⚖️👨🏽‍⚖️🧑‍⚖️ INTERESTING THOUGHTS ON BETTER JUDGING: “Judges, Judging, and Judgment: Character, Wisdom, and Humility in a Polarized World” by Marquette Law Professor Chad Oldfather

The Gavel
The Gavel

One is the “practical wisdom” that was
Kronman’s focus. That’s a big topic, of course, but
part of it involves recognition that the function of
the legal system is ultimately to provide answers to
very practical questions.

https://law.marquette.edu/assets/marquette-lawyers/pdf/marquette-lawyer/2025-summer/2025-summer-p38.pdf

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

⚖️ Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-31-25

📖 BOOK REVIEW: Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees From Nazi Germany, by Rebecca Brenner Graham

Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins (1880-1965)
U.S. Secretary of Labor (1933-45)
PHOTO: Public realm
Rebecca Brenner Graham
Dr. Rebecca Brenner Graham
Teacher, Author, Historian
PHOTO: Rebeccabrennergraham.com

Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees From Nazi Germany

By Rebecca Brenner Graham

Citadel Press 2025

Reviewed by Paul Wickham Schmidt[1] for immigrationcourtside.com

May 29, 2025

As someone who has spent more than five decades working on immigration issues, many of them involving refugees and those seeking asylum, in and out of Government, I found Dear Miss Perkins by Rebecca Brenner Graham interesting and in many ways moving.

True, the book suffered from some editorial and organizational difficulties: more like a string of essays than a unified volume with a thesis or overall theme; lots of repetition; some awkward sentence structure; and lack of a comprehensive index were among the most noticeable and occasionally annoying. Full disclosure: I mostly listened to the audiobook while driving from the D.C. area to Kansas City, Missouri to participate as a faculty member in the 2025 Immigration Court Trial Litigation College sponsored by Pen & Sword. The “road trip audio experience” might have minimized some of the book’s weakness as noted above.

I related to Perkins’s struggle to achieve “good government” and humane, sensible, practical administration of the immigration laws, as well as her frustrations on being thwarted, mirrored by my own Government experiences. Like her, my efforts at institutionalizing best practices and interpretations were ultimately largely unsuccessful. Yet, like her, I was able to solve “real life” (often life or death) problems, save lives, teach and inspire others, and get some degree of personal satisfaction in achieving things that helped others and overall benefitted our nation.

Here, in my own somewhat random order, are my major “takeaways” from the book, most of which remain as troublesome today as they did in Perkins’s era.

1) The prevalence of antisemitism in Government and society, a continuing issue.

2) The persistence of racism, misogyny (frequently directed at Perkins herself), bigotry, and false economic arguments being used against immigrants.

3) The use of “legal fictions” in place of common sense in immigration legal opinions (e.g., the “charge bond controversy”).

4) Focusing more on what particular immigrants can do for the U.S., than on the humanity, needs, situation, and potential of the immigrants themselves.

5) Lumping Nazism, socialism, and communism together as “totalitarianism.”

6) Minimizing the culpability of the German people for Nazism and the holocaust.

7) The extraordinarily poor performance of Congress in protecting refugees and other immigrants in a nation of immigrants.

8) The subservience of legal, Constitutional, and human rights of immigrants to domestic political considerations.

9) The enduring, and often toxic, nature of “turf battles” and arcane bureaucratic distinctions in overruling “good government,” efficiency, and practicality in the immigration bureaucracy.

10) Who you know often trumping fair treatment in individual cases.

11) Creative, progressive actions within the bureaucracy, such as those championed by Perkins, can save individual lives even if they can not systematically save everyone who should be saved.

12) The remarkable lack of empathy for child migration and family separation.

13) “Sanitization” of the saga of World War II (e.g., “Hogan’s Heroes Syndrome”), and diffusing or watering down the responsibility for the holocaust, and the other dehumanizing effects.

14) Intentionally overplaying immigration, particularly by refugees and other forced migrants, as primarily a national security/law enforcement concern rather than as a practical humanitarian response to recurring situations (e.g., the transfer of immigration responsibility from DOL to DOJ and eventually to DHS).

My parting thought is that Perkins’s tale confirmed what many of us already knew. It’s hard to survive as a progressive in Government even with friends in high places.

In an age of human progress in technology, I find it disturbing and puzzling indeed that regression has come to dominate immigration policy and that so many of the deadly and tragic mistakes, misconceptions, and lack of courage that faced Perkins remain very much with us today. As caring and engaged humans, we must strive for just solutions for the sake of future generations. Despite the current, largely unrelentingly negative rhetoric, immigration is integral to our country, is here to stay, and will continue to shape our nation and our world.

 


[1] *Retired U.S. Immigration Judge, retired adjunct law professor, former Chairman, Board of Immigration Appeals, former Deputy General Counsel and Acting General Counsel, Legacy” Immigration & Naturalization Service, former law partner, current member of the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges. These are my views and do not represent the views of any organization or entity with which I am currently associated, have been associated in the past, or might become associated with in the future.

⚖️🗽 LA TIMES: RENOWNED REFUGEE EXPERT/SCHOLAR PROFESSOR KAREN MUSALO SAYS UNDER TRUMP THE U.S. IS FAILING TO MEET LEGALLY BINDING OBLIGATIONS TO REFUGEES — BIG TIME!🤯

 

Karen MusaloProfessor Karen Musalo
Director, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, Hastings Law

In times like these, we should not depend solely on the courts. There are many of us here in the U.S. who believe that the world’s refugee framework — developed in response to the profound moral failure of turning back the St. Louis — is worth fighting for. We need to take a vocal stand. The clear message must be that those fleeing persecution should never be returned to persecution.

If we take such a stand, we will be in the good company of those who survived the Holocaust and continue to speak out for the rights of all refugees.

https://lnkd.in/gTjBKb5K

It’s been a busy time for Karen. She writes in Linkedin:

I was very honored to be chosen by the 2025 graduates of UC Law, San Francisco, to be their faculty speaker. Our students truly inspire me, and make me hopeful for the future.

Karen Musalo
Karen Musalo speaking at UC Law graduation, May 2025.
PHOTO: Linkedin

 

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

Thanks for speaking out so forcefully and articulately, my friend! Sticking to and standing up for values and the rule of law is important, particularly in an age of scofflaws, myth spreaders, and dehumanizers! One need look only as far as the St. Louis incident that you cite to see how even with the benefit of historical knowledge and fact, some among us stubbornly stick to lies, myths, and xenophobia with tragic and deadly results.

⚖️ Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-22-25

⚖️🧠💡 LAW YOU CAN USE FROM HON. “SIR JEFFREY” S. CHASE OF THE ROUND TABLE 🛡️⚔️ — The BIA’s Misinterpretation of “Clearly Erroneous” is Clearly Erroneous! — Take the BIA’s “any reason to deny” culture to the Circuits!💪🏼

Jeffrey S. Chase
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase
Jeffrey S. Chase Blog
Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges

 

[T]he Board in Matter of A-A-R- impermissibly reinterpreted the evidence in a very selective way in order to reach a different conclusion than that reached by the trier of fact. As the Fourth Circuit recently held in reversing the Board, “In conducting clear error review, the BIA may not reweigh evidence or ‘substitute[ ] its own judgment for that of the IJ.’”

For all of the above reasons, a prediction that A-A-R- will not withstand circuit court scrutiny would not be clearly erroneous.

 

https://www.jeffreyschase.com/blog/2025/5/18/when-are-future-predictions-clearly-erroneous-matter-of-a-a-r-1

 

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Thanks, Jeffrey, my friend and colleague, for your scholarly exposition of the BIA’s result-oriented sophistry. It’s no coincidence that in erroneously reversing a solid CAT grant to El Salvador the BIA chose, as it seldom does in other than a negative context, to reject a very viable form of mandatory protection, to a country currently in the news, which is available without regard to criminal record, alleged gang membership, and /or discretionary factors.

By choosing to designate it as a rare precedent, the “captive” BIA appears to be fulfilling the political demands of the Trump Administration to be able to argue, contrary to the Supremes, that no fair hearings are necessary in similar cases of illegal removals because an ultimate negative result is foreordained by precedent (even though that is clearly wrong, even under A-A-R-).

Administration lawyers have even gone to the extraordinary extent of trying to— so far unsuccessfully — submit and argue that bogus “predictive denials” — basically the DHS’s position without any opportunity to challenge — can be relied upon by a reviewing Article III court to deny the return of individuals wrongfully deported. What a complete crock and insult to the rule of law, as well as to the judges to which these disingenuous arguments are addressed! 🤬🤮

While “third country removals” are possible for those granted withholding of removal or deferral of removal under the CAT, proper legal procedure and due process require that 1) the DHS seek to reopen the case for designation of a new country of removal (unless such alternative country was previously designated and named in the Immigraton Judge’s order), and 2) the respondent be given a reasonable opportunity to raise any protection claims relating to that country.

⚖️ Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-21-25

🎭🗽THE ARTS: AS THE TRUMP KAKISTOCRACY MOVES TO DUMB DOWN THE ARTS & SHAMELESSLY WHITEWASH AMERICAN HISTORY, COMPELLING STORIES ABOUT AMERICA’S IMMIGRANTS TAKE CENTER STAGE BEYOND THE KENCEN!

“In The Heights”
“In The Heights”
PHOTO: Signature Theater

“There’s so much crying from Republicans that racism is over and it’s done,” Leguizamo said in October. “Well, try being a Latin person one day in America and see what racism does to you, with them destroying the DEI programs and affirmative action. It’s so undermining of creating a better and stronger country.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2025/04/09/in-the-heights-signature-immigrant-synetic/

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

Immigrant storytelling through compelling, well-conducted, skillfully organized direct examination is one of the skills NDPA faculty litigators have been teaching at various seminars and workshops, like the upcoming Immigration Court Trial Litigation College sponsored by Pen & Sword ✒️🗡️ scheduled for later this month in Kansas City. Many thanks to our “Dean” of the Trial College, Rekha Sharma-Crawford, for making it happen. Life can imitate art, and the “real-life drama of the Immigration Court” — where human lives and our nation‘s future are at stake every day — is more compelling than any TV legal series!

🇺🇸🗽⚖️ Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-12-25

🇺🇸⚖️🗽⚔️🛡️ THE THINGS WE DO, BIG & LITTLE, IN ADVOCATING FOR DUE PROCESS, FUNDAMENTAL FAIRNESS, COMMON SENSE & HUMAN DIGNITY MATTER! — Federal Judge cites Round Table’s Amicus Brief in support of key finding in halting Administration’s abuse of children facing Immigration Court!💪🏼👍🏼😎

Knightess
Knightess of the Round Table

Hon “Sir Jeffrey” Chase of the Round Table writes:

“See attached order: a TRO issued late last night. And our Round Table brief was mentioned:

The Court additionally finds that the continued funding of legal representation for unaccompanied children

promotes efficiency and fairness within the immigration system. See generally Br. for Amicus

Curiae Former Immigration Judges & Former Members of the Board of Immigration Appeals

(ECF 28). A temporary restraining order enjoining the Cancellation Order serves the public interest.

Thanks to all!”

Here’s the full decision granting the TRO:

ORDER TRO 2

And, here’s a link to our brief as recently posted on “Courtside:”

https://immigrationcourtside.com/2025/03/31/%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%97%bd%f0%9f%91%a6%f0%9f%8f%bd%f0%9f%91%b6%f0%9f%8f%bc%f0%9f%9b%a1%ef%b8%8f%e2%9a%94%ef%b8%8f-saving-the-children-round-table-amicus-brief-supports-pro-bono-services-for/

 

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

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

04-02-25

 

⚖️🗽👦🏽👶🏼🛡️⚔️ SAVING THE CHILDREN:  ROUND TABLE AMICUS BRIEF SUPPORTS PRO BONO SERVICES FOR UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN IN IMMIGRATION COURT!

Helping Hand
A Helping Hand.jpg
Image depicts a child coming to the aid of another in need. Once we have climbed it is essential for the sake of humanity that we help others do the same. It is knowing that we all could use, and have used, a helping hand.
Safiyyah Scoggins – PVisions1111
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
White Nationalist Xenophobes have abandoned Traditional Judeo-Christian values in favor of neo-fascism.But, the rest of us should hold true to our “better angels.”

Hon. “Sir Jeffrey” Chase writes:

Hi all: Attached is our just-filed amicus brief in support of the Unaccompanied Children Program.

Once again, this was a real team effort. Major thanks to Ashley Tabaddor, for lending her expertise and powerful anecdotes on very short notice. Also thanks to Sue Roy, the eagle-eyed editing of Helen Sichel, and Denise Slavin for your contributions.

We never stand so tall as when we file an amicus brief to help unaccompanied children.

Best, Jeff

CLP v. HHS Amicus Curiae Brief ISO Ps’ Motion for TRO & PI

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

Also many thanks to our pro bono partners at Akin Gump! It’s a team effort, and we couldn’t do it without you!🙏

⚖️Due Process Forever!

PWS

03-31-25

⚖️🛡️⚔️ ROUND TABLE’S RETIRED JUDGE JENNIE GIAMBASTIANI SPEAKS OUT ON INSANITY OF TRUMP’S SLASHING OF LEGAL REPRESENTATION PROGRAM, FORCING KIDS TO FACE IMMIGRATION COURT ALONE!🤬🤮

Jennie Gianbastiani
Hon. Jennie Giambastiani
U.S. Immigration Judge (retired)
Member, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges
PHOTO: Linkedin

The Trump administration is stripping funding for legal representation from tens of thousands of children who are unaccompanied migrants in the United States, a move immigration lawyers warn violates their legal rights and will leave minors vulnerable to abuse. 

“Picture yourself thrown into a detention center in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language, where you don’t understand that country’s complex legal system, only to be told that now you must fend for yourself, assert your rights and seek whatever protections that country might offer you,” Jennie Giambastiani, a retired immigration judge, said Tuesday during a call organized by the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights.

“Now picture yourself as a child in that situation,” she added.

Government-funded attorneys changed that dynamic, Giambastiani said, because they worked hard “to make sure that the children understood the proceedings and could present their claims in court.” Most unaccompanied children can’t afford to hire their own legal representation. 

Without those lawyers, Giambastiani said separately, the immigration courts would be thrown into “chaos”: “The judge won’t have any sense that this child understands why [they’re] there in court.”

Read the full HuffPost article here: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/chaos-looms-unaccompanied-kids-trump-212208216.html

Thanks for speaking out for American justice, my friend and colleague! Expect more soon from our Round Table ⚔️🛡️ on this outrageous breach of due process, good government, and common sense!

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

🇺🇸⚖️ Due Process Forever!

PWS

03-26-25

🏴‍☠️RIDING ROUGHSHOD OVER REQUIREMENTS OF WILBERFORCE ACT, MUMP KAKISTOCRACY CANCELS LEGAL AID CONTRACTS, TARGETS KIDS FOR DEPORTATION WITHOUT DUE PROCESS! ☠️🤬🤮

Wendy Young
Wendy Young
President, Kids In Need of Defense (“KIND”)

Reacting to this outrageous breach of the law and morality, Wendy Young, the President of Kids in Need of Defense (“KIND”) said:

“The administration’s devastating decision to strip vital legal services away from unaccompanied children runs counter to its stated desire to protect kids, some as young as toddlers, against trafficking, exploitation, and other abuses that make them easy prey for those who would do them harm. The critical legal programs eliminated today have long-standing bipartisan support from Congress, not only because they protect children from danger, but because they also improve efficiencies in the immigration system by ensuring legal counsel for unaccompanied children who otherwise must navigate a complex court proceeding alone. This includes facilitating private-sector pro bono legal services that KIND oversees with almost 900 law firms, corporations, law schools, and bar associations at no cost to the government. The value of these contributions from KIND’s pro bono partners is approximately $1 billion, a significant contribution at a time when the federal government is claiming to seek cost savings. Elimination of the services in this contract, which are mandated by law, makes it all but impossible for many unaccompanied children to appear for their immigration court hearings or otherwise remain in touch with immigration agencies. It severs key lines of communication and coordination between vulnerable unaccompanied children and the institutions in place to ensure their protection.

 

“While today’s development is unconscionable, Congress can act to restore these key protections. For years, bipartisan spending bills have dedicated resources to this important work. Doing so has never been more important than now. Congress has full authority on its own to remedy the crisis the administration’s actions will yield – authority it should exercise decisively. KIND calls upon the House of Representatives and Senate to work in a bipartisan fashion to mandate robust funding in the FY 2026 federal appropriations package to the Office of Refugee Resettlement for complete restoration of unaccompanied children’s legal services, including full legal representation. The safety of thousands of children depends on it.”

 

For more information, please contact Brenda Bowser Soder at bbowsersoder@supportkind.org

https://supportkind.org/press-releases/elimination-of-vital-legal-services-for-unaccompanied-children-undercuts-administrations-desire-to-prevent-trafficking-ensure-court-efficiency/

 

Starving Children
Ready to face ICE prosecutors in “court?” What could possibly go wrong!
Creative Commons License

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Dismantling that which works, targeting the most vulnerable, is what a kakistocracy consisting of malicious incompetents does!🤬🤮

Due Process Forever!⚖️🗽

PWS

03-22-25 

🇺🇸⚖️🗽⚔️🛡️ OUR (EVER EXPANDING) ROUND TABLE’S AMICUS BRIEF SUPPORTS THE LEGAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM (“LOP”) AT EOIR!

Read it here:

2025.03.10 Amica v DOJ Mot for Leave to File Amicus
\Brief

Many thanks to our wonderful pro bono friends at Akin Gump!

Jeffrey S. Chase
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase
Jeffrey S. Chase Blog
Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges
Knightess
Knightess of the Round Table
Adina Appelbaum
Leading the charge for due process!                                                                            Adina Appelbaum
Director, Immigration Impact Lab
Amica Center for Immigrant Rights
Charter Member, NDPA
PHOTO: “30 Under 30” from Forbes

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

So proud to be a member of our Round Table!

Due Process Forever!⚖️

PWS

03-11-25

 

 

⚖️🤯🤬 DEPARTMENT OF GROSS INJUSTICE🤮🏴‍☠️: Kakistocracy’s Outrageous Attack On Due Process, Fundamental Fairness, & Expertise in Backlogged Immigration Courts is a Destructive Political Stunt, Firing Some of the Best-Qualified Judges Who Were Serving American Justice!  — Report from Isabela Dias at Mother Jones, quoting me among others! 

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

The Trump administration has also reportedly taken aim at Biden appointees serving on the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)—the body charged with reviewing immigration judges’ decisions—by reducing the number of members from 28 to 15. As of January, the BIA’s backlog reached a decade-high record of more than 127,000 pending cases, an almost eightfold increase compared to 2015.

Paul Schmidt, a retired immigration judge and one-time BIA chairman, traced a parallel between the Trump administration’s “purge” and a George W. Bush-era move to “streamline” the BIA. Back then, Attorney General John Ashcroft slashed the members perceived as pro-immigrant. The Department of Justice later found itself at the center of a scandal over senior officials’ efforts to hire judges based on their political and ideological affiliations.

Similar politicization could be happening now. Prior to her unceremonious termination, Doyle had been flagged on a “DHS Bureaucrat Watchlist” by the American Accountability Foundation, a right-wing group backed by the Heritage Foundation. Last year, the organization announced an initiative called “Project Sovereignty 2025” to expose “high-ranking civil servants within DHS and DOJ who are likely to thwart an incoming conservative administration’s immigration agenda.”

The website describes Doyle, who previously served as head prosecutor with
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), as an “immigration activist lawyer” with a “known history as a critic of DHS” and a “lifelong commitment to open borders and mass migration.” (It cites Doyle’s involvement, while in private practice, in a lawsuitagainst the first Trump administration’s infamous ban on travelers from Muslim-majority countries as evidence of her supposed ideological bias.)

“Significant time and resources went into hiring all of us and the group had a diverse background including a number of former OPLA prosecutors,” Doyle, whose hiring process took 14 months between multiple rounds of interviews and an extensive background check, wrote in a LinkedIn post, “but what we all had in common is that we were hired—through a neutral system I will point out—during the Biden administration. This firing was political.”

Schmidt, the former BIA chairman, predicts all of this is just the start: “I think the worst is yet to come.”

Kerry Doyle
Kerry Doyle ESQ
Former Principal Legal Advisor, ICE, DHS
Official USG Photo

Read Isabela’s complete article here:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/trump-immigration-courts-firing-doge-nonsensical-system-collapse-eoir/

Isabela Dias
Isabela Dias
Staff Writer, Immigration & Social Issues
Mother Jones
PHOTO: Twitter

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

Not only does the kakistocracy treat immigrants unfairly, cruelly, and with disrespect, they inflict the same mistreatment on some of their own employees — many dedicated civil servants with expertise and honorable service.🤮

As noted by Isabela, GOP Administrations have a history of politicized hiring at EOIR and questionable personnel maneuvers going back several decades!

By sharp contrast, AG Merrick Garland actually honored all 17 of the “pipeline” IJ appointments made by his GOP predecessor AG Bill Barr under flawed selection procedures that favored those with prosecutorial or government service, some glaringly lacking immigration expertise, while discouraging or passing over better-qualified applicants with actual experience and expertise representing asylum seekers and other immigrants in his weaponized, DHS enforcement-oriented “Immigration Courts.”  I was one of the many observers who harshly criticized Garland’s ill-advised and timid accession to his GOP predecessor’s questionable selections. See, e.g.https://immigrationcourtside.com/2021/05/05/%f0%9f%a4%ae%f0%9f%91%8e%f0%9f%8f%bbshocking-betrayal-justice-garland-disses-progressive-experts-with-secret-appointments-of-17-unqualified-immigration-judges-n/

While Garland did eventually make some good appointments of well-qualified jurists, overall his record on judicial appointments at EOIR was “middling at best” — certainly not the strong, effective makeover with subject matter experts unswervingly committed to due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices so desperately needed at EOIR! As a result, ridiculously inconsistent decision-making, mundane precedents, and entrenched anti-asylum, anti-immigrant attitudes at EOIR remained at endemic levels throughout the Biden Administration!🤯🤬

When it comes to EOIR and enlightened, consistent, due-process- focused immigration policies, Dems are often their own worst enemies — a disgraceful trend that infuriatingly continues even today!🤬

🇺🇸⚖️ Due Process Forever! Kakistocracy Never!

PWS

02-08-25

⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️🧑‍⚖️☠️❤️‍🩹🤬  TRUMP’S WAR ON AMERICAN JUSTICE! — DISTINGUISHED IMMIGRATION JURISTS TARGETED BY ADMINISTRATION IN “ST. VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE” 💀 SPEAK OUT!

EYORE
“Eyore In Distress”
Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Wall Creative Commons 2.0
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Wall
Creative Commons 2.0

Reprinted with permission:

Statement from 7 terminated Assistant Chief Immigration Judges (ACIJs):

*Please note – pronouns are nonbinary below only to maintain anonymity.

The terminated ACIJs are 5 females and 2 males, all age 41 or older. 2 are military veterans. 2 are racial minorities. Together, the 7 terminated ACIJs have over 105 years of public service that ended abruptly with an email sent Friday afternoon, Valentine’s Day.

1. Facts related to termination:

– Friday afternoon we all received by e-mail a PDF letter terminating us with no notice and no cause for the termination.

2. Summary of our experience: Combined, the 7 ACIJs led 18 immigration courts, and supervised approximately 135 immigration judges and 418 support staff. One was working on opening a new immigration court with 4 judges. Their termination leaves roughly 25% of the nation’s immigration courts without leadership or additional judges to preside while the immigration case backlog grows to over 3.6 million cases.

– At least one ACIJ was sent the termination email during the middle of a merits hearing (asylum case) over which they were presiding.

– 4 of the ACIJs were backups for each other’s courts, so at least 4 courts are without any clear leadership.

Collectively, we are devastated at the loss of our ability to continue in our jobs serving the public and serving EOIR’s mission to “adjudicate immigration cases by fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly interpreting and administering the Nation’s immigration laws.”

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

Rather than a “model of due process and fundamental fairness,” under this Administration EOIR is becoming a “parody of justice.” Obviously, getting rid of high-performing, experienced judges who were also in leadership positions, particularly in the face of a backlog approaching 4 million cases, has nothing to do with “efficiency” and everything to do with weaponization of the Immigration Courts against individuals seeking to vindicate their legal rights under our laws and our Constitution!

Thanks to this group for your service, and Due Process Forever!

PWS

03-04-25

⚖️👩🏻‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️🤯🤬 “ASHCROFT PURGE OF ’03 REDUX!” — As EOIR backlog approaches 4  million cases, and due process deteriorates, Trump Administration reportedly plans to reduce the size of the BIA by 13 Appellate Immigration Judges! — The “farce of independent quasi-judicial review” at the BIA continues in full swing as Article IIIs ignore the clear 5th Amendment due process violations inherent in the structure and politicized administration of “Immigration Courts” controlled by the Executive that are not able to function independently!🤯

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

Been there, done that!

Redux of the “Ashcroft Purge of the BIA” in ‘03!🤮 That touched off a crisis in the Circuit Courts who were infuriated by the resulting sloppy “rubber stamp” denials and intemperate language from some IJs. Circuit Judges Posner (CA 7) and Walker (CA 2) were particularly harsh and publicly critical of EOIR’s poor performance. Former GOP House staff member and “practical scholar” Peter Levinson published the definitive analysis of this due process farce in his article “The Facade of Quasi-Judicial Independence In Immigration Appellate Adjudications,” available here: https://immigrationcourtside.com/2024/04/02/%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f-bia-expands-to-28-appellate-judges-plus-bonus-coverage-lest-we-forget-the-ashcroft-purge-of-the-bia/

pastedGraphic.png

⚖️ BIA EXPANDS TO 28 APPELLATE JUDGES! — PLUS BONUS COVERAGE: “Lest We Forget: The Ashcroft Purge of the BIA!” Dan Kowalski reports: This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 04/02/2024 “On April 1,

Not surprisingly, following the purge, the BIA found it difficult to operate with an arbitrarily reduced number of members. To fill the gap that they had created, DOJ politicos and “EOIR Management” began designating senior BIA staff attorneys as “Temporary Board Members” (“TBMs”). Unlike the “purged members” who had gone through a competitive selection process prior to appointment, the designation of TBMs was solely within the discretion of EOIR Management subject to approval by the Deputy Attorney General.

Only “BIA staff insiders” were considered for these appointments. There was no transparent public selection process.

Significantly, the TBMs had no vote at en banc conferences nor could they vote on publication of precedents (although they could be panel members on published precedent decisions voted on by a majority of “permanent” Board Members). While their terms of service were supposed to be limited, subject to reappointment, this requirement was largely ignored by the DOJ and EOIR Management until somebody raised it as a potential issue and corrective action was taken. Obviously, TBMs who aspired to one day join the BIA on a permanent basis had every incentive not to “rock the boat” or show “undue independence” in a way that might displease EOIR Management or the DOJ politicos who were involved in such selections.

At first, this “insider process” was kept largely “below the radar screen.” But, eventually, as attorneys started noticing unfamiliar names on appellate decisions, the process was acknowledged by EOIR Management and the names and bios of the TBMs started appearing on the EOIR website. (The BIA had previously, on occasion, used field Immigration Judges, OCAHO ALJs, and rehired retired Board Members “sitting by designation,” on panels in a manner similar to the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. The regulations had been changed to permit the designation of senior BIA staff as an additional option.) 

Eventually, the DOJ “came clean” and began once again expanding the “permanent membership” of the BIA without ever publicly acknowledging that it had been problematic and wasteful to reduce the BIA’s membership for political reasons in the first place. That expansion eventually reached 28 Appellate Immigration Judges as described in the “Courtside” link above.

So, now begins a new round of arbitrary, politically motivated, “reductions” in the size of the BIA, even in the face of overwhelming backlogs. But, if this “politically weaponized” parody of a ”court system” continues into the future, don’t be surprised if some future DOJ politicos return to the “TBM system” or start once again increasing the number of BIA “permanent” judges.

That, of course, highlights the bigger question: How does a “court system” where politically-motivated Executive Branch employees have complete control and discretion over the hiring, firing, and “supervision” of “administrative judges” pass muster under the due process clause of the 5th Amendment? Basically, both Article III Courts and the Congress have “punted” on the glaring conflicts of interest and inherent biases presented by such a “captive” tribunal.

Here’s additional coverage from Britain Eakin on Law360, quoting me, among others:

Trump Admin To Nearly Halve Immigration Appeals Board – Law360

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⚖️ Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-21-25

🏴‍☠️💀🤮🤬🤯 JUSTICE DENIED, BACKLOGS BE DAMNED! — “Perverse Valentine’s Day Massacre” 💔as Mass Firings Hit Immigration Courts! — Here’s one former Judge’s personal account of her firing: “I therefore had a unique perspective and experience that I could bring to my work as an immigration judge.” 🤯☹️

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre WallCreative Commons 2.0
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Wall
Creative Commons 2.0

 

Here’s former Judge Kerry Doyle’s account of her recent firing by EOIR, as originally posted on LinkedIn. Notably, Judge Doyle is a widely-respected immigration expert, a “total pro,” with decades of professional experience, including both ICE and the private sector. In other words, she is exactly the kind of fair, “practical scholar” judge EOIR needs to carry out its real, even if disgracefully abandoned, mission of guaranteeing due process and fundamental fairness for all!

Happy Saturday! I truly hope all of you were able to spend some time with someone you love 💕 yesterday on Valentine’s Day—two legged or four 😉. Sadly, my day was a little more complicated. I was, via email, terminated by the Acting Director of EOIR as an immigration judge yesterday, February 14, 2025. 

I had not publicly posted that I had started working as an IJ in the hope of keeping my head down and just getting to work and avoiding having a bullseye on me. Unfortunately, I was unable to avoid the political pink slip. 

This firing occurred despite the fact that the Immigration Court currently has in the neighborhood of 3.5 MILLION pending cases and DOJ is asking Congress for more money to hire more people at EOIR! (Hint: don’t fire the people you already have!). This firing occurred despite the fact that among my peers in my court, I had the longest and most extensive experience in immigration law and had served both as a defense counsel representing immigrants, but also as the top immigration prosecutor as PLA with ICE. I therefore had a unique perspective and experience that I could bring to my work as an immigration judge. 

Sadly, DOJ cancelled our training that was to take place Feb. 10-14 (irony!) for me and the others hired late last year or early this year in my “class.” They never rescheduled it and then fired me and the rest of the new class yesterday.  A number of Assistant Chief Immigration Judges were also fired. I can’t say I was surprised this happened. I was expecting it, especially when I showed up in the notorious “DHS Watchlist” late last year. 

Significant time and resources went into hiring all of us and the group had a diverse background including a number of former OPLA prosecutors, but what we all had in common is that we were hired—through a neutral system I will point out—during the Biden Administration. This firing was political. 

Needless to say, I’m looking for a new opportunity so let me know if you have any tips!  Thanks to everyone. We will persist. What you do matters!

Her urgent message to the NDPA is truer now than ever: “What you do matters!” 

Thank you for your service to our nation and to our justice system, Judge Doyle! 🇺🇸👍🏼🎖️⚖️🗽 

Here’s additional coverage forwarded by Debi Sanders: https://wtop.com/national/2025/02/justice-department-fires-20-immigration-judges-from-backlogged-courts-amid-major-government-cuts/

It was also covered by NBC national news, albeit briefly, in a segment about the wider firing of probationary civil servants.

⚖️ DUE PROCESS FOREVER!

PWS

02-16-25

🇺🇸⚖️🗽🛡️⚔️💪 ROUND TABLE’S OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS URGES REINSTATEMENT OF LEGAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM (“LOP”) @ EOIR!

Knightess
Knightess of the Round Table

Here’s our letter: Round Table LOP letter

Many thanks to the Round Table’s “Rapid Response Team” led by retired Judges “Sir Jeffrey” S. Chase and Dana Leigh Marks for spearheading this response on very short notice!

🇺🇸 ⚖️ DUE PROCESS FOREVER!

PWS

01-31-25