Tag: BuzzFeed

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hamedaleaziz/immigration-judges-have-been-told-to-hold-more-hearings?utm_term=.yhamGYaYoZ#.yhamGYaYoZ

HAMED ALEAZIZ reports for BuzzFeed:

In a move that advocates say could threaten due process rights for immigrants and lead to more deportations, immigration judges in multiple cities have been instructed to cram more hearings into their daily schedules, according to sources knowledgeable on the matter.

Advocates believe the Trump administration has undercut the independence of judges in order to speed up deportations. Already this year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions restricted the types of cases in which asylum would be granted and limited the ability for judges to indefinitely suspend certain cases.

Judges across the country, in places like San Francisco; Arlington, Virginia; Memphis, and Dallas, recently received the instructions from assistant chief immigration judges, who supervise separate immigration courts, to schedule three merits hearings a day starting Oct. 1, according to sources who did not want to speak publicly on the matter.

An Executive Office for Immigration Review official said that that the assistant chief judges were not directed by the office’s leadership to push the instructions.

Advocates believe the move could be potentially disastrous for immigrants. During merits hearings, immigrants facing deportation provide evidence and call witnesses to back up their claims to remain in the country, such as arguing for asylum. In addition, earlier in the year, the Department of Justice announced that beginning Oct. 1, judges would be expected to complete 700 cases a year.

“The requirement of three merits hearings a day could do more to threaten the integrity of the court system than the 700-case-per-year requirement,” said Sarah Pierce, a senior analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank. “Requiring immigration judges to schedule three merits hearings a day assumes each case will be a similar or at least comparable length — and that’s just not true.”

Pierce said some hearings, such as asylum hearings, may require detailed testimony that can make the case stretch on for hours. “By mandating three merits hearings a day the court would be placing unrealistic pressures on immigration judges, which will certainly have negative after effects on the due process rights of the foreign nationals in their courtrooms,” she said.

Until now, how many hearings a judge schedules each day has been up to the judges themselves. Often, judges schedule two such hearings a day, experts say.

Jeffrey Chase, a former immigration judge and now an immigration attorney, said the instructions to schedule three could lead to judges feeling forced to speed through hearings.

“If a judge is going to think: ‘let me do [the] right thing and have an eight-hour hearing, or I’ve got my kids’ tuition I have to pay, I’m going to do what they want me to do,’” he said. “It’s the next step in taking away immigration judges’ independence, making them choose between job security and due process.”

Unlike federal judges who are given lifetime appointments, immigration court judges are employees of the Department of Justice. In his role overseeing the court, Sessions has been vocal in cutting down the backlog of deportation cases.

To that end, in March, judges were given benchmarks on how many days they should take to complete certain cases and how many cases they should finish every year beginning on Oct. 1.

Dana Marks, a spokesperson for the National Association of Immigration Judges, told BuzzFeed News that she could not confirm or deny the report. Marks, however, said that their association is “deeply concerned any time” there is an encroachment on judges’ ability to manage their dockets.

“Micro-managing our dockets from afar does not help us to do our job more efficiently and effectively,” she said, “it hinders us.”

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Of course demanding that Immigration Judges schedule additional cases is NOT “mere administration” or “value neutral.” Given the clear anti-immigrant, “blame the victims and the judges” message delivered by Sessions, it’s basically saying “most of the cases are easy denials — get the lead out and move ‘em out.”

A really good Immigration Judge can do a maximum of two full contested cases per day. A thorough job on a “contested merits case” including delivery of oral decision takes 3-4 hours. And, frankly, many Immigration Judges can’t fairly complete two cases.

That doesn’t mean that they aren’t working hard or good judges; it’s just a “fact of life” that judges are human and work at different paces. Also the preparation of the parties and whether or not the case  requires an interpreter (obviously, cases in English go more quickly), things over which a judge has no control, enter into it. Indeed, judges purporting to complete more than two full contested cases per day are almost certainly cutting corners, doing a substandard job, or denying Due Process to the respondents.

Sessions, through a toxic combination of ignorance, incompetence, and gross bias is destroying what is left of Due Process in the Immigration Courts. Time for the Article III Courts to step in, oust Sessions from control on ethical grounds (he is a living, breathing, violation of judicial ethics), and appoint a “Special Master” to run the system until Congress steps up and creates an independent US Immigration Court.

Otherwise, one way or another, the Article IIIs will find themselves destroyed by the mess Sessions is intentionally creating in the Immigration Courts. The Article IIIs can’t “run and hide” from the “Sessions Debacle.” Eventually, they are going to be sucked into the legal, ethical, and moral morass Sessions is creating.

In the period leading up to World War II, the German courts not only failed to stand up to Hitler, but actually willingly joined in his racist, anti-semitic program that eventually led to the Holocaust. History didn’t let them off the hook. Where will the Article IIIs stand in the Trump/Sessions White Nationalist assault on the Constitution and the rule of law?

PWS

08-24-18