalidation of 18 USC §16(b) in Sessions v. Dimaya did not necessitate a remand to the BIA for consideration of this issue. (Banegas Gomez v. Barr, 4/23/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042600.

ALSO: “And lastly, we see no basis for reading Pereira—which dealt only with the “stop time” rule, see 138 S. Ct. at 2110, which is not relevant to this case—to divest an Immigration Court of jurisdiction whenever an NTA lacks information regarding a hearing’s time and date.    We thus join several of our sister circuits in allowing proceedings such as these to proceed.”

 

NWIRP Reaches Settlement with DOJ in EOIR Cease-and-Desist Letter Case

In a settlement agreement with NWIRP, DOJ agreed to issue a new rule clarifying that attorneys are not required to file a notice of appearance with EOIR when providing consultations and legal advice to unrepresented respondents in removal proceedings. (NWIRP v. Sessions, 4/17/19) AILA Doc. No. 17051834

 

District Court Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Blocking Termination of TPS for Haiti

A district court judge issued a preliminary injunction finding that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their APA claims and equal protection claim and enjoining the Trump administration from terminating TPS for Haiti, effective immediately. (Saget v. Trump, 4/11/19) AILA Doc. No. 19041530

 

CA3 Says That Disparate Treatment in INA §309 Is Rationally Related to Legitimate Government Interests

The court denied the petition for review, holding that INA §309, which treats adopted and biological children differently for automatic derivative citizenship purposes, is rationally related to advancing legitimate government interests. (Cabrera v. Att’y Gen., 4/19/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042571

 

CA3 Grants Motion to Reopen Where BIA Ignored Petitioner’s Evidence of Materially Changed Country Conditions

The court vacated the BIA’s order denying the motion to reopen and remanded, holding that the BIA abused its discretion when it failed to meaningfully consider evidence and arguments presented by the Christian Indonesian petitioner and to explain its conclusions. (Liem v. Att’y Gen., 4/19/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042570

 

CA5 Says 30-Day Filing Deadline in INA §242(b)(1) Applies to the Savings Provision in INA §242(a)(2)(D)

The court held it lacked jurisdiction under INA §242(a)(2)(D)’s savings provision to consider petitioner’s collateral attack on her reinstated in absentia removal order, because a petition for review of the underlying removal order was not filed within 30 days. (Luna-Garcia v. Barr, 4/22/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042601

 

CA7 Grants Asylum to Mexican Man Persecuted After Refusing to Allow Cartel Leader to “Possess” His Wife

The court found that the record compelled a finding that the torture and persecution the petitioner had suffered in the past and feared in the future were and would be because of his membership in the particular social group of his wife’s family. (Gonzalez Ruano v. Barr, 4/24/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042604

 

CA8 Says INA §236(a) Contains No Reasonableness Limitation on Pre-Removal Order Detention

The court reversed the district court’s order granting the habeas petition, finding that the district court erred when it concluded that pre-removal order detention under INA §236(a) is limited to “the period reasonably necessary to receive a removal decision.” (Ali v. Brott, 4/16/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042572

 

CA9 Upholds Most Provisions of California’s Sanctuary Laws

The court upheld California laws AB 450, which requires employers to alert employees prior to federal immigration inspections, and SB 54, which limits the cooperation between state and local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. (United States v. State of California, 4/18/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042273

 

CA9 Vacates Nearly $1 Million Award of Attorneys’ Fees in Sexual Battery Lawsuit Against Asylum Officer

The court held that because the district court did not have the benefit of the Supreme Court’s decision in Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Haeger when it issued an award of attorneys’ fees, it failed to apply the appropriate legal framework in the case. (Lu v. United States, 4/17/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042501

 

CA9 Says Third-Degree Robbery in Oregon Is an Aggravated Felony

The court concluded that petitioner’s conviction for third-degree robbery under Oregon Revised Statutes §164.395 was a categorical theft offense, and thus found that the petitioner was removable for an aggravated felony theft offense under INA §101(a)(43)(G). (Lopez-Aguilar v. Barr, 4/23/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042602

 

CA11 Upholds Asylum Denial to Salvadoran Who Received Gang Threats, over Dissent

In an unpublished decision, the court rejected the petitioner’s claim that the Atlanta Immigration Court (AIC) had denied her equal protection rights. The dissent noted that the petitioner’s statistics regarding the AIC merited further inquiry by the BIA. (Diaz-Rivas v. Att’y Gen., 4/18/19) AILA Doc. No. 19042436

 

USCIS Issues Policy Alert on Controlled Substance-Related Activity and Good Moral Character Determinations

USCIS issued guidance to clarify that violation of federal controlled substance law, including for marijuana, remains a conditional bar to establishing good moral character for naturalization even where that conduct would not be a state law offense. Effective 4/19/19. Comment period ends 5/2/19. AILA Doc. No. 19041930

 

Lawsuit Challenges Legality of USCIS Unlawful Presence Policy for Fs, Js, and Ms

Lawsuit challenging the legality of USCIS’s “Accrual of Unlawful Presence and F, J, and M Nonimmigrants” memo as contrary to the statutory unlawful presence provisions, and violative of the APA and the Due Process Clause. (Guilford College v. Neilsen, 10/23/18)

 

White House Issues Memo on Combating High Nonimmigrant Overstay Rates

The White House issued a memo on combating high nonimmigrant visa overstay rates. Among other things, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the AG and Secretary of Homeland Security, shall provide recommendations of actions to take to reduce nonimmigrant overstay rates from certain countries. AILA Doc. No. 19042297

 

USCIS Announces Israeli Nationals Eligible for Treaty Investor Visas

USCIS announced that beginning 5/1/19, certain Israeli nationals who are lawfully present in the United States will be able to request a change of status to the E-2 treaty investor classification. AILA Doc. No. 19042272

 

White House Issues Memo on Combating High Nonimmigrant Overstay Rates

The White House issued a memo on combating high nonimmigrant visa overstay rates. Among other things, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the AG and Secretary of Homeland Security, shall provide recommendations of actions to take to reduce nonimmigrant overstay rates from certain countries. AILA Doc. No. 19042297

 

RESOURCES

 

·         Practice Alert: Upcoming Elimination of Means-Tested Benefits as Basis for Fee Waiver Requests. See also Fee Waiver Community Alert.

·         NYC DA Offices U-visa Contact List (attached)

·         Practice Advisory: Asylum Seekers Stranded in Mexico Because of the Trump Administration’s Restrictive Policies: Firm Resettlement Considerations

·         Practice Pointer: Completing Form I-589, Application for Asylum and Withholding of Removal

·         Why Is Your Case Taking So Long? USCIS Processing Delays Have Now Hit Crisis Levels

·         CRS Report on the Special Immigrant Visa Programs for Iraqis and Afghans

·         Ethical Questions in Representing Clients with Administratively Closed Removal Cases

·         Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State

·         Web of Violence: Crime, corruption and displacement in Honduras

·         A Better Approach to “Unable or Unwilling” Analysis?

·         AILA Law Journal

·         Barred at the Border: Wait “Lists” Leave Asylum Seekers in Peril at Texas Ports of Entry

·         Estimates from the Center for Migration Studies Show Overstays Have Not Substantially Increased

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, April 29, 2019

·         Supreme Court oral argument discounts empirical studies predicting census undercount

Sunday, April 28, 2019

·         The Closure of Detention Centers in California

·         On the Other Side

·         Welcome Professor Ming Hsu Chen to the ImmigrationProf Blog!

·         “My Sick Idea”: President Trump on Sending Immigrants To Sanctuary Cities

·         Immigrants Who Use Legal Marijuana May Be Denied U.S. Citizenship for “Lacking Good Moral Character”

·         Sarah Rogerson Honored With M. Shanara Gilbert Award

·         HUD Proposes to Evict Citizens and Immigrants from Public Housing if They Have Undocumented Family Members

Saturday, April 27, 2019

·         U.S. Military on the Southern Border: What’s Their Proper Role?

·         Measles Misinformation Gets an Immigration Twist

·         ICE is holding $204 million in bond money, and some immigrants might never get it back

Friday, April 26, 2019

·         Trump Administration Indicts Massachusetts Judge, Court Office on Helping Immigrant Avoid ICE

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Global Migration Crisis by Amnon Rubinstein and Liav Orgad

Thursday, April 25, 2019

·         Proposal to Expand Expedited Removal

·         Inaugural Issue of AILA Law Journal

·         Presidential Memorandum on Combating High Nonimmigrant Overstay Rates

·         Slate: This Immigration Judge Has a Fix for Immigration Courts

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

·         Civilian Policing of The Southern Border

·         Promoting Pereira

·         Nearly 100,000 Unauthorized Immigrants Graduate from High School Every Year

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

·         A Life-Changing I-601A Waiver Experience

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

·         Austrian Politician Resigns After Publishing Poem Comparing Migrants to Rats

·         DACA Recipients Sue VMware Inc.

·         The Paradox of Patriot Acts and Muslim Bans

·         Naturalization and Overstay of Visas

·         On Birthright Citizenship

·         My 10 Steps to be Considered Human

·         Oral Arguments Before High Court in Two Immigration-Related Cases

Monday, April 22, 2019

·         Think or Swim: Community Activism

·         Teaching About Border Militias

·         Supreme Court Grants Cert in “Stop-Time Rule” Case

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

Thanks, Elizabeth!

PWS

05-02-19

 

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT — 05-13-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  2. A VERY TRUMPY CHRISTMAS:  PERVERTING ASYLUM REGS; USING VULNERABLE KIDS AS BAIT; ORBITING REFUGEES TO DEADLY ASYLUM-FREE ZONES; SCREWING WITH LEGAL IMMIGRANTS; DEATH CAMPS; STAR CHAMBERS; MORE PROSECUTORS AS JUDGES; & OTHER “GIFTS” FROM THE REGIME & ITS ARTICLE III JUDICIAL ENABLERS — Get The “Holiday Horror Update” On All Of America’s Human Rights Abuses & Gratuitous Cruelty From The Gibson Report 12-23-19 
  3. BIA SEEKS TO REPEAL CAT BY MISINTERPRETATION; MUSALO’S FACT FINDING MISSION TO EL SALVADOR SHOWS MALICIOUS ABSURDITY OF REGIME’S BOGUS “SAFE THIRD COUNTRY” ASSAULT ON HUMAN RIGHTS; 9th & 11th CIRCUITS CONTINUE TO TANK ON THE RULE OF LAW; & OTHER LEGAL NEWS ABOUT THE WHITE NATIONALIST REGIME & THE RESISTANCE — The Gibson Report — 12-10-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  4. THE GIBSON REPORT FOR 12-18-17 – RECOGNIZING: The Absolutely Amazing ELIZABETH GIBSON Of The NY Legal Assistance Group and ALL She Does For Fairness, Justice, & Due Process! — MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF OUR MOST VULNERABLE!

THE GIBSON REPORT 04-22-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

 

THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-22-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

TOP UPDATES

 

AG Barr Orders Immigration Judges To Stop Releasing Asylum-Seekers On Bail

NPR: In a written decision that overturns a 2005 policy, Barr directed immigration judges not to release migrants on bail once their cases have been approved for expedited removal proceedings — a status granted only after an applicant successfully establishes “a credible fear of persecution or torture” in the home country. See also Border Patrol Holds Hundreds of Migrants in Growing Tent City Away From Prying Eyes.

 

Rule Keeping Asylum Seekers in Mexico Can Temporarily Proceed, Court Says

NYT: A federal appeals court said Friday that the Trump administration could temporarily continue to force migrants seeking asylum in the United  States to wait in Mexico while their cases are decided.

 

How Trump’s Attorneys General are transforming U.S. immigration law

Reuters: Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his successors have been unusually active in this practice compared to their predecessors, a Reuters analysis of Justice Department data shows. The data describe an unprecedented effort by the Justice Department to quietly advance policy goals and transform immigration law from the top down.

 

White House weighs travel restrictions for countries with frequent visa overstays

Politico: Some of the countries with the highest rates of overstaying temporary visas are in Africa. Chad, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea, Liberia, Somalia, and South Sudan have among the highest overstay rates for short-term tourist and business visas, although they send relatively small numbers of travelers to the U.S. each year.

 

Homeland Security Lawyers In Manhattan Are Increasingly Using Video To ‘Appear’ In Immigration Court 20 Blocks Away

Gothamist: On Wednesday, a new judge, Monte Horton, was presiding over one new courtroom at Varick Street for quick procedural hearings known as a master calendar session. At the empty table where a DHS lawyer normally sits, to question each immigrant, there was just a big, white cardboard box for immigration lawyers to submit copies of documents filed with the court. But the video feed to Federal Plaza was broken. (Equipment failures have been a problem in court hearings by video.) After a delay, the DHS attorney appeared by telephone.

 

No ICE Arrests In Courthouses Without Judicial Warrants, N.Y. Court Directive Says

NPR: The New York State Office of Court Administration issued new rules Wednesday curtailing the ability of federal immigration officials to arrest immigrants in state courthouses without warrants.

 

Immigrants are being denied US citizenship for smoking legal pot

QZ: US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency in charge of processing visa and citizenship applications, has been rejecting immigrants who work for the marijuana industry or have admitted to using the drug in states where it’s legal, immigration lawyers and advocates say.

 

Why HUD Wants to Restrict Assistance for Immigrants

CityLab: On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed a new rule that seeks to vet all members of families applying for subsidized or public housing, even those who have declared themselves ineligible in the application.

 

Ten-Fold Difference in Odds of ICE Enforcement Depending Upon Where You Live

TRAC: A person’s odds of being arrested and deported vary greatly depending upon where he or she lives. The odds of SC deportations and ICE community arrests showed up to a ten-fold difference among the states. Living in a sanctuary jurisdiction often reduced these odds.

 

Hundreds of Africans tried to reach the United States. Now they’re stuck in Mexico.

WaPo: After several weeks of waiting for the transit permits, Africans launched a protest outside the immigration office, yelling that Mexican officials were racist. Mexican television broadcast images of the migrants apparently scuffling with security guards in front of the building.

 

A member of an armed group detaining migrants at the border has been arrested by the FBI

CNN: Earlier this week, videos posted online purported to show migrants being held by a militia known as the United Constitutional Patriots before being turned over to US Border Patrol.

 

Closing USCIS International Offices Will Leave US Citizens, Military Members, and Refugees Abroad Without Help

AIC: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ international field offices provide critical services to Americans living abroad, as well as refugees and other immigrants. But in a supposed effort to cut costs, the Trump administration plans to close all 23 offices that span 21 countries by the end of 2019.

 

Honduran transgender woman freed after a year in US detention

Guardian: Nicole García Aguilar was freed from the Cibola County detention facility in New Mexico on Wednesday night, a week after lawyers filed a habeas corpus writ challenging her unjustified and prolonged detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

 

‘When Deported, You Become Nothing’

Politico: Last year, we spent 10 days traversing thousands of miles across the state of Puebla, Mexico, and in later months across New York’s five boroughs in a door-to-door search for stories like Jorge’s. We wanted to put names and faces to the story of deportation—a story that is so often told only through statistics.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

AG Finds Individual Who Is Transferred from Expedited Removal to Full Removal Is Ineligible for Release on Bond

The Attorney General found that if an individual is transferred from expedited removal to full removal proceedings after establishing credible fear, he is ineligible for bond and must be detained, unless he is granted parole. Matter of M-S-, 27 I&N Dec. 509 (A.G. 2019) AILA Doc. No. 19041699

 

Deal Reached In Suit Over Atty Access In Immigration Court

Law360: A legal services nonprofit has agreed to pause a lawsuit challenging a government rule that punishes attorneys who offer limited representation to foreign citizens without formally appearing before the immigration court while the U.S. Department of Justice revises its regulation on attorney representation.

 

Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Files Second Lawsuit Against Business That Continues to Prey on Immigrant New Yorkers

NY DCWP: DCWP has filed a lawsuit in New York County Supreme Court against Angel G. Buitron, Buitron Offices & Associates, Susana T. Abarca, and the Law Office of Susana Abarca, PLLC for allegedly using a multi-part scheme to deceive immigrant consumers. DCWP is seeking a court order to permanently stop the illegal business practices and to prevent Buitron from acting as an immigration assistance service provider. DCWP is also seeking that they return money to consumers, create a consumer restitution fund for other victims, surrender any profits, and pay civil penalties for violations of the City’s Consumer Protection Law.

 

Argument preview: Must an unauthorized immigrant in possession of a firearm know he is in the country illegally?

SCOTUSblog: The U.S. Supreme Court will puzzle over this classic, yet novel, statutory question of “mens rea,” or criminal intent, when it hears argument on April 23 in Rehaif v. United States.

 

District Court Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Blocking Termination of TPS for Haiti

A district court judge issued a preliminary injunction finding that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their APA claims and equal protection claim and enjoining the Trump administration from terminating TPS for Haiti, effective immediately. (Saget v. Trump, 4/11/19) AILA Doc. No. 19041530

 

District Court Judge Issues Order Requiring USCIS to Adjudicate Certain SIJ Petitions

A federal district court judge issued an order requiring USCIS to adjudicate Special Immigrant Juvenile petitions for people between the ages of 18 and 21 issued special findings orders by the New York Family Court. (R.F.M. v. Nielsen, 4/8/19) AILA Doc. No. 19041635

 

Settlement Reached to Reunite Central American Children with Parents in the United States

A settlement was reached in S.A. v. Trump, the lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s termination of the Central American Minors (CAM) Parole program, that may allow approximately 2,700 children living in Central America to safely reunite with their parents in the U.S. AILA Doc. No. 18121937

 

BIA Terminates Proceedings After Finding Kidnapping Is Not a Removable Offense

The BIA terminated proceedings and dismissed the government’s appeal after finding that under the plain language of INA §101(a)(43)(H), kidnapping in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1201(a) (2012) is not an aggravated felony. Matter of A. Vasquez, 27 I&N Dec. 503 (BIA 2019) AILA Doc. No. 19041535

 

CA4 Finds There Is No Right to “Family Unity” Limiting ICE Detainee Transfers

The court affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of ICE’s detainee transfer practices, finding that there is no substantive due process right to family unity in the context of immigration detention pending removal. (Reyna v. Hott, 4/16/19) AILA Doc. No. 19041802

 

CA7 Says BIA Erred in Finding Petitioner’s New Jersey Conviction for Assault with a Deadly Weapon Was a CIMT

The court granted the petition for review and remanded, finding that the BIA committed several legal errors when it concluded that the petitioner’s conviction for assault with a deadly weapon in New Jersey was a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT). (Garcia-Martinez v. Barr, 4/16/19) AILA Doc. No. 19041934

 

Lawsuit Challenging the Trump Administration’s Remain in Mexico Policy

The Ninth Circuit issued an order temporarily staying the district court’s preliminary injunction order pending resolution of the emergency stay motion, which allowed the Remain in Mexico policy to continue. (Innovation Law Lab v. Nielsen, 4/12/19) AILA Doc. No. 19021561

 

EOIR Releases Updated Uniform Docketing System Manual

EOIR issued an updated Uniform Docketing System Manual covering the case processing system that governs the management of all cases in the immigration court. Operational procedures are amended or created through OPPM issued by the Chief Immigration Judge. AILA Doc. No. 19041570

 

DOS Designates Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Foreign Terrorist Organization

DOS notice of the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (and all aliases) as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. (84 FR 15278, 4/15/19) AILA Doc. No. 19041571

 

USCIS Announces the Issuance of a Policy Alert on Interview Guidelines for Marriage Involving Minor(s)

USCIS announced the issuance of additional guidance regarding the adjudication of spousal petitions involving minors, following up on guidance issued in February 2019, including instructions to officers to conduct an additional interview for certain I-30 spousal petitions involving a minor. AILA Doc. No. 19041533

 

Homeland Security Advisory Council’s CBP Families and Children Custody Panel Issues Report on Individuals in CBP Custody

The Homeland Security Advisory Council’s CBP Families and Children Custody Panel released a report that provides findings and recommendations on the best practices from federal, state, and local organizations regarding care for families and children in CBP custody. AILA Doc. No. 19041730

 

CBP Announces I-94 Numbers Will Become Alphanumeric

CBP announced that beginning in May 2019, I-94 numbers will be alphanumeric. Prior to May 2019, I-94 numbers were 11 digits long and only contained numbers. This change is due to the depletion of numeric-only I-94 numbers and to create a long-term solution for the creation of new numbers. AILA Doc. No. 19041531

 

USCIS Issues Policy Alert on Controlled Substance-Related Activity and Good Moral Character Determinations

USCIS issued policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify that violation of federal controlled substance law, including for marijuana, remains a conditional bar to establishing good moral character for naturalization even where that conduct would not be an offense under state law. AILA Doc. No. 19041930

 

System Error at the VSC Affecting Approval Notices

AILA received reports from members of multiple-beneficiary petitions approved by the Vermont Service Center (VSC) that are missing the name of the first beneficiary (alphabetically, by surname) from the I-797B approval notice. AILA reached out to the VSC Premium Processing Unit. AILA Doc. No. 19041799

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Sunday, April 21, 2019

·         Utah Amends Misdemeanor Sentencing to Help Immigrants

·         Immigrants’ Taxes Help Save the Social Security System

·         FBI Arrests Member of Militia Group Detaining Migrants

·         Happy Easter

Saturday, April 20, 2019

·         Music Break: Grupo Fantasma Takes On the Wall

·         How Trump’s Attorneys General are transforming U.S. immigration law

Friday, April 19, 2019

·         NYC Mexican Restaurateurs Take the Lead on Immigration Activism

·         The Real Illegal Immigration “Crisis” Isn’t on the Southern Border: It is Visa Overstays

·         Ninth Circuit Rejects Bulk of Trump Administration’s Challenge to California “Sanctuary” Laws

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Irregular Migration and International Economic Asymmetry by Chantal Thomas

Thursday, April 18, 2019

·         Taxes & Expatriation Have Never Been So Sexy

·         Colbert Unloads on Trump’s Immigration ‘Monster’ Stephen Miller

·         Immigration Article of the Day: It’s Just Like Prison: Is a Civil (Nonpunitive) System of Immigration Detention Theoretically Possible? by René Marin and Danielle C. Jefferis

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

·         Hunger Strikers Released from El Paso Detention Facility

·         Argument preview: Must an unauthorized immigrant in possession of a firearm know he is in the country illegally?

·         Trump and Cher in war of words over immigration on Twitter

·         Attorney General Overrules BIA Precedent, Expands Mandatory Detention of Asylum Seekers

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

·         Drowning or Diaspora: Where do we go from here?

·         Korean Immigrants in the United States

·         How Hispanics really feel about Trump

·         What the Trump administration must do to get a grip on the border crisis

·         Father & Son Separated at Border, Reunited Nearly 11 Months Later

Monday, April 15, 2019

·         Call for Papers–AALS 2020, Immigration Control and Environmental Regulation: Toward Justice?

·         At the Movies: Marcos Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

·         Denials of U.S. immigrant visas skyrocket after public charge rule change

·         Ninth Circuit Stays Injunction of Trump “Return to Mexico” Policy

·         Cellist Yo-Yo Ma Plays Bach In Shadow Of Laredo Border Crossing

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Citizenship Gaps by D. Carolina Núñez

 

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

Thanks, Elizabeth, for being an inspiration and an amazing resource for the NDPA!

PWS

04-25-19

Related posts:

  1. KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL OF THE REGIME’S LATEST ANTI-IMMIGRANT SCHEMES, GIMMICKS, & SHENANIGANS – THE GIBSON REPORT – 01-06-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  2. THE GIBSON REPORT – 02-10-20 – Compiled by Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group: Deporting to Death; “Orbiting” Immigrants to Laos; “Judges” Failing To Meet Deportation Quotas;  ICE Shoots Man in the Face; Using Force In the Gulag; Federal Judge Outs Regime’s Scofflaw Detainers As Regime Inflicts Arbitrary Punishment on New Yorkers for Resisting Overreach; BIA Tanks Again; EOIR Ups “Aimless Docket Reshuffling;” & Other Tales of Abuse From White Nationalist Nation!
  3. THE GIBSON REPORT — 10-05-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Federal Judge Rules Trump Not A Monarch; More Intentional Cruelty, Lies, & Threats Of Politically-Inspired Racist Attacks On Ethnic Communities From DHS; Trump Regime Dumps On Refugees & Commies; Cert. Granted In Credibility Case Apparently Seeking To Screw Refugees At Request Of SG; & Other “Interesting & Sometimes Disturbing Stuff”⚖️
  4. 🇺🇸THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-02-20 — Prepared By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Trump/Miller Bogus Public Charge Rule Enjoined Again; CBP Turns Back More Than 13,000 Unaccompanied Kids Using COVID-19 As Cover For Child Abuse; John Oliver With The Incredibly Ugly 🤮 Truth About The Trump-Miller Racist Assault On Asylum & Humanity ☠️⚰️— Other News From America Teetering On The Brink After 4-Years Of Trump Regime Misrule, Cruelty, Corruption, & Undermining Of Democracy!🏴‍☠️

THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-18-19 – Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

 

 

THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-18-19 – Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

 

TOP UPDATES

 

Trump White House plots amped-up immigration crackdown

Politico: President Donald Trump’s dramatic purge of Homeland Security leaders is about more than personnel: It helps clear the way for him to take controversial new steps to curb illegal immigration, including an updated version of his furiously criticized family separation policy. See also White House eyeing former head of anti-immigration group for DHS job.

 

Trump’s new attorney general launches fresh changes to immigration courts

SF Chron: The Justice Department is on the verge of issuing rule changes that would make it easier for a handful of appellate immigration judges to declare their rulings binding on the entire immigration system, The Chronicle has learned. The changes could also expand the use of single-judge, cursory decisions at the appellate level — all at the same time as a hiring spree that could reshape the court.

 

Claiming Asylum Could Be Harder For LGBTQ People After The Latest Immigration Policy Change

Bustle: There’s now a plan for Border Patrol agents to take a larger role in the asylum process — something that not only migrant advocates but LGBTQ experts take issue with, too, ThinkProgress reported.

 

Democrats take aim at Miller as questions persist about ‘sanctuary city’ targeting

WaPo: The talk of hauling Miller before lawmakers comes days after The Washington Post reported that he played a key role in a plan first discussed last year to release undocumented immigrants into “sanctuary cities” represented by President Trump’s Democratic critics. While the plan never came to fruition because of objections from agency officials, Trump has since embraced the idea.

 

Trump Officials Are Seeking To Double The Time Asylum-Seekers Must Wait To Legally Work

Buzzfeed: The administration is proposing a dramatic increase in the time before an asylum-seeker would become eligible to receive a work permit — from 180 days to 365 days.

 

Trump Is Still Separating Families in Possible Violation of a Court Order

Slate: The Trump administration claims it now only separates families when parents have serious criminal histories, when parents or children have medical issues, or when officials determine that the parent poses a danger to the child. But the administration is apparently interpreting “serious criminal history” to mean the parent has tried to enter the U.S. before. See also: Family Separation Has Scarred These Kids For Life.

 

The US is spending $37 million on two new tent cities for detained immigrant children and families

QZ: CBP is now expanding its capacity to take custody of even more people, spending as much as $37 million over the next eight months to build two new tent cities for children and families detained in Texas, according to a newly-issued federal contracting notice reviewed by Quartz.

 

Reflections on a 40-Year Career as an Immigration Lawyer and Judge

CMS: I know I am not alone in feeling the weight that this constellation of circumstances of an out-of-date law and political pressure on immigration judges has created. All around me, I see frustration, disillusionment, and even despair among immigration law practitioners who are also suffering the consequences that the speed-up of adjudications places on their ability to prepare fully their cases to the highest standards.

 

Denials of U.S. immigrant visas skyrocket after little-heralded rule change

Reuters: More and more aspiring immigrants – especially Mexicans – are being denied visas based on determinations by the U.S. State Department that they might become “public charges,” dependent on the government for support, according to official data and interviews with attorneys, immigrants and their family members.

 

A snapshot of where migrants go after release into the United States

WaPo: Unlike past migration waves, when most migrants were Mexican laborers who typically headed for Texas, California and other western states, the latest newcomers are fanning out across the United States to reunite with family members.

 

Undocumented Immigrants Push States for Driver’s Licenses: ‘We Have to Work’

NBC: Immigrants and their advocates have already gotten access to such licenses in a dozen states and are targeting more, including New York, New Jersey and Wisconsin.

 

How Hudson Yards Was Financed

Citylab: Specifically, the project raised at least $1.2 billion of its financing through a controversial investor visa program known as EB-5. This program enables immigrants to secure visas in exchange for real estate investments. Foreigners who pump between $500,000 and $1 million into U.S. real estate projects can purchase visas for their families, making it a favorite for wealthy families abroad, namely in China. EB-5 is supposed to be a way to jumpstart investment in remote rural areas, or distressed urban ones.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

Federal judge rules in favor of juvenile immigrants over DHS objections

Jurist: Judge John Koeltl of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that several young immigrants who were deemed to have been abused or neglected by their parents could not be denied special immigration juvenile status by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) department of citizenship and immigration services.

 

Proposed VTC Standing Order (see attached)

ICE attorneys have are seeking a standing order for telephonic/VTC appearance and noting that if the judge grants relief when they are not present, they’ll automatically be appealing all of them.  See also: New York Lawsuit Challenges Replacement of Immigration Court Hearings with Video Technology.

 

Certain Detained Asylum Seekers Must Receive a Bond Hearing Within 7 Days, Judge Orders

AIC: A U.S. district court judge ruled that certain detained asylum seekers must receive a bond hearing within seven days of requesting one. The ruling in the Padilla v. ICE case is a defeat for the Trump administration.

 

Federal Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction on Remain in Mexico

Lawfare: A federal court issued a preliminary injunction against the administration’s policy of making asylum seekers wait in Mexico pending the resolution of their cases. The decision prevents the government from implementing or expanding the policy, effective Friday, April 12. See also: After judge halts “remain in Mexico” policy, hundreds of migrants sent across border seek answers.

 

The Trump Administration Just Settled a Suit That Could Reunite 2,700 Immigrants With Their Families

Slate: On Friday afternoon, the government signed a settlement agreement in a massive class-action suit challenging the Trump administration’s termination of the little-known Central American Minors (CAM) parole program. As a result of that agreement, almost 3,000 vulnerable kids will have a chance to be reunited with their families in the United States.

 

Announcements of ICE Enforcement Actions

ICE arrested 123 individuals during a month-long operation conducted by ICE in New Jersey that targeted foreign nationals with prior arrests or convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. AILA Doc. No. 17041232

 

Department of the Treasury Notice on Immigration Bond Interest Rates

Department of the Treasury notice that for the period beginning 4/1/19 and ending 6/30/19, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigration Bond interest rate is 2.45 per centum per annum. (84 FR 13788, 4/5/19) AILA Doc. No. 19040833

 

RESOURCES

 

EVENTS

 

ImmProf

 

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Friday, April 12, 2019

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Monday, April 8, 2019

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

Thanks for keeping he “New Due Process Army” informed, Elizabeth!

PWS

04-19-19

Related posts:

  1. BIA SEEKS TO REPEAL CAT BY MISINTERPRETATION; MUSALO’S FACT FINDING MISSION TO EL SALVADOR SHOWS MALICIOUS ABSURDITY OF REGIME’S BOGUS “SAFE THIRD COUNTRY” ASSAULT ON HUMAN RIGHTS; 9th & 11th CIRCUITS CONTINUE TO TANK ON THE RULE OF LAW; & OTHER LEGAL NEWS ABOUT THE WHITE NATIONALIST REGIME & THE RESISTANCE — The Gibson Report — 12-10-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  2. A VERY TRUMPY CHRISTMAS:  PERVERTING ASYLUM REGS; USING VULNERABLE KIDS AS BAIT; ORBITING REFUGEES TO DEADLY ASYLUM-FREE ZONES; SCREWING WITH LEGAL IMMIGRANTS; DEATH CAMPS; STAR CHAMBERS; MORE PROSECUTORS AS JUDGES; & OTHER “GIFTS” FROM THE REGIME & ITS ARTICLE III JUDICIAL ENABLERS — Get The “Holiday Horror Update” On All Of America’s Human Rights Abuses & Gratuitous Cruelty From The Gibson Report 12-23-19 
  3. THE GIBSON REPORT – 02-10-20 – Compiled by Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group: Deporting to Death; “Orbiting” Immigrants to Laos; “Judges” Failing To Meet Deportation Quotas;  ICE Shoots Man in the Face; Using Force In the Gulag; Federal Judge Outs Regime’s Scofflaw Detainers As Regime Inflicts Arbitrary Punishment on New Yorkers for Resisting Overreach; BIA Tanks Again; EOIR Ups “Aimless Docket Reshuffling;” & Other Tales of Abuse From White Nationalist Nation!
  4. 🇺🇸THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-02-20 — Prepared By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Trump/Miller Bogus Public Charge Rule Enjoined Again; CBP Turns Back More Than 13,000 Unaccompanied Kids Using COVID-19 As Cover For Child Abuse; John Oliver With The Incredibly Ugly 🤮 Truth About The Trump-Miller Racist Assault On Asylum & Humanity ☠️⚰️— Other News From America Teetering On The Brink After 4-Years Of Trump Regime Misrule, Cruelty, Corruption, & Undermining Of Democracy!🏴‍☠️

THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-09-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Project — Why Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan Should End Up In Jail If He Follows Trump’s Unlawful & Unconstitutional Plans!

TOP UPDATES

 

Trump: Congress needs to ‘get rid of the whole asylum system’

WaPo: The Trump administration has already implemented ways to make it more challenging for immigrants to seek asylum in the United States. But suggesting that the entire asylum system be scrapped is a step further than he has gone in the past. See also President Trump in California pushes border security, says ‘our country is full’andTrump backs off threat to close border, says he’ll give Mexico ‘one-year warning’ on drugs, migrants.

 

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigns

Vox: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen submitted her resignation to President Donald Trump Sunday night, in an unexpected move that appears related to the president’s ongoing rage over the number of Central American families and asylum seekers coming into the United States. Kevin McAleenan, the head of Customs and Border Protection, will serve as acting DHS secretary. It’s not yet clear whether Trump will formally nominate a successor to Nielsen in the near future.

 

Trump suddenly pulls ICE nominee to go with someone ‘tougher’

CNN: President Donald Trump is pulling the nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying he wants to go in a “tougher direction” — a move that came at the urging of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller.

 

Border Patrol agents to double as asylum officers for ‘credible fear’ cases

WaTimes: Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the pilot program will begin in two weeks, with agents deputized to begin hearing “credible fear” claims lodged by migrants who say they need protection in the U.S.

 

U.S. Says It Could Take 2 Years to Identify Up to Thousands of Separated Immigrant Families

NYT: It may take federal officials two years to identify what could be thousands of immigrant children who were separated from their families at the southern United States border, the government said in court documents filed on Friday.

 

ICE Raids Texas Technology Company, Arrests 280 Over Immigration Violations

NPR: Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 280 employees at a technology repair company in Collin County, Texas, on charges of working in the United States illegally. It’s the largest work site raid in the country in more than a decade, according to a Homeland Security Investigations official.

 

Waiting for Asylum in the United States, Migrants Live in Fear in Mexico

NYT: About 633 Central American asylum seekers have been turned away since January, unable to prove sufficient fear of being tortured and persecuted in Mexico.

 

Whose Court Is This Anyway? Immigration judges accuse executive branch of politicizing their courts

ABA: Immigration courts have always been susceptible to politics; presidents have, for example, rearranged dockets to suit their political needs. But the NAIJ and others are concerned that the Trump administration has moved from reprioritizing cases to deliberately trying to affect case outcomes.

 

Lawyers slam ‘Wild West’ atmosphere in Texas immigration court

CNN: Judges at an immigration court in El Paso, Texas, are undermining due process, making inappropriate comments and fostering a “culture of hostility” toward immigrants, according to a new complaint.

 

Trump administration nearly doubles H-2B guest visa program, which brings many Mexican workers

WaPo: As President Trump threatened to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border in recent days, his Department of Homeland Security nearly doubled the number of temporary guest worker visas available this summer.

 

Immigrants Denied Citizenship for Working in the Legal Marijuana Industry

AIC: USCIS is denying some immigrants U.S. citizenship over their work in the legal marijuana industry, exposing a conflict between state and federal laws.

 

ACLU warns ‘immigrants and people of color,’ against travel in Florida

WashEx: The American Civil Liberties Union has issued a travel advisory for “immigrants and people of color to use extreme caution” in Florida because of a pending immigration bill the state legislature is considering that would ban so-called sanctuary cities.

 

Lee: Voucher Plan to Be Provided Only to ‘Legal Residents’

US News: Republican Gov. Bill Lee said Tuesday he’s working to ensure his proposed $125 million school voucher program will be provided only to “legal residents” of Tennessee — a plan that some critics say could be illegal.

 

Yellow Light For Immigrant Driver’s Licenses As State Bill Revs Up

TheCity: Fresh off passage of a state budget that included the DREAM Act to fund higher education for undocumented immigrants, some Democrats in the Legislature are looking for a bigger win: New York state-issued driver’s licenses.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

DHS Sends Letter to Congress Requesting Changes to TVPRA and the Flores Settlement

On 3/28/19, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen sent a letter to Congress to request legislative changes to the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and the Flores settlement agreement to address “root causes of the emergency” along the U.S./Mexico border. AILA Doc. No. 19040801

 

Motel 6 will pay $12 million to settle lawsuit after sharing guest info with ICE

ABC: The budget motel operator illegally shared the personal information of about 80,000 customers for more than two years, resulting in a “targeted” ICE investigation into guests with Latino-sounding names, the Washington state attorney general’s office announced Thursday.

 

NYC Immigration Attys Not Off The Hook In RICO Suit

Law360: New York federal court has ruled two local immigration attorneys can’t shake a suit alleging they misled clients about services they could provide and filed asylum petitions without their clients’ knowledge, which then allegedly plunged the noncitizens into removal proceedings.

 

Democrats file suit against border wall spending

WaPo: House Democrats have filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing President Donald Trump from spending more money than Congress has approved to erect barriers along the southwestern border. See also Twenty states file motion to block Trump border wall funding – N.Y. attorney general.

Trump Administration’s Census Citizenship Question Plans Halted By 3rd Judge

NPR: U.S. District Judge George Hazel of Maryland in a 119-page opinion released Friday. Hazel concluded that the decision by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the census, to add the question violated administrative law. See also Commission divided on funding needs for census outreach.

 

CA5 Upholds Denial of Motion to Reopen Where Petitioner Did Not Provide U.S. Mailing Address

Posted 4/5/2019

The court held that the BIA did not abuse its discretion in finding that the information that the petitioner had provided to immigration officials—the names of his town and county in El Salvador—did not satisfy the notice requirement of INA §242b(a)(1)(F)(i). (Ramos-Portillo v. Barr, 4/1/19)

AILA Doc. No. 19040530

 

CA5 Finds Petitioner Failed to Rebut Presumption of Receipt of Notice of Hearing Sent by Regular Mail

Posted 4/5/2019

The court found the BIA did not abuse its discretion when, in applying the Matter of M-R-A- factors and looking to the totality of the circumstances, it determined that petitioner had failed to overcome the weaker presumption of effective service. (Navarrete-Lopez v. Barr, 4/1/19)

AILA Doc. No. 19040503

 

CA5 Upholds Denial of Asylum to Member of Minority Clan in Somalia

Posted 4/1/2019

The court denied the petition for review, holding that substantial evidence supported the BIA’s determination that the petitioner had failed to show that he would suffer persecution in Somalia because he belonged to the Ashraf minority clan. (Qorane v. Barr, 3/26/19)

AILA Doc. No. 19040134

 

CA8 Remands for BIA to Explain Why It Did Not Apply Sanchez-SosaFactors to Remand Request

Posted 4/5/2019

The court remanded for BIA to explain why it found it made no difference that petitioner had included a U visa filing receipt in his remand request, when Matter of Sanchez-Sosasuggests that a completed application should pause the removal process. (Caballero-Martinez v. Barr, 4/3/19)

AILA Doc. No. 19040531

 

CA9 Says Petitioner’s Conviction for Third-Degree Robbery in Oregon Is Not a CIMT

Posted 4/1/2019

The court granted in part the petition for review, holding that petitioner’s conviction for third-degree robbery in Oregon was not categorically a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT) that would render the petitioner ineligible for cancellation of removal. (Aguirre Barbosa v. Barr, 3/28/19)

AILA Doc. No. 19040137

 

CA9 Declines to Rehear Sanchez v. Barr En Banc

Posted 4/5/2019

The court issued an order denying the rehearing en banc of Sanchez v. Barr, in which the court held that the petitioner may be entitled to termination of removal proceedings after he made a prima facie showing of an egregious violation of 8 CFR §287.8(b)(2). (Sanchez v. Barr, 4/1/19)

AILA Doc. No. 19040533

 

DOJ Settles Immigration-Related Discrimination Claim Against Housing Authority in Texas

Posted 4/1/2019

The Justice Department announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with the Housing Authority of Victoria, Texas, after finding that it discriminated against a LPR when it rejected his valid employment documents and fired him. AILA member Paul Parsons represented the employee.

AILA Doc. No. 19040132

 

Secretary Nielsen Orders Additional CBP Personnel to Southern Border and Expansion of Migrant Protection Protocols

DHS Secretary Nielsen ordered CBP increase its temporary reassignment of personnel and resources to address the influx of migrants at the southern border. She also directed CBP to expand the Migrant Protection Protocols and return hundreds of additional migrants per day to Mexico. AILA Doc. No. 19040174

 

EOIR Issues Memo on “No Dark Courtrooms”

EOIR issued PM 19-11, No Dark Courtrooms, to ensure that all available courtrooms are used for hearing cases every day during normal court operating hours, including maximizing the use of video teleconferencing and immigration adjudication centers. The memo is effective 5/1/19. AILA Doc. No. 19040130

 

Complaint Highlights Due Process Violations in El Paso Immigration Court and Calls for Immediate Oversight

A complaint filed with DOJ’s EOIR, OIG, and OPR by the American Immigration Council and AILA highlights systemic due process violations that are undermining justice for detained immigrants called before judges at the El Paso Service Processing Center immigration court. AILA Doc. No. 19040260

 

RESOURCES

 

EVENTS

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, April 8, 2019

Sunday, April 7, 2019

Saturday, April 6, 2019

Friday, April 5, 2019

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Monday, April 1, 2019

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

Elizabeth’s items #1 and #3 (in addition to being totally outrageous and illegal) could spell either a short career for Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan or some time in Federal Prison.

    • Trump has no authority to get rid of the Asylum System and Immigration Judges, nor will Congress do so. Moreover, any attempt by Congress to eliminate asylum or a fair hearing process for individuals who entered the U.S. regardless of status would be likely to violate both the Due Process Clause of the Constitution and our international treaty obligations. To the extent that Trump tries to do this through “back door” methods (as other reports have indicated), they clearly will be both illegal and unconstitutional. Any officer carrying them out will be “at risk.”
    • The “Program,” described in Item #3 of substituting Border Patrol Officers for trained Asylum Officers is clearly illegal. Under the 8 U.S.C. 1325(b)(1)(E), an Asylum Officer must have extensive training in “country conditions, asylum law, and interview techniques comparable to that given full-time adjudicators of asylum applications.”  Border Patrol Officers would not normally meet those criteria;
    • Indeed, this provision is a reflection of Congress’s specific intent that someone other than a law enforcement official make asylum and credible fear determinations;
    • The statute further requires supervision by an Officer who “has had substantial experience adjudicating asylum applications;” any supervisor who signed off on this bogus program would be acting illegally;
    • The Government is already under an injunction in Grace v. Whitaker from Judge Sullivan preventing an illegal attempt by former Attorney General Sessions and Kristjen Nielsen to rig the credible fear process against asylum applicants;
    • The bogus “pilot program” intended to result in illegal rejections of those claiming credible fear by agents patently unqualified to make such determinations under the statute would violate that injunction;
    • Judge Sullivan has a reputation for not taking much guff from anyone, including the Government;
    • Implementation of this illegal program should result in the Border Patrol Agents who carry it out as well as McAleenan and hopefully scofflaw Stephen Miller being held in contempt by Judge Sullivan and doing some jail time.

PWS

04-11-19

 

Related posts:

  1. HERE’S WHY NIELSEN’S LATEST ATTACK ON REFUGEES AND THE RULE OF LAW COULD BACKFIRE! – ALSO, AN ADDENDUM: “MY MESSAGE TO THE NDPA”
  2. GROSS NATIONAL DISGRACE: “A Fucking Disaster That Is Designed to Fail”: How Trump Wrecked America’s Immigration Courts — Fernanda Echavarri Reports For Mother Jones On How Our Failed Justice System Daily Abuses The Most Vulnerable While Feckless Legislators &   Smugly Complicit Article III Judges Look On & Ignore The Human Carnage They Are Enabling — “ Two days after US immigration officials sent her to Tijuana, she was raped.”
  3. JOURNAL ON MIGRATION & HUMAN SOCIETY (“JMHS”) PUBLISHES MY TRIBUTE TO JUAN OSUNA (1963-2017): “An Overview and Critique of US Immigration and Asylum Policies in the Trump Era”
  4. HOW “AMERICA’S KILLER COURTS” PROMOTE “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” — HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: TRUMP & HIS WHITE NATIONALIST SYCOPHANTS & TOADIES TOUT LAWLESS POLICIES THAT VIOLATE LEGAL OBLIGATIONS & HELP KILL, RAPE, TORTURE THOSE RETURNED TO EL SALVADOR — Supremes & Article III Judiciary Complicit In Gross Human Rights Violations! 

THE GIBSON REPORT – 04-01-19 – Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

THE GIBSON REPORT – 04-01-19 – Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

 

TOP UPDATES

 

NYS Budget Passes

Documented NY:

  • 2020 Census outreach: Lawmakers in Albany agreed to a $175.5 billion budget deal on Sunday. It includes $20 million for census outreach — only half the amount advocates requested.
  • Liberty Defense Project: There were concerns late last week that the program, which provides legal counsel and other services for immigrants, would be cut. However, Alphonso David, the governor’s counsel, told reporters it would continue. The program received $10 million last year.
  • Misdemeanors: Among other criminal justice reforms, the budget will reduce the maximum sentence for Class A (the most serious) misdemeanors down to 364 days, which means they will no longer automatically trigger deportation proceedings.
  • NYS DREAM Act: After the DREAM Act passed the legislature earlier this year, it was implemented and fully funded in this budget. It provides undocumented students with access to state financial aid.

See also Immigration attorneys fighting deportation cases to get additional $1.6 million in emergency funding.

 

Border Patrol orders quick release of migrant families

AP: The number of migrant families and children entering the U.S. from Mexico is so high that Border Patrol is immediately releasing them instead of transferring them to the agency responsible for their release, forcing local governments to help coordinate their housing, meals and travel. See also Border Patrol facilities on southern border are nearly 3,000 people over capacity.

 

Trump plans to cut U.S. aid to 3 Central American countries in fight over U.S.-bound migrants

WaPo: The State Department said in a statement Saturday that it would be “ending . . . foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle” — a region encompassing El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The move would affect nearly $500 million in 2018 funds and millions more left over from the prior fiscal year. See also Fox News host apologizes for ‘3 Mexican Countries’ chyron: ‘It never should have happened’.

 

Trump Doubles Down on Threat to Close Border

USNews: White house advisers are reaffirming that President Donald Trump will close all or parts of the U.S. border with Mexico this week if Mexico’s government doesn’t move aggressively to stop undocumented migrants from crossing into the United States. See also House fails to override Trump veto on southern border emergency.

 

DHS to ask Congress for sweeping authority to deport unaccompanied migrant children

NBC: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s proposal will also include more money for detention beds and the ability to hold families in detention longer than currently permitted.

 

ICE arrests drop as the agency shifts toward the surge of migrants at the southern border

CNN: US immigration arrests are down compared with last year, as illegal migrant crossings spike at the southern border and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has had to shift resources to the deal with the influx.

 

Immigrants Are Regularly Kept Locked up for Months After Deportation Orders

AIC: More than 1,000 immigrants were still locked up more than 6 months after they received their final removal orders.

 

The Pentagon Is Transferring $1 Billion to Trump’s Border Wall at the Expense of Military Readiness

AIC: Projects like the border wall should not come at the expense of military readiness. They only weaken our security and distract from the real humanitarian concerns at the border.

 

The Latest Immigration Crackdown May Be Fake Social Security Numbers

NPR: The agency is reviving the controversial practice of sending “no match” letters to businesses across the country, notifying them when an employee’s Social Security number doesn’t match up with official records.

 

The Immigration Court: Issues and Solutions

Chase: While many of the arguments for Article I status involved hypothetical threats in the 1990s, over the past two years, many of the fears that gave rise to such proposal have become reality.

 

ICE detains more pregnant women. Immigration advocates say it puts moms and babies at risk

Commercial Appeal: Puerto Diaz was one of more than 2,500 pregnant women detained by the agency in the past three years, according to ICE. That number has steadily risen since immigration policy changes were implemented by President Donald Trump in 2017.

 

Police: Con Artist Victimized Immigrants

Patch: Cops allege he extracted more than $300,000 from 40 families with false promises to get them legal immigration status.

 

“It’s Hell There”: This Is What It’s Like For Immigrants Being Held In A Pen Underneath An El Paso Bridge

BuzzFeed: US immigration officials are holding hundreds of people in a temporary outdoor detention camp under a Texas bridge, where migrants are surrounded by fencing and sleeping on dirt.

 

In Ciudad Juárez, Cuban migrants seek asylum in the U.S.

NBC: During the 2016 fiscal year, judges made decisions in 59 asylum cases filed by Cubans. In 2017, that number jumped to 245, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, database. Last year, 455 Cuban asylum cases were decided — with about six in 10 resulting in denials.

 

ICE Trained Over 1,500 State And Local Police On How To Help Detain Immigrants

Newsweek: Addressing a crowded room at the 2019 Border Security Expo in San Antonio, Texas, ICE Acting Director Ronald Vitiello said ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) team, which oversees the arrests and deportations of immigrants, has so far signed agreements with 78 law enforcement agencies in 20 states to “train and empower” state and local officers “to enforce federal immigration laws.”

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

BIA Reopens and Terminates Proceedings Sua Sponte in Light of Second Circuit Decision

Unpublished BIA decision reopens and terminates proceedings sua sponte upon finding respondent with controlled substance convictions no longer deportable under intervening decision in Harbin v. Sessions, 860 F.3d 58 (2nd Cir. 2017). Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Abreu, 5/21/18). AILA Doc. No. 19032696

BIA Reopens Proceedings for U Visa Applicant to Seek Waiver of Inadmissibility

Unpublished BIA decision reopens proceedings for U visa applicant to seek waiver of inadmissibility in light of intervening decision in Baez-Sanchez v. Sessions, 872 F.3d 854 (7th Cir. 2017). Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Moreno-Zaldivar, 5/15/18) AILA Doc. No. 19032595

 

BIA Orders Further Consideration of Continuance for Detained Respondent Seeking U Visa

Unpublished BIA decision remands for further consideration of request for continuance pending adjudication of U visa application, stating that backlog and respondent being detained are not valid reasons to deny continuance. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Alvarado-Turcio, 5/22/18) AILA Doc. No. 19032796

 

BIA Grants Adjustment Application for Respondent with Multiple Arrests for Domestic Violence

Unpublished BIA decision reverses discretionary denial of adjustment for applicant with two arrests for domestic violence because neither resulted in conviction and he otherwise possessed significant equities. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Ramirez-Ortega, 5/21/18) AILA Doc. No. 19032795

 

BIA Summarily Dismisses DHS Appeal for Failure to File Brief

Unpublished BIA decision summarily dismisses DHS appeal because notice to appeal didn’t meaningfully apprise BIA of grounds for appeal and DHS didn’t submit a separate brief in support of appeal despite indicating it would. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Moreira-Quintanilla, 5/17/18) AILA Doc. No. 19032596

 

BIA Upholds Finding that Respondent Acquired Citizenship

Unpublished BIA decision upholds finding that respondent acquired citizenship under INA §309(a) because father acknowledged paternity before she turned 18 by listing her as his daughter in affidavit of support. (Matter of Feliz-Valles, 5/17/18) AILA Doc. No. 19032695

 

CA1 Upholds Denial of Asylum to Kenyan Petitioner Who Alleged Changed Country Conditions

The court held that the BIA did not abuse its discretion in finding that country conditions in Kenya—climbing land prices, anti-LGBT discrimination, and al-Shabaab violence—were continuing, not changed, since the petitioner’s removal proceedings in 2013. (Wanjiku v. Barr, 3/15/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032902

 

CA4 Says BIA Applied Wrong Standard of Review in Evaluating Physical Custody Requirement Under the CCA

The court granted the petition for review and remanded, holding that whether a foreign-born child was in the “physical custody” of his or her U.S. citizen parent for purposes of the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) is a mixed question of fact and law. (Duncan v. Barr, 3/19/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032904

 

CA4 Reverses Denial of CAT Relief to Salvadoran Who Received Death Threats from Gang

The court granted the petition for review, holding that the BIA had entirely failed to address the petitioner’s testimony that Salvadoran officials had turned a “blind eye” to death threats made by members of the 18th Street gang to petitioner and her son. (Cabrera Vasquez v. Barr, 3/20/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032903

 

CA7 Upholds Denial of CAT Relief Where Salvadoran’s Allegations of Future Torture Were Deemed Too Speculative

The court upheld the denial of relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), finding that petitioner had failed to prove that he would be specifically targeted by gangs or the military in El Salvador or that the government would acquiesce in any torture. (Herrera-Garcia v. Barr, 3/18/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032905

 

CA8 Says “Salvadoran Female Heads of Households” Is Not a Cognizable Particular Social Group

The court held that the BIA did not err in ruling that petitioner had failed to prove past persecution on account of her membership in the social group of “Salvadoran female heads of household,” finding that the group lacked social distinction and particularity. (De Guevara v. Barr, 3/21/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032906

 

CA8 Upholds Denial of Asylum to Petitioner Who Feared Persecution in Guatemala Due to His Mam Ethnicity

The court held that the petitioner, who feared persecution on account of his Mam ethnicity from the Zetas criminal organization and others if returned to Guatemala, failed to establish an objective nexus between fear of future persecution and a protected ground. (Martin v. Barr, 3/5/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032570

 

CA9 Reverses Asylum Denial Where BIA Misapplied Firm Resettlement Rule

The court granted in part the petition for review of the BIA’s denial of the Cameroonian petitioner’s asylum claims and remanded, holding that the BIA committed three errors in its application of the firm resettlement rule. (Arrey v. Barr, 2/26/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032571

 

CA9 Says BIA May Consider Sentencing Enhancements When a Petitioner Has Been Convicted of a Per Se Particularly Serious Crime

The court denied the petition for review, holding that the BIA appropriately considered sentencing enhancements when it determined that the petitioner was convicted of a per se particularly serious crime and was therefore ineligible for withholding of removal. (Mairena v. Barr, 3/7/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032573

 

CA9 Orders En Banc Rehearing of Martinez-Cedillo v. Barr

The court ordered that Martinez-Cedillo v. Barr, in which a three-judge panel found that the BIA’s interpretation of a crime of child abuse, neglect, or abandonment was entitled to Chevron deference, be reheard en banc. (Martinez-Cedillo v. Barr, 3/18/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032931

 

CA9 Upholds Denial of Asylum to Mexican Police Officer Who Received Death Threats from Hitmen

The court held that the evidence did not compel the conclusion that the petitioner, a Mexican police officer who had received two death threats from hitmen of the Sinaloa drug cartel, had suffered past harm rising to the level of persecution. (Duran-Rodriguez v. Barr, 3/20/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032930

 

CA11 Finds Noncitizen Who Indicated He Was a U.S. Citizen on Driver’s License Application Is Inadmissible

The court held that it lacked jurisdiction to review the factual finding that the petitioner, a noncitizen, did not intend to make a false representation of citizenship when he checked the box indicating he was a U.S. citizen on his driver’s license application. (Patel v. Att’y Gen., 3/6/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032574

 

USCIS Posts Update on Extension of DED for Liberia

USCIS posted an alert that it will publish a notice in the Federal Register with information on the six-month automatic extension, through 9/27/19, of EADs currently held by eligible Liberians and instructions on how they can obtain EADs for the reminder of the DED wind-down period. AILA Doc. No. 19032932

 

ICE Releases Death Detainee Report

Congressional requirements described in the 2018 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill require ICE to make public all reports regarding an in-custody death within 90 days. ICE has provided those reports, beginning in FY2018. AILA Doc. No. 18121905

 

CBP Commissioner Issues Comments About Increase in Border Crossings at Southwest Border

CBP Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan hosted a press release to discuss the impact of the increase in border crossings that continue to occur along the southwest border. Nationwide, CBP had more than 12,000 migrants in custody this week. AILA Doc. No. 19032835

 

RESOURCES

 

EVENTS

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, April 1, 2019

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Friday, March 29, 2019

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Monday, March 25, 2019

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

Thanks, Elizabeth!

PWS

04-02-19

 

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT – 02-10-20 – Compiled by Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group: Deporting to Death; “Orbiting” Immigrants to Laos; “Judges” Failing To Meet Deportation Quotas;  ICE Shoots Man in the Face; Using Force In the Gulag; Federal Judge Outs Regime’s Scofflaw Detainers As Regime Inflicts Arbitrary Punishment on New Yorkers for Resisting Overreach; BIA Tanks Again; EOIR Ups “Aimless Docket Reshuffling;” & Other Tales of Abuse From White Nationalist Nation!
  2. THE GIBSON REPORT FOR 12-18-17 – RECOGNIZING: The Absolutely Amazing ELIZABETH GIBSON Of The NY Legal Assistance Group and ALL She Does For Fairness, Justice, & Due Process! — MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF OUR MOST VULNERABLE!
  3. THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-05-18 — COMPILED BY ELIZABETH GIBSON ESQ, NY LEGAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT
  4. 🇺🇸THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-02-20 — Prepared By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Trump/Miller Bogus Public Charge Rule Enjoined Again; CBP Turns Back More Than 13,000 Unaccompanied Kids Using COVID-19 As Cover For Child Abuse; John Oliver With The Incredibly Ugly 🤮 Truth About The Trump-Miller Racist Assault On Asylum & Humanity ☠️⚰️— Other News From America Teetering On The Brink After 4-Years Of Trump Regime Misrule, Cruelty, Corruption, & Undermining Of Democracy!🏴‍☠️

THE GIBSON REPORT — 03-25-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

THE GIBSON REPORT — 03-25-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

TOP UPDATES

 

SCOTUS Upholds Government Authority to Detain and Deport Immigrants for Past Crimes

AILA: The Supreme Court held that the mandatory detention statute, which plainly provides for detention without any hearing “when” an immigrant “is released” from a prior criminal custody, applies even when the arrest occurs years after their release. (Nielsen v. Preap, 3/19/19) AILA Doc. No. 19031930. See also Justices Leave Room To Challenge Immigrant Detention Law.

 

Immigration Courts Getting Lost in Translation

Marshall Proj: The head of the immigration-court system emailed judges Dec. 11, telling them to use phone interpreters for languages except Spanish, according to leaders of the National Association of Immigration Judges. See also Anyone Speak K’iche’ or Mam? Immigration Courts Overwhelmed by Indigenous Languages.

 

Fewer Undocumented Immigrant Crime Victims Are Stepping Forward

WNYC: In 2017, 2,664 people applied for U visa certification from New York City agencies and authorities, including the family courts and district attorneys. But last year, that number fell to 2,282 — a drop of 14 percent. See also Congress Debates Reauthorization of Expired Violence Against Women Act.

 

Human Rights First Clients Ordered to Remain in Mexico Following Immigration Court Hearings

HRF: [Thursday] two Human Rights First clients were inexplicably returned to Mexico after their initial immigration court hearings under the Trump Administration’s disastrous and unnecessary “Remain in Mexico” plan. The clients, Ariel and Alec*, are among the first asylum seekers to receive interviews regarding their fear of return to Mexico under the new plan. They were returned to Mexico without explanation or notice to their Human Rights First attorney, despite each expressing fears of returning to Mexico.

 

Undocumented Immigrant Denied Jury Trial Despite High Court Decision

NYLJ: The defendant in the case had asked the judge in the middle of his bench trial for a jury trial after a decision from the state’s highest court said undocumented immigrants should be offered a jury trial if they’re at risk of being deported following a conviction.

 

An Update on TPS: A Promising New Bill, More Lawsuits, and an Uncertain Future

AIC: the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019 (H.R. 6) would allow over 2 million TPS holders and Dreamers combined to adjust their status to permanent residents.

 

Newly Arriving Families Not Main Reason for Immigration Court’s Growing Backlog

TRAC: Since September, about one out of every four newly initiated filings recorded by the Immigration Court have been designated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as “family unit” cases. See Figure 1. While there have been a total of 174,628 new court filings recorded over the past six months, only 41,488 of these were designated by DHS as part of family units.

 

Citizens on Hold: A Look at ICE’s Flawed Detainer System in Miami-Dade County

ACLUFL: Persistent errors in ICE’s detainer system may have resulted in illegal holds being placed on dozens, and possibly hundreds, of U.S. citizens in Miami, according to a report published today by the ACLU of Florida. The report, “Citizens on Hold: A Look at ICE’s Flawed Detainer System in Miami-Dade County,” finds that, since 2017, ICE has targeted over 400 people who were listed as U.S. citizens in County records.

 

ICE Has Detained a 72-Year-Old Grandfather With Alzheimer’s for Nine Months

DailyBeast: Noé de la Cruz, a grandfather of three, has been in immigrant detention since June 2018—and his family worries that his Alzheimer’s is going untreated.

 

Trump admin tracked individual migrant girls’ pregnancies

MSNBC: Details of a newly obtained spreadsheet kept by the Trump administration’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, led by anti-abortion activist Scott Lloyd, tracking the pregnancies of unaccompanied minor girls. Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project senior staff attorney, joins to discuss details of the case.

 

Migrant boy’s ‘discouraging trauma’ leads judge to block his transfer to fifth home

WaPo: The case, and others like it, is an example of an urgent question facing the U.S. government: What should be done with the children arriving at the southern border?

 

Airline Assured Flight Attendant She’d Be Safe to Fly to Mexico. When She Returned, ICE Detained

TPG: She has a Social Security number and pays taxes, and was halfway through the process of getting her official citizenship. Leaving the country, she feared, could jeopardize her DACA status. But Mesa Airlines insisted she was legally all right to fly to Mexico and back. “She should be okay because it’s part of DACA as long as it is not expiring,” a supervisor at Mesa wrote in an email reviewed by The Points Guy.

 

George Mason gets $1.1 million Koch gift for research on immigration, labor

CTPost: The money, a five-year grant from the Charles Koch Foundation, will underwrite work at the Center for the Study of Social Change, Institutions and Policy at George Mason, a public university in Northern Virginia…George Mason, which earlier this month announced a $50 million gift to its law school, has recently sought to address concerns about philanthropy at the institution, and whether some funding came with constraints on academic freedom.

 

Rio Grande Valley Landowners Plan To Fight Border Wall Expansion

NPR: More than 570 landowners in two counties, Hidalgo and Starr, have received right-of-entry letters from the government asking to survey their land for possible border wall construction.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

Justices uphold broad interpretation of immigration detention provision

SCOTUSblog: In Nielsen v. Preap, four justices joined Justice Samuel Alito yesterday to adopt an expansive interpretation of a mandatory-immigration-detention statute.

 

Supreme Court Grants Cert in Identity Fraud/Immigration Case

ImmProf: The issues presented in the case: (1) Whether the Immigration Reform and Control Act expressly pre-empts the states from using any information entered on or appended to a federal Form I-9…; and (2) if IRCA bars the states from using all such information for any purpose, whether Congress has the constitutional power to so broadly pre-empt the states from exercising their traditional police powers to prosecute state law crimes.

 

Expansion/Clarification on “direct victim” in U visa cases

EDNY: USCIS may be correct that, in the majority of situations, a non-targeted individual who is not present at the crime scene does not suffer direct and proximate harm as a result of the crime. But the regulation does not create a requirement of physical presence to be met in every case. Rather, it envisions a case-by-case analysis to determine whether, in this case, for this crime, the harm suffered by the applicant is a direct and proximate harm of the qualifying criminal activity.

 

Federal Court Upholds Wage Rates for Migrant Farmworkers

ImmProf: A federal court late Monday denied a request by growers to throw out wage rates for temporary foreign workers that are set by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to protect American farmworkers.

 

Law school’s Immigration Clinic files suit in support of activist

TheU: According to the lawsuit, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Rojas on Feb. 27 when he appeared for a routine immigration appointment. His abrupt detention came at the heels of the Sundance Film Festival premiere of a documentary film, “The Infiltrators,” which features Rojas’s activism and criticism of ICE detention policies.

 

BIA Reopens Proceedings Sua Sponte for Longtime TPS Holder to Adjust Status

Unpublished BIA decision reopens proceedings sua sponte for respondent who was granted TPS in 1999 and became the beneficiary of an approved visa petition in 2017. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Romero, 5/15/18) AILA Doc. No. 19032296

 

BIA Holds Utah Lewdness Offense Not Sexual Abuse of a Minor

Unpublished BIA decision holds that lewdness involving a child under Utah Code Ann. 76-9-702.5 is not sexual abuse of a minor because it does not require an intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Nieves, 5/3/18) AILA Doc. No. 19031830

 

BIA Vacates Finding that LPR Status Was Abandoned

Unpublished BIA decision vacates finding that pro se respondent abandoned his LPR status because he did not understand the significance of his admissions when he conceded the charge. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Wol Wol, 5/7/18) AILA Doc. No. 19031831

 

BIA Reopens Proceedings Sua Sponte in Light of Tenth Circuit Decision Involving Retroactivity of Matter of Briones

Unpublished BIA decision reopens proceedings sua sponte in light of Tenth Circuit decision holding that Matter of Briones, 24 I&N Dec. 355 (BIA 2007), doesn’t retroactively apply to applicants who relied on contrary circuit law. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Perea, 5/14/2018) AILA Doc. No. 19032295

 

CA1 Rejects Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claim Where Petitioner Filed Motion to Reopen Seven Years After BIA Denied His Appeal

The court upheld the BIA’s decision denying the petitioner’s motion to reopen and declining to equitably toll the 90-day filing deadline, finding that even if the petitioner had received ineffective assistance of counsel, he failed to exercise due diligence. (Tay-Chan v. Barr, 3/13/19) AILA Doc. No. 19031971

 

CA2 Says Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering Is an Aggravated Felony

The court denied the petition for review, holding that conspiracy to commit money laundering pursuant to 18 USC §1956(h) constitutes an aggravated felony under INA §101(a)(43)(D). (Barikyan v. Barr, 3/4/19) AILA Doc. No. 19031972

 

CA3 Finds Constructive Physical Presence Doctrine Cannot Transmit Citizenship

Affirming the district court, the court held that even if the petitioner’s father was a U.S. citizen, he did not transmit citizenship under a constructive physical presence theory to his Czechoslovakian-born son pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. (Madar v. USCIS, 3/7/19) AILA Doc. No. 19031973

 

CA5 Finds BIA’s Retroactive Application of Matter of Diaz-LizarragaViolates Due Process

The court granted the petition for review, finding that the BIA erred in applying the definition of crimes involving moral turpitude (CIMTs) announced in 2016 in Matter of Diaz-Lizarraga to the petitioner’s 2007 conviction for attempted theft. (Monteon-Camargo v. Barr, 3/14/19) AILA Doc. No. 19031974

 

CA6 Upholds Denial of Continuance Where Petitioner Had Six Weeks’ Notice of Need to Obtain New Counsel

Where the petitioner was notified six weeks prior to his final removal hearing that he needed to pay his attorney or find new counsel, the court upheld the denial of his request for a continuance on the day of his removal hearing to find a new attorney. (Mendoza-Garcia v. Barr, 3/13/19) AILA Doc. No. 19031975

 

CA6 Upholds Denial of Motion to Reopen In Absentia Removal Order Where Petitioner Claimed Nonreceipt of NTA

The court affirmed the denial of the motion to reopen petitioner’s in absentia removal order, concluding that the BIA did not abuse its discretion in determining that the petitioner failed to overcome the presumption of delivery of the Notice to Appear (NTA). (Santos-Santos v. Barr, 2/28/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032036

 

CA7 Denies CAT Relief to Bisexual Petitioner Whose Father Was a Member of an Opposition Political Party in Guinea

The court found that petitioner had failed to establish that he more likely than not would be tortured if removed to Guinea due to his sexual orientation and father’s past political affiliation, and thus upheld the denial of Convention Against Torture (CAT) relief. (Barry v. Barr, 2/22/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032037

 

CA8 Says Petitioner’s Convictions in Missouri for Passing a Bad Check Are CIMTs

Applying the modified categorical approach, the court denied the petition for review, concluding that the petitioner’s four Missouri convictions for passing a bad check qualified as crimes involving moral turpitude (CIMTs). (Dolic v. Barr, 2/20/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032038

 

CA8 Finds Conviction Vacated for Rehabilitative Reasons Was Still a Conviction for Immigration Purposes

The court denied the petition for review, finding that the subsequent vacatur for rehabilitative reasons of the petitioner’s Iowa criminal conviction did not change the fact that the petitioner had a conviction for immigration purposes under INA §101(a)(48)(A). (Zazueta v. Barr, 2/22/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032039

 

CA8 Finds Inconclusive Record Renders Petitioner with Criminal Attempt Conviction Ineligible for Cancellation of Removal

The court upheld the BIA, finding that because the record was inconclusive as to whether the petitioner’s conviction for attempted criminal impersonation in Nebraska was a crime involving moral turpitude, the petitioner was not eligible for cancellation of removal. (Pereida v. Barr, 3/1/19) AILA Doc. No. 19032040

EOIR Swears in 31 New Immigration Judges

EOIR announced the investiture of 31 new immigration judges. Then-acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker appointed the judges to their new positions. Notice includes biographical information. AILA Doc. No. 19032233

Policy for Public Use of Electronic Devices in EOIR Space

EOIR: Attorneys or representatives of record and attorneys from the Department of Homeland Security representing the government in proceedings before EOIR will be permitted to use electronic devices in EOIR courtrooms for the limited purpose of conducting immediately relevant court and business related activities (e.g. scheduling). Electronic devices must be turned off in the courtroom when not in use for authorized purposes, and must be sent to silent/vibrate mode when being used for authorized purposes in the courtroom. Again, these devices may not be used to make audio or video recordings, or capture still images/photographs of any kind, in any EOIR space, to include the courtrooms.

Varick Updates (see MCH schedule attached)

Beginning this Monday, March 18, immigration judges Conroy and Kolbe will begin hearing cases detained cases at the Varick Street Immigration Court. IJ Conroy’s and IJ Kolbe’s dockets at 26 Federal Plaza will be transferred to other judges. Additional judges will be assigned to Varick Street to handle non-detained cases in early spring. An announcement on these assignments will be made in the coming weeks.

 

RESOURCES

 

EVENTS

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, March 25, 2019

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Saturday, March 23, 2019

Friday, March 22, 2019

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Monday, March 18, 2019

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

I draw special attention to Elizabeth’s Item # 2 “Immigration Courts Getting Lost in Translation.” It’s yet another chapter in the sad saga of how Due Process and best practices are being “dissed” in today’s mismanaged Immigration Court System.

PWS

03-25-19

 

Related posts:

  1. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚖️🗽🇺🇸FORMER DEPUTY AG DON AYER, JUDGE MIMI TSANKOV AMONG “HEADLINERS” AT TIMELY UPCOMING NY CITY BAR ASSN. EVENT: “Rule of Law Forum – Preserving the Rule of Law in an Age of Disruption” — Register Now, Right Here!
  2. THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-09-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Project — Why Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan Should End Up In Jail If He Follows Trump’s Unlawful & Unconstitutional Plans!
  3. 🇺🇸THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-02-20 — Prepared By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Trump/Miller Bogus Public Charge Rule Enjoined Again; CBP Turns Back More Than 13,000 Unaccompanied Kids Using COVID-19 As Cover For Child Abuse; John Oliver With The Incredibly Ugly 🤮 Truth About The Trump-Miller Racist Assault On Asylum & Humanity ☠️⚰️— Other News From America Teetering On The Brink After 4-Years Of Trump Regime Misrule, Cruelty, Corruption, & Undermining Of Democracy!🏴‍☠️
  4. THE GIBSON REPORT — 05-13-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: The Gibson Report – 03-18-19 – Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

TOP UPDATES

 

Federal Court Preserves SIJS for UACs between 18 and 21

ImmProf: On behalf of their clients, the Legal Aid Society and Latham & Watkins praised a decision rendered [Friday] by United States District Judge John Koeltl on litigation brought last June … The lawsuit, filed as a class action by five young adults who applied for but were denied SIJS by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS), challenged a 2018 policy change in which USCIS unilaterally reinterpreted the law in a manner that effectively precluded minors between the ages of 18 and up to 21 from qualifying for SIJS.

 

U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018

 

Trump just used his first-ever veto to save his national emergency

Vox: President Donald Trump just used his first veto, and he did it save his recent national emergency, something he declared to obtain funding for a southern border wall. On Friday, he vetoed a congressional resolution that would have terminated the national emergency and barred him from authorizing certain military funds for border wall construction.

 

ICE supervisors sometimes skip required review of detention warrants, emails show

CNN: Internal emails and other ICE documents he obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, since reviewed by CNN, show that other officers across the five-state region where Oxley worked had improperly signed warrants on behalf of their supervisors — especially on evenings or weekends. Some supervisors even gave their officers pre-signed blank warrants — in effect, illegally handing them the authority to begin the deportation process.

 

Trump admin has turned back 240 asylum-seekers at border under ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy

NBC: Under the Trump administration’s Remain in Mexico policy, 240 asylum-seekers have been turned around near San Diego and sent back to Mexico where they must wait until a U.S. immigration judge can hear their case, Department of Homeland Security officials said Tuesday. See also Scheduling glitch affects first hearings for ‘Remain in Mexico’ returnees and Exclusive: Mexican Officials Are Extorting Thousands Of Dollars From Migrants Applying For Asylum.

 

Trump administration preparing to close international immigration offices

WaPo: The Trump administration is preparing to shutter all international offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a move that could slow the processing of family visa applications, foreign adoptions and citizenship petitions from members of the military stationed abroad.

 

Here are 7 new rules N.J. cops must follow when dealing with immigrants – starting today

NJ.com: The sweeping new procedures, unveiled in November by State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, outline when the state’s 36,000 police officers can ask people about their immigration status and cut back on cases where police can cooperate with federal Immigration agents. The rules also limit when county jails can detain prisoners who are in the country illegally.

 

‘The Conveyor Belt’: U.S. officials say massive smuggling effort is speeding immigrants to — and across — the southern border

WaPo: Criminal organizations in Mexico have mounted a lucrative new smuggling operation that uses express buses to deliver Guatemalan migrant families to the U.S. border in a matter of days, making the journey faster, easier and safer, according to U.S. law enforcement reports and U.S. and Guatemalan officials.

 

Mother Separated From Family And Detained By ICE Told She Would Be ‘Put In The Hole” If She Didn’t Stop Crying Over ‘Horrible Treatment’

Newsweek: Al Otro Lado, a California-based group offering legal services to immigrants, said that as many as 17 parents are still in ICE custody more than a week after they were initially detained on March 2. As Newsweek previously reported, the parents had came to the U.S. as part of a group of 29 and had been deported after they were separated from their children last year.

 

U.S. weighs plan to phase out family detention at Texas facility, despite migration surge

WaPo: ICE would instead use the Karnes facility to house easier-to-deport single adults, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been finalized.

 

ICE is tapping into a huge license-plate database, ACLU says, raising new privacy concerns about surveillance

WaPo: The database contains billions of records on vehicle locations captured from red-light and speed-limit cameras as well as from parking lots and toll roads that use the nearly ubiquitous and inexpensive scanners to monitor vehicle comings and goings.

 

House Democrats propose offering 2 million immigrants the chance to apply for U.S. citizenship

WaPo: The bill would offer green cards and a path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children or teenagers — those known as “dreamers” — and to people now in the country on temporary permits that prevent them from being deported.

 

Bush hosting naturalization ceremony: Immigration is a ‘blessing and a strength’

Hill: The former president will also emphasize the importance of immigrants entering the country legally, according to Politico, and will speak about the “responsibility” of elected officials to “regulate who comes in and when.”

 

CEO of Southwest Key, the largest network of shelters for migrant children in the U.S., has resigned

VICE: The New York Times reported Southwest Key has collected $1.7 billion in federal contracts over the past decade. Sanchez was paid $1.5 million in 2017 alone. The organization received widespread attention last summer and fall following controversies surrounding the agency’s management and treatment of undocumented minors in its shelters.

 

In Search of Safety: An Investigation of Abuse at an Immigration Facility

Rewire: Over a ten-month period, Rewire.News partnered with Latino USA to dig into the case of one woman’s alleged sexual abuse. What we learned through a FOIA request raised questions about internal investigations at immigration facilities and the safety of thousands of detained immigrants.

 

Cafe to Help Refugees Opens Inside Brooklyn Public Library

NY1: Emma’s Torch opened the cafe in the Brooklyn Public Library’s main branch. The non profit trains refugees to work in the culinary industry to help them build lives in the community.

 

Trump Crackdown Unnerves Immigrants, and the Farmers Who Rely on Them

NYT: It has long been an open secret that some farms survive by relying on an undocumented labor force. Now, tough immigration enforcement has caused a crisis.

 

Bill to Allow Jury Trials in NYC for Low-Level Charges Clears Hurdle in Albany

NYLJ: A bill that would close a loophole in New York’s criminal procedure law that prohibits jury trials for low-level charges in New York City, but not the rest of the state, cleared a major hurdle this week when it passed the Codes Committee in the state Senate.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

Ninth Circuit Court Provides Guidance on Difference Between Motions to Reopen or Reconsider

The Ninth Circuit Court provided guidance on the difference between motions to reopen and motions to reconsider in immigration proceedings including information on jurisdiction, standard of review, requirements, limitations, ineffective assistance of counsel, and more. AILA Doc. No. 19031540

 

SSA Notice of New Travel and Border Crossing Records System of Records

Social Security Administration (SSA) notice of a new system of records entitled Travel and Border Crossing Records to collect information about applicants, beneficiaries, and recipients of benefits under Titles II, XVI, and XVIII who have had absences from the U.S. (84 FR 9195, 3/13/19) AILA Doc. No. 19031302

 

ICE Announces Indictment of Eight Individuals for Exploiting Student Visa System

ICE reports eight individuals were indicted and arrested for conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harboring foreign nationals for profit as part of an undercover operation involving a private university in Detroit that was operated by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents. AILA Doc. No. 19013108

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Saturday, March 16, 2019

Friday, March 15, 2019

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Monday, March 11, 2019

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

Thanks, as always, Elizabeth!

PWS

03-23-19

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-18-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  2. THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-29-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  3. KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL OF THE REGIME’S LATEST ANTI-IMMIGRANT SCHEMES, GIMMICKS, & SHENANIGANS – THE GIBSON REPORT – 01-06-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  4. THE GIBSON REPORT — 10-05-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Federal Judge Rules Trump Not A Monarch; More Intentional Cruelty, Lies, & Threats Of Politically-Inspired Racist Attacks On Ethnic Communities From DHS; Trump Regime Dumps On Refugees & Commies; Cert. Granted In Credibility Case Apparently Seeking To Screw Refugees At Request Of SG; & Other “Interesting & Sometimes Disturbing Stuff”⚖️

THE GIBSON REPORT 03-11-19 – Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

TOP UPDATES

 

Leaked Documents Show Government Tracking Journalists, Immigration Advocates

NBC: The documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates show the U.S. Government has a secret database of journalists and immigration advocates where agents collected information on them and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports. Those alerts kept at least three photojournalists and an attorney from entering Mexico to work.

 

Report: ICE Tracking NYC Protests Through ‘Anti-Trump’ Spreadsheet

Gothamist: The tracking was revealed in an email sent by HSI, obtained by the magazine via a public records request, which contained a four-page “Anti-Trump Protest Spreadsheet 07/31/2018,” detailing the time, location, organizers and descriptions of 17 such events happening over a 17-day period last summer.

 

Trump to demand $8.6 billion in new wall funding, setting up fresh battle with Congress

WaPo: President Trump on Monday will request at least $8.6 billion more in funding to build additional sections of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, setting up a fresh battle with Congress less than one month after he declared a national emergency.

 

Hundreds of immigrant recruits risk ‘death sentence’ after Army bungles data, lawmaker says

WaPo: Army officials inadvertently disclosed sensitive information about hundreds of immigrant recruits from nations such as China and Russia, in a breach that could aid hostile governments in persecuting them or their families, a lawmaker and former U.S. officials said.

 

Migrant Families Arrive In Busloads As Border Crossings Hit 10-Year High

NPR: The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than 66,000 migrants at the Southern border in February, the highest total for a single month in almost a decade.

 

Migrants in Limbo as Court Backlog Balloons and Costs Skyrocket

Bloomberg: Spending at U.S. immigration courts has almost doubled to $119 million in fiscal 2018 from $61 million in fiscal 2015, an analysis of contracts shows. ManTech International Corp. and Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. are among those getting contracts, according to the Bloomberg Government study. But despite the spending and lawmakers’ efforts to bolster the immigration courts, the backlog has also doubled.

 

Why U.S. Visa Numbers Are Down

NPR: In 2018, temporary visas were down 7 percent, and immigrant visas for people coming for permanent residence – those were down 5 percent.

 

ICE Has a Podcast

ICE: During this episode of Careers at ICE, hear from Special Agent Allison Carter Anderson and Special Agent Cory Downs, who will discuss what it’s like to be a Special Agent with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI.

 

US Immigration Is Stuck in the Stone Age—and It’s Putting Lives In Danger

Nation: Lost files, poor communication, faulty technology, and seemingly endless delays: federal audits show that Mikhail and Bayley’s experiences weren’t unusual for the agency, which spends $300 million per year on paper and has disastrously mismanaged a 13-year effort to go digital—often leaving immigrants to deal with the consequences.

 

24 deported parents who returned to border hoping to be reunited with their children have been detained

ABC: Twenty-four migrant parents who returned to the United States on Saturday after they said they were separated and deported without their children are now being detained by the U.S. government, according to Erika Pinheiro, a lawyer for the families and the litigation and policy director of Al Otro Lado.

 

‘They used the kids to get to parents like me’: How ICE’s human smuggling initiative targeted parents and children

CIR: CE officials said the operation, called the Human Smuggling Disruption Initiative, targeted people who paid for coyotes to bring children across the border. However, a review of the operation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting casts doubt on that official narrative. A search of more than 1,400 smuggling-related cases filed in federal court in the seven months during and after the operation turned up only one case that was clearly connected to the program.

 

Senators push Trump on emergency legal status for 74,000 Venezuelans

WaExaminer: President Trump’s team has been mulling the possibility of granting Temporary Protected Status, a legal protection from deportation that can be granted to people who confront “extraordinary and temporary conditions” in their home country, for weeks. They haven’t come to a decision yet, but congressional support for the proposal is building as lawmakers look to alleviate the humanitarian crisis under way as Maduro defies international calls to relinquish power.

 

Banks bow to pressure to stop profiting from Trump’s immigration policy, but Big Tech remains defiant

WaPo: Last week, JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, became the latest major corporation to distance itself from Trump’s immigration policies, concluding that its investments in private detention centers conflicted with its broader business strategy.

 

Five takeaways from Wednesday’s hearings on immigration and family separation

CNN: Homeland Security’s acting inspector general said the office is investigating how the agency is processing asylum seekers and whether undocumented parents were deported without their children. And Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan was forced to rehash the botched rollout of that policy to skeptical lawmakers.

 

Census Bureau Seeks Citizenship Data From DHS Ahead of 2020 Census

TIME: As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether the Trump administration can ask people if they are citizens on the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau is quietly seeking comprehensive information about the legal status of millions of immigrants.

 

Immigration Groups Want Data On HIV Asylum Seekers

Gothamist: It’s been nearly a decade since the United States began allowing people with HIV from abroad to enter the country as immigrants. But the U.S. has never provided data on the number of HIV-positive refugees or asylum seekers admitted since the immigration law changed in 2010, despite efforts from groups including the Center for American Progress and Immigration Equality.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

In ruling with ‘sweeping implications,’ 9th Circuit rules asylum-seeker is entitled to habeas review

ABA: Immigrants seeking asylum may seek habeas review of the procedures leading to expedited removal orders, a federal appeals court has ruled. The March 7 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco has “sweeping implications,” according to a press release by the American Civil Liberties Union.

 

New York Lawsuit Challenges Replacement of Immigration Court Hearings with Video Technology

Lawfare: In the latest salvo in a long debate over the use of video teleconferencing (VTC) technology in immigration courts, several legal aid organizations filed a class-action lawsuit on Feb. 12 in New York challenging the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) practice of denying in-person hearings to immigrants.

 

Another Federal Judge Bars Trump Administration’s Census Citizenship Question

Recorder: A federal judge in San Francisco has issued a decision finding that the Trump administration’s decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 U.S. Census was “arbitrary and capricious.”

 

Humanitarian and Security Crisis at Southern Border Reaches ‘Breaking Point’

DHS: The U.S. Border Patrol is currently encountering illegal immigration at the highest rates since 2007, according to new data. In fact, in February more than double the level of migrants crossed the border without authorization compared to the same period last year, approaching the largest numbers seen in any February in the last 12 years, The New York Times reported.

 

S.___: Fair Day in Court for Kids Act of 2019

On 3/6/19, Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), along with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), announced the Fair Day in Courts for Kids Act of 2019, which would provide legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children during removal proceedings. AILA Doc. No. 19030637

 

S.___: Immigration Court Improvement Act of 2019

On 3/6/19, Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), along with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), announced the Immigration Court Improvement Act of 2019, would help insulate immigration judges from political interference or manipulation. AILA Doc. No. 19030638

 

DHS Announces Extension of TPS Designation for South Sudan

DHS Secretary Nielsen announced the extension of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for South Sudan for 18 months, through November 2, 2020. Further details, including information on the re-registration process and EADs, will appear in a Federal Register notice. AILA Doc. No. 19030831

 

DOS Announces U.S. Embassy in Bogota Begins Processing Venezuelan Immigrant Visas

DOS announced that due to suspension of routine visa services, nonimmigrant visa applications may be submitted at an Embassy or Consulate outside of Venezuela. The U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia has been designated as the primary site to process immigrant visas for residents of Venezuela. AILA Doc. No. 19022834

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Friday, March 8, 2019

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Monday, March 4, 2019

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

Thanks so much to Elizabeth for organizing the “New Due Process Army Reunion Dinner” at Le Botaniste following the FBA Asylum and Immigration Law Conference at New York Law School last Friday, March 8. It was wonderful seeing many former Georgetown Law students, Arlington Immigration Court interns, Judicial Law Clerks, and the many practitioners, retired judges, professors, FBA officials, and NAIJ members who stopped by to “celebrate due process” and envision what a brighter future for America could look like with an independent Immigration Court.

PWS

02-11-19

Related posts:

  1. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚖️🗽🇺🇸FORMER DEPUTY AG DON AYER, JUDGE MIMI TSANKOV AMONG “HEADLINERS” AT TIMELY UPCOMING NY CITY BAR ASSN. EVENT: “Rule of Law Forum – Preserving the Rule of Law in an Age of Disruption” — Register Now, Right Here!
  2. THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-16-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Tales Of The Destructive Death Throes Of A Defeated Regime & Other News From The Twilight Zone!
  3. ⚖️THE GIBSON REPORT — 03-22-21 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Georgetown Law Journal Makes History, Of The Best Kind! — My Invitation To Current Georgetown Law Students To Get Involved!
  4. 🧑🏽‍⚖️⚖️🗽🇺🇸WHO’S JUDGE IS IT ANYWAY? — The Crisis Of Independence In Our Immigration Courts! — Coming April 7, 2021! — Sponsored By The HNBA! — Don’t Miss It!

THE GIBSON REPORT — 03-04-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

THE GIBSON REPORT — 03-04-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

TOP UPDATES

 

Rand Paul Says He’ll Vote Against Trump’s Border Emergency, Likely Forcing A Veto

NPR: Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky says he’ll vote in favor of a resolution to terminate President Trump’s national emergency declaration with regards to the U.S.-Mexico border. Paul’s support means the resolution will likely pass the Senate with bipartisan support and could force the president to issue his first veto.

 

‘Remain in Mexico’ gets an expansion

Politico: A Homeland Security official alerted POLITICO’s Ted Hesson [on 2/28/19] that the Trump administration will today expand its “remain in Mexico” policy — which requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while awaiting resolution of their cases — to ports of entry in El Paso, San Diego, and Calexico, Calif. Olga Sánchez Cordero, Mexico’s interior minister, said Thursday that approximately 150 asylum seekers have thus far been returned to Mexico under the program. That’s a fraction of the tens of thousands who arrive at the border each month.

 

29 parents separated from their children and deported last year cross U.S. border to request asylum

WaPo: The group of parents quietly traveled north over the past month, assisted by a team of immigration lawyers who hatched a high-stakes plan to reunify families divided by the Trump administration’s family separation policy last year. The 29 parents were among those deported without their children, who remain in the United States in shelters, in foster homes or with relatives.

 

28 women may have miscarried in ICE custody over the past 2 years

AZ Rep: The delivery of a stillborn baby at an immigration detention center in Texas comes after the Trump administration ended an Obama-era policy against holding pregnant women in detention centers.

 

HHS docs show thousands of alleged incidents of sexual abuse against unaccompanied minors in custody

CNN: The Department of Health and Human Services received more than 4,500 complaints of sexual abuse against unaccompanied minors from 2014-2018, according to internal agency documents released Tuesday by Florida Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch.

 

Data from the Center for Migration Studies Shows Sharp Multiyear Decline in Undocumented Immigration

CMS: [T]he Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) reports that the US undocumented population has declined by one million since 2010; illegal entries have plummeted to historic lows; and, in recent years, only one third of newly undocumented residents entered this population by crossing the US-Mexico border.

 

Southern Poverty Law Center Launches ‘Immigrant Songs’ Campaign: Listen

Billboard: The Southern Poverty Law Center has launched a campaign to provide legal information and to “protect and advance immigrant rights” through song. “El Corrido de David y Goliat,” by Flor de Toloache, is the first single released as part of the SPLC’s Immigrant Songs campaign.

 

It’s so dangerous to police MS-13 in El Salvador that officers are fleeing the country

WaPo: There is no list in either El Salvador or the United States of Salvadoran police officers who have fled the country. But The Washington Post has identified 15 officers in the process of being resettled as refugees by the United Nations and six officers who have either recently received asylum or have scheduled asylum hearings in U.S. immigration courts. In WhatsApp groups, police officers have begun discussing the possibility of a migrant caravan composed entirely of Salvadoran police — a caravana policial, the officers call it.

 

Physicians for Human Rights Sends Letter Detailing the Health Risks for Infants in Detention

On February 28, 2019, Physicians for Human Rights sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen regarding the inherent health risks for infants in detention. AILA Doc. No. 19022837

 

Immigration Courts’ Growing Reliance on Videoconference Hearings Is Being Challenged

AIC: In some parts of the country, it has long been the practice for detained immigrants to appear for their immigration court hearings via video teleconference (“VTC”), rather than in-person. This is especially the case for immigrants being held in remote detention centers, hours from the nearest immigration court. However, under the Trump administration, immigration courts are increasingly relying on VTC.

 

Brooklyn DA supports plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants

NYPost: There is already state legislation pending, and the Fiscal Policy Institute estimates 265,000 immigrants would be eligible to apply if the measure passes.

 

Americans’ immigration emergency: Their spouses could be deported or exiled if they seek green cards

PRI: Enough families have already been hurt by the law, with its mandatory “bars,” or exile, that can last 10 years, 20 years, even a lifetime, depending on the spouse’s immigration history, as the Center for Public Integrity has reported in multiple stories. But with Trump insisting there’s a “national emergency” on the southern border—despite record low crossings—these US citizens want to let their fellow Americans know that they’re suffering an emergency every day.

 

U.S. denied tens of thousands more visas in 2018 due to travel ban: data

Reuters: The U.S. State Department refused more than 37,000 visa applications in 2018 due to the Trump administration’s travel ban, up from less than 1,000 the previous year when the ban had not fully taken effect, according to agency data released on Tuesday.

 

40 Years After The Vietnam War, Some Refugees Face Deportation Under Trump

NPR: More than four decades after the Vietnam War brought waves of expatriates to the United States, the Trump administration wants to deport thousands of Vietnamese immigrants, including many refugees, because of years-old criminal convictions. U.S. officials have been working behind the scenes to convince the Vietnamese government to repatriate more than 7,000 Vietnamese immigrants with criminal convictions. They have all been ordered removed from the U.S. by a judge.

 

Human Smugglers Are Thriving Under Trump

Atlantic: Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies have made America’s historically weak anti-smuggling efforts even weaker. Over the past two years, as smuggling networks have thrived, the Department of Homeland Security has shifted money and manpower away from more complex investigations to support the administration’s all-out push to arrest, detain, and deport immigrants here illegally.

 

Emails Show US Border Officials Didn’t Receive “Zero Tolerance” Guidance Until After The Policy Was Enacted

BuzzFeed: US border officials didn’t receive guidance from the Trump administration on how to implement its “zero tolerance” policy that led to separations of migrant families until after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen signed a memo enacting it, according to emails obtained by Democracy Forward through a Freedom of Information Act request.

 

When Trump declared national emergency, most detained immigrants were not criminals

WaPo: According to new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures obtained by The Washington Post, the nation’s immigration jails were not filled with such criminals. As of Feb. 9, days before the president’s declaration, nearly 63 percent of the detainees in ICE jails had not been convicted of any crime.

 

He Exposed Abuse At A Florida Immigrant Detention Center. Now He’s In Prison

WLRN: Weeks after a documentary exposing injustices at a South Florida for-profit immigration detention center debuted at a national film festival, Claudio Rojas— the film’s inside source— was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miramar during his annual visa check-in, records show.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

Trump Administration Forced To Extend TPS Protections To More Than 250,000 Immigrants Due To Court Injunction

Newsweek: The Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday that to comply with a court injunction it would extend the Temporary Protected Status it sought to terminate for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti and Sudan.

 

Exasperated Federal Judge Pokes Holes In Trump Administration’s Refusal To Protect Young Immigrants

Gothamist: A federal judge in Manhattan heard arguments Monday on a class action case that could determine whether undocumented immigrants in New York between the ages of 18 and 21 can stay in the country legally if they’ve been abused or abandoned by a parent.

 

ICE Detention Center Says It’s Not Responsible for Staff’s Sexual Abuse of Detainees

ACLU: Although the employee pled guilty to criminal institutional sexual assault under Pennsylvania law, the defendants contend that they should not be liable for any constitutional violations. Their argument rests in part on their assessment that the sexual abuse was “consensual” and that they should be held to a different standard because the Berks Family Residential Center is an immigration detention facility rather than a jail or prison.

 

The Government Is Hiding Information About How It Deports People – This Lawsuit Seeks to Expose That

AIC: The lawsuit demands the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Department of Justice release to the public information on how immigration court stays of removal are decided.

 

Judge grants citizenship to twin son of gay couple

AP: A federal judge in California ruled Thursday that a twin son of a gay married couple has been an American citizen since birth, handing a defeat to the U.S. government, which had only granted the status to his brother. The State Department was wrong to deny citizenship to 2-year-old Ethan Dvash-Banks because U.S. law does not require a child to show a biological relationship with their parents if their parents were married at the time of their birth, District Judge John F. Walter found.

 

At Least Nine Babies Are Being Detained by U.S. Immigration Authorities, a Complaint Says

Buzzfeed News reports that according to a complaint filed by AILA, the American Immigration Council, and CLINIC, at least nine infants under the age of 1, and some as young as 6 months, have been detained by ICE at a Texas detention center where they lack adequate medical care. AILA Doc. No. 19030136

 

ICE Releases Guidance on Migrant Protection Protocols

ICE released a memo providing guidance to impacted Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) field offices on implementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols. AILA Doc. No. 19022870

 

Presidential Proclamation on Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States

President Trump issued a presidential proclamation on 2/15/19 declaring a national emergency along the southern border. (84 FR 4949, 2/20/19) AILA Doc. No. 19021539

 

USCIS Releases Q&As from Teleconference Discussing USCIS Intercountry Adoption Policy Guidance

USCIS provided background and effective dates, as well as Q&As, from the 1/22/19 teleconference on determining suitability of prospective adoptive parents for intercountry adoption policy guidance that USCIS issued on 11/9/18. AILA Doc. No. 19011400

 

USCIS Provides Q&As from Teleconference on N-648 Changes

USCIS provided the Q&As from the 2/12/19 teleconference discussing USCIS policy guidance on Form N-648, Medical Certification for Disability Exceptions. The Q&As covered the effective date, N-648 requirements, policy highlights, and more. AILA Doc. No. 19012835

 

USCIS to Publish Revised Form I-539 and New Form I-539A

USCIS announced that on 3/11/19, it will publish a revised Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, and a new Form I-539A to replace the Supplement A in previous versions of Form I-539. Starting on 3/11/19, USCIS will only accept I-539s with a 2/4/19 edition date. AILA Doc. No. 19021137

 

USCIS Processing Delays Soared While Application Rates Fell

AILA Policy Counsel Jason Boyd highlights newly released USCIS data and shows how the new information “has cast an even harsher glare on the agency’s well-documented failure to process its caseload in a timely fashion.” AILA Doc. No. 19030137

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, March 4, 2019

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Saturday, March 2, 2019

Friday, March 1, 2019

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Monday, February 25, 2019

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

Thanks, Elizabeth!

 

PWS

03-05-19

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-09-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Project — Why Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan Should End Up In Jail If He Follows Trump’s Unlawful & Unconstitutional Plans!
  2. ⚖️THE GIBSON REPORT — 03-15-21 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Keep Up To Date On The Biden Administration’s Immigration Plans & Actions!
  3. BIA SEEKS TO REPEAL CAT BY MISINTERPRETATION; MUSALO’S FACT FINDING MISSION TO EL SALVADOR SHOWS MALICIOUS ABSURDITY OF REGIME’S BOGUS “SAFE THIRD COUNTRY” ASSAULT ON HUMAN RIGHTS; 9th & 11th CIRCUITS CONTINUE TO TANK ON THE RULE OF LAW; & OTHER LEGAL NEWS ABOUT THE WHITE NATIONALIST REGIME & THE RESISTANCE — The Gibson Report — 12-10-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  4. THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-21-21 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-25-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, New York Legal Assistance Group

THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-25-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, New York Legal Assistance Group

TOP UPDATES

 

Homeland Security Regional Compact Plan

DHS: On February 20, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen met Northern Triangle security ministers in San Salvador, El Salvador to discuss the development of a “regional compact” and action plan aimed at addressing the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis of irregular migration and the formation of migrant caravans. See also Homeland Security Regional Compact Plan Won’t Address Root Causes of Refugee Crisis.

The Demographics of Detention: Immigration Enforcement in NYC Under Trump

NYC Comptroller:  The data clearly show that immigration enforcement actions have increased under the Trump Administration… Chinese immigrants make up the largest nationality of New York City immigrants with immigration court proceedings, with over 10,000 immigration cases (21 percent of cases) begun since FY 2016. Immigrants from India comprise roughly ten percent of all cases, while immigrants from Ecuador account for about 7 percent of cases and immigrants from Bangladesh for about 8 percent of cases.

 

Trump Admin Weighs Shielding Venezuelan Migrants From Deportation

DailyBeast: Team Trump moved to end ‘Temporary Protected Status’ for people from half a dozen countries. Now there’s debate about extending it to Venezuelans—and the pushback has begun.

 

EOIR Rules Are Biased Against Immigration Attys, AILA Says

Law360 reports on a letter sent by AILA Executive Director Ben Johnson and AILA President Anastasia Tonello to EOIR Director James McHenry expressing concerns that a memo he issued “perpetuated” the “continued imbalance in the treatment of counsel” appearing in immigration courts. AILA Doc. No. 19022001

 

Mexican Cops Do Trump’s Dirty Work Thwarting Asylum Seekers

DailyBeast: Mexico is not paying for ‘The Wall,’ but some officials are playing the U.S. administration’s game along the border, and the human cost is high.

 

Transgender woman deported from US murdered in El Salvador

WaBlade: The group looked for Camila at various hospitals and eventually learned she had been admitted to Rosales National Hospital in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital, on Jan. 31 with multiple injuries. Camila passed away on Feb. 3.

 

ICE Is Sending Hundreds of Asylum-Seekers to a Private Prison in Mississippi

MJ: ICE’s experiment at Tallahatchie has been carried out with little transparency or oversight. Congress required ICE in 2018 to publish basic information about the jails and detention centers it uses, but the agency has kept Tallahatchie off that list.

 

Migrant Youth Go From A Children’s Shelter To Adult Detention On Their 18th Birthday

NPR: When migrant children cross the border without their parents, they’re sent to federal shelters until caseworkers can find them a good home. But everything changes when they turn 18. That’s when, in many cases, they’re handcuffed and locked up in an adult detention facility. The practice is sparking lawsuits and outrage from immigrant advocates.

 

Democrats Used To Talk About ‘Criminal Immigrants,’ So What Changed The Party?

NPR: The makeup of the Democratic Party has changed, and its base has adopted a fundamentally more progressive attitude on immigration in a relatively short time span, which poses a challenge for party leaders.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

Multiple Lawsuits Filed Against Trump’s National Emergency Declaration

AIC: The biggest challenge yet came on Monday [2/18], when a coalition of sixteen states—including California, New Mexico, and New York—brought a lawsuit in the Federal District Court in the Northern District of California. See also Tracking the legal challenges to Trump’s emergency declaration.

 

After long wait, U.S. moves forward with proposal to end work permits for spouses of H-1B visa holders

NBC: The rule change would strip employment authorization from the spouses of H-1B visa recipients who are on track for green cards to work in the United States.

 

EOIR Issues Memo on Its Strategic Caseload Reduction Plan

EOIR issued a redacted version of its strategic caseload reduction plan pursuant to an AILA FOIA request. AILA Doc. No. 19021932. See also FOIA Reveals EOIR’s Failed Plan for Fixing the Immigration Court Backlog.

 

EOIR Announces Plans to Relocate the Buffalo Immigration Court

EOIR announced it will temporarily close its Buffalo, NY, immigration court at 12:00 noon (ET) on February 20, 2019, to prepare for relocation to another floor within the building. Hearings will recommence on the third floor of the building on February 26, 2019. AILA Doc. No. 19021933

 

USCIS Contact Center Experiencing “Higher Than Normal” Wait Times

USCIS announced that its Contact Center is experiencing higher than normal wait times for callers to speak to a representative. Representatives are available from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm (ET), Monday – Friday (excluding federal holidays). USCIS encourages callers to use its online tools. AILA Doc. No. 19022531

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, February 25, 2019

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Friday, February 22, 2019

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Monday, February 18, 2019

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

Thanks, Elizabeth!

 

PWS

02-27-19

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-18-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  2. KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL OF THE REGIME’S LATEST ANTI-IMMIGRANT SCHEMES, GIMMICKS, & SHENANIGANS – THE GIBSON REPORT – 01-06-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  3. THE GIBSON REPORT — 10-05-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Federal Judge Rules Trump Not A Monarch; More Intentional Cruelty, Lies, & Threats Of Politically-Inspired Racist Attacks On Ethnic Communities From DHS; Trump Regime Dumps On Refugees & Commies; Cert. Granted In Credibility Case Apparently Seeking To Screw Refugees At Request Of SG; & Other “Interesting & Sometimes Disturbing Stuff”⚖️
  4. THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-23-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal,Assistance Group —  Court Losses, Rebukes Pile Up For Loser Scofflaw White Nationalist Regime — But Cruelty, Stupidity, & Sabotage Of Democracy Still On The Agenda For Defeated Kakistocracy!🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️👎🏻

THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-18-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-18-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

TOP UPDATES

 

Presidential Proclamation on Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States

President Trump issued a presidential proclamation declaring a national emergency along the southern border. AILA Doc. No. 19021539. See also: National Emergency Declaration is Unnecessary and Irresponsible.

 

William Barr was confirmed as U.S. attorney general. Here’s what to expect on crime, immigration and marijuana.

NBC: Barr has taken uncompromising positions on immigration, and experts say they don’t expect that to change. During Barr’s first term as attorney general, from 1991 to 1993, he made it harder for asylum-seekers to enter the United States. He sent immigration officers to foreign airports to screen people before they boarded planes to America. And he blocked Haitians fleeing a 1991 coup, arranging for them to be detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and screened for HIV and AIDS before they could claim asylum at the U.S. border.

 

H.J.Res.31: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019

On 2/15/19, President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 to fund the government through the end of FY2019. Among other things, the bill increases funding for immigration detention by at least 12% and includes $1.375 billion for 55 new miles of border fencing. AILA Doc. No. 19021470

 

Immigration groups say they won’t recommend IDNYC to clients if financial smart chip plan moves forward

DailyNews: Advocacy groups will no longer recommend that undocumented immigrants get a municipal I.D. card if the city goes forward with plans to add a financial services smart-chip to them, several said Monday.

 

More border surveillance tech could be worse for human rights than a wall

WaPo: Lacking meaningful oversight, there is essentially no limit to the ways the government could abuse this kind of data, which includes personal details like family history and health information. Spending more money on these existing surveillance programs will only increase their scope and their capacity for harm. It seems only defense contractors and big tech companies stand to profit from government contracts by helping to build a “smart wall.”

 

Importance of Nationality in Immigration Court Bond Decisions

TRAC: The chances of being granted bond at hearings before immigration judges vary markedly by nationality, as do required bond amounts. These differences among nationality groups are striking and are the focus of this report. Currently more than three out of every four individuals from India or Nepal, for example, were granted bond, while only between 11 and 15 percent of immigrants from Cuba received a favorable ruling.

 

New Report: False “Gang Allegations” Deny NY Teens’ Access to Immigration Status and Bond Services

NYIC: The New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York Immigration Coalition released a new report today documenting how allegations of gang membership, no matter how vague or flimsy, can lead to the denial of immigration relief to immigrant youth. The report finds that gang allegations are used to deny petitions for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, release on bond, and other forms of relief such as asylum, DACA and even U-visas.

 

Border Towns Are Among the Safest in the United States

AIC: . FBI data shows that border towns have statistically lower violent crime rates than other parts of the country. Former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner David Aguilar even testified that “border communities are safer than the interior locations of each of the border states.”

 

ICE Is Sending Hundreds of Asylum-Seekers to a Private Prison in Mississippi

MJ: The closest city to Tallahatchie is Memphis, 90 miles to the north. CoreCivic, the private prison giant that runs Tallahatchie, has traditionally used the 2,672-person prison to hold criminals sent by state governments across the country facing space shortages in their own facilities. But when CoreCivic said last year that California would remove its 1,300 inmates from Tallahatchie amid an effort to end its use of out-of-state prisons, the company found a new population of inmates to make up for the shortfall: In June, it signed a contract that allows ICE and the US Marshals Service to incarcerate up to 1,350 people at the prison.

 

Immigration And The Economy

NPR: The U.S. has a big advantage when it comes to a young labor pool — its population of immigrants. David Wessel of the Brookings Institution explains why to NPR’s David Greene.

 

US Undocumented Population Continued to Fall from 2016 to 2017 and Visa Overstays Significantly Exceeded Illegal Crossings for the Seventh Consecutive Year

CMS: The US undocumented population from Mexico fell by almost 400,000 in 2017. In 2017, for the first time, the population from Mexico constituted less than one half of the total undocumented population. Since 2010, the undocumented population from Mexico has declined by 1.3 million.

 

Wait in Mexico Policy, Access to Counsel, & Crime

Chase: One of my first reactions to the remain in Mexico policy was the impact it would have on access to counsel.  I have heard disturbing first-hand reports from individuals who have traveled to Tijuana to provide legal assistance to refugees there.  When crossing back to the U.S., American citizens identified by Customs and Border Patrol officers as “activists” have been harassed by being sent to secondary inspection, where they have been questioned and, remarkably, have had the contents of their electronic devices accessed by DHS agents.

 

Being An Immigration Judge Was Their Dream. Under Trump, It Became Untenable.

BuzzFeed: While some, like Jamil, have resigned, others have retired early in large part because of the policies instituted under Trump, they said. For those remaining at the immigration court, the mood is bleak.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

Groups File Lawsuit Against Trump Policy Forcibly Returning Asylum Seekers to Mexico

CGRS: The American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Center for Gender & Refugee Studies filed a federal lawsuit [] challenging the Trump administration’s new policy forcing asylum seekers to return to Mexico and remain there while their cases are considered.

 

Government asks justices to resolve census citizenship case this term

SCOTUSblog: Last week the Supreme Court announced that it would no longer hear oral argument on February 19 in a dispute over evidence in a challenge to the Trump administration’s decision to bring a question about citizenship back to the 2020 census. That announcement came after a federal district court in New York barred the government from using the question. Today the federal government asked the justices to consider right away whether it can include the question, without waiting for the court of appeals to weigh in on the issue first.

 

Judge Blocks Discrimination Against Puerto Ricans, Says Federal Government Is Engaging in “Citizenship Apartheid”

Slate: In a fiery ruling, Gelpí accused the federal government of unconstitutionally discriminating against Puerto Ricans, violating their equal protection rights by withholding disability benefits owed to mainland residents who are from the island. Gelpí concluded that the Supreme Court’s recent marriage equality decision eroded the old, racist precedents, guaranteeing Puerto Ricans the full privileges of citizenship.

 

CA2 on Padilla – Doe v. US

2nd Cir.: Ineffective assistance of counsel, including during the plea-bargaining process, is a circumstance compelling the grant of a timely application for coram nobis relief… We therefore direct the district court to grant Doe’s coram nobis petition and vacate both his conviction and his plea.

 

USCIS Class Action Member Identification Notice

A class was certified in Zhang v. USCIS that includes any individual with a Form I-526 that was or will be denied on the sole basis of investing loan proceeds that were not secured by the individual’s own assets. Contact USCIS if you believe you are a potential class member. AILA Doc. No. 19021300

 

Presidential Proclamation Extending Proclamation 9822 for 90 Days

President Trump issued a proclamation extending the suspension and limitations from Proclamation 9822 for an additional 90 days. (84 FR 3665, 2/12/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020801

 

USCIS Announces Guidance on Adjudicating Spousal Petitions Involving Minors

USCIS announced the publication of guidance for its officers to consider when adjudicating spousal petitions involving minors. USCIS has also created a flagging system that sends an alert in the electronic system at the time of filing if a minor spouse or fiancé is detected. AILA Doc. No. 19021532

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, February 18, 2019

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Saturday, February 16, 2019

Friday, February 15, 2019

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Monday, February 11, 2019

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

Thanks Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s “last item” should be required reading for new AG Bill Barr, Deputy AG nominee Jeff Rosen, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and others working on immigration policy in this Administration.

PWS

02-20-19

 

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT — 05-13-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  2. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚖️🗽🇺🇸FORMER DEPUTY AG DON AYER, JUDGE MIMI TSANKOV AMONG “HEADLINERS” AT TIMELY UPCOMING NY CITY BAR ASSN. EVENT: “Rule of Law Forum – Preserving the Rule of Law in an Age of Disruption” — Register Now, Right Here!
  3. THE GIBSON REPORT FOR 12-18-17 – RECOGNIZING: The Absolutely Amazing ELIZABETH GIBSON Of The NY Legal Assistance Group and ALL She Does For Fairness, Justice, & Due Process! — MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF OUR MOST VULNERABLE!
  4. 🇺🇸THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-02-20 — Prepared By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Trump/Miller Bogus Public Charge Rule Enjoined Again; CBP Turns Back More Than 13,000 Unaccompanied Kids Using COVID-19 As Cover For Child Abuse; John Oliver With The Incredibly Ugly 🤮 Truth About The Trump-Miller Racist Assault On Asylum & Humanity ☠️⚰️— Other News From America Teetering On The Brink After 4-Years Of Trump Regime Misrule, Cruelty, Corruption, & Undermining Of Democracy!🏴‍☠️

THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-11-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-11-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

TOP UPDATES

Talks Over Border Security Break Down, Imperiling Effort to Prevent Shutdown

NYT: Congressional efforts to reach a border security deal ahead of another government shutdown broke down on Sunday over Democratic demands to limit the detention of undocumented immigrants, as President Trump moved more troops to the border and prepared to rally supporters in Texas on Monday. See also Trump to make last-ditch wall pitch on U.S.-Mexico border.

 

Why the Trump admin wants more detention space for migrants and Democrats want a cap

NBC: ICE is already holding more migrants than Congress authorized. It is authorized to hold 40,000, but there were 49,057 immigrants in detention as of Feb. 6.

 

USCIS Processing Times Get Even Slower Under Trump

AIC: The average case processing time for all application types has increased 46 percent under President Trump.

 

Fact-checking President Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address

WaPo: Apprehensions of people trying to cross the southern border peaked most recently at 1.6 million in 2000 and have been in decline since, falling to just under 400,000 in fiscal 2018. The decline is partly because of technology upgrades; tougher penalties in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks; a decline in migration rates from Mexico; and a sharp increase in the number of Border Patrol officers. See also For the Last Time, Here’s the Real Link Between Immigration and Crime.

 

Groups File FOIA Request to Demand Transparency on Implementation of “Remain in Mexico” Policy

NILC: Advocacy groups are seeking information regarding the Trump administration’s recent changes to the asylum process at the southern border, which have been outlined only in vague terms so far but promise to significantly change the process as we know it.

 

Letter to Nielsen Shows Potential Catastrophic Impact of Migrant Protection Protocols

AIC: First-hand testimonies of ten asylum-seeking families attest to the violence—including rape, beatings, kidnappings, and ransom—they faced on the Mexican side of our southern border.

 

Trump’s immigration policies are benefiting smugglers and violent crime groups in Mexico

AZ: Smugglers are also increasingly shifting routes to New Mexico and Arizona, where migrants and advocacy groups can more easily help deliver migrants to U.S. authorities, Correa-Cabrera said. But the border terrain there is also more hostile, with vast deserts and mountains and farther away from major cities, she said.

 

New Mexico governor withdraws National Guard from the border, slams Trump’s ‘charade’

NBC: While Lujan Grisham ordered the withdrawal of many of the troops, she also directed troops in Hidalgo County and the surrounding southwestern areas to remain in place. Those troops will continue to “assist with the ongoing humanitarian needs of communities there, who have seen large groups of families, women and children crossing over the border in the remote Antelope Wells area in recent months,” she said.

 

The largest-ever U.S. fentanyl bust came at a legal entry point. That shouldn’t come as a surprise.

WaPo: President Trump has repeated time and again a border wall will prevent illegal drugs from being trafficked into the United States. The Washington Post’s fact-checking team has previously debunked these claims and determined Trump has repeated some version of them at least 71 times.

 

New York bill targets workplace immigration discrimination

StarTrib: Attorney General Letitia James is proposing legislation to sharpen the language of an existing law, which bars employers from firing, threatening, penalizing or otherwise discriminating against workers who report or blow the whistle on wage violations.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

BIA Reopens Proceedings Sua Sponte for TPS Holder to Adjust Status

Unpublished BIA decision reopens proceeding sua sponte to let respondent with TPS adjust status under Ramirez v. Brown, 852 F.3d 954 (9th Cir. 2017). Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Pineda, 2/23/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020802

 

BIA Holds California Child Abuse Statute Not a CIMT

Unpublished BIA decision holds that child abuse under Cal. Penal Code 273a(a) is not a CIMT because it only requires a mens rea of negligence and can be violated by conduct that is believed in good faith to be in the child’s best interest. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Torres, 2/22/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020630

 

BIA Rejects DHS Request to Overrule Matter of Cota

Unpublished BIA decision rejects DHS request that it overrule Matter of Cota, 23 I&N Dec. 849 (BIA 2005), over dissent of Member Garry Malphrus. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Madrigal, 2/22/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020632

 

BIA Declines to Consider Interlocutory DHS Appeal Challenging Three-Month Continuance

Unpublished BIA decision declines to consider interlocutory DHS appeal of decision continuing proceedings from November 2017 to February 2018. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Concha, 2/16/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020540

 

BIA Rescinds In Absentia Order Because Attorney Failed to Update Address

Unpublished BIA decision rescinds in absentia order because hearing notice was mailed to old address that attorney failed to update after moving offices. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Liu, 2/12/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020438

 

BIA Equitably Tolls 30-Day Appeal Deadline

Unpublished BIA decision equitably tolls deadline to file appeal in light of ineffective assistance by prior counsel in failing to pursue asylum application. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of S-L-H-O-, 2/12/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020439

 

BIA Finds Respondent Eligible to Adjust Status Under INA §245(i)

Unpublished BIA decision finds respondent eligible to adjust status under INA §245(i), stating that an applicant need only be the beneficiary of either a labor certification or a visa petition filed on or before April 30, 2001. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Dominguez, 2/13/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020532

 

BIA Rescinds In Absentia Order Because Hearing Notice Omitted “In Care Of”

Unpublished BIA decision rescinds in absentia order because address on hearing notice did not include “in care of” notation listed on respondent’s change of address form. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Mejia-Flores, 2/15/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020533

 

BIA Rescinds In Absentia Order for Respondent Whose Car Broke Down En Route to Hearing

Unpublished BIA decision rescinds in absentia order under totality of the circumstances against respondent who had appeared at 15 prior hearings and whose car broke down en route to his final hearing. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Gudiel, 2/16/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020504

 

BIA Rescinds In Absentia Order Because NTA Did Not Specify Immigration Court

Unpublished BIA decision rescinds in absentia order because NTA did not specify the particular immigration court at which the respondent was required to appear. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Ramos, 2/9/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020434

 

BIA Rescinds In Absentia Order Because Attorney Failed to Notify Respondent of Hearing

Unpublished BIA decision rescinds in absentia order where attorney who received hearing notice conceded that he failed to notify the respondent of the hearing. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Jiminez, 3/1/18) AILA Doc. No. 19021104

 

BIA Dismisses DHS Appeal as Moot Following Issuance of Immigrant Visa

Unpublished BIA decision dismisses as moot a DHS appeal challenging the termination of proceedings following approval of a provisional unlawful presence waiver because the respondent was issued an immigrant visa while the appeal was pending. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Arroyo, 3/5/18) AILA Doc. No. 19021106

 

BIA Holds Possession of Drug Paraphernalia in Arizona Is Not a Controlled Substance Offense

Unpublished BIA decision holds that possession of drug paraphernalia under Ariz. Rev. Stat. 13-3415(A) is not a controlled substance offense because Arizona’s drug schedules contain substances not listed on the federal schedule. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Arreaza-Oliva, 2/28/18) AILA Doc. No. 19020803

 

CA1 Upholds BIA Finding That Untimely MTR Was Not Amenable to Equitable Tolling for Failure to Diligently Pursue Relief

The court affirmed petitioner failed to exercise the due diligence necessary to equitably toll MTR; found evidence he was on notice of possible ineffective assistance claim prior to, and after, removal order, yet waited nearly five years to file MTR. (Medina v. Whitaker, 1/22/19) AILA Doc. No. 19021105

 

CA1 Holds Persecutor Bar Applies Even If Applicant Lacked Personal Motive When Participating in Persecution

The court upheld reversal of NACARA cancellation, finding persecutor bar does not require an assistant share persecutors’ motive; bar applies to one who knowingly aided persecution based on protected ground, regardless of whether they held “illicit motive.” (Alvarado v. Whitaker, 1/24/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020836

 

CA1 Finds Failure to Demonstrate Past Persecution or Fear of Future Persecution Based on Any Protected Ground

The court affirmed petitioner only raised “wealthy returning Guatemalans” as protected ground, which precedent says is not PSG; failed to raise family status as potential protected ground; and failed to establish any fear of torture for CAT remedy. (Batres Agustin v. Whitaker, 1/25/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020841

 

CA1 Upholds BIA Denial of MTR for Failure to Show Material Change in Country Conditions for Asylum

The court found gang and cartel violence in Mexico between 2012 and 2018 had not materially changed; rather, gang/cartel violence was a persistent problem and one that petitioner failed to prove would impact her as an “imputed American citizen.” (Garcia-Aguilar v. Whitaker, 1/16/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020535

 

CA1 Upholds BIA Determination of Untimely MTR, Denies Jurisdiction to Review BIA Decision to Not Exercise Sua Sponte Authority to Reopen

The court affirmed I-130 filed after removal order was not statutory exception to deadline, nor was it extraordinary circumstance to trigger equitable tolling; CA6 also declined to decide if §242(a)(2)(D) confers jurisdiction in constitutional-claim context. (Gyamfi v. Whitaker, 1/10/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020536

 

CA4 Upholds BIA Dismissal of Appeal from Withholding Denial for Lack of Nexus Due to Alleged Protected Ground

The court did not reach whether harm constituted persecution or petitioner was member of proposed PSG (related to disabled family member) because it affirmed no nexus; rather, evidence showed rejection of gang membership triggered harassment. (Cortez-Mendez v. Whitaker, 1/7/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020702

 

CA5 Upholds BIA Denial of Untimely Filed MTR, Finds No Relevant Exceptions

The court held motion to reopen denial based on ambiguous record of mailing address was not abuse of discretion; no jurisdiction to review changed country conditions as it’s question of fact; and no due process violation because no liberty interest exists in MTR. (Mejia v. Whitaker, 1/16/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020805

 

CA5 Holds BIA’s Adverse Credibility Determination Supported by Explicitly Considered and Substantial Evidence

The court held BIA did not err in relying on inconsistencies between testimony, application, and affidavits; nor did it err in determining that corroborating documentary evidence was reiterative and failed to resolve the inconsistencies within main narrative. (Ghotra v. Whitaker, 1/4/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020804

 

CA9 Reverses, Vacates EAJA Award that Disallowed Fees on Unreached Claims, Remands to Redetermine Fees and Government’s Bad Faith Actions

The court held district court erred in finding unreached claims were “unsuccessful”; per Hensley, they all arose from same course of conduct, were related, and recoverable; held agency conduct and litigation be considered in totality to determine bad faith. (Ibrahim v. DHS, 1/2/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020833

 

CA9 Upholds BIA Denials of Asylum and Withholding, Affirms No Duress or De Minimus Exceptions to Material Support Bar

The court held Annachamy foreclosed duress argument, and, thus, was not colorable claim for jurisdiction over otherwise unreviewable determination; also held plain text of material support bar unambiguously contained no exception for de minimus funds. (Rayamajhi v. Whitaker, 1/15/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020832

 

CA11 Upholds Denial for Failure to Show Membership in a Cognizable Social Group

The court affirmed—whether under Chevron or de novo—that “Mexican citizens targeted by criminal groups because they have been in the US and they have families in the US” was not sufficiently particular nor distinct to be PSG; it also found no nexus. (Perez-Zenteno v. Att’y Gen., 1/25/19) AILA Doc. No. 19021107

 

CA11 Remands to BIA to Determine Depth of IJ’s Inquiry Into Voluntariness in Ineffective Assistance Claim

The court found petitioner failed to order transcript, and held it could rely on IJ’s record reconstruction; here, record was inadequately memorialized, so CA11 determined it could be incomplete and remanded to determine the scope of the recreation. (Flores-Panameno v. Att’y Gen., 1/22/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020537

 

ICE Announces Indictment of Eight Individuals for Exploiting Student Visa System

ICE reports eight individuals were indicted and arrested for conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harboring foreign nationals for profit as part of an undercover operation involving a private university in Detroit that was operated by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents. AILA Doc. No. 19013108

 

CBP Officer Involved in Shooting at Port of Nogales, DeConcini Crossing

CBP announced that an officer was involved in a shooting on 2/7/19 and the driver of the truck involved sustained a gunshot wound. CBP officers were not injured. The driver, a U.S. citizen, is in critical condition. AILA Doc. No. 19021101

 

USCIS 30-Day Extension of Comment Request Period on Proposed Revisions to Form I-693

USCIS 30-day extension of a comment period originally announced at 83 FR 52228 on 10/16/18 on proposed revisions to Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record. Comments are now due 3/4/19. (84 FR 1189, 2/1/19) AILA Doc. No. 19020436

 

USCIS to Close the Moscow Field Office

USCIS will permanently close its field office in Moscow, Russia, on 3/29/19. The last day it will be open to the public and accepting applications is 2/28/19. The USCIS field office in Athens, Greece, will assume jurisdiction over immigration matters from countries previously covered by Moscow. AILA Doc. No. 19020502

 

RESOURCES

 

·         Practice Alert: Changes to the USCIS InfoPass Scheduling Process

·         DOJ, ICE Recognize International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

·         Stokeling v. United States: Supreme Court Defines “Crime of Violence”

·         “Migrant Protection Protocols”: Legal Issues Related to DHS’s Plan to Require Arriving Asylum Seekers to Wait in Mexico

·         A Constitutional Argument for an Independent Immigration Court

·         Lawful Permanent Residency 101: Procedural Overview and Visual Step-by-Step

·         Practice Alert: Update on USCIS Practice of Denying Pending Forms I-131 for Abandonment Due to International Travel

·         Matter of A-B- : Case Updates, Current Trends, and Suggested Strategies

·         NIJC on Matter Of A-B-

·         AILA ICE Liaison Committee Meeting Q&As (10/23/18)

 

EVENTS

 

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, February 11, 2019

·         From the Bookshelves: No Human Is Illegal: An Attorney on the Front Lines of the Immigration War by J. J. Mulligan Sepulveda

Sunday, February 10, 2019

·         USCIS Ombudsman Failing Responsibility

·         Evangelical Pastor: Immigration is Biblical

·         WaPo Covers Congressmen’s Immigration Poster Wars

·         The Advantage of Immigrant Actors?

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Driver’s Licenses for All? Racialized Illegality and the Implementation of Progressive Immigration Policy in California by Laura E. Enriquez, Daisy Vazquez , and S. Karthick Ramakrishnan

Saturday, February 9, 2019

·         FindHello: New App Seeks to Provide Resources to Immigrants, Asylees, Refugees

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Dreams Deterred: The Collateral Consequences of Localized Immigration Policies on Undocumented Latinos in Colorado by Lisa M. Martinez and Debora M. Ortega

·         At the Movies: The Long Ride, a documentary

Friday, February 8, 2019

·         Your Playlist: Malinda Kathleen Reese

Thursday, February 7, 2019

·         Immigration Article of the Day: Rights Disappear When US Policy Engages Children As Weapons of Deterrence by Craig B. Mousin

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

·         Career Opportunity: University of California Immigrant Legal Services Center: UC San Diego Staff Attorney Position

·         Your Playlist: The Killers

·         President Trump Delivers State of the Union, Touts Border Wall

·         From the Bookshelves: The Age of Walls: How Barriers Between Nations are Changing Our World by Tim Marshall

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

·         From the Bookshelves: Deported Americans: Life after Deportation to Mexico by Beth C. Caldwell

Monday, February 4, 2019

·         Government Argues Family Reunification Would Be “Traumatic”

·         The Trump immigration plan? Keep whites in U.S. majority

·         From the Bookshelves: Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together Hardcover by Andrew Selee

·         Shoba Wadhia on the Two Year Anniversary of the Travel Ban

 

 

If you would like to be added to the Weekly Briefing distribution list, please email egibson@nylag.org.

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

As always, thanks Elizabeth, for all you do!

PWS

02-12-19

Related posts:

  1. THE GIBSON REPORT — 04-09-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Project — Why Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan Should End Up In Jail If He Follows Trump’s Unlawful & Unconstitutional Plans!
  2. BIA SEEKS TO REPEAL CAT BY MISINTERPRETATION; MUSALO’S FACT FINDING MISSION TO EL SALVADOR SHOWS MALICIOUS ABSURDITY OF REGIME’S BOGUS “SAFE THIRD COUNTRY” ASSAULT ON HUMAN RIGHTS; 9th & 11th CIRCUITS CONTINUE TO TANK ON THE RULE OF LAW; & OTHER LEGAL NEWS ABOUT THE WHITE NATIONALIST REGIME & THE RESISTANCE — The Gibson Report — 12-10-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
  3. A VERY TRUMPY CHRISTMAS:  PERVERTING ASYLUM REGS; USING VULNERABLE KIDS AS BAIT; ORBITING REFUGEES TO DEADLY ASYLUM-FREE ZONES; SCREWING WITH LEGAL IMMIGRANTS; DEATH CAMPS; STAR CHAMBERS; MORE PROSECUTORS AS JUDGES; & OTHER “GIFTS” FROM THE REGIME & ITS ARTICLE III JUDICIAL ENABLERS — Get The “Holiday Horror Update” On All Of America’s Human Rights Abuses & Gratuitous Cruelty From The Gibson Report 12-23-19 
  4. BIA’S “GONZO HIRING PLAN” & OTHER TALES FROM THE TRUMP REGIME TWILIGHT ZONE – The Gibson Report – 01-20-21 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group