"The Voice of the New Due Process Army" ————– Musings on Events in U.S. Immigration Court, Immigration Law, Sports, and Other Random Topics by Retired United States Immigration Judge (Arlington, Virginia) and former Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals Paul Wickham Schmidt. To see my complete professional bio, just click on the link below.
BIA Asylum Panel In Action — After three years of ignoring experts on how to fix asylum and the border, the Biden Administration appears ready to join GOP nativists in throwing vulnerable legal asylum seekers and their supporters “under the bus.” Cartels and criminal smugglers undoubtedly are looking forward to “filling the gap” left by the demise of the legal asylum system! They will be “the only game in town’” for those seeking life-saving refuge! There is no record of increased cruelty and suspension of the rule of law “solving” migration flows, although an increase in exploitation and death of migrants seems inevitable. Perhaps, that’s just “collateral damage” to U.S. politicos. Albrecht Dürer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:
[T]he Board found that Sebastian-Sebastian failed to demonstrate a nexus between her particular social groups and the harm she faced. In its denial of CAT protection, the Board found that Sebastian-Sebastian failed to demonstrate that she is more likely than not to be tortured if removed to Guatemala. On appeal, Sebastian-Sebastian argues that the Board’s conclusions were not supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. Because the Board’s failure to make necessary findings as to the asylum and withholding of removal claims is erroneous, but its conclusion as to Sebastian-Sebastian’s CAT claim is supported by substantial evidence, we GRANT Sebastian-Sebastian’s petition for review in part, DENY in part, VACATE the Board’s denial of her application for asylum and withholding of removal, and REMAND to the Board for reconsideration consistent with our opinion.”
[Hats off to Jaime B. Naini and Ashley Robinson! N.B., the motion for stay of removal was denied. I have a call in to the attorneys to find out if she was removed…]
Rather than looking for ways to restrict or eliminate asylum, Congress and the Administration should be concerned about quality-control and expertise reforms in asylum adjudication, including a long-overdue independent Article I Immigration Court! Once again, the BIA violates Circuit precedent to deny asylum.
The answer to systemically unfair, (intentionally) unduly restrictive interpretations, and often illegal treatment of asylum seekers by the USG should not be to further punish asylum seekers! It should be fixing the asylum adjudication system to comply with due process, fundamental fairness, best practices, and professionalism!
Casey Carter Swegman Director of Public Policy at the Tahirih Justice Center PHOTO: Tahirih Justice Center
Here’s a statement from the Tahirih Justice Center about the disgraceful “negotiations” now taking place in Congress:
The Tahirih Justice Center is outraged by the news that the administration appears willing to play politics with human lives. These attacks on immigrants and people seeking asylum represent not simply a broken promise, but a betrayal and we urge the President and Congress to reverse course.
“I am gravely concerned that, if passed, these policies will further trap and endanger immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. Selling out asylum seekers and immigrant communities under the guise of ‘border security’ in order to pass a supplemental funding package is absolutely unacceptable,” said Casey Carter Swegman, Director of Public Policy at the Tahirih Justice Center. “And we know the impact of these cruel, deterrence-based policies will land disproportionately on already marginalized immigrants of color. I urge the White House and Congress not to sell out immigrants and asylum seekers for a funding deal.”
Every day, people fleeing persecution – including survivors of gender-based violence – arrive at our border having escaped unspeakable violence. Raising the fear standard, enacting a travel ban, putting a cap on asylum seekers, and expanding expedited removal nationwide (to name just a few proposals that have been floated in recent days) will do nothing to solve the challenges at the southern border and serve only to create more confusion, narrow pathways to humanitarian relief, increase the risk of revictimization and suffering, and punish immigrants seeking safety and a life of dignity.
These kinds of proposals double down on the climate of fear that many immigrants in this country already face on a day-to-day basis and will disproportionately impact Black, Brown and Indigenous immigrant communities.Immigrants should not be met with hostile and unmanageable policies that violate their humanity as well as their legal rights. We can and must do better.
These are “negotiations” in which those whose legal rights and humanity are being “compromised” (that is, tossed away) have no voice at the table as politicos ponder what will best suit their own interests.
Opinion | Asylum seekers are not ‘gaming the system’
August 20, 2023 at 5:16 p.m. ET
To say that people seeking asylum in the United States are “gaming the system,” as Fareed Zakaria did in his Aug. 14 op-ed, “Immigration can be fixed. Why aren’t we fixing it?,” not only was dehumanizing but also dismissed the very real and traumatic conditions that force people and their families to make the heartbreaking choice to leave their homes and embark on a journey in search of protection and safety.
Calling on people to claim asylum in their home countries revealed a fundamental misunderstanding of the asylum ban and asylum itself. Access to asylum in the United States remains critical because many of the countries that individuals are fleeing from and through cannot or will not protect them from violence.
The U.S. government’s asylum ban is exacerbating dangerous circumstances for all asylum seekers. Women, girls and other survivors of gender-based violence seeking asylum are being denied refuge and forced to remain in conditions along our border that increase their susceptibility to the same kinds of violence and threats to their lives that forced them to flee in the first place.
Asylum is a legal and human right for all people, born of our own recognition that every human being has the right to seek a life of safety and dignity. This has nothing to do with partisan politics. The United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws and live up to its promise as a welcoming nation.
Casey Carter Swegman, Falls Church
The writer is director of public policy at the Tahirih Justice Center.
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The legal right to seek asylum in the U.S. or at our border is clear! Getting the USG to respect it and the media to accurately report on abusive, illegal attempts to limit it, not so much! Thanks, Casey, for speaking truth and “taking it to” purveyors of White Nationalist myths like Zakaria!
Rather than urging fixing the legal asylum system to work in a fair, generous, timely, and humane manner — something that should be well within the Government’s capabilities and clearly in the national interest — folks like Zakaria, who should know better, have taken to victim shaming and blaming. The current law gives the Government plenty of tools to deal with frivolous claims to asylum.
That our Government lacks the will and expertise to implement and staff the current system in a manner that would fairly and reasonably “separate the wheat from the chaff” is NOT the fault of those seeking asylum and their dedicated, hard-working, long-suffering advocates. Indeed, asylum and human rights advocates appear to be the only folks interested in insuring Constitutional due process and upholding the rule of law!
I don’t dispute that our immigration system needs a legislative overhaul. But, that must NOT come at the expense of asylum seekers, refugees, and others who need and are deserving of our protection!
