"The Voice of the New Due Process Army" ————– Musings on Events in U.S. Immigration Court, Immigration Law, Sports, and Other Random Topics by Retired United States Immigration Judge (Arlington, Virginia) and former Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals Paul Wickham Schmidt. To see my complete professional bio, just click on the link below.
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! 🇺🇸
For some (not all) EOIR judges, ignoring the record and making up reasons to deny asylum has become “business as usual.” The BIA, dominated by notable asylum deniers, often ”papers over” or “doubles down” on mistaken denials. There are no consequences for wrongfully endangering the lives of vulnerable asylum seekers. How would YOU (or for that matter Judge Garland) like YOUR life and future to be in the hands of an organization that has lost sight of its due process and fundamental fairness mission? Why isn’t fixing this unfair national disgrace (which falls disproportionately on individuals of color and other minorities) “job one” at the Biden/Harris/Garland DOJ? https://www.flickr.com/photos/rasputin243/ Creative Commons License
Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:
“Mariana Ndudzi, a native and citizen of Angola, petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision denying her appeal of an immigration judge’s (IJ) denial of her application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). She argues that the Agency erred in finding her not credible and failed to review her corroborating evidence. We vacate and remand. … The main issue in this appeal is whether the BIA erred in upholding the IJ’s adverse credibility finding. That decision is largely based on perceived contradictions between Ndudzi’s alleged statements in her CFI and her sworn testimony in her removal hearing. Ndudzi makes two arguments against the adverse credibility finding. … [N]one of the inconsistencies the Agency relied on are in fact inconsistent. … In sum, the BIA and IJ’s adverse credibility determination rests largely on “inconsistencies” in the record that are not actually inconsistent. … In summary, the BIA and IJ relied heavily on an unsupported conclusion that Ndudzi is not a credible witness. At the same time, there appears to be little dispute that, if Ndudzi’s claims are true, she would be entitled to asylum under 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1)(A). Because the adverse credibility finding is not supported by specific and cogent reasons derived from the record, we GRANT the petition for review, VACATE the decisions of the BIA and IJ denying Ndudzi’s application for asylum and CAT relief, and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
“Because the adverse credibility finding is not supported by specific and cogent reasons derived from the record:”The 5th Circuit states the correct standard for adverse credibility findings, derived from BIA precedents! But, neither the IJ nor the BIA applied it! How is this professionally acceptable “judging” from supposed (but not really) “experts? Why is it tolerated at Garland’s DOJ?
Folks, stripped of the legal niceties, the most conservative Article III court in America just spent 16 pages analyzing and finding that the IJ and the BIA invented bogus “inconsistencies” to deny an otherwise clearly “grantable” asylum application from a woman who fled Angola.
Why is this type of unprofessional judicial performance, at both the trial and appellate levels of EOIR, acceptable in “life or death” cases? Why is it “OK” to submit asylum seekers to a “crap shoot” for their lives rather than giving them fair hearings before expert judges committed to great scholarship, careful analysis, and, most important, “getting it right the first time around?” Both the IJ and the BIA actually “went to some lengths” to invent reasons to disbelieve credible testimony. Isn’t unwillingness to fairly and routinely grant asylum to qualified applicants a major contributing factor in EOIR’s uncontrolled backlog? Wouldn’t getting it right at the “first level” promote efficiency and reduce the need for appellate litigation?
Also worthy of note: The 5th Circuit’s “footnote 2” punches huge holes in the myth of demeanor as an indicator of credibility:
Such deference is perhaps unfounded, however, given the wealth of contemporary psychological research suggesting that subjective perception of a witness’ demeanor is an unreliable indicator of the witness’ veracity. E.g., Mark W. Bennett, Unspringing the Witness Memory and Demeanor Trap: What Every Judge and Juror Needs to Know about Cognitive Psychology and Witness Credibility, 64 AM. U. L. REV. 1331, 1332 (2015) (“[C]ognitive psychological studies have consistently established that the typical cultural cues jurors rely on, including averting eye contact, a furrowed brow, a trembling hand, and stammering speech, for example, have little or nothing to do with a witness’s truthfulness.”); Liz Bradley & Hillary Farber, Virtually Incredible: Rethinking Deference to Demeanor When Assessing Credibility in Asylum Cases Conducted by Video Teleconference, 36 GEO. IMMIGR. L.J. 515, 535 (2022) (“Decades of research by social scientists have shown that the nonverbal ‘cues’ commonly associated with deception are based on false assumptions,” and cultural differences between an asylee and an IJ can “lead to cross- cultural misunderstandings of nonverbal cues,” especially when testimony is mediated through an interpreter).
Conscientious judges and advocates take note! In plain terms, “demeanor” is a largely bogus device used by bad judges to deny potentially valid claims. Obviously, in a “deny and deport oriented culture” like today’s EOIR (the very antithesis of the generous approach the Supremes in Cardoza and an earlier BIA in Mogharrabi said should apply to asylum adjudication), “bogus demeanor findings” become just another “device to deny protection.”
🇺🇸Due Process Forever!
PWS
07-23-22
Revised on 07-23-22 to reflect the panel’s revised opinion.
