"The Voice of the New Due Process Army" ————– Musings on Events in U.S. Immigration Court, Immigration Law, Sports, Music, Politics, and Other Random Topics by Retired United States Immigration Judge (Arlington, Virginia) and former Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals Paul Wickham Schmidt and Dr. Alicia Triche, expert brief writer, practical scholar, emeritus Editor-in-Chief of The Green Card (FBA), and 2022 Federal Bar Association Immigration Section Lawyer of the Year. She is a/k/a “Delta Ondine,” a blues-based alt-rock singer-songwriter, who performs regularly in Memphis, where she hosts her own Blues Brunch series, and will soon be recording her first full, professional album. Stay tuned! 🎶 To see our complete professional bios, just click on the link below.
If only our national leaders were paying attention! 🤯 The best answers are out here, and they don’t involve expensive and counterproductive “mass deportations,” more inhumane detention facilities, or spreading fear among communities! Never too young to become a member of the “New Due Process Army!”
The Lion King by Giles Laurent Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution
HINT: It’s neither the one that let NFL MVP leading candidate Saquon Barkley walk (and proceed to run wild over the league), nor the one that signed Aaron Rodgers to an overpriced contract!
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and more pay tribute to Bill Walton
NBA legends, current players and members of the basketball community react to the Hall of Famer’s death on Monday.
Updated on May 28, 2024 7:45 AM
Bill Walton (1952-2024)
Members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team took to social media to honor the legendary Bill Walton (left) on Monday.
Hall of Fame center Bill Walton, a two-time champion at UCLA and in the NBA, a former No.1 overall pick, and one of the biggest personalities of the game, died on May 27 after a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 71 years old. Walton played 10 seasons in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers, LA Clippers and the Boston Celtics, averaging 13.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He earned Finals MVP after leading the Blazers to the 1977 championship and won another title with the Celtics in 1986. A two-time All-Star, Walton won the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 1978.
Walton retired from the NBA after the 1987-88 season. He turned to broadcasting where he became one of the most entertaining and eccentric color commentators for NCAA and NBA telecasts.
A beloved member of the NBA family, legends, current players and other members of the basketball community took to social media to pay tribute to Walton’s career and his many off-the-court contributions.
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Walton was a zany presence, but his guts and talent were undeniable. He was one of the dominant college players of my younger days as a fan when UCLA under the legendary coach John Wooden was the undisputed “King of the Court” in NCAA basketball.
You can read the heartfelt tributes from his contemporaries at the above link.
Even in death, Walton leaves a “positive spin” that we’re much in need of these days.
Bonnie Washuk reports for the Portland press Herald:
In the lobby of Portland’s Baxter Academy for Technology and Science, a chess board is on prominent display – for good reason.
Earlier this month, the school’s chess team – which didn’t even exist a few months ago – won the Maine State Scholastic Chess Championship against 15 of the state’s best teams, including Kennebunk High School.
Going into the championship, facing established high school chess teams, Baxter was not expected to win.
The player who clinched the big win for school’s six-member team is freshman João Vuvu-Nkanu Maviditi, a teen from Angola who last year was living at the Portland Expo when it served as temporary shelter for asylum seekers.
João Vuvu-Nkanu Maviditi, left, and Abdallah Ali ponder their next moves while playing a game of chess in class at Baxter Academy on March 12. The school’s chess team won the state championship last weekend for the first time. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer Reprinted under license
. . . .
For Baxter to grab the championship win “is hugely impressive,” Cimato said in an email. “Baxter’s team held up extremely well under pressure and in sharp tactical positions. Their patience and calculation in those two end games were the difference.”
Baxter’s other chess team players are Jacob Kaiser, Abdallah Ali, Gibson Holloway and Sean Glass.
The team’s coach is Majur Juac, an internationally known chess master who once was one of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan who fled the civil war in their country and undertook long and dangerous treks to safety, spending years in refugee camps and eventually resettling in the United States.
Juac now lives in Falmouth and is on the faculty at Baxter, where he teaches chess.
. . . .
Baxter offered chess play after school, not just for its students but for other young people, including those who attend the downtown Boys and Girls Club.
When the games first started, “a few of those kids didn’t know how the pieces moved,” she said. “But Juac soon changed that.”
The school held tournaments in the summer, fall and winter. It’s hosting another next month and inviting in other schools.
In the fall, Baxter also launched a chess class taught by Juac, and 16 academy students signed up right away, Klein-Christie said.
She said the chess students are “really into it” and put their phones down and talk to one another as they play.
With a limited budget, it’s a stretch for a charter school to expand programs, Klein-Christie said.
“But it’s has been a worthwhile investment. Chess is a way of teaching them strategic planning, math skills. And it’s lovely for them to be building community.”
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Read Bonnie’s complete article at the link!
Immigrants get it done for their communities in ways big and small! The reality of migration is quite different from the cowardly bombast of Abbott, DeSantis, and other White Nationalists!
Folks like Abbott and the Feds are wasting incredible (and immoral) sums of money on misguided, cruel, counterproductive, dehumanizing, and ultimately futile enforcement, militarization, and imprisonment. They should be investing in a timely, fair, well-run asylum system, planned reception and resettlement, and community integration that would maximize the benefits for both the migrants and the U.S. communities they seek to enrich and help with their presence.
If only politicos of both parties would get beyond the racist myths, pandering to fear, encouraging “worst instincts,” and instead lead the way to a better future for America! 🇺🇸
“The Dems’ wrong-headed “Miller Lite” approach to immigration and the border would leave Casey scratching his head. With “major league talent” available, they have put an “amateur night at the Bijou” team on the field for what is perhaps the most important season in modern American history! PHOTO: Rudi Reit Creative Commons
As a former president of the United States excoriates immigrants for “poisoning the blood” of our country, as the governors of Texas and my current home state of Florida bus and fly migrants to points north — including my hometown, Chicago — my thoughts turn to baseball.
. . . .
While that inhospitable bunch has been villainizing migrants and refugees as a strain on U.S. resources, I have been marveling at how much foreign-born players have enlivened (and enriched) baseball in recent decades. Far from being poisoned, the sport has been rejuvenated by infusions of immigrants from Ohtani to Soto to Ronald Acuña Jr., Yordan Álvarez, Ha-Seong Kim, the Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki and so many others.
As these non-White non-Americans wow — and earn — millions with their transcendent talents, in a sport still emerging from its startlingly racist past, bigoted fictions about the “blood of our country” are being exposed. It’s true that baseball is still struggling with exploitative international recruiting practices, decreasing numbers of U.S.-born Black players and a lack of diversity among its executive ranks. Yet the increasing number of foreign-born major leaguers now counted among the best in the game’s long history dispels the self-aggrandizing myth that the United States possesses any monopoly on excellence.
The Republican presidential front-runner might argue that undocumented migrants and refugees aren’t elite athletes and are instead “animals” arriving from “s—hole countries.” But such dehumanizing insults are not only guilty of offensive fixation on national origin, ethnicity and race. They also mistake a person’s predicament for a person’s potential.
This is made plain by the origin stories of some of baseball’s biggest stars. Those same players who fashioned makeshift mitts out of milk cartons and cardboard, who rose to the game’s highest levels through arduous, harrowing and near-tragic journeys, might have languished on the other side of a barbed and militarized wall if this country’s right wing had its way.
The politicians who would build those walls, who attack immigrants for supposedly burdening our national resources, need only consider baseball’s explosive growth into a $10 billion industry and the financial value of Ohtani alone to the Dodgers — some estimate the team could make more than $1 billion off his deal over the course of a decade — to see that industries and economies thrive by inclusion, not exclusion.
Even so, ideologues seek to end inclusive practices in private industry and public education. They guarantee endless winning and new revolutions by promising to slash resources and wall off our country — all while whiffing on the most rudimentary of winning principles understood by most every baseball fan in America:
Great teams are made great by deep, diversified rosters. They are built on investment in both homegrown and international talent. And there are no curses except those that are self-inflicted by cheap, regressive thinking.
As the Republican presidential primary churns toward that party’s national convention, coincidingthis July with baseball’s annual All-Star Game, all of this will be evident to anyone ready to take a break from the campaign, take a seat in the bleachers and take in the world’s greatest ballplayers thriving at America’s game.
Jaswinder Bolina is a poet and essayist. His latest book is “English as a Second Language and Other Poems.”
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Read the full op-ed at the above link!
“Mistaking a person’s predicament for a person’s potential!” That’s exactly what Biden’s new-found attacks on asylum seekers and their advocates (his 2020 supporters!) are doing!
It’s painful to watch the errors pile up and the game slipping away from the Dems! 😣 Meanwhile, rather than being out there helping unify and re-elect Biden and Harris, advocates are marshaling their resources and considerable energy to fight tooth and nail in courts against the Administration’s apparent bone-headed intention to violate asylum law and human rights with illegal asylum bars! Energizing former core supporters to fight against your inane and immoral actions during an election year: A “strategy” that only inept, tone-deaf Dem politicos could love!
Blitzer’s villains include “[n]umerous U.S. institutions, bureaucrats, and presidents” who supported and enabled “savage governments responsible for vast numbers of people killed — many of them poor and Indigenous.”
Blitzer has particular contempt for “one of the most ineptly titled American officials ever — the State Department’s assistant secretary for human rights, Elliott Abrams — [who] tried to suppress information about the massacre of 978 people, including 477 children, in the Salvadoran village of Mozote.” Abrams, later was convicted of misdemeanors for withholding information from Congress in connection with the Iran-Contra scandal, but was pardoned by Bush I.
Among Blitzer’s unsung heroes are “relentless US. immigration advocates,” the late Rep. Joe Moakley (D-MA) who “grasped all the nuances of U.S.-manufactured border crises,” and of course, an “array of migrants” who bravely persevered in the face of treacherous, dishonest, ill-informed, and often deadly U.S. immigration policies intended to “break them” and destroy their humanity. That disgraceful process continues today — on steroids!
The review ends on a perhaps unexpectedly optimistic note:
And yet, after reading Blitzer’s book, one can’t help but think that the impossible might be possible — that maybe, just maybe, this could be fixed. He’s not trying to lay out a set of policy solutions. He’s making a more nuanced plea, a rejection of the “selective amnesia” of politics in favor of a deeper understanding of how we — as a nation and as a region — got here.
It is a book with a “mission,” he writes, a nudge for U.S. decision-makers and a platform for voices on the other side of the border, a “kind of go-between: to tell each side’s story to the other; to find a way to bring the Homeland Security officials into the housing-complex basement; and to allow the migrants in the basement to participate, for once, in the privileged backroom conversations that decide their fate.”
Hopefully, those with the power to change things will listen.
Manuel Roig-Franzia is a Washington Post features writer and formerly served as The Post’s bureau chief in Miami and Mexico.
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Following up on the last point — the “seldom-heard and never-heeded by our politicos and media” voices of those whose lives and humanity are threatened by our failed policies, this Thursday, Feb. 15, @ 3 PM EST, Immigration Law & Justice Network & The Hope Border Institute will present a free webinar, “Stop The War On The Border: Migrants Speak:
Stop the War on the Border: Migrants Speak – Detengan la Guerra en la Frontera: Migrantes Hablan
Date & Time
Feb 15, 2024 03:00 PM in
Description
ILJ Network and our partners invite you to participate in this webinar and hear directly from migrants in the northern Mexican border and the U.S. interior on how restrictions to asylum and humanitarian parole impact their lives.
ILJ Network y compañeros de coaliciones los invita a participar en este evento virtual para escuchar directamente de migrantes, ubicados entre la parte Norte de México y el interior de los Estados Unidos, acerca de cómo dichas restricciones al derecho de asilo y de parole humanitario impactan sus vidas.
Information you provide when registering will be shared with the account owner and host and can be used and shared by them in accordance with their Terms and Privacy Policy.
This is very timely! Rarely do we hear from those whose lives, dignity, and safety are being bargained away and devalued as if they were “commodities” at the disposal of disingenuous politicos and interests who have turned their misery and desperation into “profit centers” and political rallying cries.
🏈🏆Finally, on another topic, congrats to Coach Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs, and “Chiefs’ Superfan” Taylor Swift on their second consecutive Lombardi Trophy and third in five seasons.As almost everyone in sleep-deprived America knows by now, KC outlasted the SF 49ers in yesterday’s Super Bowl ending with a thrilling overtime finish 25-22!
For everyone else, including my Green Bay Packers, it’s “wait till next season!”😎
49ers upended the upstart Packers’ Super Bowl dreams! Cheesehead in Stadium Chris F Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
🏈😢 ENDGAME: 49ERS LATE TD DRIVE HALTS PACK’S PLAYOFF RUN — 24-21
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
Special to Courtside Sports
Jan 21, 1024
With the rain pouring down in San Francisco, QB Brock Purdy & RB Christian McCaffrey ended the Green Bay Packers’ unlikely Super Bowl run in what was to date the most thrilling game of the NFL Playoffs. There were five lead changes, four in the second half. But, the only one that counted was McCaffrey’s six yard TD run with 1:07 remaining that proved the difference.
For much of the game, it seemed that, riding a great performance by RB Aaron Jones (18-107-0), the #7-seed Packers would follow last Sunday’s upset of #2 Dallas by shocking the #1-seed 49ers on the latter’s home field. Jones turned in his fifth straight clutch 100-yard-pluseffort, all in “must-win games.” In doing so, he broke the 49ers’ streak of 51 games without allowing a 100-yard rusher.
But, alas, a trip to the NFC Championship game was not to be for Jones’s team. Here’s my analysis of why the Packers came up short and what the future might hold.
Red Zone inefficiency.
After going 4-4 against Dallas, the Packer offense actually had little trouble reaching the red zone against the formidable SF defense. They made five trips to scoring territory and only punted once.
However, once “in the zone,” it was a different story. Green Bay only scored two TDs, settling for two field goals and a turnover on downs in the other three possessions, all in the first half. The turnover came on what looked to be a bad spot by the referees following a Jordan Love sneak on fourth and one. However, there was not “conclusive video evidence” for Coach Matt LaFleur to throw the challenge flag.
Leaving a potential 15 points on the field proved fatal in a 3-point game against an outstanding opponent.
2. Jordan Love’s streak of near perfection ended with two key interceptions.
In the nine games heading into this divisional matchup, Love threw incredible 21 TD passes and only one pick. With the heavily-favored 49ers having a talent edge over the Pack, Love needed another near-perfect performance to give his team a chance for the upset. Unfortunately, he couldn’t deliver. Love threw beautifully for two TDs and a two-point conversion, but was undone by his mistakes down the stretch.
Late in the third quarter, the Packers led 21-14 with a chance to go up two scores on the home team. Facing a third and eleven near midfield, Love threw high and was picked by linebacker Dre Greenlaw who returned it to the Pack 48. Greenlaw turned out to be a more of a game-changing force than his more hyped line backing mate Fred Warner.
The Green Bay defense actually rose to the occasion, forcing a 52-yard field goal attempt by Jake Moody who had an earlier kick blocked.This time, Moody was good. Instead of being down two scores, SF now trailed by less than a TD — a difference that ultimately was “outcome determinative.”
Nevertheless, following the 49ers go ahead TD, Love had the ball at the Packer 25 with 1:07 left, three timeouts, and a chance to drive the Packers to a tying field goal or a winning TD. But, on first and ten at the Pack 36, Love made a disastrous decision to force a cross body, cross field throw that was easily picked by Greenlaw again, effectively ending the Packers’ season. After 157.2 last week, Love’s 72.4 QB rating last night was disappointing, to say the least.
3.Unreliable kicking.
As I mentioned in last week’s wrap up, Packer fans worried about the inconsistency of rookie kicker Anders Carlson, who led the league in missed kicks, including six missed extra points. Those worries came to fruition under the lights at Levi’s Stadium. For most of the season, Green Bay was able to “work around” Carlson’s blips. Not last night.
After the 49ers closed the gap to four, the Packers drove the ball to the SF 23 with a chance to stretch their cushion back to 7. But, Carlson’s kick from the 31 was wide left with 6:21 to go. Purdy and his team took over at the 31 and drove for the winning TD.
4. Defense didn’t make the “big stop.”
Overall, the defense did a good job of controlling Purdy and the star-studded SF offense. But, with the game on the line on the final 49er drive, they failed to get that “big stop” that could have put them in the NFC Championship game.
The “back-breaker” was allowing Purdy (157 career rushing yards), whom nobody would confuse with Lamar Jackson, to “beat them with his legs” by rushing nine yards to the Packer six to set up McCaffrey’s winning TD on the next play.
Unlike last week, when the defense picked off Dak Prescott twice (one for a TD), Purdy had no interceptions. But, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Purdy hit several Packer defenders on their hands, including what likely would have been a pick six for Darnell Savage repeating his big play from last week.
In a three-point loss, missed opportunities loomed large.
5. Wasting another stellar performance from Aaron Jones.
Jones actually made it look almost easy against SF’s “shutdown” run defense. Had the Packers held on to win, he would have been my MVP!
With the Packers backed up on their own 10 midway through the third quarter, Jones ripped of a 53-yard-run to the 49er 37. At that point, with Green Bay up by four, it had all the ear marks of being a game-winning drive. But, the drive stalled at the 23, and Carlson’s missed FG ended what proved to be the Pack’s last venture into enemy territory.
Wait till next year
There is no shame in losing to the high-powered, well-coached, heavily-favored 49ers in the playoffs. Just ask future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers who failed to prevail in four tries. By any account, with the youngest team in the league, Love and the Pack far exceeded expectations this year, particularly following a 3-6 start.
There are reasons to be optimistic that with a year of experience under their belts, Love and his young receiving corps will be able to return to the playoffs next season. “Lost in the shuffle” was the consistently outstanding play of the Green Bay offensive line down the stretch. Although Love was pressured on some occasions, he was not sacked by a really good defense. There were some good sized holes opened for Jones And, as mentioned several times by the network announcers, the receivers showed that they could do more than catch by laying down some critical blocks to help spring Jones and other team-mates.
Additionally, getting a team that had the look of a potential “bottom-dweller” at mid-season into the playoffs might have been Matt LaFleur’s most impressive coaching feat yet in a relatively short, highly successful head coaching career, all with Green Bay.
There are also some factors that might give fans pause. Will Love be able to put last night’s hiccup behind him and move on? Will the young receivers continue to develop?
I appreciate LaFleur’s commitment to his rookie kicker Carlson. But, if the Pack seek to become a “perennial contender” with Love in today’s NFL, they need consistency from their kicker. Strong legs like Carlson are important, but accuracy is paramount. I don’t have a problem with giving Carlson another shot. But, the results must improve.
The Packers’ stretch run showed the great value of Aaron Jones. When he is healthy, I still think he is the most dangerous running back in the league. Having Jones in the backfield certainly enabled Love to elevate his performance.
But, Jones missed a number of mid-season games with injuries, a problem throughout his career. Without Jones, the running game struggled. And, the Packers have not to date found a reliable backup. Despite some promise, A.J. Dillion has not proved to be effective as a number one back and ended the season out with injuries.
Then, there is the schedule. Having seen what Love and the receiving corps can do during the playoff run, the rest of the league will be prepared. This year, the Packers played a relatively “soft” schedule, facing only six eventual playoff teams against which they were a respectable 3-3. Next year’sopponents, however, include seven teams that made the playoffs and several others who were in contention till the end.
Within the North Division, the Lions will again be the favorites. But, the Bears have the number one draft pick and figure to be more competitive. Also, the Vikings will be better if they are able to bring back Kirk Cousins, whose injury gave them an unpleasant look at the alternatives. Say what you like about his lack of playoff success, “Captain Kirk” is one of the most prolific regular season passers in the league who is 7-4 lifetime against the Pack. No defensive coordinator relishes the sight of having the Vikes #8 trot into the huddle.
All in all, it was an unexpectedly interesting, sometimes exhilarating, season for the green and gold. Whether, as those of us in Packer Nation hope, it proves to be a harbinger of greater things to come, or just another of those “oh so close, but no cigar” moments remains to be seen. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, congratulations to the 49ers and Coach Kyle Shanahan. SF and GB have now played a record 10 playoff games with the 49ers holding a 6-4 edge after winning the last five. Good luck to them as they continue their Super Bowl quest.
Jordan Love was nearly perfect in leading the upstart #7 Packers to huge victory over the #2 Cowboys in Dallas. Next week, they play #1 49ers in San Francisco. Green Bay will be big underdogs again! PHOTO: Packer website
🏈 SPORTS: BEHIND LOVE ❤️, JONES, DOUBS, 2 PICKS, & LAFLEUR’S COACHING, “UNDERDOG” PACK MAUL COWBOYS, 48-32, HEAD TO ROUND 2 IN SF!
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
Special to Courtside Sports
Jan. 14, 2024
It’s late, so just some of the highlights:
QB Jordan Love 16-21-272-3-0-157.2 (158.3 is the highest possible) — one of the top five performances in playoff history;
RB Aaron Jones 21-11-3 — tied Packer one-game playoff rushing TD record, fourth straight game 100+ rushing yards;
WR Romeo Doubs 6-151-1;
Safety Darnell Savage, pick 6 (64 yards);
CB Jaire Alexander, pick;
Offensive line, 0 sacks;
Youngest team ever to win a playoff game;
First #7 seed to win a playoff game (since playoffs expanded in 2020);
Tied highest Packer point total in playoff game;
Most points surrendered by Dallas in playoff game;
Ended 16 game Dallas home winning streak;
Packers four straight wins.
The game was not as close as the score and stats indicate. The Packers won the coin toss, drove 75 yards for a touchdown (Jones, 3 yard run), jumped to a 27-0 lead, and never looked back. Aftera 3-yard TD pass from Love to Romeo Doubs, the Pack led 48-16 with 10:41 left in the fourth quarter. The rest of the game was “garbage time” with the Cowboys racking up bogus statistics, some against Packer reserves.
One somewhat unfortunate consequence was that after the Cowboys scored two basically meaningless TDs with 2 point conversions, Coach Matt LaFleur was forced to send Love and the first unit back for a series. When Tucker Kraft dropped Love’s third down pass, his QB rating fell from perfect 158.3 to 157.2. That and a missed extra point by Anders Carlson were about the only things that went wrong for the Pack at AT&T Stadium.
Next week, Green Bay travels to San Francisco to face the top-seeded 49ers. Once again, they will be heavy underdogs. After what happened in Dallas today, the Niners are unlikely to take the upstarts from Green Bay lightly. So, it will take another extraordinary effort from Love and his young colleagues to reach the NFC Championship game!
Green Bay Packer QB Bart Starr (15) sneaks in the winning touchdown as Packers beat Cowboys 21-17 in the “Ice Bowl” on Dec. 31, 1967. The coldest NFL Playoff game — by far!
Photo: PackersNews.com
COURTSIDE WEATHER🥶/SPORTS🏈/HISTORY📗: -3 F FOR CHIEFS V. DOLPHINS PLAYOFF IN KC TONIGHT — That’s Not Even Close To The Coldest Playoff Game Ever, The 1967 “Ice Bowl!”
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
Special to Courtside Sports
Jan. 13, 2023
Alexandria, VA. When the Kansas City Chiefs take the Arrowhead Stadium field for their home playoff game against the Miami Dolphins in a few hours, it’s already being advertised as one of the coldest NFL playoff games in history. (Thanks to ethically-challenged fat-cat execs at NBC Universal, you’ll only be able to see the TV game if you subscribe to their streaming service, Peacock. But, media greed is another story.)For Fox Sports’srundown of the coldest playoff games in history, seehttps://apple.news/AeZJd_34gSMyMhei2REuS1g.
Weather forecasts say the actual temperature could be as low as -3 F with a windchill of -13. But, that would be “Balmy Days” compared with the December 31, 1967, 1:00 PM CST kickoff of the NFL playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys (coached by the great Tom Landry) at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. The actual temperature at kickoff was listed at -13 F. Although “wind chill” hadn’t yet become a craze, it has been calculated at -48 F.
According to participants, the temperature and wind chill actually fell during the game. “Minus-15 and minus-55 chill factor — the only time I’ve ever been exposed to that, and I don’t care that if it’s the last time,” according to Packer wide receiver Carroll Dale (3 catches, 43 yards.)
Behind Hall of Fame QB Bart Starr and legendary Head Coach Vince Lombardi the Packers were actually able to move the ball through the air in the first half, taking a 14-0 lead and going into the frigid halftime up 14-10.
But, it was a different story in the second half, with the Cowboy defense holding the Packers scoreless on 10 straight possessions, while taking a 17-14 lead. When the Pack took over on their own 32 yard line late in the 4th quarter, with 4:50 to go, a long cold winter in Green Bay was definitely on the dimming horizon.
Starr led the team to a first down and goal at the one with time running down. After two failedDonny Anderson runs, the Packers called their final timeout with :16 to go. That led to one of the most famous plays in NFL history — one that in the end defined Lombardi, Starr, guard Jerry Kramer, and the Packers.
I was watching the game at home in Wauwatosa, WI with my family on our 13” GE color tv. As my brother, Jim, likes to remind me, it was about this moment that, as the youngest driver, he was “designated” to take our grandmother home and, therefore, missed what came next.
Most of us were expecting a pass. Even if incomplete, it would stop the clock for a “chip shot” field goal on fourth down to likely send the game into sudden death overtime.
But, Starr fooled everyone by calling his own number. Going over a slight opening created by Jerry Kramer’s iconic block on 6’6” 260 pound Cowboy defensive tackle Jethro Pugh, Starr knifed into the end zone for what proved to be the deciding score. The extra point by Don Chandler was good, and the Packers led 21-17 with 13 seconds left.
That’s where most accounts of the game end. But, as Jim reminded me, “Many of us recall the Starr QB sneak as the final play but actually there were 13 seconds left and the Packers had to kick off and defend a couple of plays.”
Despite the treacherous weather, almost all of the then approximately 51,000 seats at Lambeau were filled with hardy fans, and few left before the final whistle blew. (The inoperability of metal whistles during the Ice Bowl actually resulted in the NFL’s decision to permanently switch to plastic whistles.)
Ironically, Bart Starr was known for his passing, leadership, and “on field smarts,” but definitely NOT for his running. The one-yard winning TD that day at Lambeau was his only rush of the day (he also got sacked eight times for losses of 76 yards by Dallas’s “Doomsday Defense,” and lost a fumble resulting in the Cowboys’ first touchdown).
The Ice Bowl cemented the legend of Lombardi, Starr, and the 1960’s Packers. But, it also gave rise to some myths.
Myth #1: The Packers’ Invincibility in Frozen Games. Not surprisingly, as described in the Fox Sports article linked above, the Packers have participated in three of the seven coldest NFL Playoff games. But, the Ice Bowl remains their only victory. They lost to the Giants 23-20 in 2007 in Brett Farve’s last game as a Packer. They also lost to the San Francisco 23-20 in 2013 during the Aaron Rodgers era.
Although they have had other chances at Lambeau playoff games since 2000, they never have never been able to duplicate their winning trip to the 2011 Super Bowl where they bested Pittsburgh. Interestingly, and perhaps fortuitously for Packers fans, this year’s Jordan Love led playoff team resembles the 2010 squad.
They have the worst seed (now #7), thereby eliminating any possibility of another game at Lambeau. Like the 2010 team, they are heavy underdogs who had to win out over the last few games of the season to even make the playoffs.
Myth #3: The Packers have “owned” the Cowboys in the Playoffs. Significantly, the Pack won the first two playoff meetings, in 1966 and 1967, on their way to their first two Super Bowl Championships. And, they have won the last two memorable playoff games with the Cowboys, played in 2015 (26-21) and 2017 (34-31).
But, in between, the Cowboys won four straight (1983, 1994, 1995, 1996). Indeed, when the Packers won their lone Super Bowl under Farve, 1997, they did not face Dallas in the playoffs.
So, actually, the Packers and the Cowboys are 4-4 in playoff games with Dallas strongly favored in tomorrow afternoon’s late matchup on Fox.
Which leads me to my final point. In an era of “enlightenment,” when player health and fan safety are supposed to be paramount, why not postpone tonight’s KC-Miami matchup to more suitable weather when the players can perform somewhere near their best and the fans can actually enjoy the game rather than just having to survive it?
After all, the competition is about football, NOT attempting to set coldness records or “out ice the Ice Bowl.” In an unusual burst of rationality, tomorrow’s untenable showdown between Pittsburgh and Buffalo at the latter’s snow-bound home has been postponed at the request of NY Gov. Kathy Hochul, due to public safety concerns.
If tonight’s Chiefs v. Dolphins contest is marred on or off the field by a preventable weather-related injury or fan problems, authorities in Kansas City and the NFL might wish that they had acted with more common sense and prudence. I’m sure that those of us Packer fans who remember watching the Ice Bowl in the comfort of home enjoyed the game more than the players or, for that matter, the 51,000 freezing fans!
🏈 SPORTS: ON TO DALLAS WITH LOVE❤️! — Pack Down Rival Bears 17-9, Clinch Playoff Slot As QB Stars, Jones Runs, Defense Hangs Tough!
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
Special to Courtside Sports
Jan. 8, 2024
At the end of October, the Green Bay Packers were 2-5, riding a four game losing streak, with young QB Jordan Love coming off a 74.8 QB performance against the Vikings and having thrown 8 picks against 11 TDs. Many were questioning the team’s decision to hitch their future to the fourth year signal caller from Utah State, who played only sparingly in his first three seasons while backing up future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Rodgers.
Jordan Love has elevated his play over the second half of the season, helping the Packers to make the playoffs in the first year of the “post-Aaron-Rodgers” Era. Quarterback Green Bay Packers PHOTO” Packer website
Today, the Packers are heading to the playoffs as the NFC’s #7 seed with a 9-8 record, after defeating the rival Chicago Bears (7-10) 17-9 at Lambeau Field on Sunday. Love turned in a near-perfect performance going 27-32-316-2-0-128.6 in achieving a playoff spot in his first full season, something that eluded the great Rodgers. Love finished the regular season with over 4,000 yards passing, 32 TD passes (second only to the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott’s 36), 11 interceptions, a 96.1 rating, and 248 rushing yards.
It wasn’t easy for the Pack Sunday against the Bears, although they dominated the game statistically. Green Bay never punted on its seven possessions. But, mistakes on three of those kept the green and gold from talking a two possession lead that would have given fans some comfort.
Following a Bears’ field goal on the first series, the Pack drove to the Chicago 15. But, a sack of Love on third down led to a missed Anders Carlson field goal from the 41. The rookie kicker’s inconsistency on extra points (5 missed) and kicks from 40-50 yards (4-8) must be an area of concern heading into the playoffs.
Following a Chicago punt on the next possession, the Pack drove 92 yards, culminating in a 10-yard TD pass from Love to rookie receiver Dontayvion Wicks (6-61-2). That gave Green Bay their first lead, 7-3.
The Bears closed the gap to 7-6 on Cairo Santos’s second field goal, a 39-yarder with 1:17 left in the half. The Packers then mounted a last-minute drive deep into Chicago territory that should have padded their lead. However, poor clock management by Coach Matt LaFleur resulted in time expiring with the team on the Chicago 19-yard-line.
Taking the second half kickoff, the Packers drove 75 yards on 9 plays for a TD. Again it was a pass from Love to Wicks, this one for 12 yards. With the extra point, the Pack extended their lead to eight. Better, but still within a single score. And, the Packers needed a win to make the playoffs. A tie would send them home for the post-season.
After forcing the Bears two punt on their next possession, the Packers mounted a drive that appeared destined to finally give them that two-score spread. But, in his only mistake of the game, Love fumbled near midfield while running for a first down. The Bears recovered. The Pack defense was stout, but Chicago was able to convert that turnover — the only one of the well-played game for either team — into Santos’s third field goal, to cut the lead to five, 14-9.
The Packers answered with what looked for a moment like Love’s third TD pass of the day, this one to Bo Melton who again performed admirably (5-62-0) after spending much of the season on the practice squad. But, the initial TD call was reversed on video replay, and Green Bay had to settle for a 25 yard Carlson field goal to put the lead back at eight, 17-9.
The Bears hung tough. On the ensuing possession they drove to the Packer 34 with the help of a defensive offside penalty on fourth down in their own territory. There, however, the drive stalled on a holding penalty and a sack of QB Justin Fields, leaving the Bears with a fourth and 22 from the 50. After another nice punt from Trevor Gill, the Packers had the ball on their own six yard line with 6:08 to go and the Bears still having three time-outs and the two-minute warning.
The game was still very much in doubt. Although the defense had contained the elusive Bear QB Fields (11-16-148-0-0-97.9), their leading rusher for the season, he is a threat to score on any play, from anywhere on the field. If the Pack were forced to punt from deep in their own territory, Chicago would have good field position and plenty of time to score a TD. The thought of having to defend Fields on a potential game-tying two-point conversion to avoid overtime was not one that Packer nation relished.
At this point, Love and his mates on offense put together the “drive of the game” — perhaps the “drive of the season” — even though it did not result in any points! Using a combination of clutch runs and passes, the Pack held the ball for the rest of the game, finally kneeling down on the Chicago 32 as the clock expired.
Along the way, Love converted two huge third downs, one to star rookie Jaydon Reed (4-112-0) at the Packer 29 and another to rookie Tucker Kraft (3-31-0) that took the ball to the Bears’ 42 with2:17 left, forcing Chicago to use its final timeout.
The “dagger,” as Packer radio broadcaster Wayne Larrabee would say, came two plays later when Aaron Jones ran up the middle for the Packers’ 24th, and final, first down of the day. Out of time outs, the visitors from the Windy City could only watch in dismay as the Lambeau fans celebrated.
Jones (22-111-0) notched his second straight 100+ yard game, against a tough run defense, showing once again why when healthy he is probably the best all-around running back in the league. With help from the O line, Jones’s running allowed Green Bay to achieve a near-perfect balance (32 passes, 27 runs), that chewed up clock, took some of the pressure off of Love (as problem that had led to mid-season woes), and kept the Bears’ defense off balance all afternoon.
Speaking of defense, Joe Barry’s much maligned unit turned in a second straight stellar performance, this time against one of the league’s most athletic and potentially explosive QBs. Over the past two games, the D has kept opponents out of the end zone when it counted, surrendering only a meaningless TD to the Vikes set up by a muffed punt inside the 10 yard line.
The Packers now head to Dallas (12-5) for a late-Sunday-afternoon date with the Eastern Division Champ Cowboys and Head Coach Mike McCarthy who directed the Packers to their (and Rodgers’s) only Super Bowl Title of the 21st Century following the 2010 season. Despite their regular-season-closing three game winning streak, the Pack will be a touchdown underdog.
In fairness, there is little similarity between Green Bay’s last three victims — Chicago (7-10), Minnesota (7-10), and Carolina (2-15) — and the ‘Boys. Dallas has a potent offense led by QB Dak Prescott (36 TDs) and a strong defense led by linebacker Micah Parsons. They are also undefeated at home this season. The Packers will not be able to afford “empty trips” into the opponent’s territory as happened three times against the Bears.
Not to mention that McCarthy, who was out of football for a season following his 2018 dismissal from Green Bay, would dearly love to show Green Bay’s management that he still has plenty left in his tank. There are also rumors that despite this year’s strong showing, Dallas owner Jerry Jones might axe him if the Cowboys don’t get to the Super Bowl. So, there will be plenty of drama with lots at stake.
With the youngest team in the NFL (and one of the youngest ever to make the playoffs), and a young QB in his first “real” season, it would be easy to view making the playoffs as a somewhat unanticipated success for the Packers and not worry much about what comes next. But, that would be a mistake for the team!
In this post-Tom-Brady Era of the NFL, even the “prime contenders” — Baltimore (13-4) and San Francisco (12-5) — have looked very vulnerable at times. Consequently, it’s plausible to imagine any of the remaining teams — including the lower seeds — hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in Las Vegas on Feb. 11.
When the Packers won the 2011 Super Bowl behind Rodgers & McCarthy, they were the lowest seed (then #6) and therefore played all “away” games. Despite the myth of the advantage of playing home games on Lambeau’s “frozen tundra” in January, in following seasons, with higher seeds and arguably better players on the roster, the Packers have never been able to get beyond the NFC Championship game.
Maybe this will be the first of many playoff runs for Love & the Packers, but there are no guarantees. Therefore, it’s important to make the most of each shot and for the Pack to give it their best shot in Dallas on Sunday.
Jordan Love Quarterback Green Bay Packers PHOTO” Packer website
🏈 BEHIND LOVE ❤️, PACK STAYS IN HUNT WITH CONVINCING 33-10 TAKEDOWN OF VIKES!
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
Special to Courtside Sports
Green Bay, WI, Jan. 1, 2024.With quarterback Jordan Love leading the way, the Green Bay Packers (8-8) crushed the arch-rival Minnesota Vikings (7-9) 33-10 in a New Year’s Eve blowout at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Love is now one game away from accomplishing something that iconic Packer QB Aaron Rodgers failed to do in his first or last full seasons with the Pack — take them to the playoffs.
Love was an impressive 24-36-256 with 3 passing TDs, another rushing, no interceptions, and a QB rating of 125.3, engineering all four of the team’s end-zone trips. Running back Aaron Jones added 120 yards rushing on 20 carries, as the Pack dominated from the opening whistle.
The much maligned green and gold defense pitched a near shutout, allowing only a field goal and a largely meaningless TD set up by a muffed punt inside the 10 years line. Surprisingly, the Vikings, playing behind their third and fourth string QBs, largely failed to show up in this rivalry game with the playoffs on the line. The margin could have been even bigger, as Packer receivers were running open all night, running backs were often into the Vikes’ secondary, and the only home team trip to the end zone was a gift.
Left for dead after four straight mid-season losses, the Packers now have a clear path to the playoffs: Beat the 7-9 Chicago Bears at Lambeau on Sunday and they are in! On paper, that looks “doable,” given that Green Bay downed Chicago at Soldier Field 38-20 in the season opener in September.
Yet, the situation is eerily similar to last season. Then, behind Rodgers, the Pack needed only to beat the Lions, who had already been eliminated from the playoffs, at Lambeau. However, the Lions didn’t roll over, besting the home team 20-16 to send Green Bay to a losing season and no playoffs in AR’s swan song. That was a precursor to this season which saw Detroit win the NFC North for their first divisional crown in three decades.
While the Bears are guaranteed another losing season, and are all but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs (less than 1% chance), the Pack should expect a battle. The Bears have won four of their last five and two straight. Green Bay leads the NFL’s oldest matchup 107-95-6, but a playoff-elimination win over their rivals from up north would “make” Chicago’s season.
While the Packers’ fortunes may not match Taylor Swift’s impact on the worldwide economy, they are still the biggest deal in this town — by far! The general mood rises and falls with their team. So, at least for today, it’s a Happy New Year from “the Bay.”
🇺🇸😎🥳 Happy New Year and Due Process Forever from Courtside!
Turning this group loose on asylum seekers is an act of gross legal, judicial, and political malpractice by the Biden Administration and Merrick Garland! https://www.flickr.com/photos/rasputin243/ Creative Commons License
Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:
“Here, the IJ and BIA found, and the government does not dispute, that Espinoza-Ochoa credibly testified that he experienced harm and threats of harm in Guatemala that “constitute[d] persecution.” But the agency concluded that Espinoza-Ochoa was still ineligible for asylum for two reasons. First, it held that Espinoza-Ochoa had failed to identify a valid PSG because the social group he delineated, “land-owning farmer, who was persecuted for simply holding [the] position of farmer and owning a farm, by both the police and gangs in concert,” was impermissibly circular. Second, the IJ and BIA each held that, regardless of whether his asserted PSG was valid, the harm Espinoza-Ochoa experienced was “generalized criminal activity” and therefore was not on account of his social group. We conclude that the BIA committed legal error in both its PSG and nexus analyses. We first explain why Espinoza-Ochoa’s PSG was not circular and then evaluate whether his PSG was “at least one central reason” for the harm he suffered. Ultimately, we remand to the agency to reconsider both issues consistent with this opinion. … For all these reasons, we agree with Espinoza-Ochoa that legal error infected both the PSG and nexus analyses below. Accordingly, we GRANT the petition, VACATE the decision below, and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
[Hats way off to Randy Olen!]
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You’ve been reading about this damaging, deadly legal travesty going on during Garland’s watch:
How outrageous, illegal, and “anti-historical” are the Garland BIA’s antics? The classic example of Marxist-Leninist revolutionary persecutions involve targeting property owners, particularly landowners. Indeed, in an earlier time, the BIA acknowledged that “landowners” were a PSG. See, e.g., Matter of Acosta, 19 I&N Dec. 211 (BIA 1985).
But, now in intellectually dishonest decisions, the BIA pretzels itself, ignores precedent, and tortures history in scurrilous attempts to deny obvious protection. These bad decisions, anti-asylum bias, and deficient scholarship infect the entire system.
It makes cases like this — which couldand should have easily been granted in a competent system shortly after the respondent’s arrival in 2016 — hang around for seven years, waste resources, and still be on the docket.
This is a highly — perhaps intentionally — unrecognized reason why the U.S. asylum asylum system is failing today. It’s also a continuing indictment of the deficient performance of Merrick Garland as Attorney General.
Obviously, these deadly, festering problems infecting the entire U.S. justice system are NOT going to be solved by taking more extreme enforcement actions against those whose quest for fair and correct asylum determinations are now being systematically stymied and mishandled by the incompetent actions of the USG, starting with the DOJ!
The agency is still considering referred applicants from the previous announcement posted September 25, 2023, under announcement number, IJ-12116877-23-VG. If you applied under that announcement and were referred for consideration, you need not reapply under this announcement.
This is an Excepted Service position. Upon completion of the required trial period, the position will be permanent. Additional positions may be filled from this announcement within 90 days of certificate issuance.
This position is in the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), Office of the Chief Immigration Judge. EOIR seeks highly-qualified individuals to join our team of expert professionals who serve as immigration adjudicators in this important Agency.
EOIR plays a pivotal role in the administration of the Nation’s immigration system. EOIR’s mission is to adjudicate immigration cases fairly, equitably, and efficiently at the trial and appellate level, governed by due process and the rule of law. Under delegated authority from the Attorney General, EOIR conducts immigration court proceedings, appellate reviews, and other administrative hearings, applying the immigration laws while ensuring that adjudicators are impartial, that laws are applied humanely and equitably, that all parties are treated with respect and dignity, and that cases are resolved expeditiously and in accordance with the Administration’s priorities and all applicable laws and regulations.
EOIR consists of three adjudicatory components: the Office of the Chief Immigration Judge, which is responsible for managing the numerous immigration courts located throughout the United States where immigration judges adjudicate individual cases; the Board of Immigration Appeals, which primarily conducts appellate reviews of the immigration judges’ decisions; and the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer, which adjudicates immigration-related employment cases. EOIR’s Headquarters is located in Falls Church, Virginia, about 10 miles from downtown Washington, DC.
As the federal agency whose mission is to ensure the fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans, the Department of Justice is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. To build and retain a workforce that reflects the diverse experiences and perspectives of the American people, we welcome applicants from the many communities, identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, religions, and cultures of the United States who share our commitment to public service.
Job Description
Immigration Judges preside in formal, quasi-judicial hearings. Proceedings before Immigration Judges include but are not limited to removal, and bond adjudications, and involve issues of removability as well as applications for relief such as asylum, withholding of removal, protection under the Convention Against Torture, cancellation of removal, and adjustment of status.
Immigration Judges make decisions that are final, subject to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. In connection with these proceedings, Immigration Judges exercise certain discretionary powers as provided by law, and are required to exercise independent judgment in reaching final decisions. Immigration Judges may be required to conduct hearings in penal institutions and other remote locations
Qualifications
In order to qualify for the Immigration Judge position, applicants must meet all of the following minimum qualifications:
Education: Applicants must possess a LL.B., J.D., or LL.M. degree. (Provide the month and year in which you obtained your degree and the name of the College or University from which it was conferred/awarded.)
AND
Licensure: Applicants must be an active member of the bar, duly licensed and authorized to practice law as an attorney under the laws of any state, territory of the U.S., or the District of Columbia. (Provide the month and year in which you obtained your first license and the State from which it was issued.)
AND
Experience: Applicants must have seven (7) years of post-bar admission experience as a licensed attorney preparing for, participating in, and/or appealing court or administrative agency proceedings at the Federal, State or local level. Qualifying trial experience involves cases in which a complaint was filed with a court or administrative agency, or a charging document (e.g., indictment, notice of violation, or information) was issued by a court, administrative entity, a grand jury, or appropriate military authority. Relevant administrative experience includes cases in which a formal procedure was initiated by a governmental administrative body.
NOTE: Qualifying experience is calculated only after bar admission.
IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. If your resume does not support your assessment questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). Ensure that your resume contains your full name, address, phone number, email address, and employment information. Each position listed on your resume must include: From/To dates of employment (MM/YYYY-MM/YYYY or MM/YYYY to Present); agency/employer name; position title; Federal grade level(s) held, if applicable; hours, if less than full time; and duties performed. In addition, any experience on less than a full time basis must specify the percentage and length of time spent in performance of such duties.
Additional information
This is an Excepted Service position, subject to a probationary period. The initial appointment is for a period not to exceed 24 months. Conversion to a permanent position is contingent upon appointment by the Attorney General.
Additional positions may be filled from this announcement within 90 days of certificate issuance.
Alternative work schedule options are available. Immigration Judges’ tour of duty may include Saturdays and Sundays.
There is no formal rating system for applying veterans’ preference to Immigration Judge appointments in the excepted service; however, the Department of Justice considers veterans’ preference eligibility as a positive factor in Immigration Judge hiring. Applicants eligible for veterans’ preference must claim their status when completing their application in the online application process and attach supporting documentation. (See the “Required Documents” section.)
Many vacancies (see below vacancy link for locations): Location Negotiable After Selection
Travel
50% or less – You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation Expenses
Not authorized
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Department Policies
Equal Employment Opportunity: The U.S. Department of Justice is an Equal Opportunity/Reasonable Accommodation Employer. Except where otherwise provided by law, there will be no discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex – including gender identity, sexual orientation, or pregnancy status – or because of age (over 40), physical or mental disability, protected genetic information, parental status, marital status, political affiliation, or any other non-merit based factor. The Department of Justice welcomes and encourages applications from persons with physical and mental disabilities. The Department is firmly committed to satisfying its affirmative obligations under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to ensure that persons with disabilities have every opportunity to be hired and advanced on the basis of merit within the Department of Justice. For more information, please review our full EEO Statement.
Reasonable Accommodations: This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the agency. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.
Outreach and Recruitment for Qualified Applicants with Disabilities: The Department encourages qualified applicants with disabilities, including individuals with targeted/severe disabilities to apply in response to posted vacancy announcements. Qualified applicants with targeted/severe disabilities may be eligible for direct hire, non-competitive appointment under Schedule A (5 C.F.R. § 213.3102(u)) hiring authority. Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to contact one of the Department’s Disability Points of Contact (DPOC) to express an interest in being considered for a position. See list of DPOCs.
Suitability and Citizenship: It is the policy of the Department to achieve a drug-free workplace and persons selected for employment will be required to pass a drug test which screens for illegal drug use prior to final appointment. Employment is also contingent upon the completion and satisfactory adjudication of a background investigation. Congress generally prohibits agencies from employing non-citizens within the United States, except for a few narrow exceptions as set forth in the annual Appropriations Act (see, https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/working-in-government/non-citizens/Links to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the “external link” icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link.). Pursuant to DOJ component policies, only U.S. citizens are eligible for employment with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Trustee’s Offices, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Unless otherwise indicated in a particular job advertisement, qualifying non-U.S. citizens meeting immigration and appropriations law criteria may apply for employment with other DOJ organizations. However, please be advised that the appointment of non-U.S. citizens is extremely rare; such appointments would be possible only if necessary to accomplish the Department’s mission and would be subject to strict security requirements. Applicants who hold dual citizenship in the U.S. and another country will be considered on a case-by-case basis. All DOJ employees are subject to a residency requirement. Candidates must have lived in the United States for at least three of the past five years. The three-year period is cumulative, not necessarily consecutive. Federal or military employees, or dependents of federal or military employees serving overseas, are excepted from this requirement. This is a Department security requirement which is waived only for extreme circumstances and handled on a case-by-case basis.
Veterans: There is no formal rating system for applying veterans’ preference to attorney appointments in the excepted service; however, the Department of Justice considers veterans’ preference eligibility as a positive factor in attorney hiring. Applicants eligible for veterans’ preference must include that information in their cover letter or resume and attach supporting documentation (e.g., the DD 214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty and other supporting documentation) to their submissions. Although the “point” system is not used, per se, applicants eligible to claim 10-point preference must submit Standard Form (SF) 15, Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference, and submit the supporting documentation required for the specific type of preference claimed (visit the OPM website, www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/SF15.pdfLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the “external link” icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link. for a copy of SF 15, which lists the types of 10-point preferences and the required supporting document(s). Applicants should note that SF 15 requires supporting documentation associated with service- connected disabilities or receipt of nonservice-connected disability pensions to be dated 1991 or later except in the case of service members submitting official statements or retirement orders from a branch of the Armed Forces showing that their retirement was due to a permanent service-connected disability or that they were transferred to the permanent disability retired list (the statement or retirement orders must indicate that the disability is 10% or more).
USAO Residency Requirement: Assistant United States Attorneys must reside in the district to which appointed or within 25 miles thereof. See 28 U.S.C. 545 for district specific information.
* * *
This and other vacancy announcements can be found under Attorney Vacancies and Volunteer Legal Internships. The Department of Justice cannot control further dissemination and/or posting of information contained in this vacancy announcement. Such posting and/or dissemination is not an endorsement by the Department of the organization or group disseminating and/or posting the information.
Updated December 1, 2023
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Yes, I’ve been highly critical of EOIR, particularly the BIA. But, to change the system for the better, we need the “best and brightest judges” at the “retail level” — the U.S. Immigration Courts!
In the process of denying asylum to a family targeted by gangs in Mexico, the BIA says:
The Immigration Judge’s finding that the cartel was motived by a desire to control the respondents’ land rather than their family membership is a permissible view of the evidence and is not clearly erroneous.
This negative finding by the IJ was “permissible,” not “compelled.” That language admits that other fact-findings on the same evidence could also be “permissible.” Much depends on the individual Immigration Judge’s frame of reference and willingness to look for “reasons to protect” rather than defaulting to “reasons to reject.”
So, what if the IJ were able to see and understand asylum from the standpoint of the applicant, rather than defaulting to the EOIR “any reason to deny” approach? Fairer fact-findings below would require more careful review by the BIA. Rather than just being able to mindlessly affirm adverse findings below, the BIA would basically be legally bound to uphold more positive findings unless “clearly erroneous.”
Of course in their haste to deny some BIA panels are prone to violate the “clearly erroneous” standard to “get to no.” But, that increases the chances of Circuit reversal. See, e.g., Crespin Valladares v. Holder, 632 F.3d 117 (4th Cir. 2011) (my case from Arlington).
Additionally, DHS can’t and doesn’t appeal every asylum grant, particularly when they are “fact bound.” I actually had ICE Assistant Chief Counsel say on the record in waiving appeal that while they respectfully disagreed with my fact-findings, they recognized that they were not “clearly erroneous” for purposes of appeal. (Other times they actually agreed after I had stated my detailed findings and analysis, sometimes actually repeating during closing arguments the basic analysis I would have reached on the record we had just made.)
Better judging below can actually cut off and discourage backlog building “let’s spin the bottle” appeals by DHS encouraged by the BIA’s systemic failure to consistently uphold the rights of asylum seekers and their “unduly restrictive” interpretations of asylum law!
Buried amongst the morass of poor administration and bad appellate judging at EOIR, many “true expert” IJs are making great decisions and saving lives on a daily basis. One of the “best kept secrets” at EOIR — often intentionally obscured by both EOIR and the media (not to mention GOP White Nationalist nativists) — is that as of this summer over half of all those who passed “credible fear” — 55% — received asylum grants if they were actually able to get to merits hearings at today’s backlogged EOIR!See, e.g., https://humanrightsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Asylum-grant-rates-fact-sheet-August-2023.pdf.
That’s an impressive rate, given that the system is stacked against asylum applicants! It also highlights the total insanity of today’s discussions on the Hill of how to artificially heighten standards to bar asylum seekers and promote more arbitrary wrongful denials of life-saving protection. What’s needed is better judging and more realistic and humane policies, NOT more cruelty and misapplications of asylum law!
As I have pointed out along with others, asylum grant rates would be much higher with better judges at EOIR and better precedents from the BIA. Better guidance would mean more cases granted at the Asylum Office and Immigration Court levels and a more timely and efficient system that advances and promotes due process, rather than inhibiting it!
But, it can’t all be done “from the outside!” Better Immigration Judges — true asylum experts with “hands on” experience representing applicants before EOIR and the Asylum Office — are essential to rebuilding EOIR as a functional court system.
For example, one of the expert recommendations from the very recent Women’s Refugee Commission study of asylum reception, resettlement, and processing was that: “One pro se assistance goal is to incentivize immigration judges to take a closer look at pro se asylum cases.”
But, this laudable goal presupposes Immigration Judges who are experts in asylum law and able to “work their way through” some of the inherent barriers to justice in pro se Immigration Court cases rather than submitting to the “artificial production pressures and any reason to deny culture” that still exists at much of EOIR. Sadly, not all current IJs have this ability. Moreover, the BIA has provided defective leadership and guidance. EOIR judicial training on asylum does not measure up to much of that readily available in the private/NGO sector. See, e.g.,VIISTA Villanova.
Many practitioners who have contacted me here at “Courtside” lament that their lives and their client’s futures would be better if they only were appearing before Immigration Judges who actually understood asylum law from a protection standpoint. They are frustrated by having their fine presentations and great arguments “shrugged off” with “predetermined boiler plate denials” citing negative language from the BIA — often ignoring what actually happened or was proved at trials.
Instead of being destined to forever be frustrated by EOIR’s shortcomings, YOU now have a chance to “be that judge” — the one who understands asylum law, has seen the defects in EOIR decision-making, who doesn’t view denial as “preordained,” and will require both parties fairly to meet their burdens. (Ironically, there are many places where the asylum regulations still place the burden of proof on DHS, even if many IJs and BIA panels are unwilling to enforce them.)
So, get in those applications for EOIR judgeships! It’s a great way to show leadership by improving the system from the inside while saving lives in the process! Better judges for a better America — starting at the “retail level!”
WASHINGTON — An immigration judge and lawyer told a U.S. Senate Judiciary panel on Wednesday that an independent immigration court would help ease a backlog of more than 2 million pending cases.
Because the immigration court system is an arm of the U.S. Justice Department — the Executive Office for Immigration Review — each presidential administration has set immigration policy, and often those courts are subject to political interference, said Mimi Tsankov, an immigration judge, and Jeremy McKinney, an immigration attorney.
In the immigration court system, judges hold formal court proceedings to determine whether someone who is a noncitizen should be allowed to remain in the United States, or should be deported.
“Every administration has interfered with the courts. This undermines the courts’ integrity, and many of the executive branch’s manipulations of judges and their dockets simply backfire,” said McKinney, the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Tsankov, the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said in order to alleviate the backlog of immigration court cases, Congress should establish an independent immigration court under Article I of the U.S. Constitution.
. . . .
“An independent board will begin the process of healing this broken system,” she said.
The witnesses also argued that many people going through the immigration system lack legal representation, which can greatly impact their outcome.
The top Republican on the Senate panel, John Cornyn of Texas, argued that most cases are without merit, as opposed to asylum cases, which are based on a credible fear of death or harm. He said that people are “clogging the courts” and are aware the severe backlogs will allow them to stay in the country. Some courts have backlogs until 2027.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii, pushed back.
“People who have attorneys are 10.5 times more likely to be granted relief,” she said. “So it is when they have attorneys that they can proceed with their asylum claims.”
She added that another issue is that many children who are unaccompanied, even some toddlers, are expected to legally represent themselves.
“There is no guarantee that children will also have a lawyer, and this is alarming because children are some of the most vulnerable people in our immigration system,” she said.
Cornyn said he did not believe that “the taxpayer should be on the hook” for paying for legal fees and representation.
McKinney said that those who have representation and are not detained are five times more likely to gain relief. Immigrants who are detained and have legal representation are 10 times more likely to be granted relief than those who do not have representation.
“The point is that representation ensures due process,” he said. “It also makes the system more efficient when all the parties know the rules and know how to present a case. Cases move faster.”
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Read the full article at the above link. You can also check out the full video of the hearing here:
In his opening statement, ranking GOP Sen. Cornyn made it very clear that fixing the Immigration Courts is a nonstarter for the GOP.
Instead of engaging on this critically important initiative, he wasted much of his introduction disingenuously repeating the oft-debunked claim of a connection between asylum seekers and fentanyl smuggling. See, e.g., “Who is sneaking fentanyl across the southern border? Hint: it’s not the migrants,”https://www.npr.org/2023/08/09/1191638114/fentanyl-smuggling-migrants-mexico-border-drugs.
Obviously grasping at straws, in the absence of any empirical support for his nativist “scare scenario,” Cornyn went so far as to suggest — of course without a shred of evidence — that perhaps “go-arounds” were smuggling fentanyl.
This theory appears particularly questionable in light of evidence that most fentanyl is successfully smuggled through ports of entry by U.S. citizens and legal residents. Why would cartels abandon proven successful methods of port of entry smuggling to entrust their cargos to individuals who might not even survive the border crossing and, if apprehended, would certainly be searched? Cornyn had no answer.
What does seem likely is that by concentrating border law enforcement largely on “apprehending” and fruitlessly trying to “deter” those merely seeking to turn themselves in to exercise legal rights, the USG has diverted attention and resources from real law enforcement like an anti-fentanyl strategy. That almost certainly would require undercover infiltration of smuggling rings — dangerous and sophisticated law enforcement operations far removed from “apprehending” folks who WANT to be caught because they were forced to leave their home countries, are unsafe in Mexico, and can’t wait to schedule asylum appointments at ports of entry through the badly flawed and inadequate “CBP One App!” Building a fair and efficient asylum system should even help CBP apprehend more of Sen. Cornyn’s “go arounds!”
But, Cornyn’s misdirection isn’t just a distraction; it’s actually dangerous! As the GOP has shown over and over, if you repeat a lie or myth enough times, folks start to believe it. Witness the demonstrably totally frivolous claims of election interference that drive much of the GOP’s agenda and has become “truth” for their misguided “base.”
A case in point is the outrageous political boondoggle recently carried out by Virginia’s right-wing Governor Glenn Youngkin. In response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s White Nationalist plea, Youngkin wasted two million taxpayer dollars on a bogus detail of the National Guard to the Texas border, ostensibly to “protect Virginians from the scourge of fentanyl.”
What if Youngkin had spent the same amount of money supporting NGOs in Virginia struggling to resettle and represent migrants aimlessly bussed to the DMV by Abbott and DeSantis as part of a political stunt? Community social justice NGOs generally use funds more carefully and efficiently than GOP blowhards like Youngkin and co.
The GOP claim that most asylum claims are frivolous also is misleading. For those who can actually get a merits hearing on asylum at EOIR — often in and of itself no mean feat given the prevalence of “Aimless Docket Reshuffling” — TRAC statistics for FY 2022 show that 46% are granted. Seehttps://trac.syr.edu/whatsnew/email.221129.html#. And, this is in a system that is still heavily tilted against asylum seekers. EOIR still has many “holdover judges” from the Trump years who were hired not because of their expertise, qualifications, or reputations for fairness, but because their backgrounds indicated that they were likely to be unsympathetic to asylum seekers!
Admittedly, the manner in which EOIR keeps asylum statistics can make meaningful analysis difficult. For example, more than half of asylum “dispositions” are listed as “other” — which covers“abandoned, not adjudicated, other, or withdrawn,” a facially, at least partially, circular definition! Seehttps://www.justice.gov/media/1174741/dl?inline.
Moreover, since EOIR procedures generally require that all potential relief be stated at the time of pleading or presumptively be waived, prudence requires that the right to appply for asylum be protected, even if it is unlikely that the case will proceed to the merits on that application.
Also, it’s worth remembering that the Government already has a powerful tool for both identifying and quickly tossing frivolous asylum claims and expeditiously granting clearly meritorious claims to keep them out of the Immigration Court. It’s called the Asylum Office at USCIS! That despite much ballyhooed regulatory changes, DHS has failed to obtain “maximum leverage” from the credible fear/Asylum Office process is not a reason for eschewing EOIR reform!
What we can tell from the available data is that, rather than wasting more money on expensive and ineffective “deterrence gimmicks,” the best “bang for the buck” for the USG would be to invest in representation for asylum seekers and in a better, professionally-managed EOIR with better, independent judges, acknowledged experts in asylum law, who could “keep the lines moving” without denying due process or stomping on individual rights.They could also set helpful precedents for the Asylum Office. That’s what Congress and the Administration should be investing in.
Reforming the Immigration Courts and creating an independent Article I Court should be a high national priority. While no single action can bring “order to the border” overnight, fixing EOIR is an achievable priority that will support the rule of law and dramatically improve the quality and efficiency of justice at the border and throughout the U.S.
As Chairman Padilla (D-CA) said, this should be a bipartisan “no-brainer.” Just don’t look to today’s White-Nationalist-myth-driven GOP for help or rational dialogue on the subject.
Richard “Dick” Butkus 1942-2023 Hall of Fame Middle Linebacker Chicago Bears PHOTO: Milwaukee Journal Sentinal Archives
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
Courtside Sports Special
Oct. 7, 2023
It was a different football era. Powerful running backs like Jim Brown (Browns), Jim Taylor (Packers), and Gayle Sayers (Bears) dominated the offenses. Quarterbacks threw strategically and relatively sparingly, by today’s standards. (Packer Hall of Famer, Bart Starr, one of the best ever to play the position, averaged fewer than 20 pass attempts/game during his career. Some of today’s top QBs throw more than that by halftime!) 300 pounders were almost unheard of, on either side of the ball (today, most major college teams average over 300 pounds “up front.”)
The defenses were dominated by tough middle linebackers. Guys with names like Ray Nitschke (Packers), Sam Huff (Giants/Washington), and “Cousin Joe” (actually no relation) Schmidt (Lions). Today, most fans probably can’t name their own team’s starting middle linebacker, let alone their opponent’s. There’s really no current NFL counterpart, on either side of the ball, to the “fearsome, dominant middle linebacker” of the circa 1960’s NFL!
There was one middle linebacker that every fan knew: Dick Butkus of the Bears — the toughest of the tough, the meanest of the mean, the nastiest of the nasty, the baddest of the bad!
Growing up as a Wisconsin kid steeped in the Packers-Bears rivalry, the NFL’s oldest, Butkus was the “villain you loved to hate.” But, there was no denying his greatness and his impact on the game. The legendary Packer coach Vince Lombardi and his team had great respect for Butkus. “Butkus, hell, we used to put three people on him and still couldn’t block him,” said former Packer Dave “Hawg” Hanner. https://www.packers.com/news/packers-had-total-respect-for-the-legendary-dick-butkus.
Known on the field for his brawn, Butkus was also brainy. Although slowed by injuries at the end of his career, he retired young with his marbles and most of his essential body parts still intact. Like his great rival Jim Brown, Butkus went on to a successful career as an actor and tv personality. He became symbolic of the Bears’ franchise and the city of Chicago.
Farewell to Butkus — “Da baddest of da big bad Bears!” Thanks for the rivalries, memories, and excellence!
You can read Mike Freeman’s retrospective on Butkus’s life and career in USA Today here:
