"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.
The senior star’s mother writes:
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Thanks to my Lawrence University Sig Ep “brother” and fellow U.W. Law grad/lifetime Badger fan John “Bear” Sagan, Esq., for sending this item in. Helps put things in perspective after kind of a tough ending to the season.
ON WISCONSIN!
PWS
03/28/17
https://www.wsj.com/articles/my-wisconsin-michigan-revenge-fantasy-1489962628
Fellow Badger grad Jason Gay writes:
“I just wanted to enjoy my Monday. Was it too much to ask? The Wisconsin Badgers are back in college basketball’s Sweet 16 for the fourth straight time, having stunned top-seeded Villanova on Saturday—although I wasn’t the least bit stunned, I told you last week it would happen. I predicted Wisconsin all along. Hey Warren Buffett, where’s my million bucks?
It was even better. Not only did my Badgers win, but now they’re coming here—to New York City, my home, for the remainder of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament East Regional.
I was psyched. Psyched for my alma mater Wisconsin, psyched for an NYC invasion of Badger fans (hide your beer and cheese), psyched to parade into work Monday and be an insufferable doofus to all my Journal colleagues with busted brackets and wounded school pride. I was going to march in there with my giant Starbucks and red Bucky Badger sweatshirt, humming “On Wisconsin” and ruining everyone’s day.
I was going to be unbearable. And love every minute of it.
And then…them. You-know-who.
Michigan.
They’ve made the Sweet 16, too. They stunned two-seeded Louisville on Sunday.
It’s a nightmare.”
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Yeah, it was almost, but not quite, enough to make me want to be back at the Arlington Immigration Court wearing my Bucky Badger tie (incorrectly identified as a “grinning weasel” by my dear former colleague Judge Rodger Harris) and whistling “On Wisconsin” and “Varsity” all day in my chambers and in the corridors of justice. All I can say is:
GO BUCKY!
PWS
02/20/17
Robert Samuels writes:
“Here in deeply conservative Nebraska, President Trump’s executive order banning refugees and people from seven majority-Muslim nations elicited complicated feelings about the state’s relationship with refugees. Many Nebraskans had supported attempts to keep the country safe but still wanted to show their heart for people fleeing terrorism and war. Their state has taken in more refugees per capita than any other.
During the presidential campaign, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) became a prime critic of Trump in large part because of his plan to ban Muslims from entering the United States. When Trump signed the executive order, Sasse criticized it as “too broad.” On Sunday, Sasse criticized Trump again, this time for tweeting about the “so-called judge” who halted the order late Friday.
Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican who has supported a ban on Syrians from the moment Trump first pitched it, has also talked about welcoming refugees already here as a source of statewide pride.
. . . .
“I worry this ban will change how I feel inside, that it will cause me to worry more for me and my kids. We did not come here to cause trouble. We just want to live.”
. . . .
The Syrian city of Aleppo had been so dangerous that she delivered her twins in her own home, too afraid to go to the hospital. Two months later, she wrapped them tight and carried them on her shoulders as she walked through the desert at night to reach a Jordanian refugee camp. There were no bombs there, but there were no teachers for her children, either. Now her kids learn the alphabet at school, and she had an English teacher herself.
For so long she had been running away. Now, she was stepping out.”
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This matches up with my own experience when I attended the Badger v. Nebraska game at Camp Randall Stadium last October. I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know some of the Nebraska fans.
They were great. Since both schools’ colors are red and white, it was pretty hard to tell them from Badger fans except that their group seemed a little older, somewhat less inebriated, and considerably less rowdy than the Wisconsin contingent.
I was struck by the fact that although the Huskers had just lost an overtime thriller to the Badgers 23-17 on a play that probably could have been called either way, nobody was griping about the call, blaming the referees, or taking anything away from the Badgers. And, for our part, the Badger fans acknowledged that Nebraska had played a great game that could easily have come out the other way. The overall message from “Husker Nation” was that they had fun in Madison, appreciated the hospitality, looked forward to returning, and wished the Badgers well for the rest of the season as I did the Huskers.
PWS
02/06/17