"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.
A.G. Merrick Garland’s continuing operation of the “EOIR Clown Show,” at taxpayer expense, is costly in more ways than one! “Any reason to deny” proves too much even for the hyper-conservative 5th Circuit! PHOTO: Public Domain
Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:
“On May 18, 2022, this court granted Giscard Nkenglefac’s petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (BIA) dismissal of petitioner’s appeal from the immigration judge’s (IJ) denial of his application for relief from removal. See Nkenglefac v. Garland, 34 F.4th 422, 430 (2022). Because the IJ’s adverse credibility determination was not supported by evidence in the record, we determined that the BIA erred in affirming it and remanded the case to the BIA. The petitioner filed a timely application for attorneys’ fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA). We find that petitioner is entitled to attorneys’ fees under the EAJA and award $56,169.79.”
Homero Lopez, Jr. Director & Co-Founder Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy New Orleans, LA PHOTO: ISLA websiteEmma Morley Paralegal Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy New Orleans, LA PHOTO: ISLA website
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Wouldn’t it be cheaper and better for everyone if Garland finally “cleaned house” at EOIR, appointed and retained only well-qualified expert judges at both the trial and appellate level, replaced incompetent administrators, and ended the toxic — and costly — “any reason to deny culture” at EOIR?
When the DOJ is being “pasted” on wrongful decisions denying asylum by the 5th Circuit, everyone but Garland knows that “the EOIR Clown Show has got to go!”🤡
Make no mistake about it! Garland’s failure to reform EOIR into a due-process-focused expert tribunal willing to stand up for the legal rights of asylum seekers and to require “best practices” with respect to access to representation at the border and elsewhere is a major contributing factor to the Biden Administration’s deadly humanitarian disaster and abrogation of the rule of law for asylum seekers at the Southern Border. It didn’t have to be this way!
Why is this “preventable disaster” happening under a Dem Administration that ran on an (apparently false) pledge to restore due process and the rule of law for asylum seekers and other migrants? How can we stop it and prevent it from happening again in the future?
I daresay that many humanitarian experts warned the Biden Administration that without fundamental positive changes, better, courageous, expert, inspirational leadership, and long-overdue administrative reforms at DOJ, DHS, and the White House, disasters would unfold across the board. That’s exactly what has happened! It’s also infecting the entire legal system and inhibiting social justice in America.
But , unless and until social justice advocates come up with a better political approach to the disturbing lack of integrity and values in both political parties when it comes to immigration, they will continue to be vilified and attacked by the GOP and “consistently kicked to the side of the road” by Dems!
I wish I knew the answer! I don’t! But, I do know that human rights and social justice disasters will continue to unfold unless and until social justice advocates figure out how to get some “political clout” behind their intellectual power and store of (largely ignored) great ideas!
