COVID-19 & Closures

Note: Policies are rapidly changing, so please verify information with the government and colleagues.

 

EOIR Status Overview & EOIR Court Status Map/List:

EOIR plans to resume non-detained hearings on July 6 at the following immigration courts: Dallas, El Paso, Ft. Snelling, Harlingen, Houston, Houston – S. Gessner Road, Houston – Greenspoint Park Drive, Kansas City, Memphis, New York – Broadway, New York – Federal Plaza, New York – Varick, Portland, San Antonio, and San Juan. Hearings in non-detained cases that are scheduled at the aforementioned courts are postponed through July 3. Noncitizens (or representatives who have entered an appearance with the court) who have not received a notice of reset hearing by June 22 should expect scheduled hearings to proceed. As of July 6, 2021, all immigration courts will be holding limited hearings, applying relevant Federal best practices related to communicable disease.

 

For cases scheduled from July 6 through July 30, parties (or their representatives who have entered an appearance with the court in a case) who have not received notice of a reset hearing by June 22 should plan to attend their hearing as scheduled. All parties, including those with cases scheduled after July 30, should continue to rely on official notices from the immigration court as the best source for information regarding their hearings

 

Please note that the option to file by email at the above-listed courts will end on Sept. 4, 2021.

 

 

TOP NEWS

 

From India, Brazil and Beyond: Pandemic Refugees at the Border

NYT: Most of them are from Central America, fleeing gang violence and natural disasters. But the past few months have also brought a much different wave of migration that the Biden administration was not prepared to address: pandemic refugees. They are people arriving in ever greater numbers from far-flung countries where the coronavirus has caused unimaginable levels of illness and death and decimated economies and livelihoods.

 

Biden revokes Trump order on immigrants’ health care costs

Politico: President Joe Biden on Friday shot down a Trump proclamation that blocked potential immigrants deemed to be a “financial burden” on the nation’s health care system from coming to the United States, saying it didn’t align with U.S. interests.

 

Biden ends Trump ban on pandemic aid for undocumented college students

Politico: Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Tuesday finalized a new regulation that allows colleges to distribute tens of billions in federal pandemic relief grants to all students, regardless of their immigration status or whether they qualify for federal student aid.

 

Biden meets DACA recipients in immigration overhaul push

WaPo: President Joe Biden met Friday with six immigrants who benefited from an Obama-era policy that protected those brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The president is trying to turn attention toward overhauling the nation’s immigration laws, but it’s an issue he has made scant progress on in the first months of his presidency.

 

Feinstein Asks Garland To Review, Expand Asylum Eligibility

Law360: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., urged U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to overturn his predecessors’ decisions that restricted asylum eligibility for victims of domestic and gang violence, saying those decisions disregarded refugee protections established 40 years ago.

 

Documents Show Trump Officials Used Secret Terrorism Unit to Question Lawyers at the Border

ProPublica: In newly disclosed records, Trump officials cited conspiracies about Antifa to justify interrogating immigration lawyers with a special terrorism unit. The documents also show that more lawyers were targeted than previously known.

 

Border arrests rose slightly in April, but fewer minors crossing without parents eases pressure on Biden administration

WaPo: Immigration arrests and detentions along the U.S.-Mexico border rose slightly in April to 178,622, the highest one-month total in two decades, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data published Tuesday, but a decline in the number of teens and children arriving without parents eased pressure on the Biden administration.

 

Biden admin reroutes billions in emergency stockpile, Covid funds to border crunch

Politico: The Department of Health and Human Services has diverted more than $2 billion meant for other health initiatives toward covering the cost of caring for unaccompanied immigrant children, as the Biden administration grapples with a record influx of migrants on the southern border.

 

Afghans who helped the US now fear being left behind

WaPo: The fate of interpreters after the troop withdrawal is one of the looming uncertainties surrounding the withdrawal, including a possible resurgence of terrorist threats and a reversal of fragile gains for women if chaos, whether from competing Kabul-based warlords or the Taliban, follows the end of America’s military engagement.

 

Many Unvaccinated Latinos in the U.S. Want the Shot, New Survey Finds

NYT: The findings suggest that their depressed vaccination rate reflects in large measure misinformation about cost and access, as well as concerns about employment and immigration issues, according to the latest edition of the Kaiser Family Foundation Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor.

 

“Is Stephen Miller still in charge?”: Biden’s first immigration court appointees are all Trump picks

Salon: Nearly all the judges on the Justice Department list have backgrounds as prosecutors or as counselors at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while nearly none have any experience defending migrants.

 

Now Over 8,000 MPP Cases Transferred Into United States Under Biden

TRAC: MPP cases assigned to the Brownsville, Texas hearing location continued to show the highest proportion of individuals allowed to enter the U.S.: 45 percent. However, MPP cases from Laredo, Texas which had been scheduled to start its processing over a month later made up a lot of lost ground by the end of April. Only 3 percent of its cases had been transferred into the U.S. at the end of March to await their Immigration Court hearings.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

New EOIR Memos Dismantling MPP

• PM 21-19 (PDF) Cancellation of Policy Memoranda 19-02 (Guidelines Regarding New Regulations Governing Asylum and Protection Claims) and 19-03 (Guidelines Regarding the Presidential Proclamation Addressing Mass Migration Through the Southern Border of the United States)
• PM 21-20 (PDF) Cancellation of Policy Memorandum 19-12 (Guidance Regarding New Regulations Governing Asylum and Protection Claims)
• PM 21-21 (PDF) Cancellation of Policy Memorandum 20-04 (Guidance Regarding New Regulations Governing Procedures for Asylum and Withholding of Removal and Credible Fear and Reasonable Fear Reviews)
• PM 21-22 (PDF) Cancellation of Policy Memorandum 21-09 (Guidelines Regarding New Regulations Providing for the Implementation of Asylum Cooperative Agreements)

 

Rescheduling Biometric Services Appointments by Phone 

USCIS: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that applicants, petitioners, requestors and beneficiaries may now call the USCIS Contact Center (800-375-5283) to reschedule their biometric services appointments scheduled at a USCIS Application Support Center.

 

CA3 Holds That IJs and the BIA Have General Authority to Administratively Close Cases

The court held that 8 CFR §§1003.10(b) and 1003.1(d)(1)(ii) unambiguously grant IJs and the BIA general authority to administratively close cases by authorizing them to take “any action” that is “appropriate and necessary” for the disposition of cases. (Arcos Sanchez v. Att’y Gen., 5/5/21) AILA Doc. No. 21051432

 

CA3 Says IJs Have Jurisdiction over Removal Proceedings Started by a Notice of Referral to an IJ Lacking Time and Place Information

Denying the petition for review, the court held that an IJ is not deprived of jurisdiction under 8 CFR §1003.14 over removal proceedings commenced by a Notice of Referral to an IJ that lacks time and place information. (Mejia Romero v. Att’y Gen., 5/5/21) AILA Doc. No. 21051433

 

CA3 Finds Sri Lankan Army’s Mistreatment of Petitioner Did Not Rise to Level of Past Persecution

The court held that petitioner’s 2007 detention and beating by the Sri Lankan army did not constitute past persecution, and that extortion attempts by the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) of Sri Lanka were not motivated by an imputed political opinion. (Thayalan v. Att’y Gen., 5/10/21) AILA Doc. No. 21051438

 

CA3 Finds That Conviction for Second-Degree Robbery in New Jersey Is an Aggravated Felony Theft Offense

The court held that the petitioner’s 2000 conviction for second-degree robbery in New Jersey constituted an aggravated felony theft offense under INA §101(a)(43)(G), and thus found that the petitioner was ineligible for asylum and withholding of removal. (K.A. v. Att’y Gen., 5/4/21) AILA Doc. No. 21051435

 

CA8 Says a Grant of TPS Does Not Excuse INA §240A(a)’s Admission Requirement for TPS Recipients

The court held that petitioner’s grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) did not remove the need for him to show that he was admitted in order to be eligible for cancellation of removal, and that his grant of TPS was not an admission for cancellation purposes. (Artola v. Garland, 5/5/21) AILA Doc. No. 21051439

 

CA9 Bucks Precedent For Immigrants With Citizen Parents

Law360: U.S. residents who are not granted legal permanent residency before they turn 18 can still get citizenship through their naturalized parents, a split Ninth Circuit ruled Thursday in a published en banc opinion that reexamined court precedent.

 

CA9 Defers to BIA’s Permissible Interpretation of Ambiguous “Date of Admission” Phrase in INA §237(a)(2)(A)(i)(I)

The court held that, for purposes of removability for crimes involving moral turpitude (CIMT), the phrase “the date of admission” in INA §237(a)(2)(A)(i)(I) is ambiguous, and the BIA’s interpretation of the phrase in Matter of Alyazji was permissible. (Route v. Garland, 5/6/21) AILA Doc. No. 21051440

 

CA9 Holds That Petitioner’s Asylum Application Was Abandoned Based on Her Failure to Submit Required Biometrics

The court upheld the BIA and IJ’s conclusion that the petitioner’s application for asylum and related relief had been abandoned under 8 CFR §1003.47(c) based on her failure to submit biometrics or establish good cause for her failure to do so. (Gonzalez-Veliz v. Garland, 5/4/21) AILA Doc. No. 21051437

 

CA9 Revives Asylum Case Over Reading Disability

Law360: An El Salvadoran woman who can’t read and whose family mixed up the month and day of her immigration court hearing can seek asylum again, after the Ninth Circuit ruled that her exceptional circumstances warranted a second shot.

 

CA11 Says BIA’s Determination That Petitioner Was Ineligible for Preconclusion Voluntary Departure Was Within Its Independent Discretion

Where petitioner argued that an IJ had failed to inform him he could apply for preconclusion voluntary departure, the court found it lacked jurisdiction to consider his petition, because the BIA had ruled that preconclusion voluntary departure was not warranted. (Blanc v. Att’y Gen., 5/11/21) AILA Doc. No. 21051436

 

Activists Ask 9th Circ. For Enviro Review Of DHS Programs

Law360: Conservation groups backed by an anti-immigration think tank asked the Ninth Circuit Tuesday to revive their claims that certain U.S. Department of Homeland Security immigration programs must undergo environmental review, arguing a review exemption leads to higher immigration numbers, which then drives ecological degradation.

 

Google files legal brief to protect work program for immigrant spouses

Verge: While that ban never came to pass, the ability for people with H-4 visas to work is still under threat from a lawsuit against the federal government. The suit, called Save Jobs USA v. US Department of Homeland Security, was brought by tech workers, who argue that H-4 holders are unfair competition for Americans looking for jobs.

 

Another Twist on Niz-Chavez

ImmProf: The question now arises whether clients with fake-date NTAs can utilize Pereira and now Niz-Chavez to defeat the “stop-time” effect for cancellation of removal, where such fake NTAs existed, even where there is a subsequent notice of hearing with a “real date” from EOIR. The short answer is “Yes”.

 

DHS Announces Process for Identifying Humanitarian Exceptions to Title 42

DHS released a statement noting that it is “working to streamline a system for identifying and lawfully processing particularly vulnerable individuals who warrant humanitarian exceptions” under the CDC Order issued under its Title 42 public health authority. AILA Doc. No. 21051330

 

CIS Ombudsman’s Office Issues Reminder for DACA Renewals

The CIS Ombudsman’s Office issued a reminder that individuals who are eligible to renew their DACA and employment authorization may submit their renewal request between 150 days and 120 days before the expiration on their current Form I-797, Notice of Approval, and on the EAD. AILA Doc. No. 21051035

 

DHS OIG Issues Report on CBP Senior Leaders’ Handling of Social Media Misconduct

DHS OIG found that from 1/1/16 through 6/30/19, 83 CBP employees violated CBP policies and guidance by posting, or commenting on, offensive content on various social media platforms. DHS OIG, however, found no evidence that senior CBP leaders were aware of more than a few of the cases, and determined that CBP and Border Patrol headquarters officials took no action to prevent further misconduct, except when directed to do so by DHS. DHS OIG found no evidence that senior CBP headquarters or field leaders were aware of offensive content posted to a private Facebook group until reported by the media in July 2019. AILA Doc. No. 21051441

 

ACTIONS

 

• USCIS Request for Public Input on Reducing Administrative Barriers: Comments are due 5/19 2021.
• EOIR 60-Day Notice and Request for Comment on Proposed Revisions to Form EOIR-26A: comments due 5/28/21.
• DHS 60-Day Notice and Request for Comments on New “Public Perceptions of Emerging Technologies” Survey: Comments are due 7/12/21.

·         New York For All Virtual Lobby Day 5/20/2021

• Sign-On: Haiti TPS Redesignation
• Sign-On: MPP Wind Down Letter 2 – Organizational Sign On
• Sign-On: End SIJS Backlog
• Sign-On: Repeal of Trump’s Draconian Fee Increases for Immigration Court and BIA Filings

 

RESOURCES

 

• ACLU: Stories of People Released from ICE Detention During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• AIC: Right to Appointed Counsel for Children in Immigration Proceedings
• AILA: The Ethics of Representing a Client in Person During the Pandemic
• AILA: Practice Pointer: How to File DHS OBIM FOIA Requests
• CLINIC: Practitioners’ Guide to Obtaining Release From Immigration Detention
• CRS: Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure
• HRF: Biden Administration Title 42 Expulsions of Families and Adults to Nuevo Laredo Fuel Kidnappings and Endanger Lives
• IDP: Legal Analysis of April 27, 2021 DHS Memorandum
• ILRC: DACA: Continuous Residence
• NIP/NLG: The INA’s Distorted Definition of “Conviction”
• NYCBA: Recording – 100 Days: Accountability on Immigration
• Tahirih: Adding Gender as a Sixth Ground of Asylum FAQ
• USCIS: The CIS Ombudsman’s Webinar Series: USCIS’ Online Filing and Customer Service Tools Follow Up Questions and Answers

 

EVENTS

 

• 5/17/21-5/20/21 CLINIC Convening 2021
• 5/18/21 DOJ Recognition & Accreditation
• 5/18/21 Ethics in Representing Family Members in U Visa, U AOS/929, and VAWA Cases
• 5/19/21 EOIR to Host National Stakeholder Meeting
• 5/19/21 Phase 1 of a SIJS case: the intersection of immigration law and family law
• 5/19/21 Jurisdictional Issues in the Federal Court of Appeals
• 5/19/21 COVID-19 LPR Admission Issues/Consular Practice Updates with AILA’s CBP and DOS Committees
• 5/20/21 Understanding your Client’s Contact with the Criminal Legal System in New York City
• 5/20/21 A Trauma-Informed, Anti-Rascist Approach to Legal Advocacy
• 5/21/21 Virtual Immigration Representation: Practical And Ethical Considerations
• 5/24/21 What Every Non-Immigration Lawyer Should Know About Immigration Law
• 5/26/21 Hot Topics in Removal Defense
• 5/26/21 “Immigration Relief Under the Violence Against Women Act”
• 5/27/21 Handling Your First Pro Bono Asylum Case
• 6/1/21 VAWA Adjustment of Status Fundamentals
• 6/2/21-6/23/21 CLINIC Webinar Series: Overview of Immigration Consequences of Crimes
• 6/3/21 Steps to Analyze the Immigration Impact of Criminal Contact and Convictions for Immigrant Clients
• 6/8/21-6/29/21 CLINIC Webinar Series: Citizenship and Naturalization
• 6/9/21-6/11/21 ‘Ageing Gracefully? The 1951 Refugee Convention at 70’
• 6/9/21-6/12/21 2021 AILA Virtual Annual Conference on Immigration Law
• 6/9/21 Hot topics: Adjudication and Enforcement Trends
• 6/10/21 Public Charge and Hot Topics in Consular Processing
• 6/14/21 Taxes at the Border: Understanding the Tax Consequences of Immigration Status
• 6/15/21 U Visa Hot Topics
• 6/15/21 Motions to Reopen in Immigration Court: Part III – VAWA Self-petitioners
• 6/16/21 Phase 2 of a SIJS case: Preparation & submission of the immigration forms to USCIS
• 6/17/21 Practice tips for representing clients with criminal legal system contacts in affirmative applications
• 6/22/21 EADs and Delays in Work Authorization for Your Family– and Employment-Based Clients
• 6/22/21 Defending Immigration Removal Proceedings 2021
• 6/25/21 Understanding and Screening for Statelessness
• 6/30/21 Immigration Update – June 2021
• 7/7/21-7/21/21 Webinar Series: Navigating Refugee and Asylee Issues
• 7/8/21-7/29/21 Webinar Series: Overview of Removal Proceedings and Orders of Removal
• 7/21/21 The ethics of dual representation (child and guardian) in SIJS practice
• 7/22/21 PLI: Defending Immigration Removal Proceedings 2021
• 9/23/21 Representing Children in Immigration Matters 2021: Effective Advocacy and Best Practices

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, May 17, 2021

• LSA 2021 Citizenship and Migration Panels (Day 1)
• Immigration Article of the Day: “Who Does America Want” by Jarienn James

Sunday, May 16, 2021

• CNN Follows Brothers & People Smugglers in Ciudad Juarez
• Immigration Article of the Day: Help Me to Find My Children: A Thirteenth Amendment Challenge to Family Separation by Ndjuoh Mehchu

Saturday, May 15, 2021

• Glaswegian Crowd Rallies To Release Migrants Caught in Raid on Eid
• The Racist Roots of the Anti-Immigration Tanton Network
• Documents Show Trump Officials Used Secret Terrorism Unit to Question Lawyers at the Border
• Immigration Article of the Day: Protecting Mixed-Status Families: Equal Protection Analysis of the Social Security Number Requirement by Nena Gallegos
• President Biden Continues Trump Rollbacks

Friday, May 14, 2021

• Bringing Racial Justice to Immigration Law
• Another Twist on Niz-Chavez . . . by Geoffrey Hoffman
• Immigration Article of the Day: Executive Control of Agency Adjudication: Capacity, Selection and Precedential Rulemaking by David Hausman, Daniel E. Ho, Mark Krass, and Anne M. McDonough
• Cambridge Negotiation Institute Roundtable – The Role of Negotiation in the Migration Crisis

Thursday, May 13, 2021

• A Journey of Hope: Haitian Women’s Migration to Tapachula, Mexico

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

• The Invisible Wall: Title 42 and its Impact on Haitian Migrants
• Staff attorney wanted at the Safe Passage Project (Long Island)
• Did Trump Immigration Policies Contribute to Tight Labor Market?
• Biden ends Trump ban on pandemic aid for undocumented college students in need
• Immigration Article of the Day: El Salvador: Root Causes and Just Asylum Policy Responses by Karen Musalo

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

• Webinar: Public Attitudes towards Immigration and Immigrants
• From the Bookshelves: After the Last Border by Jessica Goudeau
• NBER Report: Immigrants Benefits Educational Performance of U.S. Born Students
• From the Bookshelves: The Racial Muslim:  When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom by Sahar F. Aziz
• Leading Newspapers Call for Meaningful Reform of Immigration System
• Biden Administration to Continue International Entrepreneur (IE) parole program
• Immigration Article of the Day: Immigration Detention and the Illusory Alternatives to Habeas by Fatma Marouf

Monday, May 10, 2021

• Shelter from the Storm: Policy Options to Address Climate Induced Displacement from the Northern Triangle

• One quick asylum fix: How Garland can help domestic violence survivors

• Excerpt of Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio versus the Latino Resistance by Terry Greene Sterling and Jude Joffe-Block

• Immigration Article of the Day: Jailhouse Immigration Screening by Eisha Jain

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

Thanks, Elizabeth!

Two items of particular interest:  First the article from Igor Derysh in Solon ripping Garland’s inexcusable “Miller Lite” hiring practices at EOIR. I am quoted, among others.

The absolute stupidity and betrayal of awarding the Administration’s precious first 17 Federal Judicial positions to lesser qualified, non-progressive individuals hired under tainted, exclusionary, biased, restrictionist practices established by Sessions and Barr under Miller’s negative leadership should outrage all progressives and members of the NDPA. Progressives must demand that the Biden Administration get some due-process oriented, progressive competence installed at the DOJ to straighten out EOIR — a job that to date has proved to be beyond Garland’s ability!  

They might also replace Garland’s incompetent “immigration PR team” at DOJ which continues to feed us BS and recycled Trump Administration propaganda that anybody with any familiarity with the Immigration Courts could tell you is pure, unadulterated BS! How insulting!

The millions of folks, including lawyers, caught up in EOIR’s web of restrictionist malicious incompetence deserve better than the insultingly tone-deaf Garland has delivered. Much better!

Progressive reform at EOIR is possible, and it isn’t a profound or long term project. Garland obviously isn’t up to the job. But, there are lots of progressive legal stars out here who can get the job done!

This also illustrates the continuing problem of Dem Administrations appointing AGs who are not experts in immigration and due process and who therefore fail to prioritize progressive immigration, human rights, and due process reforms. Far from being an “afterthought” or “low priority” these are the keys to equal justice and racial justice in America and probably the essential reforms on which the future of our entire democracy depends!

It also illustrates my point that in the future, nobody should become Attorney General, Secretary of DHS, an Article III Federal Judge, or an Immigration Judge unless they have represented individuals in Immigration Court — the critically important “retail level” of our justice system where the “rubber meets the road” of American justice. Right now, the “car is running on four flats” while Garland proves unable to change the tires!

We can’t afford any more of Garland’s “Amateur Night at the Bijou” approach to immigration, human rights, due process, personnel, and racial justice in America!

Second, the article about the grotesquely illegal abuse of the immigration bureaucracy by the Trump DHS to target and harass lawyers defending the due process rights and humanity of migrants shows just how deeply the cancer of the Trump kakistocracy penetrated into the broken immigration bureaucracy. Just another example of how completely broken, corrupt, and dysfunctional that bureaucracy has become.

It also demonstrates the treacherous stupidity of Garland continuing to tolerate problematic Trump/Miller “holdovers” and actually appointing “same old, same old” non-progressives recruited under Barr, Miller, and Trump to key “life or death Federal Judgeships.” 

Additionally, it raises the question of how on earth will Garland’s DOJ effectively and credibly investigate racial justice issues in local policing and elections while Garland is running a White Nationalist, racist, misogynist, grotesquely unfair, regressive, “worst practices court system”at EOIR. Racial justice and competency reform needs to start “at home” — with Garland’s “wholly owned court system” that bears little or no resemblance to a “court of justice!”

Progressives who played a key role in electing Biden and Harris, on the basis of promises to return due process and progressive expertise to the Immigration Courts, and effectively getting Garland his job, need to make their opposition to Garland’s indolent, inexcusable, mis-handling of EOIR known to the Biden Administration and Dem leaders on the Hill! It’s time for progressives and due process advocates to stop letting yourselves be abused by those you have put in power! 

This is NOT OK!

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-19-21