🤮NO PEACE ON EARTH GOODWILL TOWARD MEN (WOMEN, OR ESPECIALLY CHILDREN) FROM REGIME OF “BAD SANTAS” 🦹🏿‍♂️🎅🏻— Illegally Separated Families Continue To Suffer Irreparable Trauma, 😰 Volunteer Groups 😇🗽⚖️ Left To Pick Up Pieces — A Reminder That Defeated Regime Has Mocked, Disparaged, & Trashed Christ’s Values & Assaulted Humanity Over Four Christmases!🏴‍☠️🤮☠️⚰️👎🏻

Jacob Soboroff reports for NBC News:

Inside the effort to provide mental health care to migrant families

SHARE THIS –

COPIED

Seneca Family of Agencies provides mental health care to migrant families separated by the Trump administration. NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff reports on the obstacles faced by the nonprofit in locating families.

Dec. 22, 2020

Watch Jacob’s report here.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/inside-the-effort-to-provide-mental-health-care-to-migrant-families-98295877800

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

Jacob and his terrific NBC News colleague Julia Edwards Ainsley have been at the forefront of exposing the irreparable human carnage and lasting trauma caused by the regime’s unlawful, racist, White Nationalist immigration policies (some of which were unconscionably “greenlighted” by an immoral and irresponsible Supremes GOP majority that views themselves and their rotten to the core, inhumane, right-wing ideology as above the needless human suffering they further and encourage).

The “perps” like,”Gonzo” Sessions, Grauleiter Miller, Kirstjen Nielsen, “Big Mac With Lies” McAleenan, Noel Francisco, Rod Rosenstein, et al, walk free while the victims continue to suffer and others, like the Christ-like folks at Seneca Family of Agencies, are left to pick up the pieces! How is this “justice?”

Our national policies have truly abandoned Christ’s values of self-sacrifice, mercy, generosity in spirit and deed, courage in the face of oppression, human compassion, justice, and assistance for the most vulnerable among us under the perverted and immoral “leadership” of a man and his party without humane values or respect for truth who stand for absolutely nothing that is decent in the world.

As Americans suffer and die from the pandemic he mocked, downplayed, and mishandled; unemployed Americans are dissed and shortchanged by his party of underachieving, out of touch fat cats, liars, cowards, and truth deniers; asylum seekers needlessly suffer in squalid camps in Mexico; refugees scorned, unlawfully and immorally abandoned and abused by the world’s richest country face persecution, torture, despair, and death; and non-criminals rot in DHS’s “New American Gulag,” the immoral Grifter-in-Chief lives it up at taxpayer expense for one last Christmas at his Florida resort; fumes about a fair and square election that he lost big time; savors a rash of holiday executions; delays bipartisan COVID relief; ferments treason against our republic; and pardons a wide range of scumbags, felons, war criminals, family members, cronies, fraudsters, and other totally undeserving characters.

But, there is hope for our world at Christmas: 27 days and counting to the end of the kakistocracy, expulsion of the unqualified con-man and his motley crew of criminals and cronies, and the ascension of a real President and Vice President, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, to lead us, and perhaps our world, out of the current mess to a kinder, brighter future. That might be the best present of all this Christmas.

Due Process Forever!⚖️🗽👍🏼

PWS🎅🏻🎄😎

12-24-20

🏴‍☠️☠️🤮👎🏻IN NYT OP-ED, FORMER TRUMP DOJ ATTORNEY ERICA NEWLAND ADMITS COMPLICITY! — Having Undermined Democratic Institutions, Sold False Narratives To (Too Often Willing) Federal Judges, & Participated In Racist-Inspired “Dred Scottification” (“Dehumanization”) Of the Other Is Actually a BIG Deal! — So Is The Destruction Of Due Process & Fundamental Fairness In The Immigration Courts (Now, “Clown Courts”🤡, or “America’s Star Chambers”☠️)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/opinion/trump-justice-department-lawyer.html?referringSource=articleShare

. . . .

Watching the Trump campaign’s attacks on the election results, I now see what might have happened if, rather than nip and tuck the Trump agenda, responsible Justice Department attorneys had collectively — ethically, lawfully — refused to participate in President Trump’s systematic attacks on our democracy from the beginning. The attacks would have failed.

. . . .

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

Read the full op-ed at the link. That’s right Erica. Lack of ethics, morality, and failing to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law have consequences. Helping to “custom design” obvious pretexts for racist and hate inspired policies, for consumption by right-wing judges who only seek “cover” for going along to get along with fascism, is wrong. Duh!

It’s no surprise that the clearly unconstitutional and racially and religiously bigoted “Travel Ban,” willingly embraced by an intellectually dishonest and morally compromised Supremes majority, was first on the list in Erica’s “confession.”

But, don’t expect any apologies from the vast majority of Trumpist lawyer/enablers who violated their oaths of office or from the big time law firms (one where I was formerly a partner) who have granted them undeserved refuge at fat salaries! Nor should we expect large-scale redemption from the legions of Government lawyers in DOJ, DHS, and elsewhere who will assert the “Nuremberg defense” of “just following orders.” But, that doesn’t mean that the rest of us can’t demand some accountability for participation in what are essentially “crimes against humanity.”

Erica’s article largely echoes what my friend and colleague Judge Jeffrey Chase, many of our colleagues in the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges, ⚔️🛡 and numerous members of the New Due Process Army (“NDPA”) have been saying throughout this Administration. Indeed, I frequently have noted that the once-respected Solicitor General’s Office and EOIR operated as basically “ethics free zones” under the disgraced “leadership” of Sessions, Whitaker, and Barr.

It’s also why the the Biden-Harris team that takes over at DOJ must:

immediately remove all the current “executives” (and I use that term lightly) at EOIR as well as all members of the BIA and transfer them to positions where they can do no further damage to asylum seekers, migrants, their (often pro bono or low bono) lawyers, or the rest of humanity;
replace them with qualified individuals from the NDPA; and
be circumspect in eventually making retention decisions for Immigration Judges, taking into account public input as to the the degree to which each such judge’s jurisprudence during the Trump kakistocracy continued to reflect adherence to constitutionally required due process and fundamental fairness to migrants, respect for migrants and their representatives, best practices, and interpretations that blunted wherever reasonably possible the impact of the kakistocracy’s xenophobic, racist, White Nationalist policies.

American justice has been ill-served by the DOJ and the Immigration Courts over the past four years. That’s something that must not be swept under the carpet (as is the habit with most incoming Administrations).

The career Civil Service overall, and particularly complicit and often ethics-free government lawyers, failed to put up the necessary resistance to an overtly anti-American regime with an illegal and immoral agenda. Lives were lost or irreparably ruined as a result. That’s a big-time problem that if not addressed and resolved will likely make continuance of our national democratic republic impossible.

⚖️🗽🧑🏽‍⚖️👍🏼🇺🇸Due Process Forever! Complicity Never☠️🤮🏴‍☠️👎🏻!

PWS

12-21-20

EOIR Clown Show Must Go T-Shirt — “EOIR Clown Show Must Go” T-Shirt Custom Design Concept

START YOUR HOLIDAY 🎄 WEEK OFF RIGHT WITH THE “DUH” ARTICLE OF THE DAY: Bad Things Happen 🤮☠️⚰️ To Nations That Put Criminals, Incompetents, & Toadies (a/k/a “The Kakistocracy”) In Charge — “There is the dereliction of duty in the response to the pandemic, and then there is the original dereliction of duty in placing a dime-store gauleiter like Stephen Miller anywhere close to a center of power.”

https://apple.news/Au2L4FahYQKqPiFqdxmwdaA

Charles P. Pierce in Esquire:

“Spirit! are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more.

“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.”

—A Christmas Carol, Stave III

The Ghost of Grifters Not Yet Past was everywhere over the weekend. In the New York Times, we read about how the Ghost had arranged for a meeting of the political Chronic Ward in the White House. In the Washington Post, we read about how the Ghost had visited his feral children, Ignorance and Want, upon the land by giving them national political leaders who couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel, and, worse, had no desire to learn how, even in the midst of the greatest public health crisis in a century.

While the Times’ account of the Mad Hatter’s seditious tea party is the flashier story, it is the Post’s deep spelunking into the administration*’s brutal (and quite deliberate) mishandling of the pandemic that is more likely to resound in historical memory as the most criminal dereliction of duty in the history of the American presidency. By comparison, Herbert Hoover at the onset of the Great Depression and James Buchanan as the nation slid toward the Civil War were positive pikers in their disregard for the office they held and the country they were chosen to lead.

. . . .

And then there’s the Dauphin Prince, who apparently had some power and almost no respect, possibly because he was marginally less of a fck-up than everyone else was.
. . . .

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

Read Charlie’s complete article at the link.

The Moron-in-Chief, the Party of Putin, and their rabidly anti-American followers and fellow travelers must have exceeded Vladimir’s wildest expectations.

And, at what a bargain price: no need for huge investments in the military, expensive weapons of mass destruction, complicated spy networks, or even major payment of bribes. Just find enough greedy, selfish, delusional, resentful, racist, dim-witted folks willing to betray our nation. Then, invest modest amounts in misinformation, flattery, fanning White Supremacy, and cyber espionage, and “puff” you’re inside the U.S. security, intelligence, and essential infrastructure system with your traitors and dupes installed throughout government and society. Heck, you own a major political party and didn’t even have to contribute billions to do it!

30 days and counting till the end of the kakistocracy and the return of hope, sanity, and competence to our national government. Let’s just hope that it’s not too late for those of us who still believe in America and for our world that is hurting for rational, far-sighted, values-based leadership!

PWS

12-21-20

BESS LEVIN @ VANITY FAIR: AS AMERICANS DIE ⚰️ IN RECORD NUMBERS & PUTIN HACKS OUR NATIONAL SECURITY🏴‍☠️, THE WORLD’S MOST EVIL CLOWN 🤡🤮 FLUSHES IT ALL DOWN THE TOILET!🚽

https://mailchi.mp/de1485f0a479/levin-report-trumps-heart-bursting-with-sympathy-for-his-buddy-bob-kraft-2904842?e=adce5e3390

Hey, you know that massive, scary, very likely Russian hack that reportedly breached multiple U.S. government agencies in what may have been the biggest government hack in history? The one that Trump’s former Homeland Security adviser estimates could have affected 18,000 organizations, including most federal government unclassified networks and a number of Fortune 500 companies? The magnitude of which, he says, cannot be overstated? The same one that Donald Trump has said nothing about? Well, no biggie, but apparently hackers also reportedly accessed the networks of the Energy Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Which, as you might have guessed, maintain the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile.

Per Politico:

On Thursday, DOE and NNSA officials began coordinating notifications about the breach to their congressional oversight bodies after being briefed by Rocky Campione, the chief information officer at DOE. They found suspicious activity in networks belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation at NNSA, and the Richland Field Office of the DOE. The hackers have been able to do more damage at FERC than the other agencies, and officials there have evidence of highly malicious activity, the officials said, but did not elaborate.

The attack on DOE is the clearest sign yet that the hackers were able to access the networks belonging to a core part of the U.S. national security enterprise. The hackers are believed to have gained access to the federal agencies’ networks by compromising the software company SolarWinds, which sells IT management products to hundreds of government and private-sector clients…. NNSA is responsible for managing the nation’s nuclear weapons, and while it gets the least attention, it takes up the vast majority of DOE’s budget. Similarly, the Sandia and Los Alamos National Labs conduct atomic research related to both civil nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The Office of Secure Transportation is tasked with moving enriched uranium and other materials critical for maintaining the nuclear stockpile.

While Joe Biden commented on the issue Thursday, saying “Our adversaries should know that, as president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation,” Trump has remained curiously silent, or at least it would be curious had he not made it explicitly clear the last four years that Vladimir Putin, and really, any of his favorite dictators, can often do whatever they want. (The Russian embassy said on Sunday that it had nothing to do with the hack, though experts believe it almost certainly came from a Russian intelligence agency.)

But hey! There may be an entirely reasonable explanation for why Trump hasn’t bothered to address the issue, and it’s that he’s been extremely busy working on much more important issues. No, not fruitlessly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, though that does take up a decent amount of his time. In this case, it’s something even bigger:

The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday finalized a pair of new rules rolling back water efficiency standards on showerheads and other consumer appliances, punctuating President Donald Trump’s long-documented water flow grievances in the final weeks of his administration. The new showerhead rule goes after the two-and-a-half-gallon-per-minute maximum flow rate set by Congress in the 1990s. Under current federal law, each showerhead in a fixture counts toward that limit collectively—but the Energy Department’s new rule means each showerhead individually can reach the limit set by Congress.

The slate of recent changes align with Trump’s larger dismantling of environmental regulations, and, more specifically, his open disdain for poor water flow. Trump claimed late last year that Americans are flushing their toilets “10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once” and are having difficulty washing their hands. “We have a situation where we’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms where you turn the faucet on—and in areas where there’s tremendous amounts of water, where the water rushes out to sea because you could never handle it, and you don’t get any water,” the president said last December during a roundtable with small business leaders about deregulatory actions. “You turn on the faucet and you don’t get any water. They take a shower and water comes dripping out. Just dripping out, very quietly dripping out,“ the president continued, lowering his voice as he spoke about the drips.

“Today the Trump Administration affirmed its commitment to reducing regulatory burdens and safeguarding consumer choice,” Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette proudly declared in a statement. “With these rule changes, Americans can choose products that are best suited to meet their individual needs and the needs of their families.” The rollbacks were chastised not only by environmental groups but consumer organizations as well, with Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, saying, “Changing the rules to address one of President Trump’s pet peeves is simply silly. Thousands of showerhead models on the market today meet the standards that Congress set way back in 1992 and provide a great shower.”

In related news, to date it remains unclear why it takes Trump 15 flushes to clear a toilet.

. . . .

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

Red the rest of the “Levin Report” at the link.

While Trump has famously been reported not to bother reading his “daily intelligence briefings” (after all, they are pretty boring, related to work, which has never been a priority, and reportedly written in complete sentences, which are not within his comfort zone), we can be sure that Vladimir Putin and his buddies in the Kremlin are reading them.

In the meantime, Putin could not ask for a more outrageously tone-deaf, indolent, performance by the Chief Clown 🤡 , Moscow 🇷🇺 Mitch, the GOP, and their cronies and enablers in the period of total national disorder and decay leading into the swearing in of the first real President America has had in four years on January 20, 2021.

32 days and counting left in the kakistocracy. How many more Americans will needlessly die and suffer before we finally get relief from the deadliest Clown Show 🤡☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻?

PWS

12-19-20

NON-NEWS OF THE DAY: FIVE+ WEEKS AFTER JOE BIDEN’S VCTORY WAS CLEAR, M. MITCH 🤮 FINALLY RECOGNIZES IT!

Look, M. Mitch might be slimy, devious, and intellectually dishonest. But, unlike some in his party, he’s no fool.

He’s enough of a student of history to have known that with a large majority of the popular vote and an insurmountable lead in the Electoral College, well-established within a week of the November 3 election, that Biden would be the next President.

Yet, rather than using his position and his influence to combat Trump & company’s false claims and bogus narratives of voter fraud, designed specifically to destabilize our democracy and create unrest, McConnell continued to mouth platitudes. This was even after Trump and his followers actually threatened the safety, welfare, and political futures of members of the GOP who had to guts to stand up and do their jobs.

The voters of Georgia actually have a final shot at removing Mitch’s pernicious power and getting rid of two of the worst Senators in the process. We can always hope that they come through for the rest of us and for our nation.

Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-15-20

PATHETIC LOSER THOUGH THEIR SUPREME LEADER 🤡🤮MIGHT BE, THERE IS NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT THE GOP’S OUTRAGEOUS, OVERT, SUBVERSION OF DEMOCRACY — Jamelle Bouie in The NYT

Jamelle Bouie
NY Times Opinion Columnist
Creative Commons License

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/opinion/trump-republicans-texas-lawsuit.html

. . . .

Then again, it was only two weeks before Election Day that four of the court’s conservatives announced their potential willingness to throw out votes on the basis of this theory of state legislative supremacy over electoral votes. It is very easy to imagine a world in which the election was a little closer, where the outcome came down to one state instead of three or four, and the court’s conservatives could use the conflict over a narrow margin to hand the president a second term.

With no evidence that Republicans have really thought about the implications of a victory in the courts, I think we can say that these briefs and lawsuits are part of a performance, where the game is not to break kayfabe (the conceit, in professional wrestling, that what is fake is real). Still, we’ve learned something from this game, in the same way we learn something about an audience when it laughs.

We have learned that the Republican Party, or much of it, has abandoned whatever commitment to electoral democracy it had to begin with. That it views defeat on its face as illegitimate, a product of fraud concocted by opponents who don’t deserve to hold power. That it is fully the party of minority rule, committed to the idea that a vote doesn’t count if it isn’t for its candidates, and that if democracy won’t serve its partisan and ideological interests, then so much for democracy.

None of this is new — there is a whole tradition of reactionary, counter-majoritarian thought in American politics to which the conservative movement is heir — but it is the first time since the 1850s that these ideas have nearly captured an entire political party. And while the future is unwritten, the events of the past month make me worry that we’re following a script the climax of which requires a disaster.

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

Read Jamelle’s full op-Ed at the link.

Always interesting for those of us who grew up during the Cold War, to see how the Commie-fighting, “law and order” GOP has become a party of neo-Stalinists and nihilists!

Although the GOP right claims to shudder at the threat of ”socialism,” (most probably have little or no idea what that actually means) dangerous clowns 🤡 like Ted Cruz would have been right at home in a Leninist-Stalinist dictatorship, its cult of personality, its utter disdain for the “real will of the people” and the common good, and its brutal suppression of both truth and dissent in favor of a politically fabricated “party line.”

America needs and deserves better from its opposition party. Whether we’ll get it seems doubtful based on current performance.

PWS

12-11-20

🇺🇸“GOOD MORNING OHIO!” — MY KEYNOTE SPEECH TO AILA THIS MORNING 🗽— AN NDPA CALL TO ACTION! ⚖️— “The EOIR Clown Show Has Got To Go!”🤡👨🏻‍⚖️👎🏻

EYORE — “Eyore In Distress”
Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”

Star Chamber Justice — “Justice”
Star Chamber
Style

Friends, you know, and I know, what is the biggest crisis facing the American justice system today. One that undermines and threatens racial justice, social justice, equality before the law, voting rights, American values, and indeed the very foundations of our democratic institutions and our justice system.

It’s imperative that our incoming Administration and its leaders fully recognize the overwhelming importance and extreme urgency of immediately ending the ongoing, deadly, and dangerous “Clown Show” at EOIR – the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

Under the defeated but not yet departed regime, EOIR has been weaponized by White Nationalist nativists to function as America’s Star Chambers. Once envisioned by its founders, including me, as a potential “jewel in the crown” of American justice, EOIR now has become an ungodly nightmare of anti-due process, anti-immigrant propaganda, bad judges, bogus stats, uncontrollable backlogs, malicious incompetence, stupid regulations, daily doses of irrationality, abuse of private attorneys, and institution of “worst practices.” But, it doesn’t have to be that way! No, not at all!

With courage, bold action, and, most important, the right people in place in leadership and key judicial positions, EOIR can be fixed: sooner, not later. The Immigration Courts can, indeed, through teamwork and innovation become the world’s best courts guaranteeing fairness and due process for all, promoting a model of best practices for the Federal Judiciary as a whole, and providing a trained and ready source of due-process oriented judges with strong immigration, human rights, and equal justice backgrounds for the Article III Judiciary and public policy positions.

EOIR will then be positioned for the essential transition to an Article I independent U.S. Immigration Court when we have the votes.

But, it will require a far more progressive, visionary, and aggressive approach than past Democratic Administrations. We must immediately (and legally) clear out the deadwood and get the problem solvers from the New Due Process Army (“NDPA”) — mostly now in the NGO, clinical, and private sectors, folks like you and your colleagues — in place to fix this horribly broken system.

Read my complete speech here:

OHIO AILA

DUE PROCESS FOREVER!

PWS

12-04-20

⚔️🛡SIR JEFFREY ON THE LIFE-SAVING IMPORTANCE OF COMMENTING: Yeah, Preparing Regulatory Comments Is A Royal Pain In The Butt, Particularly When You Know The Malicious Incompetents In The White Nationalist Regime Won’t Pay Any Attention — But, Federal Judges 🧑🏽‍⚖️⚖️ Often Do!

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jeffreyschase.com/blog/2020/12/2/pangea-v-dhs-the-power-of-comments&source=gmail-imap&ust=1607531177000000&usg=AOvVaw2vQATGEpuX0Oss0KcQPyVx

Pangea v. DHS: The Power of Comments

The constant stream of proposed regulations relating to our immigration laws has led to a continuous call to the public to submit comments to those rules. Individuals and organizations have responded in large numbers, in spite of the short 30 day comment windows this administrative has generally afforded. For those who have questioned the purpose of submitting comments or have wondered if the effort was worth it, I point to the recent decision of U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston in the Northern District of California in Pangea Legal Services v. DHS granting a temporary restraining order against regulations that classify a wide range of crimes as bars to asylum eligibility.

As background, I would like to point to the explanation of the notice and comment procedures provided by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly last year in CAIR Coalition v. Trump. In that case, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security attempted to bypass the process by publishing final rules with no opportunity to comment. Judge Kelly (who happens to be a Trump appointee) found that the avoidance of comments invalidated the regulations, explaining that the “procedures are not a mere formality. They are designed (1) to ensure that agency regulations are tested via exposure to diverse public comment; (2) to ensure fairness to affected parties, and (3) to give affected parties an opportunity to develop evidence in the record to support their objections to the rule and thereby enhance the quality of judicial review.”

It is further worth noting that comments become part of the public record, and that the Administrative Procedures Act requires the agency to respond to all significant comments before the regulations can become final.

In accordance with this scheme, a brief comment period was provided as to the regulations covered in Pangea. The proposed rule sought to expand the category of “particularly serious crimes” that Congress has designated as a bar to asylum. Instead of allowing immigration judges to make such determinations on a case-by-case basis, the new rule sought to add a broad range of criminal conduct that the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security originally argued should categorically bar asylum as particularly serious crimes.

Commenters pointed out the flaws with this proposal, not the least of which was some of the offenses are not particularly serious. The crimes include harboring certain noncitizens (even if they are family members), or possessing or using false identity documents (for example, to work and support one’s family). These offenses are a far cry from the type of behavior that would pose such a threat to society as to outweigh the obligation to provide refugee protection. In publishing the final rule, the Departments did acknowledge these concerns raised in the comments. However, as explained above, more than mere acknowledgement was required.

Although Judge Illston found numerous reasons to support the granting of the temporary restraining order, one of those reasons was the Departments’ failure to respond to the above comments as required. As Judge Illston wrote, “when commenters pointed out that the new bars would include minor conduct and conduct that cannot be categorized as particularly serious or even dangerous, the Departments either declined to respond or else relied on their authority under § 1158(b)(2)(C).”

In other words, when the comments received caused the Departments to realize that their claimed justification for the rule under the statute’s “particularly serious crime” provision was problematic, instead of addressing those comments as they were required to do, the agencies instead replied “Particularly serious crimes? Is that what you thought we said? We meant they were similar to particularly serious crimes. Sorry for the confusion; let’s just say the changes fall under section 1158(b)(2)(C) for the sake of clarity.”

That section which the Departments now chose to rely on contains vague language allowing the Attorney General to establish by regulation “additional limitations and exceptions, consistent with this section” under which noncitizens might be ineligible for asylum. The Departments might not have noticed the words “consistent with this section,” which would seem to rule out their disregarding the fact that Congress had allowed only a few narrow statutory limitations to the right to asylum that tend to be consistent with international law. That might explain their reading of the clause as an invitation to impose any limitation on asylum the Departments desired, with no regard to international law obligations.

But besides from the permissibility of the Departments’ interpretation of the clause, Judge Illston categorized their tactics as evasion. The judge wrote that “the Departments initially stated they were relying in part on their authority to designate new offenses as particularly serious crimes. They then disclaimed reliance on that authority but said the new offenses were ‘similar to’ particularly serious crimes… And they declined to address commenters’ concerns that the Rule now bars crimes that do not rise to the level of particularly serious because, according to the Departments, they are not, in fact, designating new particularly serious crimes and any comments to that point ‘are outside the scope of this rulemaking.’”

Much thanks are owed to the lawyers and organizations who litigated and filed supporting briefs in Pangea; they managed to block yet another effort by this administration that sought to undermine the very nature of refugee protection. But thanks are also due to those who took the time and effort to submit comments. Hopefully, this will provide inspiration to continue to submit comments to new regulations still being proposed in these final days before what will hopefully be a return to normalcy, decency, and respect for the rule of law.

Copyright 2020 Jeffrey S. Chase. All rights reserved.

Republished by permission.

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

While many Federal Judges have been receptive and stopped illegal (and often immoral) regulations in their tracks, there is one key group of jurists so in the regime’s White Nationalist pocket that they don’t pay any much attention. That is the GOP majority on the Supremes, who have happily treated the Trump/Miller racist agenda of “Dred Scottification” of asylum seekers and other migrants with kid gloves. At the request of an “ethics free” Solicitor General, the majority has used corrupt procedural moves to interfere with the lower courts and advance the regime’s agenda while accepting obvious factually and legally inaccurate “pretexts” to “justify” the regime’s extreme, racist, dehumanizing actions.

Imagine all the positives for America that could be accomplished if all of the time and resources devoted to blocking an avalanche of illegal regulations and litigating them through the Federal courts were instead devoted to working for the public good. That’s actually what government is supposed to do. But, fascist regimes and their enablers, not so much.

Ultimately, better qualified, more scholarly, human, and humane Justices — judges distinguished for their wisdom, courage, humanity and constructive problem solving abilities rather than adherence to some far-right agenda — on the Supremes will be necessary for a better, more equal, America.

Life tenure means it will be a slow process of getting the right “Supreme Team” in place. But, one that needs to begin somewhere. A remade U.S. Immigration Court seems like a good starting place for building a better Federal Judiciary at all levels, bottom to top!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-03-20

CORRUPT, CHILD ABUSING, RACIST IMMIGRATION BUREAUCRACY 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻 MUST BE REPLACED WITH PROFESSIONAL WORKFORCE COMMITTED TO DUE PROCESS, RULE OF LAW, HUMAN DIGNITY! — “CRUELTY TO migrant children, a trademark of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, did not cease when officials reversed course in the face of public outrage two years ago and stopped wrenching toddlers, tweens and teens from their parents — with no plan or process to reunite them. It has continued apace under cover of the pandemic . . . .”

Trump Dumping Asylum Seekers in Hondiras — Dumping Asylum Seekers in Honduras
Artist: Monte Wolverton
Reproduced under license

Sheltering in Cages by John Darkow — “Sheltering in Cages” by John Darkow
Reproduced under license

Sessions in a cage — Jeff Sessions’ Cage by J.D. Crowe, Alabama Media Group/AL.com
Republished under license

From WashPost:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-federal-judge-halts-another-inhumane-trump-administration-practice-at-the-border/2020/11/22/d5795686-2b4d-11eb-8fa2-06e7cbb145c0_story.html

Opinion by the Editorial Board

November 22 at 12:59 PM ET

CRUELTY TO migrant children, a trademark of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, did not cease when officials reversed course in the face of public outrage two years ago and stopped wrenching toddlers, tweens and teens from their parents — with no plan or process to reunite them. It has continued apace under cover of the pandemic, which the White House has used as an all-purpose pretext for ignoring child-protection laws and diplomatic agreements governing asylum, and, without even a nod to due process, expelling unaccompanied children who cross the border seeking refuge.

A federal judge has now halted that practice even as he acknowledged the administration’s far-reaching powers in the midst of a public health emergency. Those powers are broad, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled, but do not enable the government to send minors packing without affording them a chance to have their asylum claims heard.

At least 13,000 children have been detained by Border Patrol officers and swiftly thrown out of the country under an emergency decree that has effectively sealed off the southern border to most migrants since the spring. Administration officials justified the measure in the name of protecting the country from a potential influx of migrants carrying the coronavirus — but performed no testing, and provided no data, to substantiate their stance.

Given infection rates in Mexico and Central America, it may be reasonable to assume that some migrants, including unaccompanied minors, might have contracted covid-19. It may also be the case, however, as the ACLU argued in court, that the practice of expelling young migrants actually exposes U.S. border authorities to more risk — in the course of holding them while flights are arranged to their home countries in Central America or elsewhere — than they would otherwise face if the migrants were placed in shelters that have the capacity to adopt social distancing and other precautions. Judge Sullivan, for his part, said the government had asserted its “scientific and technical expertise” to justify its policy of evicting young migrants — but provided none by way of actual evidence.

As it happens, it occurred to at least some administration officials, early on in the pandemic, that migrant children deserved some special consideration. When the policy of suspending asylum was first rolled out, children who crossed the border were exempted. That was quickly reversed, however, with a spokesman saying that minors would be returned to their countries of origin on a “case by case basis.” In the ensuing months, however, virtually all have been expelled.

Anti-trafficking and other laws provide for protections for unaccompanied minors who arrive in this country. The administration has seized on the pandemic to disregard those, along with other long-standing measures and practices that set procedures for migrants seeking refuge here. A more humane approach, in line with American traditions and values, would have established a process for testing and quarantining, at least for migrant children, as they pursued asylum claims. But humane policy is anathema to the Trump administration, and the result is thousands of children who have been subjected to unwarranted hardship and risk.

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

Remembers, the victims are largely dead, deported, or still suffering! The “perps” — including the “Perp in Chief,” “Gruppenfuhrer Miller,” Jeff “Gonzo Apocalypto” Sessions, “Wolfman the Illegal,” and “Billy the Bigot” remain at large, even profiting from and bragging about their “crimes against humanity.” This is a “functioning democracy?” No way!

We’ve all been subjected to the disingenuous writings of pundits babbling on about the resilience of American democracy in the face of a fascist president and his corrupt anti-democracy party of cowards and enablers. Hogwash!

Make no mistake about it, American democracy is on the ropes! Basically, we’re watching a corrupt President who lost the election by over 6 million votes and 74 electoral votes engage in systematic frivolous, abusive, baseless litigation intended to destroy our nation, undermine our national security, and disenfranchise voters. It’s a disgusting, overtly racist, dishonest performance that would have any other individual in America and his motley band of unethical lawyers in jail for contempt and conspiracy to obstruct justice! But, Trump and his cronies continue to operate outside the law!

We owe our existence as a nation less to any “structural integrity” and much more to a relatively few courageous, smart, highly motivated members of the resistance: immigration, human rights, and civil rights lawyers; African American women; non-right-wing journalists; Democratic legislators; scientists and medical professionals; a limited number of Federal Judges, mostly at the District Court and Immigration Court levels (and specifically excluding any current BIA Member, EOIR “Manager,” or Supreme Court Justice not named Sotomayor, Kagan, and (sort of) Breyer); courageous DACA kids; and some Federal Career Civil servants not working at ICE or CBP.

The “resilience of American institutions” view is largely that of a privileged minority who haven’t been deported to possible torture or death without any process at all (let alone “due” process), haven’t been illegally separated from beloved family members, aren’t rotting in private prisons (the “New American Gulag”) for the “crime” of seeking justice, aren’t struggling with unemployment or difficulty putting food on the table while Moscow Mitch and his elites focus on confirming unqualified Federal Judges, haven’t had family members shot by the police, haven’t had family members unnecessarily suffer and die because of the worst President in U.S. history’s maliciously incompetent failure to provide leadership and any systematic strategy for controlling a pandemic, and haven’t had to put their lives and professional reputations on the line in a failing Justice system that has enabled grotesque abuses by the likes of Jeff “Gonzo Apocalypto” Sessions, Billy the Bigot Barr, Noel Francisco, and the rest of their band of unethical Government lawyers.

The Biden Administration must do a thorough housecleaning of the corrupt DHS and DOJ bureaucracies that carried out the illegal, immoral, racist, White Nationalist agenda developed by neo-Nazi Stephen Miller and his cowardly gang of brownshirts!

And, as a nation, we need to think carefully about the implications of a life-tenured Supreme Court majority that, since their initial feckless performance on the “Muslim Ban” cases, time and time again failed to forcefully and unanimously stand up for our democracy, human decency, and those defending them in the face of overt, racism and hate driven, Executive tyranny! A Supremes’ majority that has disgracefully and spinelessly embraced the “Dred Scottification” of “the other” (mostly immigrants and those of color). It’s not rocket science! And some of our “elite law schools” seemed to have forgotten to teach “Con Law 101” and “Basic Ethics” to aspiring right wing judges!

It’s less about institutions than it is about the courageous individuals who uphold them! And, our future depends on the Biden-Harris Administration putting these folks “in the game” to insure that an unmitigated disaster like the Trump regime, it’s rampant illegality and inhumanity, and its “malicious incompetence” can never, ever, happen again! And, we must at least start the process of developing a better and more courageous Federal Judiciary for the future!

Due Process Forever! Complicity in the face of tyranny, never!

PWS

11-23-20

COURTSIDE WINTER FASHION EDITION: See The Latest In Due Process & Racial Justice Sportswear Design By Our Award-Winning NDPA Fashion Team!

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

“A Brand New EOIR For A Better America!”⚖️🗽🇺🇸👨🏽‍⚖️👩‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️👍🏼😎

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-22-20

🛡⚔️BATTLING THE KAKISTOCRACY: KNIGHTESSES & KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, NDPA PRO BONO REGIMENT FROM SULLIVAN & CROMWELL CONTEST DEFEATED REGIME’S CONTINUING TYRANNY AT COURT! — Latest 9th Circuit Amicus Brief Highlights Due Process Requirements For Developing Record In Immigration Courts! — PLUS “SATURDAY BONUS” — Time For The NDPA To Stand Up & Demand A Primary Leadership Role In Reforming EOIR & The Totally Corrupt Immigration Bureaucracy! — “Just Say No” To “Same Old, Same Old” By The Characters Who Sowed The Seeds Of Past Failures & Opened The Door For Miller & Co! ☠️🏴‍☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻

Read the Round Table amicus brief here:

Brief of Amici Curiae Retired IJs and Former Members of the Board of Immigration Appeals

Highlight:

As this Court has recognized, “when [an] alien appears pro se, it is the IJ’s duty to ‘fully develop the record.’” Agyeman v. INS, 296 F.3d 871, 877 (9th Cir. 2002) (quoting Jacinto v. INS, 208 F.3d 725, 733-34 (9th Cir. 2000)). Despite this long-recognized obligation, the record in this case demonstrates that this duty is not always fulfilled; and that the consequence may be unfairness and injustice to the pro se petitioner who is unable to develop the record without guidance and assistance. We respectfully submit that this Court should use this case to provide much-needed guidance to IJs on the scope of their duty to work with pro se respondents to elicit the information necessary to develop the factual record. Based upon our own extensive experience, we are of the view that this can be done efficiently and effectively by conscientious IJs, so long as the rule that they are required to do so is clear.

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

Thanks so much to out “Team of Pro Bono Heroes” at Sullivan & Cromwell, NY:

Philip L. Graham, Jr.
Amanda Flug Davidoff
Rebecca S. Kadosh
Joseph M. Calder, Jr.

This regime has appointed mostly judges lacking experience representing individuals in Immigration Court and then compounded the problem with:

Mindless “haste makes waste” enforcement gimmicks (often supported by knowingly false or misleading narratives) imposed by political hacks at DOJ and Falls Church;
A BIA lacking expertise and objectivity that instead of focusing on due process for those in Immigration Court, spews forth “blueprints for denial and deportation” without regard for statutory, Constitutional, and human rights;
A system that has elevated “malicious incompetence” and “worst judicial practices” to a “dark art form.”☠️

TIME FOR COURAGEOUS NEW IMMIGRATION LEADERSHIP!

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

It’s time for the “EOIR Clown Show” in Falls Church to go! Bring in competent jurists and administrators from the NDPA: practical scholars and problem solvers with real life skills developed by saving lives from this broken and biased system. Real jurists with expertise in human rights and courage, who will make due process, fundamental fairness, humane values, and “best judicial practices” the only objectives of the Immigration Courts. Jurists who will courageously resist political interference and improper and unethical weaponization of the Immigration Courts by any Administration.

Let the incoming Biden-Administration know that you won’t accept failed “retreads” from the past and “go along to get along” bureaucrats running and comprising what is probably the most important and significant court system in America from an equal justice, social justice, constitutional development, and saving human lives standpoint.

This is the “retail level” of our justice system: The foundation upon which the rest of our legal system all the way up to a tone-deaf, flailing, failing, and generally spineless Supremes stands! This is a court system that the Biden Administration can fix without Mitch McConnell!

The members of the NDPA are the ones who have been fighting in the trenches (and at the borders) to save lives, advance social justice, insure equal justice for all, end institutional racism, and preserve our democracy in the face of a tyrannical, unscrupulous, corrupt, racially biased, anti-democracy regime and its enablers! Many have sacrificed careers, health, not to mention financial security in this fight!

Don’t let those who watched from the sidelines, above the day-to-day fray, or were part of the problem swoop in and take control after the battle has been won!

Get mad! Get vocal! Get active! Call everyone you know in the incoming Administration! Demand that the NDPA and its members be given the leadership roles they have earned and deserve in remaking EOIR and reforming a thoroughly corrupt, politicized, and dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy across our Government!

Don’t let the Dems turn their back on achievable reforms and “shut out” the reformers and problem solvers in the advocacy sector (who have “carried the water” for Dems for decades) as has been the case in the past! Don’t let the mistakes and short-sightedness of the past destroy YOUR chances for a better future!

Don’t let timidity, ignorance, indifference, and fear of “rocking the boat” in the name of justice, due process, and human dignity replace “malicious incompetence” in Government!

Due Process Forever! Same old, same old, never! It’s time for real change and reform! It’s YOUR time to shine! Let YOUR voices be heard!

PWS⚖️🗽🇺🇸👨🏽‍⚖️👩‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️

11-21-20

🤮👎🏻EOIR’S CONTEMPT FOR CIRCUITS, UNPROFESSIONAL ABUSE OF EXPERTS, PRO-DHS BIAS EARNS STRONG REBUKE FROM 9TH! — End The Star Chambers!☠️ — No More “Governmental Malpractice” From The New Administration!

Kangaroos — BIA Members Unwind After Harassing Another Expert, Overruling Circuit Court, & Aiding Their “Partners” At ICE In Demeaning Justice
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rasputin243/
Creative Commons License

https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2020/11/18/19-72745.pdf

Castillo v.Barr, 9rh Cir., 11-18-20, published

Summary by court staff:

Granting Juan Mauricio Castillo’s petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ denial of his application for protective status pursuant to the Convention Against Torture, and remanding, the panel held that the Board erred in giving reduced weight to the testimony of Dr. Thomas Boerman, a specialist in gang activity in Central America and governmental responses to gangs.

Castillo is a former gang member with tattoos who fears torture by gangs and/or Salvadoran officials because of his former gang memberships, his criminal conviction, and his later cooperation with law enforcement against La Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13. In a prior petition, the same panel concluded that the immigration judge and the Board improperly discounted Dr. Boerman’s testimony.

The panel addressed two initial matters. First, the panel stated that the Board’s rejection on remand of the panel’s prior interpretation of the immigration judge’s decision was ill-advised, explaining that its prior disposition was not an advisory opinion, but a conclusive decision not subject to disapproval or revision by another branch of the federal government. Second, the panel rejected the Board’s reliance on Vatyan v. Mukasey, 508 F.3d 1179 (9th Cir. 2007), to support its conclusion that Dr. Boerman’s testimony should be given reduced weight, because Vatyan addressed an IJ’s

** This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader.

CASTILLO V. BARR 3

discretion to weigh the “credibility and probative force” of an authenticated document, whereas the issue in this case involved the testimony of an expert that the agency had ostensibly concluded was fully credible.

Even assuming the agency could accord reduced weight to Dr. Boerman’s testimony and declaration, the panel disagreed with the Board’s new justifications. First, the panel rejected the Board’s reliance on alleged inconsistencies regarding Dr. Boerman’s familiarity with Castillo’s prison gang, where Dr. Boerman explicitly wrote in his declaration that his comments on Castillo’s prison gang were based on facts provided by Castillo, and the Board did not cite any reason to doubt Castillo’s testimony regarding rival gangs.

Second, the panel disagreed with the Board’s conclusion that Dr. Boerman’s testimony did not warrant full weight because he did not submit a copy of a video referenced in his testimony, where the video was neither the sole nor primary basis for his opinion, and the Board failed to explain why the absence of one video diminished the weight of Dr. Boerman’s expert opinion, when his opinion had an independent factual basis.

Finally, the panel concluded that the Board’s decision to give Dr. Boerman’s opinion reduced weight, because it was not corroborated by other evidence in the record, was erroneous. The panel observed that the country report did provide support for Castillo’s claim, and it noted that Dr. Boerman’s expert testimony was itself evidence that could support Castillo’s claim.

The panel remanded to the Board, directing it to give full weight to Dr. Boerman’s testimony regarding the risk of

4 CASTILLO V. BARR

torture Castillo faces if removed to El Salvador. The panel explained that if the Board determines once again that Castillo is not entitled to relief, it must provide a reasoned explanation for why Dr. Boerman’s testimony is not dispositive on the issue of probability of torture. The panel further explained that once it gives full weight to Dr. Boerman’s testimony, the remaining issue for the Board is to determine whether Castillo has established the government acquiescence element of his CAT claim.

***********

Essentially, EOIR has been unethically misusing their authority to harass Dr. Boerman and respondents’ advocates by systematically teaming up with ICE to devalue and defeat their efforts. Remarkably, this is even though Dr. Boerman and the advocacy community are “busting their tails” trying to help the system function properly and achieve justice! How screwed up, perverted, and cowardly is that?

Obviously justice and a functioning system have been antithetical to this regime and their toadies at DOJ and EOIR. With the degradation of the DOS Country Reports by political hacks, expert testimony has become essential in most asylum cases. Disgraceful performances by EOIR, as in this case, undermine the system and add to the backlog.

This case should have been completed in a single hearing. The BIA’s open contempt for the Circuits and failure to send strong signals to IJs (and the dilatory litigators at ICE) about issues that clearly should be resolved in the respondent’s favor is a mockery of justice!

Put the experts from the NDPA in charge of EOIR! Replace the BIA with real judges from the NDPA — asylum, human rights, and due process experts who will courageously stand up for the rule of law and hold both Immigration Judges and ICE accountable for scofflaw performances (and resist improper political interference from the DOJ — regardless of Administration).

Judges who will re-establish judicial independence and stop flooding the Circuit Courts (and even the U.S. District Courts) with cases and issues that should be resolved in favor of respondents at the trial level, consistently and efficiently. That’s how to stop DHS’s and DOJ’s frivolous, unethical, anti-immigrant “litigation positions” in immigration matters that are bogging down our justice system at all levels.

That’s also how to cut, rather than astronomically increase, backlogs (along with drastic pruning of all the “deadwood” mindlessly and improperly piled onto the EOIR docket by Sessions, Barr, and an out of control ICE acting as an arm of “White Nationalist nation”). The backlogs can be reduced and eventually eliminated without stomping on anyone’s rights or adversely affecting “real” law enforcement — as opposed to the bogus (and fiscally irresponsible) version we have seen from DHS over the past four years.

Stop “churning” cases! Stop the “denial factory! Create a model, best judicial practices, due-process oriented court system of which we all can be proud! Grant asylum expeditiously and consistently to those who qualify for protection under Cardoza-Fonseca, Mogharrabi, Kasinga, and A-R-C-G- (after vacating the A-B- travesty and reissuing it as a precedent for clear grants in all similar cases)! Encourage the Asylum Offices to do likewise! Make “equal justice for all” part of the new Administration’s legacy!

Think of what a great “teaching tool” that will be for future generations! I always treated my “courtroom as a classroom,” teaching law, history, practical problem solving, best interpretations, and best practices. I can’t think of a more powerful “real life” teaching and doing tool for improving the future of American justice — from the “retail level” of the Immigration Courts to the failing Supremes.

Due Process Forever! A weaponized and dysfunctional EOIR, never!

It’s time for a sea change at EOIR. End the kakistocracy and the “malicious incompetence!” Time for action by the Biden Administration — not just hollow promises and more endless studies and discussions of what we already know and have known for years!

It’s not rocket science! The practical scholars and steadfast defenders of due process and democracy in the NDPA who can fix EOIR are out here and prepared to take over and hit the ground running for due process and fundamental fairness at EOIR! (Amazingly, those were once the goals and vision for EOIR, now trampled, degraded, mocked, and forgotten!) Leaving them on the sidelines again would be “governmental malpractice!” And we’ve already had more than enough of that!

PWS

11-19-20

🇺🇸IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD — Joy, Relief, Optimism Pour Into The Streets!🗽⚖️

About 11:30 AM yesterday, I was on our screen porch working on Courtside. I heard the first joyful shouts. Simultaneously, my iPad screen told me that Pennsylvania had been called for Biden. I bellowed out a loud, YES! Then, I put up our American flag.

At 5 PM, by arrangement on the neighborhood e-Mail, folks started streaming out their doors, standing on the curb, glasses and champaign bottles in hand, for a toast to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the return of democracy, rationality, and human decency. Then we mixed and mingled, of course in a socially distant way. Dogs and kids were welcome. “Finally, able to breathe again” was a common refrain, as was “national nightmare coming to an end.”

Our neighbors are from all backgrounds and many different origins: doctors, lawyers, teachers, techies, designers, consultants, Federal bureaucrats, immigrants, parents, grandparents, singles. One mother had been naturalized just so she could vote in this election. All of us shared relief and joy at the return of sane, humane sound government and informed, reasonable dialogue on how to resolve our pressing national problems.

Later we adjourned to a back yard fire pit and celebrated and chatted some more, before drifting away to our respective homes. Cathy and I left the empty bottles and plastic cups on our lawn, intending to clean up in the daylight. But, by the time we arose, one of the neighbors had already done the job for us.

The aura of optimism still hung in the air today. At least for now, the world looks a lot brighter than it did four years ago.

🇺🇸THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-02-20 — Prepared By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Trump/Miller Bogus Public Charge Rule Enjoined Again; CBP Turns Back More Than 13,000 Unaccompanied Kids Using COVID-19 As Cover For Child Abuse; John Oliver With The Incredibly Ugly 🤮 Truth About The Trump-Miller Racist Assault On Asylum & Humanity ☠️⚰️— Other News From America Teetering On The Brink After 4-Years Of Trump Regime Misrule, Cruelty, Corruption, & Undermining Of Democracy!🏴‍☠️

COVID-19

Note: Policies are rapidly changing, so please verify information on the relevant government websites and with colleagues on listservs as best you can.

EOIR Status Overview & EOIR Court Status Map/List: EOIR has not yet provided an updated general postponement date for non-detained cases at courts that remain closed. The website still reflects last week’s Nov. 13, 2020 date, but EOIR may still plan to update it later than usual.

TOP NEWS

Trump’s Public Charge Rule to Deny Immigrants U.S. Entry Vacated

Bloomberg: The rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the statute requires vacatur, the opinion by Judge Gary Feinerman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said.

Asylum Denial Rates Continue to Climb

TRAC: Despite the partial court shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, this year immigration judges managed to decide the second highest number of asylum decisions in the last two decades. The rate of denial continued to climb to a record high of 71.6 percent, up from 54.6 percent during the last year of the Obama Administration in FY 2016.

Trump aide Stephen Miller preparing second-term immigration blitz

Guardian: The hardline adviser is said to be ready to unleash executive orders deemed too extreme for a president seeking re-election…Those items are expected to include attempting to eliminate birthright citizenship, making the US citizenship test more difficult to pass, ending the program which protects people from deportation when there is a crisis is their country (Temporary Protected Status) and slashing refugee admissions even further, to zero. See also Election day preview: Trump v. Biden on immigration.

Trump Administration to Put 180-Day Ban on Many Asylum Requests

Bloomberg: The Trump administration is expected to announce a 180-day ban on a range of asylum requests citing the threat posed by the coronavirus, according to two people familiar with the matter, in its latest effort to restrict immigration ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Trump declares 1 November to be ‘national day of remembrance for those killed by illegal aliens’

Independent: With three days left until the election, the presidential proclamation was designed to hammer home his message of law and order, and position himself as the candidate best placed to protect the United States. See also Undocumented immigrants may actually make American communities safer – not more dangerous – new study finds.

Border Officials Turned Away Unaccompanied Immigrant Children More Than 13,000 Times Under Trump’s Pandemic Policy

BuzzFeed: The Department of Homeland Security has expelled unaccompanied immigrant children from the US border more than 13,000 times since March, when the Trump administration gave the agency unprecedented powers to close off access at the border during the coronavirus pandemic, according to an internal document obtained by BuzzFeed News.

Across The U.S., Trump Used ICE To Crack Down On Immigration Activists

Intercept: Immigration authorities under President Donald Trump’s administration have pursued a widespread campaign of official retaliation against immigrant rights advocates around the country, according to a newly released database and searchable map assembled by the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University Law School. See also Black Immigrants in the United States Have Been Targeted by Trump.

Deported Marine veteran wins federal lawsuit, earns US citizenship

Military Times: A Belize-born Marine Corps veteran won his battle for U.S. citizenship on Tuesday, completing a naturalization interview that had been on hold for more than a year, according to a release from his attorneys.

The Loneliness of the Immigration Lawyer

Prospect: Four years into this migration crisis, there’s a parallel migration under way—of immigration lawyers out of the profession. Survey data and interviews the Prospect conducted with more than a dozen lawyers around the country reveal the physical, mental, and financial toll endured by members of the bar. Given the extreme violence, trauma, and inhumanity their clients often endure, immigration attorneys don’t like to talk about how it affects them. But secondary trauma also leaves a mark, making it impossible to continue for some attorneys.

From the travel ban to the border wall, restrictive immigration policies thrive on the shadow docket

SCOTUSblog: In the past three years, much of the shadow docket has been populated by emergency requests from the Trump administration asking the Supreme Court to intervene before the lower courts have reached a final outcome or to override the actions of lower courts without a meaningful review process — or both.

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

Judge Declares Unlawful and Vacates Government’s Asylum Seeker “Credible Fear” Standards

IRAP: According to Saturday’s order, the “credible fear” lesson plans are vacated in their entirety and the government must bring back at government expense the two named plaintiffs who had been deported before the case was filed so that they can be rescreened under lawful standards.

District Court Vacates DHS Public Charge Rule Nationwide

A district court vacated the DHS final rule on public charge as well as DHS’s request to stay the judgment. This ruling is to take effect immediately thus DHS may not apply the public charge after the date of the order. (Cook County, et al. v. Wolf, et al., 11/2/20) AILA Doc. No. 20110231

Notice of Proposed Settlement and Hearing in Lawsuit Challenging DHS’s One-Year Filing Deadline for Asylum Applications

The District Court for the Western District of Washington has scheduled a hearing for 11/4/20 for consideration of a proposed settlement in Mendez Rojas v. Wolf, a suit involving individuals who have filed, or will be filing, an asylum application more than one year after arriving in the U.S. AILA Doc. No. 20082430

Lawsuit Seeks to Uncover Secretive Expansion of Judicial Black Sites for Immigration Cases

AILA joined the American Immigration Council and the National Immigrant Justice Center in litigation against EOIR and GSA. The lawsuit requests information on the expansion and creation of immigration adjudication centers, which were established as part of EOIR’s Strategic Caseload Reduction plan. AILA Doc. No. 20103038

CA3 Says Petitioner’s New Jersey Conviction for Criminal Sexual Contact Is an Aggravated Felony

Denying the petition for review, the court held that the petitioner’s conviction in New Jersey for criminal sexual contact constituted an aggravated felony under INA §237(a)(2)(A)(iii) that rendered him removable. (Grijalva Martinez v. Att’y Gen., 10/21/20) AILA Doc. No. 20103036

CA3 Finds Petitioner’s Conviction Under New Jersey’s Terroristic-Threats Statute Was Not a CIMT

Granting the petition for review, the court held that, under the modified categorical approach, the petitioner’s conviction under New Jersey’s terroristic-threats statute was not a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT). (Larios v. Att’y Gen., 10/14/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102731

CA4 Grants Asylum to Salvadoran Petitioner Targeted by Gang Because Her Parents Failed to Comply with Extortive Threats

The court held that the IJ and the BIA had failed to adequately address unrebutted evidence in the record that compelled the conclusion that the petitioner’s membership in her family was at least one central reason for her persecution. (Hernandez-Cartagena v. Barr, 10/14/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102733

CA7 Says BIA Erred in Finding IJ Need Not Warn Petitioner of Possible Eligibility for Asylum and Related Relief

Where the petitioner had told the IJ that he feared persecution at the hands of gangs in Honduras because of his relationship to his mother, the court held that the IJ should have advised him that he might be eligible for asylum or withholding of removal. (Jimenez-Aguilar v. Barr, 10/6/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102736

CA8 Holds That a TPS Recipient Is Eligible to Adjust to LPR Status

The court held that a noncitizen who entered without inspection or admission but later received Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is deemed “inspected and admitted” under INA §245A and thus may adjust to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status. (Velasquez, et al. v. Barr, et al., 10/27/20) AILA Doc. No. 20103037

CA9 Upholds Adverse Credibility Determination as to Petitioner from the DRC Based on Inconsistencies in the Record

Where there were inconsistencies, an omission, and implausibilities in the record, the court held that substantial evidence supported the denial of asylum to the petitioner, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on adverse credibility grounds. (Mukulumbutu v. Barr, 10/13/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102741

CA9 Says Oregon’s Former Marijuana Delivery Statute Is Not an “Illicit Trafficking of a Controlled Substance” Offense

The court held that Oregon’s former marijuana delivery statute, Or. Rev. Stat. §475.860, was not an “illicit trafficking of a controlled substance” offense, and thus found that the petitioner’s conviction did not make him removable as an aggravated felon. (Cortes-Maldonado v. Barr, 10/15/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102832

CA11 Says There Is No Duress or De Minimis Exception to the Material Support Bar

The court held that its precedent established that no duress exception exists to the material support bar, and that the statutory text showed that any provision of funds to a terrorist organization categorically qualifies as material support. (Hincapie-Zapata v. Att’y Gen., 10/13/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102834

BIA Finds EWIs Cannot Be Charged with Inadmissibility Under INA §212(a)(7)

Unpublished BIA decision holds that INA §212(a)(7)(A)(i) is only applicable to respondents who seek admission at a port of entry, as distinct from those who enter without inspection. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Ortiz Orellana, 5/26/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102701

BIA Finds Evidence of Prior Fraudulent Marriage Precludes Approval of Subsequent Marriage-Based Visa Petition

The BIA ruled that when there is probative evidence that a beneficiary’s prior marriage was fraudulent and entered into to evade immigration laws, a subsequent visa petition filed on beneficiary’s behalf is properly denied under §204(c) of the INA. Matter of Pak, 28 I&N Dec. 113 (BIA 2020) AILA Doc. No. 20103034

BIA Reopens Sua Sponte Because Florida Theft Statute Is No Longer a CIMT

Unpublished BIA decision reopens proceedings sua sponte upon finding theft under Fla. Stat. 812.014 is no longer a CIMT under Descamps v. U.S., 133 S. Ct. 2276 (2013), and Matter of Diaz-Lizarraga, 26 I&N Dec. 847 (BIA 2016). Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Persad, 5/14/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102603

BIA Grants New Bond Hearing Because IJ Conducted All the Questioning

Unpublished BIA decision remands for new bond hearing because the IJ conducted all the questioning and did not give either attorney a chance to ask questions. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of L-R-B-, 5/12/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102602

BIA Finds Respondent Who Arrived Late to Hearing Did Not Fail to Appear

Unpublished BIA decision finds respondent did not fail to appear for hearing where he arrived 25 minutes late due to unexpectedly heavy traffic and was in communication with his attorney who was in the courtroom. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Hernandez-Yanez, 5/8/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102601

BIA Holds Federal Anti-Kickback Statute Not a CIMT

Unpublished BIA decision holds that receipt of remuneration under 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7b(b)(1) is not a CIMT because it does not require any loss or harm to a person. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Tejeda, 5/28/20) AILA Doc. No. 20103001

BIA Rescinds In Absentia Order Where Hearing Was Not Reflected on EOIR Hotline

Unpublished BIA decision rescinds in absentia order where EOIR hotline did not reflect the existence of a hearing and the DHS attorney confirmed that the respondent was not on DHS’s docket on the date she was ordered removed. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Opondo, 5/21/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102700

BIA Finds Ninth Circuit TPS Decision Constitutes Fundamental Change in Law

Unpublished BIA decision holds that Ramirez v. Brown, 852 F.3d 954 (9th Cir. 2017), represents fundamental change of law justifying sua sponte reopening for TPS holders to apply for adjustment of status. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Larios Andrade, 5/27/20) AILA Doc. No. 20103000

DHS OIG Says ICE Needs to Address Concerns About Detainee Care at the Howard County Detention Center

DHS OIG released a report saying that, during an inspection of the Howard County Detention Center, it identified violations of ICE detention standards that threatened the health, safety, and rights of detainees, including excessive strip searches and failure to provide two hot meals a day. AILA Doc. No. 20103031

USCIS Adjustment of Status Filing Dates for November 2020

USCIS determined that for November 2020, F2A applicants may file using the Final Action Dates chart. Applicants in all other family-sponsored preference and employment-based preference categories must use the Dates for Filing chart. AILA Doc. No. 20102991

USCIS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Creating Wage-Based Selection Process for H-1Bs

USCIS notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) which would change the H-1B registration selection process from a random process to a wage-based selection process. Comments on the proposed rule are due 12/2/20, with comments on associated form revisions due 1/4/21. (85 FR 69236, 11/2/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102930

USCIS Adjustment of Status Filing Dates for November 2020

USCIS determined that for November 2020, F2A applicants may file using the Final Action Dates chart. Applicants in all other family-sponsored preference and employment-based preference categories must use the Dates for Filing chart. AILA Doc. No. 20102991

USCIS Notice of Extension of the Designation of South Sudan for TPS

USCIS notice extending the designation of South Sudan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, from 11/3/20 through 5/2/22. The re-registration period runs from 11/2/20 through 1/4/21. (85 FR 69344, 11/2/20) AILA Doc. No. 20110230

RESOURCES

TRAC: Immigration Judge Reports — Asylum

Legal Aid: Expedited Removal Fact Sheet (attached)

Legal Aid: COVID-Related Objections in Immigration Court

OIG: CBP Has Taken Steps to Limit Processing of Undocumented Aliens at Ports of Entry

CRS: Immigration Relief for Victims of Trafficking

CRS: Temporary Protected Status: Overview and Current Issues

Vera: Evidence Shows That Most Immigrants Appear for Immigration Court Hearings

Judiciary Committee Releases Report on Trump Administration Family Separation Policy

Young Center: Reimagining Children’s Immigration Proceedings: A Roadmap for an Entirely New System Centered around Children

AILA: Practice Alert: Implementation of Expedited Removal Expansion

AILA: Practice Alert: DHS Public Charge Rule Vacated Nationwide

AILA: Advocacy 101

AILA Practice Pointer: USCIS’s New Policy of Identifying Waived Grounds of Inadmissibility on I-192 Approval Notices for U and T Visa Applicants

AILA: Practice Pointer: USCIS Requires Derivatives Abroad to Sign Derivative U-Visa Petitions Filed on Their Behalf

AILA Updated: Ethical Considerations Related to Affirmatively Filing an Application for Asylum for the Purpose of Applying for Cancellation of Removal and Adjustment of Status for a Nonpermanent Resident

ILRC: Advance Parole for DACA Recipients

CLINIC: Practice Advisory: Adjustment Options for TPS Beneficiaries

Todo Por Mi Familia: Mental Health Services for Reunified Families

Board of Immigration Appeals Practice Manual (Revised 10/5/20)

EVENTS

11/4/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

11/5/20 Introduction to Asylum Law w/ I-ARC

11/9/20 Asylum Based on Fear of Gangs w/ CALA

11/9/20, 11/12/20 Intimate Partner Violence 101

11/10/20 Practicing in Video Teleconference Courts

11/10/20 Pursuing Immigration Pro Bono Opportunities in Private Practice

11/10/20 CMS 2020 Academic and Policy Symposium

11/11/20 Climate Change and Oceanic Migrations

11/12/20 Defying Non-Reviewability: How to Proceed After a Consular Denial

11/12/20 Defending the Southeast Asian Community from ICE’s Deportation Machine

11/12/20-11/13/20 Public Charge Training of Trainers

11/17/20, 11/19/20 Trauma Informed Interviewing

11/17/20 Make the Government Pay! Attorney fees in Immigration

11/17/20 Employment-Based Immigration Opportunities for Immigrant Youth

11/18/20 Gender-Based Asylum w/ CGRS

11/18/20 Applying for Asylum and Related Relief for Clients with Convictions

11/24/20 VAWA Self-Petitioning Fundamentals

11/30/20 Perfecting a Winning Strategy for Asylum Applications

12/2/20 Migration, Climate Change, and Human Adaptation

12/2/20 An Overview of Naturalization

12/2/20 Informational Webinar on our E-Learning Course: Legal Writing for DOJ Accredited Representatives

12/2/20-12/3/20 Legal Remedies for Immigrant Survivors: Introductory Seminar Series

12/3/20 Representing Permanent Residents in LPR Cancellation Cases

12/3/20 2020 AILA Crimes and Immigration Virtual Conference

12/3/20-12/4/20 53rd Annual Immigration and Naturalization Institute

12/8/20 Litigating Your Way Out of Delay

12/9/20 Public Charge in Consular Processing

12/15/20 Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude

12/16/20 LPRs and Public Charge

12/16/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

2/4/21 Basic Immigration Law 2021: Business, Family, Naturalization and Related Areas

2/5/21 Asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Crime Victim, and Other Immigration Relief 2021

ImmProf

Monday, November 2, 2020

Trump declares 1 November to be ‘national day of remembrance for those killed by illegal aliens’

Call for Papers: Michigan Law School Seventh Annual Junior Scholars Conference

Immigration Article of the Day: Duress in Immigration Law by Elizabeth Keyes

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Now Streaming: His House

New Immigrant Rights Voices website and the #ProtectImmigrantVoices campaign

Exhibit I for Reform of the Immigration Courts: The systemic problems with our immigration courts are dire

Deported Vet Becomes a U.S. Citizen

Trump Campaign Closer: Promise of an even harder line on immigration and refugees

Saturday, October 31, 2020

From The Bookshelves: The Galleons, Poems by Rick Barot

The “Anonymous” Figure Who Claimed To Be Resisting Trump Actually Defended His Controversial Immigration Policies

US Election Fuels Discussion of Immigration Issues

Friday, October 30, 2020

Immigration Article of the Day: Categorical Confusion in Asylum Law by Brian Soucek

New Fact Sheet from Vera Institute of Justice on Immigration Court Appearance Rates

Humanizing Deportation/Humanizando la Deportación, UC Davis, Releases Multi-Media Project

Op-Ed: When Trump says immigrants don’t show up for court hearings, he couldn’t be more wrong

“ICE announces arrests of more than 100 at-large aliens”

Trump aide Stephen Miller preparing second-term immigration blitz

Border Officials Turned Away Unaccompanied Immigrant Children More Than 13,000 Times Under Trump’s Pandemic Policy

Thursday, October 29, 2020

The Loneliness of the Immigration Lawyer

N.J. artist attacks Trump’s immigration policy with display of caged brown baby dolls

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Latest TRAC Immigration Data on Immigration Courts

The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights Releases Report: Reimagining the Immigration System for Children

Guest Post: New Data Shows Immigration Attorneys Frustrated with U.S. Immigration System by Terrence Gourlay

22 state coalition challenges international student rule change

Immigration Article of the Day: Constitutional and Procedural Pathways to Freedom from Immigration Detention: Increasing Access to Legal Representation by Aditi Shah

From the Bookshelves: Stuck Here: African Immigrants Tell Their Stories, Marvin Opiyo

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Immigration Legal Fellowship–California Central Coast or Central Valley

SCOTUSBlog Symposium: From the travel ban to the border wall, restrictive immigration policies thrive on the shadow docket

From the Bookshelves: Caged Lion: Joseph Pilates and His Legacy by John Howard Steel (2020)

One Unsuccessful Asylum Story

From the Bookshelves: Citizenship Reimagined by Allan Colbern and Karthick Ramakrishnan

Immigration issues merit more attention by presidential candidates

Undocumented immigrants may actually make American communities safer – not more dangerous – new study finds

Many California farmworkers fear a winter of hunger and homelessness amid the pandemic

A Poem: Isabella at Three by Hank Olguin

Immigration Article of the Day: Pereira v. Sessions: The Supreme Court’s Call for Common Sense by Ashley Oldfield

Monday, October 26, 2020

From the Bookshelves: The Undocumented Americans by Cornejo Villavicencio

Event and CFP on Climate Migration

Severed families, raided workplaces and a climate of fear: Assessing Trump’s immigration crackdown

John Oliver: Asylum

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

The last item on Elizabeth’s list from John Oliver is a great (if enraging) explanation of how Trump & Miller, aided by complicit Supremes and a corrupt do-nothing GOP Senate, have rewritten American asylum laws by Executive fiat to enact a deadly, immoral, illegal, racist, White Nationalist, restrictionist agenda that tortures, maims, kills, and otherwise punishes refugees, including many women and children, without any due process and in violation of our international obligations (not to mention human decency). The stain on America will long outlast the Trump regime. Much of the harm is irreversible.

How do you know when you have entered the “Twilight Zone of American Democracy?” When the biggest threat to free and fair democratic elections in the United States of America is the President! Today’s national news reports were largely dedicated to state election officials assuring Americans that the President was lying, and that their votes cast in accordance with the rules would be counted, no matter how long it takes.

Vote ‘em out, vote ‘em out! For the good of America and the world, get out the vote and vote ‘em out!

Every vote for a Democratic candidate is a vote to save our nation, our world, our souls, and the lives of our fellow humans of all races and creeds, and to finally achieve Constitutionally required Equal Justice Under Law!🇺🇸

Due Process Forever!⚖️🗽👍🏼🇺🇸

PWS

11-03-20

🇺🇸ONE FINAL PUSH TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY ⚖️ — GET OUT EVERY SINGLE VOTE FOR JOE, KAMALA, AND ALL DEMS!

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Exclusive

Nov. 2, 2020. As all of us know who have spent our lives working in the fields of immigration and asylum law, there is perhaps nothing so precious to individuals, and perhaps all too rare worldwide, as the right to vote in free and fair elections. Most of us who are not members of minority groups have largely taken that right for granted. But, today in America, the right of universal suffrage has been put in jeopardy by none other than President and his political party.

Behind in the polls and the early voting, and with no ideas for America rather than a continued diet of racism, hate, anti-science, anti-environmentalism, corruption, xenophobia, and final destruction of our democratic norms, Trump and his followers have one final trick up their sleeves. Get a massive turnout on Election Day, declare victory before all the votes are counted, and then throw the final determinations into the GOP-controlled Federal Courts.

The antidote: Get out every last vote in every nook and cranny of America for Biden-Harris and other Dems. A “Blue Wave” on Election Day across the nation, and particularly in “battleground states,” is our best defense against destruction of democracy. Another four years of Trump and the GOP and there will be no democracy left to save!

Due Process Forever!⚖️🗽👍🏼

Related posts:

⚖️🗽🧑🏽‍⚖️👍🏼🇺🇸Due Process Forever! Complicity Never☠️🤮🏴‍☠️👎🏻!

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Related posts:

Read my complete speech here:

DUE PROCESS FOREVER!

Related posts:

Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

Due Process Forever! Complicity in the face of tyranny, never!

Related posts:

“A Brand New EOIR For A Better America!”⚖️🗽🇺🇸👨🏽‍⚖️👩‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️👍🏼😎

Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

TIME FOR COURAGEOUS NEW IMMIGRATION LEADERSHIP!

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Related posts:

Due Process Forever! A weaponized and dysfunctional EOIR, never!

It’s time for a sea change at EOIR. End the kakistocracy and the “malicious incompetence!” Time for action by the Biden Administration — not just hollow promises and more endless studies and discussions of what we already know and have known for years!

Related posts:

Related posts:

Vote ‘em out, vote ‘em out! For the good of America and the world, get out the vote and vote ‘em out!

Every vote for a Democratic candidate is a vote to save our nation, our world, our souls, and the lives of our fellow humans of all races and creeds, and to finally achieve Constitutionally required Equal Justice Under Law!🇺🇸

Due Process Forever!⚖️🗽👍🏼🇺🇸

Related posts:

🇺🇸ONE FINAL PUSH TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY ⚖️ — GET OUT EVERY SINGLE VOTE FOR JOE, KAMALA, AND ALL DEMS!

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Exclusive

Related posts: