TAL @ CNN – TOP “KAKISTOCRAT” JEFF SESSIONS ENTHUSIASTICALLY IMPLEMENTS TRUMP’S IMMORAL, OFTEN LAWLESS, AND PROBABLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL WHITE NATIONALIST IMMIGRATION AGENDA – This Should Disabuse Everyone, Including Federal Article III Courts, Of The (Fictional) “Independence” Or “Professional Responsibility” Of The USDOJ!

Sessions, Justice Department take lead as public face of Trump’s immigration policy

By: Tal Kopan, CNN

If there’s one person besides President Donald Trump who’s associated with his immigration policies, it’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Regardless of whether it’s his agency’s core jurisdiction.

Sessions and the Justice Department have taken a lead role in announcing and defending the administration’s immigration efforts on a number of fronts — including some that only tangentially involve the department.

It was the Justice Department press office that put out a “fact check” statement Tuesday responding to Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley’s publicized border trip to visit detention facilities run by components of the Departments of Homeland Security and of Health and Human Services, and it was Sessions who went in front of cameras the day the DHS announced the policy that would result in more families separated at the border.

Even going back to September, it was Sessions who announced on camera the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which was rescinded by the DHS citing legal guidance from the Justice Department. Sessions has made immigration and border security at least a passing reference in most speeches he’s given and has made multiple trips to the border to highlight the issue.

His investment in the issue doesn’t mean other agencies aren’t involved, nor that his shouldn’t be. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has vocally defended the policies in front of Congress and in public appearances. At the time of the DACA decision, the DHS was led by an acting secretary, Elaine Duke, who was not a mouthpiece for the administration’s immigration policies. And Sessions has certainly explored every way his agency could be a player in immigration policy.

But in numerous instances, Sessions has been associated with policies his department would otherwise not have a large role in — and the Justice Department seems to relish taking it on.

Asked for comment, a Justice Department spokesman said Sessions is “proud” to execute the administration’s agenda “in lockstep” with Nielsen. The DHS declined to comment.

A former Obama administration Justice Department immigration official, however, said the department’s hand in making policy is counter to what has traditionally been its role — serving as the government’s lawyer to defend policies.

“It’s unclear what the purpose is of talking about Sen. Merkley at all at the Justice Department,” said Leon Fresco, who served in the Obama administration and is now in private practice. “I think in many cases that agencies are best served by the Department of Justice being perceived as a neutral arbiter on all policies and the agencies being the ones who drive the policy-making agenda. When those roles are blurred, it becomes much harder for the lawyers who have to go to court to have to argue that they don’t have a vested interest in the policies that are being advocated.”

Much more: http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/05/politics/sessions-justice-ownership-immigration/index.html

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It’s no surprise to those who have followed Sessions’ career. Even in the Senate, he was an outspoken voice in the immigration debate, largely to the right of most of his Republican colleagues.

“While Jeff Sessions may have wanted to be attorney general, the area and issue he cared about the most was immigration,” said Peter Boogaard, a former Obama administration spokesman for the White House and DHS who is now with the pro-immigration group FWD.us.

“It’s not something when I worked in the Department of Homeland Security that Justice was trying to do. They were focused on big, large-scale counterterrorism efforts, and big large-scale efforts on public safety and national security,” Boogaard continued. “The Department of Justice did not engage in immigration issues in this capacity and it is surprising that DHS has ceded that ground of authority. But this is not a new trend; this is something that has been the case since the beginning of this administration.”

Pretty much says it all. Sessions “hanging tough” following Trump’s criticism on the Mueller investigation has nothing to do with integrity (gimmie a break — he’d be violating clear ethics and, perhaps, criminal rules if he “un-recused” himself — he’d certainly lose his law license) or protecting the (largely fictional) “independence” of the Justice Department. It has everything to do with a mean and nasty guy with a White Nationalist Agenda wanting to take full advantage of the “chance of a lifetime” to inflict maximum, and perhaps lasting, unnecessary pain and suffering on migrants, women, children and other vulnerable individuals who don’t fit within his “White Nationalist universe.”

Sessions’s tenure “proves beyond a reasonable doubt” that the current Immigration Court system is neither fundamentally fair nor independent and it is incapable, in its current form, of delivering and guaranteeing Due Process for migrants. If and when Congress and/or the Article IIIs are going to recognize the obvious and “do the right thing” is a different question — — one where “the jury is still out.”

PWS

06-06-18

TAL & FRIENDS REPORT @ CNN: DACA TALKS HUNG UP ON CITIZENSHIP – TRUMP’S LATEST SCOFFLAW IMMIGRATION IDEA: Deal With Self-Created Bogus “Crisis” By Ignoring Statute, Treaties, & U.S. Constitution!

Citizenship a key sticking point on immigration as 2 more Republicans sign petition to force votes

By Lauren Fox and Tal Kopan, CNN

Talks between Republicans across the political spectrum trying to find middle ground on a potential immigration deal that would unite the conference have reached a crossroads — and one again it has to do with citizenship.

At the moment leaders are trying to find a sweet spot between moderates and conservatives in the conference on what would be a permanent solution for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which President Donald Trump has ended but whose ultimate fate has been tied up in the court system. Conservatives have long argued that they are opposed to any kind of “special path” to citizenship for DACA recipients with some opposed to any path to citizenship at all. Meanwhile, moderates — who are just a handful of signatures from forcing a wide-ranging immigration debate next month — are pushing to ensure that DACA recipients can have a path to citizenship eventually.

On Thursday, two more moderate Republicans, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Tom Reed of New York, became the 22nd and 23rd GOP signature on the petition to force a vote on a series of immigration bills next month. If Republicans get at least 26 signatures, combined with 192 of 193 Democratic signature, the petition would force the votes. Only one Democratic House member has said so far that he will not sign the petition.

According to sources familiar with the negotiations, during a meeting with leaders Wednesday, GOP leaders were still trying to gauge whether the House Freedom Caucus would support a plan that would offer a bridge for DACA recipients to apply for green cards. Then, once a DACA recipient had a green card they could eventually apply for citizenship like other immigrants.

Talks are unlikely to move forward substantially before that issue is resolved, and it is unlikely that a decision will come before lawmakers return from their Memorial Day break, which started Thursday.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/24/politics/discharge-petition-immigration-daca-congress/index.html

Trump calls for sweeping changes to US immigration legal process

By: Allie Malloy and Tal Kopan, CNN

President Donald Trump suggested in an interview that sweeping changes to what he described as a “corrupt” immigration legal system were necessary, while also questioning the need for a legal process for people apprehended trying to cross into the US illegally.

“How do you hire thousands of people to be a judge? So it’s ridiculous, we’re going to change the system. We have no choice for the good of our country,” Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday on Fox News.

“Other countries have what’s called security people. People who stand there and say you can’t come in. We have thousands of judges and they need thousands of more judges. The whole system is corrupt. It’s horrible,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade. He didn’t explain what he meant by “corrupt” and Kilmeade didn’t press him about the comment.

Trump also questioned the process of immigrants going through the court system at all.

“Whoever heard of a system where you put people through trials? Where do these judges come from?” he said.

The suggestion of eliminating the courts and judges, however, is contrary to the policies currently being carried out by his own administration, and would likely violate the Constitution and international law in addition to federal law. The Justice Department declined to comment on the remarks.

Asked by a reporter about Trump’s comments, California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a former immigration attorney who is now the top Democrat on the main immigration law subcommittee in the House, said they run counter to US values and law.

“I guess he has no belief in due process and the Constitution,” Lofgren said.

Comments run counter to Justice policies

At odds with Trump’s comments is his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has made overhauling the immigration courts a top priority, including in the support of hiring more immigration judges. The Justice Department has touted Sessions’ efforts as essential to combating illegal immigration and making the system stronger.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/24/politics/donald-trump-immigration-courts/index.html

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To state the obvious, there is no “immigration crisis” in America today other than that created or aggravated by Trump and his toxic scofflaw policies! On the other hand, Trump is a Constitutional crisis unfolding in real time!

PWS

05-24-18

TAL @ CNN: HOUSE GOP SIFTS THROUGH WRECKAGE OF THEIR OWN IMMIGRATION POLICIES; TRUMP CRITIC AIMS TO BE NEXT GOV. OF NEW MEXICO!

Republican leaders search for a path amid immigration civil war

By Tal Kopan, CNN

Last September, Paul Ryan had an idea.

The House speaker gathered together a group of Republican thought leaders on immigration and border security and gave them a mission: agree on something.

They couldn’t.

Almost exactly eight months later, on Friday, he stood in the back of the House floor, resting his chin on his hand and leaning against a rail as he watched an unrelated farm bill — which would have achieved one of his legacy goals of welfare reform — go down in flames, a casualty of the still-unresolved immigration debate.

Now, still staring down the barrel of a rebellion from his typically staid, centrist colleagues, Ryan and leadership is tasked with trying to find a way forward for his members, ahead of the looming midterm elections and following the public airing of dirty laundry that has been dividing the GOP conference for months.

The dramatic implosion of an agriculture policy legislation nicknamed the “farm bill” on Friday came after days of tense negotiations regarding immigration — unrelated to the bill but an issue that has become so fraught for Republicans that the fight over it has now consumed all matters. The bill failed after a group of conservatives withheld their support as they demanded a vote on a hardline immigration bill that does not have the votes to pass.

Conservatives’ actions were prompted by the momentum of a rare rebellion from the other side of the ideological spectrum within the party — a group of moderates who will continue their efforts to bypass leadership this week.

Monday marks the return of lawmakers to the House and the next chance for at least five Republicans to sign on to an effort that would force an immigration floor vote despite repeated pleas from GOP leadership to not resort to the rarely-used, and rarely-successful, procedural step.

As of Monday morning, 20 Republicans and 176 Democrats have signed the so-called discharge petition. If a minimum of 25 Republicans and all 193 Democrats sign it, it will automatically trigger a vote on four competing bills to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protected young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children, including one to-be-determined bill of Ryan’s own choosing.

Much, much more: http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/21/politics/gop-immigration-republican-house-leaders-daca-farm-bill/index.html

Trump’s top immigration critic could become the governor of a key border state

By Tal Kopan, CNN

President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda has few more outspoken opponents than Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who, as chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has served as the voice of Hispanic and Democratic members of Congress in condemning the administration’s policies.

The New Mexico Democrat is hoping to take that message to a new platform next year, leaving Congress to run to be governor of her border state, where a win would position her to square off directly with Trump on everything from National Guard deployments on the border to his policies affecting legal and illegal immigration.

Signs of what could be to come are obvious on the campaign trail. At a pep talk for volunteers headed out to canvas on a recent Saturday at her Albuquerque campaign office, Lujan Grisham was introduced by two young undocumented advocates, one of whom, Ivonne Orozco, is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient and was New Mexico’s teacher of the year.

Lujan Grisham dedicated part of her remarks at that event to an update on efforts in Congress to force a vote on preserving DACA on the House floor — and slammed what she called “racist” and “bigoted” recent remarks about immigrants from Trump chief of staff John Kelly, which were met with boos and hisses from her supporters.

“So we called him out, we’re going to keep calling him out, and while we do that, what they’ve done is now 50 Republicans are fighting with their speaker, and … that is a big deal,” Lujan Grisham said, crediting the local advocates with keeping the pressure on to force the vote. “Can you imagine the power we have as New Mexicans if we take that attitude and we bring it to every single neighborhood, every single community, we take it statewide and we show the rest of the world what New Mexicans are made of?”

More from NM: http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/20/politics/michelle-lujan-grisham-new-mexico-trump/index.html

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The GOP restrictionists are often the own party’s worst enemy. If the Dems could get just a little electoral leverage, they should be able to hold off the restrictionists’ anti-immigrant program.

PWS

05-22-18

“SPEAKER PAUL” PULLING OUT ALL THE STOPS TO BLOCK FORCED VOTE ON DACA, ACCORDING TO TAL @ CNN!

Ryan tells Republicans not to sign DACA petition

By Tal Kopan, CNN

House Speaker Paul Ryan in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday sought to discourage fellow Republicans from signing a measure that would force an immigration vote, members leaving the meeting said.

The pitch from Ryan to his party colleagues came as he faces an uprising from moderate GOP members who say time is running out for him to come up with a solution on immigration, adding they are tired of waiting for action.

Rep. Bill Flores paraphrased the speaker as telling Republicans to “quit messing around with the discharge petition” and that it’s “not a path to success.”

“He just said a discharge petition is not a path to success if you really want to do something on immigration,” Flores told reporters.

Other members and Flores said Ryan told his colleagues that he met with President Donald Trump the day before and that leadership and the White House were working on a plan that could ultimately pass both chambers of Congress and get the President’s signature. But he did not offer specifics, the lawmakers added.

A group of moderate Republicans are backing a plan to bypass GOP leaders by forcing a floor vote on four competing bills to preserve the Obama-era DACA program, which protected young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children. Trump has decided to end the program, though it’s currently tied up in the courts.

The move, called a discharge petition, currently has 18 Republican supporters. If 25 GOP members and all House Democrats sign the petition, it would force the vote.

Ryan in his weekly news conference similarly did not offer specifics on the plan, saying his team is “working on it.”

More here: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/16/politics/paul-ryan-house-daca/index.html

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With DACA, “It ain’t over till the Fat Lady sings.” Thanks, Tal, for keeping us up to date!

PWS

05-16-18

TWO NEW FROM TAL @ CNN: 1) DACA Machinations Continue In GOP House; 2) Nielsen Tries To Defend Kiddie Detention: “[S]imilar things happen in the criminal courts in the US ‘every day.’”

Lawmakers who support DACA say they ‘already have the votes’ to force House debate

By: Tal Kopan, CNN

An effort to force a House vote on immigration didn’t pick up any new supporters Tuesday night, but its backers say they are already sure it will reach enough signatures to hit the floor.

“We are extremely confident we already have the votes,” Republican Rep. Jeff Denham of California said as he walked onto the House floor for the first votes of the week, which was the first opportunity lawmakers had to sign the measure since last week.

He walked into the Capitol with Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, who filed the so-called discharge petition on Denham’s rule, which brings a floor vote on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. DACA protected young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children, but President Donald Trump has decided to end it, though courts have temporarily paused that plan.

The two lawmakers are leading the charge among a group of moderate Republicans who are bucking their party leadership to push forward the petition, which circumvents leadership and the committee process.

If the petition can pick up 25 Republican signatures and those of every Democrat in the House, leadership would be forced to call four bills to the floor that address DACA. It currently has support from 18 Republicans and one Democrat, who signed earlier than the rest of her party last week because she expected to be out all of this week. The petition’s backers still expect to hit the number of signatures this week.

Denham’s rule would provide for debate and votes on four different immigration-related bills. One would be a bipartisan compromise, one would be a hardline bill supported by conservatives, one would be a Democratic bill to authorize just a version of the DACA program into law and one is completely up to House Speaker Paul Ryan — leaving him free to choose any bill.

Leadership, however, is whipping against the measure, asking moderates to not sign it and emphasizing the importance of House Republicans keeping control of legislation and solving the problem on their terms, according to a Republican leadership aide.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, traveled to the White House “to continue the conversation about addressing our broken immigration system,” Ryan’s spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in a statement.

Plenty more: http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/15/politics/daca-house-vote-discharge-petition-update/index.html

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DHS secretary defends separating families at the border

By Tal Kopan, CNN

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Tuesday defended an agency policy that will result in more families being separated at the border, saying, under a barrage of questions at a Senate hearing, that similar separations happen in the US “every day.”

But Nielsen also agreed with senators that more must be done to protect the children who either come to the US without their parents or are separated from them.

Nielsen was testifying Tuesday at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle raised concerns about what happens to immigrant children who end up in the custody of DHS, who — by law — transfers such minors to the custody of Health and Human Services within two days.

“Once you start taking these children, please, I don’t think any record should reflect that somehow, you are confident or anybody is confident that they’re being placed in a safe and secure environment,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, the top Democrat on the committee.

Nielsen said the department has recently instituted a policy that it will refer everyone caught crossing the border illegally for prosecution, even if they are claiming they deserve asylum or have small children. Any parents who are prosecuted as a result will be separated from their children in the process.

Nielsen said similar things happen in the criminal courts in the US “every day.”

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/15/politics/dhs-separating-families-secretary-nielsen-hearing/index.html

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Re DACA: I’d never estimate the ability of the Freedom Caucus, Chairman Goodlatte, GOP restrictionists, and the White House to throw a monkey wrench in any sensible DACA resolution.
RE Kiddie Detention (a/k/a “Government Sponsored Child Abuse”):
- Sorry KN, but this isn’t really what happens “every day in criminal courts in the U.S.”
  - Most first time misdemeanor offenders are either:
    - Not charged at all;
    - Sent to a pretrial diversion; or
    - Released on recognizance or a minimal bond.
  - Most criminal court judges in the US try very hard to avoid situations where children have to be placed in government custody, for both cost and humanitarian reasons.
    - In one criminal case that actually was involved with, the sentencing judge made it a point to sentence the husband and wife, who both were convicted, to serve their terms consecutively so that the children would not be without parental custody and supervision.
  - Just another of the many examples of the Trump Administration “working to the lowest common denominator” rather than trying to use the power of the Federal government to elevate standards.
  - According to other reports in today’s news, the DHS is working to place migrant children on U.S. Military Bases. Wow, what a colossal abuse of both the justice system and the purpose of military bases!
- KN and her sycophant colleagues will not be able to escape the judgment of history for what they are doing.
  - Also, kids have long memories. Look at what happened to all of the Catholic priests and their superiors who thought that they would be able to avoid responsibility for child abuse!
    - Helpless, abused kids eventually grow up to be angry, empowered, and motivated adults who will seek to expose and bring to justice their abusers and tormentors!

PWS

05-16-18

TAL @ CNN WITH LATEST DACA REPORT – GOP Looking For Votes To Force DACA Consideration – Situation Still Fluid!

Here’s how lawmakers could force a DACA vote in the House

By Tal Kopan, CNN

A group of GOP moderates’ move to try force a DACA debate on the floor still has several hurdles to clear before they potentially reach any votes.

As of Thursday morning, 17 Republicans signed onto the petition. If all 193 Democrats join them, which is a possibility but not a given, they would still need eight more Republicans in order to hit 218 — a majority of the House.

One of the major driving forces of the effort, California Republican Rep. Jeff Denham, told CNN’s Ashley Killough Wednesday that he is confident in the effort and has asked Democrats to hold off on signing for now to avoid it looking like a Democratic bill.

The key questions:

Can it get enough votes?

It’s quite possible. There are a number of moderates who want to see action on this and conservatives could be wooed as a way to bring the hardline bill from Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, and others to the floor, which GOP leadership has been sitting on because it lacks the votes.

One source told CNN their sense is leadership is concerned this petition could very well succeed.

Then what?

According to the authors of this effort, a discharged bill can be considered on the second and fourth Mondays that the House is in session, and signatures must be completed seven legislative days in advance. Based on the calendar, the earliest this could likely come together appears to be June.

House Speaker Paul Ryan could also opt to call it for floor time on his own.

Then is it clear sailing from there?

Of course not — this is Congress.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/10/politics/daca-vote-house-discharge-petition/index.html

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Rather a surprising development in my view. I suppose it’s a helpful reminder that not all Republicans are like Sessions, Tom Cotton, Steven Miller, Steve King, Bob Goodlatte, Mike Pence, and Donald Trump. Except, how do decent human beings remain in a party that accepts, normalizes, and too often enables the likes of the foregoing? Seems like when “push comes to shove” Republicans usually line up behind the “worst of the worst.”

Thanks, Tal, for keeping us all “in the loop!”

PWS

05-10-18

CAN DACA ARISE FROM THE DEAD? – Get The Latest Scoop From Tal @ CNN!

Republicans seek enough signatures to force DACA vote in House

By Tal Kopan, CNN

A group of Republicans are making good on their threat to attempt to force an immigration floor vote in the House — potentially paving the way for a showdown among proposals to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The lawmakers on Tuesday signed what’s known as a discharge petition — a procedural maneuver that can bring legislation to the House floor if it is signed by a majority of House members regardless of whether it has moved through committee, as is traditionally the case for most legislation. If the petition were to pick up enough supporters, it would set up a floor debate on four different immigration measures as early as June.

The move is unusual for members of the majority party, who are effectively going around House Speaker Paul Ryan to set up a vote on legislation that GOP leadership has refused to call to the floor for a vote. Still, the members insist they are making an effort to be deferential to leadership, by leaving one bill open to the speaker’s choosing.

The effort is being spearheaded by three moderate Republicans who have long been vocal about trying to save DACA, a program that protected young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children — Reps. Will Hurd of Texas, Jeff Denham of California, and Carlos Curbelo of Florida. Curbelo officially introduced the petition Wednesday morning.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, the three moderates said the goal was to have a long overdue immigration debate without a predetermined outcome.

“This institution should be driven by courage, not by cowardice, and the goal should not be to suppress members from pursuing their legislative goals, it should be to empower each member, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Curbelo said. “The goal is to empower each member of the House, including the speaker, to advance the solution that each member believes is the best one for this challenge and to try to gain supporters for that solution. So this is not in defiance of anyone.”

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/politics/daca-house-republicans-discharge-petition-immigration/index.html

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Looks like “Speaker Paul” — his real work of robbing the poor and middle classes to benefit the rich done — is losing his always tenuous grip on the House GOP. And, screwing around with unnecessary issues like trying to fire the House Chaplain didn’t help.

PWS

05-09-18

BOGUS BORDER CRISIS — How Trump, Sessions, & Nielsen Ignored Reality To Create Yet Another False Narrative To Support White Nationalist, Anti-Immigrant Agenda!

http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/03/politics/immigration-border-crossings-stabilize/index.html

Border crossings steady in April after March spike

By: Tal Kopan, CN

Illegal border crossings stabilized in April after jumping substantially in March, a sign that a surge at the southern border may not be imminent, according to newly released statistics from the Trump administration.

In April, there were 38,234 apprehensions at the southern border and 12,690 people deemed “inadmissible,” or who came to a port of entry without papers that authorized them to enter the US, virtually unchanged from the month before. The number of family units and children in both categories also held roughly steady from the previous month.

The news comes as the administration has claimed a “crisis” on the southern border, a narrative largely driven by the jump in March and the comparison to the numbers last spring, when crossings were at abnormally low levels.

Administration officials have also been decrying a so-called caravan of migrants — an annual pilgrimage of mostly women and children who say they are fleeing violence and abuse in their home countries — that has arrived at the border with Mexico. More than half of the roughly 150 migrants in that group have been processed by Customs and Border Protection for their claims of asylum. Those who meet the legal threshold will be allowed to pursue their claims in court cases that could take months or years. Those that don’t will be turned away from the US.

In the midst of the caravan’s trek and the release of the March statistics, President Donald Trump has ordered the National Guard to deploy troops to the border, with roughly 1,000 having been sent so far, and with the Justice Department announcing it will send more immigration judges and prosecutors to border districts, as well.

April’s figures indicate that although there was a sharp spike in March, border crossings remain in line with historic seasonal trends. Numbers are still consistent with Obama administration years — slightly below fiscal years 2013 and 2014 but slightly above 2015 and 2016.

The crossings in April of this year were more than triple April 2017, but that comparison is distorted, as crossings last April were at levels unseen in modern history, before they started to pick up and stabilize more in line with recent years.

Crossings have been trending downward for decades and are at historic lows, prompting Homeland Security to declare last fall that the border is the most secure it has ever been.

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Lies and false narratives are a key part of the White Nationalist agenda. Kind of like the modern version of the infamous “Reichstag Fire” that Hitler used to rally nationalist sentiment and seize power. Nice folks!

PWS

05-04-18

GONZO’S WORLD: NO PRETENSE OF DUE PROCESS! – US Immigration Judges and “Kangaroo Courts” Now Part Of Law Enforcement Message – No Justice, No Protection, No Rule Of Law – Just Removals & “Messages!”

Sessions sends new attorneys, judges to the border

By Tal Kopan, CNN

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday announced further actions to keep the pressure on illegal immigration at the southwestern border, including more resources to prosecute cases.

Sessions said a total of 35 assistant US attorneys would be added in the five districts along the southern border to allow for more cases to be brought against illegal crossings and human smuggling, and 18 immigration judges would be tapped to hear cases in person and through video conferencing at border state immigration courts.

The moves follow a continued pledge by Sessions to take a hard line on illegal immigration and to try to move cases through the immigration courts more quickly, with the lengthy backlog in those courts blamed for allowing a number of undocumented immigrants to live for years in the US as they await final decisions on their fates.

The announcement also came as dozens of migrants looking to call attention to their plight in Central America have reached the US border, where they are slowly being allowed across to be processed for their asylum claims. The so-called caravan, a yearly event, has become a flashpoint in the immigration debate, especially since it caught the attention of President Donald Trump. Supporters say it exposes the need for asylum laws that offer protections to people fleeing dangerous and deadly persecution in their home countries, but the administration has used the situation to call for tougher laws, claiming migrants coming north are exploiting the US system.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/02/politics/immigration-southern-border-jeff-sessions/index.htm

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Sessions willfully misrepresents the truth: 1) there, of course, is no “legal line” for these folks to get in; 2) someone fleeing for his or her life can’t get in line anyway; 3) this Administration dismantled the only “in country” refugee processing program in the Northern Triangle.

Hopefully, at some point the Article III Courts will do their job, step in, and put an end to this caricature of justice.

Folks should be given a reasonable chance to get lawyers, an opportunity to prepare, document, and present their cases in a non-coercive setting, access to a truly independent, unbiased judge who is committed to guaranteeing individual rights and the fair application of U.S. protection laws, and a fair decision without being placed under duress by unnecessary detention and separation of families. The Court System should not be run by an individual like Sessions who has already announced his predetermination of the preferred outcomes.

Once fully documented, many of these cases probably could be granted either as asylum cases or as withholding of removal cases under the CAT in short hearings or by stipulation if the law were applied in a fair and unbiased manner. Those who don’t qualify for protection after a fair and impartial adjudication, and a chance to appeal administratively and to the Article III Courts, can be returned under the law.

Given the situation in the Northern Triangle that is driving these individuals to seek refuge, we should 1) reestablish a robust in country refugee processing system for the Northern Triangle; and 2) work with the UNHCR and other stable countries in the Western Hemisphere to equitably distribute those who can’t return to the Northern Triangle.

PWS

05-03-18

DACA MESS: GOP AGs FILE SUIT WITH “FRIENDLY” JUDGE TRYING TO FORCE SUPREME’S HAND ON DACA!

7 states sue to end DACA, potentially jumbling its legal future

By: Tal Kopan, CNN

The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program got murkier Tuesday when the Texas attorney general made good on a threat to challenge it in court.

The lawsuit throws a wrench in an already-complicated legal morass for the DACA program, which protects young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children and which President Donald Trump has been blocked from ending, for the time being, by other federal courts.

The lawsuit has the potential to create a headache for the Justice Department and courts as it could potentially conflict with rulings from judges in three separate judicial regions of the country who have blocked the end of DACA and could force the government to take an awkward position in the case.

It may also potentially seal the issue’s path to the Supreme Court.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and six other states on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the lawfulness of DACA, arguing that former President Barack Obama’s initial creation of DACA in 2012 violated the Constitution and federal law.

The move follows through on a threat from Paxton and what was originally nine other states to challenge DACA in court as part of a lawsuit regarding a similar but broader program that expanded upon DACA to include parents. Paxton issued an ultimatum to Trump: End DACA himself or defend it in court and face the prospect it is overturned by a judge that had already rejected the program’s expansion in that other lawsuit.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/politics/daca-lawsuit-challenge-texas/index.html

(Bonus link: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/us/border-patrol-agent-less-dangerous-than-being-police-officer-invs/index.html )

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The DACA kids aren’t going anywhere. It’s just a question of how much unnecessary pain and suffering can be inflicted on America’s future leaders and how much enmity from the growing Hispanic electorate Paxton and his White Nationalist cronies will create for the GOP. It figures to be lots.

Hopefully, enough to eventually lead to the GOP’s demise as a viable political force in US politics and the rise of a non-racist Conservative opposition party to take its place.

No, it’s not going to happen in my lifetime! But, hopefully in my kids or grandchildren’s. That’s really what the “New Due Process Army” is all about!

On the “bonus coverage,” it’s a shame that the false narratives about immigration and crime pushed by DHS and encouraged by the Trump Administration are eclipsing truth and understanding.

I’ll testify from my work representing and training Border Patrol Agents at the “Legacy INS” that it’s a difficult, dangerous, important, and thankless job. The vast majority of Border Patrol Agents perform it with courage, dedication, and professionalism. I had friends in the Patrol. Somewhere in the dusty recesses of the Schmidt attic among the remains of my Government career is a box of Border Patrol mementos and memorabilia.

Immigration law enforcement is also being hurt by the bogus White Nationalist “scare stories,” false crime narratives, and constant overt and covert messages of racism being delivered by Trump, Sessions, and their cronies. In the end their dishonest and distorted picture of immigrant communities, the asylum system, their denial of the contributions of all migrants, and their constant over hyping of the dangers of undocumented immigration (it’s been a net gain for the US, and would be an even greater net gain had we enacted a more rational and realistic legal immigration system) hurt everybody in the US, including law enforcement.

In this, as in most situations, a Government dedicated to truth rather than lies and exaggerations designed to divide our country and “fire up” a voter base would better serve the national interest and the interests of everyone concerned.

The Border Patrol’s mission can and should stand on its own merits. It doesn’t need inflated statistics and false narratives.

PWS

05-03-18

AMERICAN INJUSTICE: ADVOCATES COMPLAIN ABOUT US IMMIGRATION JUDGE V. STUART COUCH’S BIAS AGAINST CENTRAL AMERICAN WOMEN SEEKING ASYLUM – APPEALS BOARD AGREES, FINDING COUCH’S RULINGS “CLEARLY ERRONEOUS” IN MANY CASES – Now They Fear That Judge Couch Has A “Kindred Spirit” In The Overtly Xenophobic Jeff Sessions!

Judge in case Sessions picked for immigrant domestic violence asylum review issued ‘clearly erroneous’ decisions, says appellate court

By: Tal Kopan, CNN

Jeff Sessions recently used his special authority as attorney general to review an asylum case that could have sweeping implications for how the US treats immigrants fleeing domestic violence.

Newly released records now show that the case he handpicked, which involves a Central American woman fleeing domestic abuse from her ex-husband, comes from a judge who has been repeatedly rebuked by appellate judges for his multiple rejections of asylum claims from victims of domestic abuse.

Advocates and immigration attorneys fear that Sessions could be using the case as an opportunity to reverse case law that has protected Central American women fleeing violence and sexual assault from husbands by granting them asylum in the US.Stuart

Couch, an immigration judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, has sought to justify denying such women the right to stay in the US in multiple cases, even with the appellate body repeatedly ruling that his findings were “clearly erroneous,” according to records released after a Freedom of Information Act request.

Couch’s decision in the case Matter of A-B-, a convention of naming cases in immigration court that protects the individual’s identity, is a rare opinion that Sessions has referred to himself for review. Sessions has been using a little-known authority to refer immigration cases to himself for review, allowing him to almost single-handedly direct how immigration law is interpreted in this country.

In reviewing Couch’s decision, Sessions invited interested parties to comment on the notion of whether being the victim of a crime can count for asylum, a complicated aspect of asylum law.

The case was initially kept secret by the Justice Department and immigration courts on privacy grounds, but was made public by immigration attorneys as a domestic violence case. Input on the case was due to Sessions on Friday.

It was also later revealed that Sessions decided to consider the case over the objections of the Department of Homeland Security, which had asked him to hold off on diving into the case until the Board of Immigration Appeals, the immigration courts’ appellate body, decided on a request from Couch to take the case back up themselves. Sessions denied DHS’s request.

The Department of Justice declined to comment on why or how Sessions chose the case, and it’s not known how he will rule. When Sessions initially referred himself the case, a department official said he was considering it “because of a lack of clarity in the court system on the issue.”

More on Couch’s decisions: http://www.cnn.com/2018/04/28/politics/jeff-sessions-immigration-courts-domestic-violence-asylum/index.html

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You should read Tal’s entire article for a profile of just how biased Judge Couch — the second most reversed Judge among hundreds in the Immigration Courts — is in asylum cases. He had 58 cases reversed by the BIA just in 2017, while piling up an “asylum denial rate” 26% above the national average!

And, remember that this “isn’t the Ninth Circuit” by any stretch of the imagination. The BIA is a considered a conservative tribunal with a strong predilection to rule for the DHS to begin with!

I’m glad that the anti-asylum bias that runs through too much of today’s Immigration Court system, and is actually fanned and encouraged by Sessions, is finally being exposed. Even if Congress won’t solve this glaring problem by removing these Courts from the DOJ and creating an independent Immigration Court, with a merit-based hiring system, I hope that the Article III reviewing courts are getting the picture that much of what they are getting from EOIR in the area of asylum denials is the product of an intentionally unfair and biased system.

In this outrageous example, Matter of A-B-, the BIA was actually quite properly trying to “rein in” Judge Couch. Rather than encouraging justice, Sessions actually interfered with the BIA’s actions, even though neither the BIA nor any party had requested his review. What kind of “court system” allows a law enforcement official to control the results? Sounds like something directly out of the DOS Country Report on a Third World Dictatorship!

Judge Couch actually was appointed during the Obama Administration, illustrating the widespread and chronic nature of the problem of anti-asylum biased judging at EOIR. The Obama Administration was not accused of the overtly politicized hiring engaged in by the Bush Justice Department.

Nevertheless, from a statistical standpoint, the opaque, closed, and glacial (two-year average) Obama DOJ selection system was biased in favor of attorneys from government backgrounds and against those with experience representing asylum applicants by an astounding 9 to 1 ratio! Many believe this intentionally produced a BIA and an Immigration Court that would more or less “go along to get along” with construing the law and the facts against asylum applicants from countries considered to be “enforcement priorities” by the Obama Administration.

It’s time to put an end to this charade of justice and Due Process in our Immigration Courts. We need an independent Article I U.S. Immigration Court with a merit-based selection system. If not, we need a “helpful intervention” by the Article III Courts to end this chronically unfair and dysfunctional administration of justice by the Department of Justice!

PWS

04-28-18

GONZO’S WORLD: YIELDING TO BIPARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL PRESSURE, GONZO “TEMPORARILY REINSTATES” LEGAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM (“LOP”) AT EOIR

http://www.cnn.com/2018/04/25/politics/immigration-legal-advice-program-resumed/index.html

Sessions resumes immigrant legal advice program under pressure from Congress

By: Tal Kopan, CNN

Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed course on suspending a legal advice program for undocumented immigrants, saying he has ordered the resumption of the program pending a review of its effectiveness.

Sessions announced the move at the opening of a hearing before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds the Justice Department, saying he made the decision at the request of Congress, which has consistently appropriated money for the program.

At issue is the Legal Orientation Program, created under President George W. Bush in 2003. Unlike in the criminal justice system, immigrants are allowed to have legal counsel but the government is not obligated to provide it, so many undocumented immigrants have no legal help as they argue their case to stay in the US. The program is administered through outside groups and works with nonprofit organizations to provide immigrants with presentations, workshop sessions and referrals to potential pro bono legal services.

Earlier this month the Justice Department decided to suspend the program as it conducted a review. A 2012 audit by the department found, consistent with previous studies, that the program actually reduced the length of immigration court cases and detention, saving the government nearly $18 million.

Sessions told the subcommittee on Wednesday that while he has “previously expressed some concerns about the program,” he heard from bipartisan members of the committee that led him to reverse course.

“Out of deference to the committee, I have ordered that there be no pause while that review is conducted,” Sessions said. “I look forward to evaluating the findings as are produced and will be in communication with this committee when they are available.”

The top Democrat on the committee, New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, said she was “pleased” to hear that from Sessions but reminded him that the committee still has unanswered questions about the methodology of the review Sessions is conducting.

Advocates and those who work to represent immigrants immediately decried the move when it was announced as a threat to due process rights that could actually make the courts more backlogged, not less.

The move had followed other recent efforts by the Justice Department to, in their words, expedite proceedings in the immigration courts to cut down on the extensive backlog of cases, which result in some immigrants living in the US for years while they await their fate, many of which have similarly been criticized by opponents as a risk to due process rights.

A internal study commissioned by the Justice Department that was made public this week recommended expanding the Legal Orientation Program as a way to make the courts more efficient.

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

Obviously, bipartisan Congressional oversight can work. My question: Where has it been for the last 17 years as a succession of Attorneys General, beginning with John Ashcroft and continuing through Sessions have run EOIR and the U.S. Immigration Courts into the ground?

PWS

04-26-18

TAL @ CNN: DENYING DUE PROCESS IN U.S. IMMIGRATION COURTS — Sessions’s Plans & Actions Contravene Many Key Recommendations Of Recent Independent Internal Evaluation – Feuding With Judges, Suspending Legal Orientation Program, Establishing Evaluations Based On “Quotas,” Detailing Judges To Border Detention Centers, Restricting Administrative Closing, Increasing Use Of Televideo Hearings, Emphasis On Increasing Removals Over Due Process All Run Counter To Recent Recommendations!

http://www.cnn.com/2018/04/23/politics/immigration-courts-justice-department-report/index.html

Justice report’s findings clash with Sessions’ actions

By Tal Kopan

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made overhauling the chronically backlogged immigration courts a top priority — but some of his moves seem to run counter to recommendations in a Justice Department-commissioned report made public on Monday.

While some of the recommendations, such as increasing staffing, have been part of his efforts, other steps — such as requiring judges to process a target amount of cases — run contrary to the study’s suggestions.

The report was written by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton last April after a yearlong analysis commissioned by the Justice Department’s immigration courts division. A redacted version was made public Monday as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Immigration Lawyers Association and American Immigration Council.

The report looks at the chronic inability of the immigration courts to keep up with the number of cases before them. Cases related to immigration status are handled in a court system separate from the typical criminal and civil courts in the US — a system that is run entirely by the Justice Department and in which the attorney general effectively functions as a one-man Supreme Court.

Because cases can take years to finish, undocumented immigrants can end up living and building lives in the US as they await a final decision on whether they are legally allowed to stay in the US — something the Trump administration has cited as a driver of illegal immigration.

The Booz Allen Hamilton analysis identifies a number of issues that contribute to the backlog, including staffing shortages, technological difficulties and external factors like an increasing number of cases.

Sessions has worked to hire more immigration judges and has ordered other upgrades like the use of an electronic filing system, as the report recommends.

But the American Immigration Lawyers Association expressed concern about a number of other recommendations that seemed ignored or on which opposite action was taken.

Responding to the report, a Justice Department official who requested not to be named said that the efforts of the department are “common-sense.”

“After years of mismanagement and neglect, the Justice Department has implemented a number of common-sense reforms in the immigration court system, a number of them address these issues and we believe that focusing our efforts on these reforms has been an effective place to start,” the official said.

The report’s recommendations include a performance review system for judges, who are hired and managed by the Justice Department, that “emphasizes process over outcomes and places high priority on judicial integrity and independence,” including in dialogue with the union that represents immigration judges. The Justice Department recently rolled out a performance metrics system, though, that requires judges to complete a certain number of cases per year and sets time goals for other procedural steps along the way, which immigration judges have strongly opposed as jeopardizing the ability of judges to make fair, independent decisions.

In a call with reporters, AILA representatives and a retired immigration judge argued that while the report doesn’t explicitly reject a quota system, it’s clear that putting one in place is contrary to the recommendation. They say that judges who are fearful of their job security and opportunity for advancement may be pressured to speed up hearing cases at the expense of due process for the immigrants, which could skew the outcome of the case.

A Justice Department official said the agency rejects the notion of a “false dichotomy” that improving efficiency sacrifices due process and said the agency has also put in place court-based metrics that lend itself to the recommendation of the report.

In another example, the report recommends that the Justice Department consider expanding legal orientation programs for immigrants and increasing their access to attorneys, so they can better navigate the system. The Justice Department recently put on hold a legal advice program for immigrants in the courts, saying it needed to be reviewed, though audits in the past had consistently shown it was productive and had saved the government money long-term. Officials say they may reinstitute the program if the audit shows it is effective.

The report also recommends limited use of video hearings, saying judges are stymied by technical difficulties and also are less able to read the subtle cues and nonverbal communications of witnesses and people involved in the hearings. Sessions’ immigration courts plan includes expanding the use of video hearings.

In another example, one of Sessions’ first moves in taking office was to send a number of judges to the border on a temporary assignment to handle cases there. The report says temporary assignments should be avoided, as they create more delays when judges have to catch up on their workloads back home.

The report also recommends administratively closing cases if they are being adjudicated in some other venue, like a visa petition or another court case. The Trump administration has sought to curtail the administrative closing of cases.

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

DOJ’s ridiculous claim that Sessions’s actions are “common sense” is refuted by virtually everyone with expertise or true understanding of the Immigration Court system including those working in it, those stuck in it, and even ICE!

There can be no effective, Due Process oriented, “actual common sense” Immigration Court reforms so long as Jeff Sessions controls those courts.

PWS

04-23-18

MULTI-TALENTED TAL @ CNN TAKES US TO THE S. BORDER IN PICTURES & WORDS!

http://www.cnn.com/2018/04/19/politics/secretary-nielsen-dhs-border-fence-wall-immigration/index.html

Snapshots from the US-Mexico border

By Tal Kopan, CNN

Updated 6:55 PM ET, Thu April 19, 2018

Here are Tal’s pictures. For whatever technical reason, you’ll have to go to the original article at the link to get the captions that go with them!

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Wow! As those of you who read “Courtside” on a regular basis know, I’m a HUGE FAN of Tal’s timely, incisive, concise, and highly accessible reporting. I feature it on a regular basis. I’ve also seen her do a great job on TV and video. But, until now, I didn’t know about her skills as a photojournalist. Tal can do it all!

Also, as my colleague Judge and Super-Blogger Jeffrey Chase pointed out in one of his recent comments on this blog, pictures play an essential role in understanding the immigration saga in America.

Been there, done that in my career. Takes me back to the long past days of riding three wheelers, helicopters, Patrol Cars, looking through infrared night scopes, and even accompanying foot patrol during my days in the “Legacy INS General Counsel’s Office.” (Most often on the border south of San Diego.) We actually took the Trial Attorneys and some of the Assistant U.S. Attorneys prosecuting our cases with us to show them what it was really like at the “ground level.”

Actually doesn’t look all that much different decades later. What is painfully clear is that walls, fences, helicopters, detectors, unrealistically harsh and restrictive laws, and more detention centers (the “New American Gulag”) will never, ever “seal” our borders as some immigration hard-liners insist is possible.

At best, we can control, channel, and regulate the flow of migrants, but not halt it entirely. Human migration was taking place long before the U.S. became a nation, and I daresay that it will continue as long as there are humans left on earth. To think that walls, troops, concentration camps, harsh laws, and prisons are going to halt it completely is a mixture of arrogance and ignorance.

So, rather than pouring more money down the drain on the same “strategies” that have been failing for decades, a “smart” border control policy would involve:

More realistic and generous interpretations of our refugee and asylum laws that should include most of those fleeing for their lives from the Northern Triangle;
A much larger and more “market based” legal immigration system for permanent and temporary migrants that would meet the legitimate needs of U.S. employers and our economy while making it attractive for most prospective workers and employers to use the legal visa system rather than the “black market” of undocumented entry;
A larger and more robust refugee processing program for Northern Triangle refugees so most would be screened and documented outside the U.S.;
Cooperation with the UNHCR and other stable countries in the Western Hemisphere to distribute the flow of long-term and temporary refugees in an equitable manner that will help both the refugees and the receiving countries;
Working with and investing in Mexico and Northern Triangle countries to address and correct the conditions that create migration flows to the Southern Border.
Providing lawyers for asylum applicants who present themselves at the Southern Border so that their claims for protection (which actually go beyond asylum and include protection under the Convention Against Torture) can be fairly, correctly, and efficiently determined in an orderly manner in accordance with Due Process.

No, it’s unlikely to happen in my lifetime. But, I hope that future generations, including the members of the “New Due Process Army,” will find themselves in a position to abandon past mistakes, and develop the smart, wise, generous, humane, realistic, and effective immigration and refugee policies that we need to keep our “nation of immigrants” viable and vitalized for centuries to come. Until then, we’re probably going to have to watch folks repeat variations of the same painful mistakes over and over.

PWS

04-19-18

SCOFFLAW SESSIONS LOSES AGAIN ON SANCTUARY CITIES – 7TH CIRCUIT FINDS SESSIONS’S ACTIONS UNCONSTITUTIONAL “Usurpation Of Power” — City of Chicago v. Sessions

Trump and Sessions lose another sanctuary cities case

By: Tal Kopan, CNN

A federal appeals court struck another blow Thursday to the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure sanctuary cities, upholding a court order preventing the Justice Department from imposing conditions on grants to cities.

The three-judge panel from the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision blocking the Justice Department from adding new conditions on policing grants that had required some cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

The ruling makes it the latest federal court, along with courts in California and Philadelphia, to restrict what the administration can try to do to pressure jurisdictions that restrict some cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

It comes as President Donald Trump has been targeting his fury on Twitter at sanctuary cities, which administration officials accuse of jeopardizing public safety.

The judges sided with the city of Chicago in the case, which had challenged Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ July effort to condition the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program on two new requirements: allowing federal immigration authorities access to local detention facilities and providing the Department of Homeland Security with at least 48 hours’ notice before local officials release an undocumented immigrant wanted by federal authorities.

The administration has been aggressive in asking cities to comply with those requests, but a number of cities and police chiefs around the country argue that cooperating in that way could jeopardize the trust police need to have with local communities, and in some cases could place departments in legal gray areas.

Like the district judge, the appellate judges found that Chicago was likely to succeed in its case that such conditions would be a violation of the Constitution and law, as Congress did not authorize those conditions when it created the grants.

The judge who wrote the opinion called the attorney general’s move a “usurpation of power.”

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/04/19/politics/court-rules-against-trump-sessions-sanctuary-cities-chicago/index.html

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Our Attorney General continues to thumb his nose at the Constitution while wasting judicial time. That’s what the “rule of law” means in “Gonzoland.”

Here’s a link to the 7th Circuit’s full decision written by Judge Rovner.

7thChicagoSanctuaryInjunction

PWS

0-9-18

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Snapshots from the US-Mexico border

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