TWILIGHT ZONE: ABSURDITY, CRUELTY, INJUSTICE ARE THE ORDERS OF THE DAY IN “AMERICA’S STAR CHAMBERS” (A/K/A IMMIGRATION “COURTS’) — Podcaster Sam Graber Takes You Inside The Mind Numbing Reality Of A “Third-World Court System” Operating Right Under Our Noses!

Listen to Sam on “American Refugee” here:

LISTEN on the Web – https://odaction.com/americanrefugee-ep03/
LISTEN on Apple devices (Apple Podcasts) – https://pcr.apple.com/id1494027429
LISTEN on Android devices (Spotify) – https://spoti.fi/30r4Efi

In the days leading up to the coronavirus shutdown I journeyed into a shadow part of our justice system, a courtroom rarely seen by the public.

Detained immigration court is a place where lawyers aren’t provided for the defense, where judges and prosecutors are on the same team, where guilty is presumed and the all-too-often verdict a different kind of death.

Who are these immigration judges? What exactly is detained court? And how is it able to get away with operating outside of what we might call normal law?

Get ready because you’re about to go there, to see the injustice that isn’t being shut down.

This is American Refugee.

Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, Punk Funk Metropolis, New Sound Underground
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: March 2020

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Disturbing and infuriating as Sam’s podcast is, I urge everyone to listen, even if you think you know what “really happens” in this godforsaken and deadly “darkest corner of the American ‘justice’ system.” Is this really the way we want to be remembered by generations that follow? As a country with so little collective courage and integrity that we allowed our fellow human beings to be treated this way? Think about it!

Even in this grimmest of worlds, their are true heroes. First and foremost, of course, are the dedicated attorneys of the New Due Process Army (“NDPA”), many working pro bono or “low bono” to vindicate essential legal, constitutional, and human rights in a system designed to grind them into dust and “dehumanize and demonize the other.”

Sound familiar? It should to anyone who studied Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. By and large, it wasn’t the “Brown Shirts” and the party faithful who enabled his rule. It was judges, lawyers, ministers, priests, businessmen, doctors, corporate moguls, and the average German who “facilitated” his annihilation of millions.

And, it started gradually, with laws stripping Jews of citizenship, property, and all legal rights and judges who enthusiastically enforced them, even against their own former judicial colleagues. Once people aren’t “humans” any more (Hitler liked the term “subhumans”) or “persons” before the law, there is no limit to what can be done, particularly when complicit judges join in the “fun and games.”

Among the other heroes are two “Courtside regulars:” Round Table Member Judge (Ret.) Ilyce Shugall and NAIJ President Judge A. Ashley Tabaddor.

Hon. Ilyce Shugall
U.S. Immigraton Judge (Retired)
Director, Immigrant Legal Defense Program, Justice & Diversity Center of the Bar Assn. of San Francisco.

Hon. A. Ashlley Tabaddor — Hon. A. Ashley Tabaddor
President, National
Association of Immigration Judges (“NAIJ”)

At a time when too many with knowledge of the travesty of what’s going on in our “Star Chambers” have chosen to look the other way or “go along to get along,” Ilyce and Ashley have consistently “spoken truth to power” in the face of a regime that often abuses its authority by punishing truth, honesty, and decency. Indeed, Billy Barr’s highly unethical move to “decertify” the NAIJ is a blatant attempt to punish and silence Ashley for revealing the truth.

One minor correction. Sam says that the Immigration Judges and the prosecutors both work for the DOJ. Actually, the prosecutors work for DHS. But, it’s largely a “distinction without difference” because the agenda at both DOJ and DHS is set by Trump, Miller, and the rest of the White Nationalist nativist cabal.

Indeed, former AG Sessions told Immigration Judges they were “partners” with the DHS prosecutors in enforcing immigration laws. So, the observation that in many Immigration Courtrooms migrants, including the unrepresented and children, face “two prosecutors” — the “judge” and the DHS Assistant Chief Counsel is accurate. The podcast relates how in some courts the “judge speaks for the prosecution,” the Assistant Chief Counsel is a “potted plant,” and nobody speaks for justice or the rights of the migrants. What’s missing: The impartial “neutral decisionmaker” required by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

Thanks Ashley and Ilyce for all you do! You are true superstars!

As my friend, Professor Ayo Gansallo says on her e-mail profile:

Vote like your rights depend upon it!

“A country is not only what it does…it is also what it tolerates.”

Kurt Tucholsky

Due Process Forever! Star Chambers Never!

PWS

03-29-20

DUE PROCESS WINS IN THE WEST: Split 9th Cir. Slams DOJ’s Vile/Unethical “No Due Process Due” Argument — Orders Bond Hearings For Asylum Applicants Who Passed Credible Fear — Padilla v. ICE — Round Table Amicus Brief Helps Save Due Process!

Padilla v. ICE

Padilla v. ICE, 9th Cir., 03-27-20, published

SUMMARY BY COURT STAFF:

SUMMARY* Immigration

Affirming in part, and vacating and remanding in part, the district court’s preliminary injunction ordering the United States to provide bond hearings to a class of noncitizens who were detained and found to have a credible fear of persecution, the panel affirmed the injunction insofar as it concluded that plaintiffs have a due process right to bond hearings, but remanded for further findings and reconsideration with respect to the particular process due to plaintiffs.

The district court certified a nationwide class of all detained asylum seekers who were subject to expedited removal proceedings, were found to have a credible fear of persecution, but were not provided a bond hearing with a record of hearing within seven days of requesting a hearing. Part A of the district court’s modified preliminary injunction provided: 1) bond hearings must take place within seven days of a class member’s request, or the member must be released; 2) the burden of proof is on the government to show why the

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

4 PADILLA V. ICE

member should not be released; and 3) the government must produce recordings or verbatim transcripts of the hearings, as well as written decisions. Part B concluded that the class is constitutionally entitled to bond hearings. A motions panel of this court previously denied the government’s request to stay Part B, but granted the stay as to Part A.

The panel concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that plaintiffs were likely to prevail on their due process claim, explaining that immigration detention violates the Due Process Clause unless a special justification outweighs the constitutionally protected interest in avoiding physical restraint. The panel also concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that other processes—seeking parole from detention or filing habeas petitions—were insufficient to satisfy due process. The panel further rejected the government’s suggestion that noncitizens lack any rights under the Due Process Clause, observing the general rule that once a person is standing on U.S. soil—regardless of the legality of entry—he or she is entitled to due process.

The panel next concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in its irreparable harm analysis, noting substandard physical conditions and medical care in detention, lack of access to attorneys and evidence, separation from family, and re-traumatization. The panel also concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the balance of the equities and public interest favors plaintiffs, explaining that the district court weighed: 1) plaintiffs’ deprivation of a fundamental constitutional right and its attendant harms; 2) the fact that it is always in the public interest to prevent constitutional violations; and 3) the

PADILLA V. ICE 5

government’s interest in the efficient administration of immigration law.

As to Part A of the injunction, the panel concluded that the record was insufficient to support the requirement of hearings within seven days, and that the district court made insufficient findings as to the burdens that Part A may impose on immigration courts. The panel also noted that the number of individuals in expedited removal proceedings may have dramatically increased since the entry of the injunction. Thus, the panel remanded to the district court for further factual development of the preliminary injunction factors as to Part A.

The panel also rejected the government’s argument that the district court lacked authority to grant injunction relief under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(f)(1), which provides: “no court (other than the Supreme Court) shall have jurisdiction or authority to enjoin or restrain the operation of the provisions of [8 U.S.C. §§ 1221–1232], other than with respect to the application of such provisions to an individual alien against whom proceedings under such part have been initiated.” Examining the relevant precedent, statutory scheme, and legislative history, the panel concluded that here, where the class is composed of individual noncitizens, each of whom is in removal proceedings and facing an immediate violation of their rights, and where the district court has jurisdiction over each individual member of that class, classwide injunctive relief is consistent with congressional intent.

Finally, the panel concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in granting the injunction as to the nationwide class. However, the panel directed that, on

6 PADILLA V. ICE

remand, the district court must also revisit the nationwide scope.

Dissenting, Judge Bade wrote that 8 U.S.C. § 1252(f)(1) barred injunctive relief in this case, concluding that the majority’s opinion does not square with the plain text of § 1252(f)(1), is inconsistent with multiple Supreme Court cases, and needlessly creates a circuit split with the Sixth Circuit. Judge Bade further wrote that, even if the district court had jurisdiction to issue injunctive relief, the preliminary injunction is overbroad and exceeds what the constitution demands. Judge Bade would vacate the preliminary injunction and remand for further proceedings with instructions to dismiss the claims for classwide injunctive relief.

PANEL: Sidney R. Thomas, Chief Judge, and Michael Daly Hawkins and Bridget S. Bade, Circuit Judges.

OPNION BY: Chief Judge Sydney R. Thomas

DISSENTING OPINION: Judge Bridget S. Bade

KEY QUOTE FROM MAJORITY OPINION:

The government also suggests that non-citizens lack any rights under the Due Process Clause. As we have discussed, this position is precluded by Zadvydas and its progeny. The government relies on inapposite cases that address the peculiar constitutional status of noncitizens apprehended at a port-of-entry, but permitted to temporarily enter the United States under specific conditions. See, e.g., Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel. Mezei (“Mezei”), 345 U.S. 206, 208–09, 213–15 (1953) (noncitizen excluded while still aboard his ship, but then detained at Ellis Island pending final exclusion proceedings gained no additional procedural rights with respect to removal by virtue of his “temporary transfer from ship to shore” pursuant to a statute that “meticulously specified that such shelter ashore ‘shall not be considered a landing’”); Leng May Ma v. Barber, 357 U.S. 185 (1958) (noncitizen paroled into the United States while waiting for a determination of her admissibility was not “within the United States” “by virtue of her physical presence as a parolee”); Kaplan v. Tod, 267 U.S. 228 (1925) (noncitizen excluded at Ellis Island but detained instead of being deported immediately due to suspension of deportations during World War I “was to be regarded as stopped at the boundary line”).

Indeed, these cases, by carving out exceptions not applicable here, confirm the general rule that once a person is standing on U.S. soil—regardless of the legality of his or her entry—he or she is entitled to due process. See, e.g., Mezei, 345 U.S. at 212 (“[A]liens who have once passed

PADILLA V. ICE 25

through our gates, even illegally, may be expelled only after proceedings conforming to traditional standards of fairness encompassed in due process of law.”); Leng May Ma, 357 U.S. at 187 (explaining that “immigration laws have long made a distinction between those aliens who have come to our shores seeking admission . . . and those who are within the United States after an entry, irrespective of its legality,” and recognizing, “[i]n the latter instance . . . additional rights and privileges not extended to those in the former category who are merely ‘on the threshold of initial entry’” (quoting Mezei, 345 U.S. at 212)); Kwai Fun Wong v. United States, 373 F.3d 952, 973 (9th Cir. 2004) (explaining that “the entry fiction is best seen . . .as a fairly narrow doctrine that primarily determines the procedures that the executive branch must follow before turning an immigrant away” because “[o]therwise, the doctrine would allow any number of abuses to be deemed constitutionally permissible merely by labelling certain ‘persons’ as non-persons”). We thus conclude that the district court did not err in holding that plaintiffs are “persons” protected by the Due Process Clause.

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First, and foremost, let’s give a big vote of appreciation to the All-Star Team at Wilmer Cutler who represented our Round Table on this:

Alan Schoenfeld and Lori A. Martin, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, New York, New York; Rebecca Arriaga Herche, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, Washington, D.C.; Jamil Aslam, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, Los Angeles, California; for Amici Curiae Retired Immigration Judges and Board of Immigration Appeals Members.

Knjightess — Knightess of the Round Table

This team is it’s own “Special Forces Brigade” of the New Due Process Army (“NDPA”)!

WOW! Persons are “persons” under the Constitution even when they have brown skins and are asylum seekers! How “rad” can you get! What a blow to “business as usual” for the regime and their “Dred Scottification” program of dehumanizing and making non-persons out of migrants and other vulnerable minorities!

Too bad that the Supremes and other Circuit Courts have too often advanced “Dred Scottification,” hiding behind transparently bogus and contrived “national emergencies” and the doctrine of judicial dereliction of duty otherwise known as “Chevron deference.” I guess that’s why the regime has the contempt for both the law and the Article III Courts to press such legally, morally, and Constitutionally “bankrupt” arguments as they did in this case. Never know when you’ll get a “thumbs up” from those who sometimes don’t view oaths of office and their obligations to their fellow humans with enough seriousness!

Significantly, the panel found that “plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim that they are constitutionally entitled to individualized bond hearings before a “neutral decisionmaker.” However, in doing so they “papered over” the obvious fact that the constitutional requirement of a “neutral decisionmaker” cannot be fulfilled as long as Billy Barr or other politicos control the Immigration Courts!

Indeed, the panel decision was a strong rebuke of Barr’s atrocious, unethical, scofflaw decision in Matter of M-S-, 27 I&N Dec. 509 (A.G. 2019) purporting to unilaterally change the rules to eliminate bond for those who had passed “credible fear.” Fact is that no individual appearing in today’s Immigration Courts has access to the constitutionally-required “neutral decisionmaker” because Barr retains the ability to simply unilaterally change any result that doesn’t match his White Nationalist nativist agenda and can hire and fire the so-called “judges” at will.

Indeed, under Barr’s totally illegal and professionally insulting “production quotas,” I’m not sure that the “judges” on the “deportation assembly line” even get “production credit” for bond decisions because they aren’t “final orders of removal.” However, denial of bond is actually an important “whistle stop” on the “deportation express.” Those kept in the “New American Gulag” have difficulty finding attorneys and the systematic mistreatment they receive in detention helps to demoralize them and coerce them into giving up claims or waiving appeals.

When are the Article IIIs finally going to stop “beating around the bush” and hold this whole mess to be unconstitutional, as it most clearly is?

In some ways, the panel’s decision reminds me of one of my own long-ago concurring/dissenting opinion in Matter of Joseph, 22 I&N Dec. 799, 810 (BIA 1999) (en banc) (“Joseph II”):

However, I do not share the majority’s view that the proper standard in a mandatory detention case involving a lawful permanent resident alien is that the Service is “substantially unlikely to prevail” on its charge. Matter of Joseph, 22 I&N Dec. 3398, at 10 (BIA 1999). Rather, the standard in a case such as the one before us should be whether the Service has demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of its charge that the respondent is removable because of an aggravated felony.

Mandatory detention of a lawful permanent resident alien is a drastic step that implicates constitutionally-protected liberty interests. Where the lawful permanent resident respondent has made a colorable showing in custody proceedings that he or she is not subject to mandatory detention, the Service should be required to show a likelihood of success on the merits of its charge to continue mandatory detention. To enable the Immigration Judge to make the necessary independent determination in such a case, the Service should provide evidence of the applicable state or federal law under which the respondent was convicted and whatever proof of conviction that is available at the time of the Immigration Judge’s inquiry.

The majority’s enunciated standard of “substantially unlikely to pre-vail” is inappropriately deferential to the Service, the prosecutor in this matter. Requiring the Service to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of its charge would not unduly burden the Service and would give more appropriate weight to the liberty interests of the lawful permanent res- ident alien. Such a standard also would provide more “genuine life to the regulation that allows for an Immigration Judge’s reexamination of this issue,” as referenced by the majority. Matter of Joseph, supra, at 10.

The Service’s failure to establish a likelihood of success on the merits would not result in the release of a lawful permanent resident who poses a threat to society. Continued custody of such an alien would still be war- ranted under the discretionary criteria for detention.

In conclusion, mandatory detention should not be authorized where the Service has failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of its charge. Consequently, while I am in complete agreement with the decision to release this lawful permanent resident alien, and I agree fully that the Service is substantially unlikely to prevail on the merits of this aggravated felony charge, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s enunciation of “substantially unlikely to prevail” as the standard to be applied in all future cases involving mandatory detention of lawful permanent resident aliens.

Concern for Due Process and fundamental fairness have intentionally been eradicated in the Immigration “Courts” by Sessions, Whitaker, and Barr. It’s past time for this constitutional mockery to be put out of its misery (and the unending misery it causes for the humans coming before it) once and for all!

As my late BIA colleague Judge Fred W. Vacca once said, albeit in a different context, “It’s time to put an end to this pathetic imitation of an adjudication.” Fred and I didn’t always agree. In fact, we disagreed much of the time. But, he did know when it was finally time to “stop the nonsense,” even when some of our colleagues just kept the system churning long past the point of reason and sanity.

And, folks, that was back in the days when the BIA actually functioned more or less like an “independent appellate court” until the Ashcroft purge of ’03 forever ended that noble vision. Like the rest of the system and those who enable it to keep churning lives as if they were mere water under the bridge, the BIA and the rest of the Immigration “Courts” have now become a national disgrace — a blot on our national conscience. Human beings seeking justice are neither “numbers” to be achieved for “satisfactory ratings,” nor “enforcement problems” to be exterminated without Due Process.

Dehumanization of the “other”and stripping them of legal and human rights is a key part of fascism. It’s what allowed German judges and most of German society to “look the other way” or actively aid in the holocaust. It has no place in our justice system — now or ever!

Due Process Forever! Judicial Complicity in Weaponized Captive “Courts,” That Aren’t Courts At All, Never!

PWS

03-28-20

N.J. STATE BAR SEEKS GOVERNOR’S INTERVENTION AFTER DOJ IGNORES PLEAS TO CLOSE UNSAFE N.J. IMMIGRATION COURTS!☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

Hon. Susan G. Roy
Law Office of Susan G. Roy, LLC
Princeton Junction, NJ
Member, Round Table of Former Immigration Judges

NDPA stalwart and Round Table Member Hon. Sue Roy sends this:

March 26, 2020

VIA EMAIL ONLY Hon. Phil Murphy Governor

State of New Jersey Office of the Governor P.O. Box 001

Trenton, NJ 08625

Dear Governor Murphy,

Re: The Closure of the Newark and Elizabeth Immigration Courts

NEW JERSEY STATE BAR ASSOCIATION

EVELYN PADIN, PRESIDENT Law Office of Evelyn Padin 286 First Street

Jersey City, NJ 07302 201-963-8822 • FAX: 201-963-8874 evelyn@lawjcnj.com

The New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) is requesting that the Newark and Elizabeth Immigration Courts be closed immediately, in the interest of the health and safety of the residents of NJ and the country. In support of this request, the NJSBA asks you to consider the following:

NEWARK IMMIGRATION COURT:

On March 6, 2020, the Newark Immigration Court, located on the 12th floor of the Rodino Building, 970 Broad Street, Newark, NJ, was temporarily closed for the afternoon because an attorney who had been exposed to COVID-19 and who was experiencing symptoms was present in court.

On March 9, 2020, the Newark Immigration Court reopened, and remained open until March 18, 2020. During that period of time, literally thousands of respondents and their family members were required to appear at master calendar and individual hearings, along with their attorneys, attorneys from the Office of Chief Counsel, Court staff, interpreters, security guards and Immigration Judges.

It was later learned that a second private attorney and an interpreter have tested positive for COVID-19 after being in court on March 11, 2020. The attorney is quite ill. Approximately 70 other cases were heard that morning before the same Immigration Judge, who is currently under self-quarantine. That is only a fraction of the people who were present at court that day. Because of the volume of individuals who must appear at the Newark Immigration Court on any given day, the majority of individuals must wait together, sometimes for hours, in an extremely small waiting room, in which all attorneys, courts staff, interpreters, security guards and judges must also pass.

New Jersey Law Center • One Constitution Square • New Brunswick, NJ 0 8901-1520

732-249-5000 • FAX: 732-249-2815 • EMAIL: president@njsba.com • www.njsba.com

It was also learned that an attorney from the DHS Office of Chief Counsel, who was present in Court on March 13, has not only tested positive for COVID-19 but is currently in a medically induced coma in ICU fighting for his life. The entire staff of the Office of Chief Counsel, which is primarily located on the 13th Floor of the Rodino Building, has been placed under required quarantine for a period of two weeks.

As a result of this, the US Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) issued a directive on Twitter and Facebook stating that the Newark Immigration Court would be closed from March 18-April 10, 2020, and that all court filings would be considered timely filed on April 10, when the court reopened.

Last night, March 25, at 9:30 pm, EOIR announced via Twitter and Facebook that Newark Immigration Court would reopen starting TODAY, March 26. No further information was given to the public, or, notably, the Immigration Judges or the court staff. It has been clarified that the Newark Court has reopened for court filings only, because EOIR has now stated that any filings due during the previous days of closure would now be due on March 30, 2020.

Some members of the court staff are now required to be present to accept in-person filings at the court window, as well as to handle filings that have been mailed to the court. The Office of Chief Counsel remains closed under quarantine, and therefore cannot accept filings.

The reopening of the Newark Immigration Court, even for a limited purpose, is in clear violation of Executive Order 107. The functions of the Court at this time are non-essential, because the Court does not handle detained cases. Moreover, the reopening is putting Court staff in jeopardy of not only exposure to the virus themselves, but also of spreading it to others. The City of Newark is under a shelter-in-place restriction, and, this morning, the U.S District Court for the District of New Jersey just issued an order closing the Martin Luther King and Frank R. Lautenberg courthouses because several employees have confirmed positive COVID-19 tests. The courts are closed immediately and will remain closed through April 6, 2020.

It should be noted that the courthouses are located next door to the Rodino building, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office is in the Rodino Building. Staff, attorneys, and members of the public use the same parking facilities, elevators, and even cafeterias located in the buildings.

Therefore, for all of the above reasons, the Newark Immigration Court should be closed immediately and remain closed until its scheduled reopening date of April 10, at the earliest.

ELIZABETH IMMIGRATION COURT:

The Elizabeth Immigration Court is located at 625 Evans Street, Elizabeth, NJ, and is located in the same building as, and in close proximity to, ICE detainees. The Elizabeth Court handles detained cases and is currently open.

On March 13, 2020, a medical staff person who works in the detention center was presumed to have been exposed to COVID-19; this diagnosis was later confirmed. Moreover, because attorneys for the Office of Chief Counsel travel back and forth between the Elizabeth Immigration Court and the Detention Center, where there is an auxiliary OCC office, and the Rodino Building in Newark, the OCC in Elizabeth has been included in the mandatory, two-week quarantine. Numerous private and pro bono

attorneys also routinely appear in both courts, as do interpreters and ICE personnel.

One of the Elizabeth Immigration Judges has been out on leave; an Immigration Judge from Newark, whose husband had been quarantined but tested negative for the virus, is now handling the docket in Elizabeth.

Immigration attorneys are allowed to appear telephonically if they choose; court staff, judges, security guards, interpreters, and, of course, the detainees housed in Elizabeth are there in person. The Office of Chief Counsel is still under quarantine; their attorneys have been appearing telephonically.

On March 24, 2020, at 2:30 pm, EOIR announced, via Twitter and Facebook, that the Elizabeth Immigration Court was closing for the rest of the afternoon because they had received confirmation of “the presence of an individual with a test-confirmed Coronavirus diagnosis.”

The Elizabeth Immigration Court reopened the next day and remains open.

The Elizabeth Immigration Court hears cases for individuals who are housed at Elizabeth Detention Center, as well as at Essex and Hudson County Jails. The individuals housed at those jails are usually seen via tele video. However, a detainee and a senior staff person at Essex County Jail both have positive COVID-19 diagnoses and are experiencing serious symptoms. And ICE detainees at all three locations are engaging in hunger strikes because they are afraid of contracting the virus as well.

Moreover, on March 25, EOIR issued a requirement that all attorneys dealing with inmates in ICE detention centers and courts MUST bring their own personal protective equipment (PPE) in order to be allowed to enter the facilities. Therefore, either attorneys cannot adequately represent their clients, or they must obtain PPE at the expense of health care providers and first responders who desperately need this equipment.

The NJSBA recognizes that it is more difficult to close a court that handles detained cases, as that imposes a reduction of the individuals’ constitutional rights. However, the NJSBA believes that a short- term closure of two weeks, in order to ensure that anyone who has been exposed to COVID-19 does not spread the virus, even unwittingly, is extremely important to protect the health and safety of the individuals who are housed there, who work there, and who must report there, as well as the public at large.

The NJSBA would, at the same time, ask that the State confer with ICE regarding the release of any non-criminal or low-risk immigration detainees. This would further aid in slowing the spread of the virus, as well as protecting the individuals who work at the Elizabeth Immigration Court and Detention Center and would minimize significantly the numbers of detained cases on the court docket. Should ICE forbear from placing new detainees in custody within NJ facilities would also stem the spread of the virus to vulnerable inmate populations. Alternatives to detention, such as ankle-bracelets, or mandatory video or telephonic check-ins would help ensure that ICE’s mission is not curtailed.

It should be noted that the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the American Federation of Government Employees #511 (AFGE/ICE Professionals Union) issued a joint statement on March 22, 2020, asking for the nationwide closure of all immigration courts across the country.

Immigration attorneys, immigration courts staff, and immigration prosecutors are literally having to

make life and death decisions every day because of EOIR’s callous disregard for the health and safety of its employees, immigrants, anyone who must come into contact with the courts, and the

public. Accordingly, NJSBA is asking you to close the NJ immigration courts immediately to preserve the health and safety of the residents of NJ.

Respectfully submitted,

Evelyn Padin, Esq. President

cc: Senator Robert Menendez Senator Cory Booker

Matthew Platkin, Esq., Counsel to the Governor

Susan Roy, Esq., Chair, NJSBA Immigration Law Section Angela C. Scheck, Executive Director

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

Thanks, Sue, for all you do!

To be honest, I’m not sure that a State Governor has authority to close down a Federal Office, even in times of emergency. But, this absurd, yet deadly, situation shows the arrogant disrespect for human life, common sense, and basic decency of Barr and his EOIR toadies.

Normally, you would expect cooperation, coordination, and support from the Feds in time of a health emergency. In the age of Trump and his kakistocracy, not so much. After all, you’re dealing with a regime headed by a maliciously incompetent dude who couldn’t wait to start undermining the best advice of his own doctors and nearly all health care professionals in the U.S. Bad things happen to a country that empowers a kakistocracy!

PWS

03-27-20

KILLER “COURTS” ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻 — “Malicious Incompetence” Or “Criminal Negligence” @ EOIR? — Experts Chase & Dzubow Rip Into EOIR/DOJ Officials For Needlessly Endangering Lives! — Kakistocracy Turns Deadly!

https://www.jeffreyschase.com/blog/2020/3/26/like-firing-randomly-into-a-crowd

Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase in Jeffrey S. Chase Blog:

Like “Firing Randomly Into a Crowd”

On March 23, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a sua sponte order in a case pending before it, ordering the Petitioner’s immediate release from detention “in light of the rapidly escalating health crisis, which public health authorities predict will especially impact immigration detention centers.” In taking such action, the court used its authority to protect those under its jurisdiction.This is what judges and courts are supposed to do.

In contrast, the leadership of EOIR, the agency which oversees our nation’s immigration courts, sees its mission quite differently. With shocking indifference to those subject to its authority, including its own employees as well as members of the public, EOIR’s present leadership seeks only to please its Department of Justice masters, much like a dog rolling over or playing dead to earn a pat on the head from its owner.

As we all began to comprehend the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic weeks ago, EOIR refused to close immigration courts out of fear of sending a message contrary to Trump’s statements that the health crisis was a “hoax.” Christopher Santoro, the coward holding the title of Acting Chief Immigration Judge, ordered court staff to remove CDC-issued advisories on ways to help stop the spread (i.e. by not shaking hands) on the grounds that the immigration judges lacked the authority to hang such notices in their own courtrooms. In defense of his stupidity, Santoro offered the age-old excuse of the weak: that he was only following orders.

As the virus spread, and people began dying, EOIR kept its courts open far longer than it should have. An ICE attorney who represented the government throughout a crowded Master Calendar hearing in Newark, NJ on March 13 is presently in a coma in intensive care with COVID-19 fighting for his life. I’ve heard that an immigration judge in one of NYC’s immigration courts is presently ill with COVID-19 and pneumonia.There have been additional reports of others at immigration detention centers testing positive.

As cities locked down and sheltered in place, EOIR finally agreed to postpone non-detained hearings, but only until April 10. Hearings in detained courts continue to go forward.And for some reason, non-detained courts that were closed and should have remained so were reopened for the filing of documents only, with such openings announced by nighttime tweets. On Wednesday night, EOIR tweeted that several courts would “open” the next morning, without explaining whether that meant hearings that had previously been announced as postponed would instead go forward the following morning.As this occurred after business hours, there was no one to call for clarification. In fact, the opening was only to file documents.EOIR’s leadership (for want of a better term) has decided that all court filings due during the court closings are now due on March 30.Many lawyers in NYC have no way to meet this deadline, as their office buildings have been locked in compliance with the state’s shutdown order.

In order to accept these filings, EOIR is forcing court clerical staff to leave the safety of their homes, disobey the state PAUSE directive and expose themselves and their family members to possible infection in order to report to work. In NYC, traveling to work for most employees requires riding trains and buses, further increasing the risk of exposure.As schools are closed, how those court staff with child care needs will manage in a time requiring social isolation is unknown.

Furthermore, not all judges hearing detained cases are granting continuances despite the crisis. EOIR has not informed judges that the present crisis exempts them from meeting their performance metrics, which requires all judges to complete 700 cases per year, and to finish 95 percent of cases on the day of their first-scheduled individual hearing. Newly hired judges, who are on probation for two years, are therefore being forced to choose between their own job security and the health and welfare of all those who appear in their courts.

In recent days, EOIR has been besieged with letters from health care professionals, law professors, and various legal and advocacy organizations containing strong arguments to do what the Ninth Circuit had done instinctively and without having to be asked. In one of these letters, attorney George Terezakis, writing on behalf of the New York-based Association of Deportation Defense Attorneys (on whose Board of Directors I sit), described how the mother of a detained respondent who traveled from her home in Long Island to the court in Lower Manhattan by commuter train and subway to file a document for her son’s hearing was later diagnosed with the coronavirus. Terezakis continued: “Just as someone firing randomly into a crowd of Immigration Judges, court staff, attorneys, interpreters and detainees’ family members will foreseeably and inevitably kill someone…keeping the courts open ensures continued, needless infection, serious illness and death…”The letter continued: “This is a real crisis requiring real leadership to take decisive action that will place the safety of those under its jurisdiction ahead of other concerns. There is no escaping the inevitable consequences of inaction.”

As for Santoro, “I was only following orders” has historically fared poorly as a defense. Someone whose name is preceded by the title “Chief Immigration Judge” is required to stand up and take appropriate action in a time of crisis, and accept the consequences of such action. And for those in EOIR’s leadership chain who refuse to do so, it is incumbent on all of us to do everything in our power to ensure that they will be held fully accountable for their inaction under the next administration.

Copyright 2020 by Jeffrey S. Chase. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

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

https://www.asylumist.com/2020/03/26/incompetence-and-reckless-at-eoir-endanger-lives/

Jason Dzubow writes in The Asylumist:

The coronavirus is causing unprecedented disruptions to nearly every area of life, and the Immigration Courts are no exception. The courts were already in a post-apocalyptic era, with over one million cases in the backlog, and now the situation has been thrown into near total chaos. The fundamental problem is that EOIR–the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the office that oversees Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals–is determined to continue adjudicating cases, even if that means risking the lives of its own employees; not to mention the lives of respondents, witnesses, and lawyers (and anyone who comes into contact with them).

EOIR is closing and re-opening various courts seemingly at random, often times with an after-hours Tweet, such as one last night at 9:23 PM, declaring that the Newark and Seattle Immigration Courts will reopen today for purposes of accepting filings and litigating detained cases (non-detained cases through April 10, 2020 have been postponed). In reaction to this latest news, Susan G. Roy, an attorney and former Immigration Judge (and my friend from law school – Hi Sue!) wrote last night–

NJ has the second highest number of corona virus cases in the nation, second only to NY. The Newark Immigration Court was closed because someone tested positive for the virus. Now a DHS attorney is fighting for his life in ICU, another attorney is very ill, and an interpreter has tested positive. These are the ones we know about. The Court was set to reopen on April 12. That is a reasonable time to ensure that everyone is safe and that the risk of transmission is limited. How is it even remotely reasonable to decide to open TOMORROW? Even if it is only for filings, court staff and others will be forced to violate the Governor’s Executive Order [directing all residents to stay at home], put themselves at great risk, and risk contaminating others, while many people who work in the same building remain under mandatory quarantine. You are ruthlessly jeopardizing the lives of your own employees, not to mention the public, for no legitimate reason.

And it’s not just advocates who are upset about EOIR’s decision-making. The National Association of Immigration Judges (“NAIJ” – the judges’ union) and ICE attorneys are also reacting with anger. In response to EOIR’s tweet reopening the courts in Seattle and Newark, NAIJ responds, “Putting our lives at risk, one Tweet at a time.” And Fanny Behar-Ostrow, an ICE prosecutor and president of AFGE Local 511, says of EOIR: “It’s like insanity has taken over the agency,“

The gravity of keeping courts open is reflected in one incident, described in a recent letter from the Association of Deportation Defense Attorneys in New York–

One of our members recently had a detained master calendar hearing scheduled for this past Friday, March 20, at the Varick St. Court. In order to prepare the bond application and for the master, the attorney and his staff met with the client‘s mother. A request for a bond hearing, together with the required relief applications, and a request for a telephonic hearing, were hand delivered to the Court at noon on Wednesday March 18th, 2020. The attorney did not receive any response to the motion for a telephonic hearing, and repeated calls to the court that day and the next went unanswered. To ensure that the Court was aware of the request, the client‘s mother retrieved from the attorney‘s office, Thursday evening, a letter to the court confirming the request for a telephonic hearing. She traveled to the court in Manhattan, from Long Island, and delivered the letter to the Clerk, and thereafter waited in the waiting area with family members of other detainees and other attorneys who were compelled to appear.

Today we received confirmation the client‘s mother has been diagnosed with COVID–19 virus, through medical testing. Can you imagine the number of people she came into contact with as the result of the decision to keep this court open? In addition to exposing the attorney and office staff, she traveled from her home on Long Island, on the Long Island Railroad, to Penn Station, from there to the subway and ultimately to the Court. Undoubtedly she came into contact with, and exposed, countless numbers of people, who in turn exposed countless others.

Anyone with a basic grasp of the fundamental principles of epidemiology – easily garnered from watching CNN or the local evening news – understands how easily this virus spreads. Given this, the decision to continue to keep the courts open can only be construed as a conscious decision on the part of EOIR to subject our Immigration Judges, court staff, interpreters, DHS attorneys, institutional defenders, members of the private bar, our clients, their families, and all whom they come into contact with, to an unreasonable risk of infection, serious illness and death.

NAIJ echoes this sentiment: “With [New York] the epicenter of the virus, DOJ is failing to protect its employees and the public we serve.”

The appropriate path forward is painfully obvious. EOIR should immediately close all courts for all cases. Staff should work remotely when possible to re-set dates and adjudicate bond decisions (so non-criminal aliens who do not pose a danger to the community can be released from detention). That is the best way to protect everyone involved with the Immigration Court system and the public at large.

Finally, I think it is important to name names. The Director of EOIR is James McHenry. I have never been a fan. Mr. McHenry was profoundly unqualified for his job, having gone from supervising maybe half a dozen people in a prior position to overseeing thousands at EOIR. However, he was politically aligned with the goals of the Trump Administration and he got the job. I have previously described the functioning of the agency during Mr. McHenry’s tenure as maliciousness tempered by incompetence. But these days, it is more like maliciousness exacerbated by incompetence. And in the current crisis, incompetence can be deadly. It’s time for Mr. McHenry and EOIR to do the right thing: Close the courts now.

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

Thanks, Jeffrey, Jason, and Sue, my friends, for “telling it like it is!” Now is not the time for “go along to get along” bureaucratic responses.
Unfortunately, attorneys and court staff might now start paying with their lives for EOIR’s inexcusable two-decade failure to implement a functional e-filing system.
As one of my Round Table colleagues said, “Since when is a late night tweet ‘official notice?’” Don’t remember anything about “notice by tweet” in 8 CFR!
As I noted previously, J.R. and his tone-deaf, complicit Supremes effectively repealed the “Bivens doctrine,” holding Federal officials responsible for “Constitutional torts” committed outside the scope of their official duties. They thereby essentially gave rogue Federal officials a “license to kill,” at least where the victim was merely an unarmed Mexican teenager. It appears that Barr, McHenry, and others in the “chain of command” are trying out their new “licenses.” They had better hope that J.R. & Co’s “willful blindness” and unwillingness to stand up for lives and Constitutional rights extend even when American citizen lawyers and court clerks are among the casualties.
Not surprisingly, EOIR’s contempt for due process and the lives of asylum seekers, families, children, and other migrants has expanded to include the lives of their own employees and members of the public forced to deal with this godawful, unconstitutional mess.
When the reckoning comes, we should not forget the negligent complicity of Congress as well as the Article III Courts for allowing the life-threatening, dysfunctional, unconstitutional mess that EOIR has become continue to operate and to threaten the health, safety, and welfare of all Americans.

PWS

03-27-20

CLOSE ‘EM DOWN, ALREADY! — ROUND TABLE JOINS 70+ OTHER NGOs CALLING FOR IMMEDIATE CLOSURE OF ALL IMMIGRATION COURTS!

Dan Kowalski
Online Editor of the LexisNexis Immigration Law Community (ILC)

Fanny Behar-Ostrow-Ostrow — Fanny Behar-Ostrow ESQ
Assistant Chief Counsel, DHS
President AFGE Local 511

From Dan Kowalski over @ LexisNexis Immigration Community:

More than 70 Organizations Call on DOJ to Immediately Close All Immigration Courts During the COVID-19 Pandemic

AILA Doc. No. 20032630 | Dated March 26, 2020 | File Size: 596 K

DOWNLOAD THE DOCUMENT

On March 26, 2020, more than 70 organizations joined AILA, the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), and the ICE Professionals Union, to call on the Department of Justice to immediately close all immigration courts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cite as AILA Doc. No. 20032630.

Related Resources

·         Resource Center: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

·         Immigration Judges, Prosecutors, and Attorneys Call for the Nationwide Closure of All Immigration Courts

·         Press Call: Immigration Judges and Attorneys Joined by Public Health Experts Call for Additional Protective Measures Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

March 26, 2020

The Honorable William P. Barr Attorney General

U.S. Department of Justice

James McHenry

Director

Executive Office for Immigration Review

Submitted via email

RE: THE DOJ MUST IMMEDIATELY CLOSE ALL IMMIGRATION COURTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Dear Attorney General Barr and Director McHenry,

Following previous calls by the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 511 (ICE Professionals Union), and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) for the temporary closure of all immigration courts, we, the undersigned international, national, state, and local immigration, civil rights, faith- based, government accountability, and labor organizations urge the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to immediately close all 68 Immigration Courts operated by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in adherence with current public health protocols regarding the COVID-19 virus.

On the evening of March 17, EOIR postponed all non-detained hearings and recently postponed all of the Migrant Protection Protocol hearings (MPP) scheduled through April 22, 2020. However, more aggressive action is needed. While these policies are a step in the right direction, they fall far short of the required action called for by this pandemic emergency. The detained courts must also be closed to in-person hearings in order to minimize the spread of the virus, slow the rate of new infections, and to avoid overwhelming local resources.

Given the particular vulnerability of respondents in detained settings, the use of telework, which has been advocated by the Administration, can and should be quickly put in place. Immigration Judges stand ready and able to work to ensure priority matters, including detained bond matters, are addressed using technological tools. DOJ should permit all detained respondents to immediately receive telephonic bond redetermination hearings with teleworking judges and allow supporting documents to be faxed and emailed to a designated point of contact. When possible, ICE OPLA should stipulate to bond in written motions so it is not necessary to hold hearings.

The urgency for immediate, decisive action in this matter cannot be overstated. Every link in the chain that brings individuals to the court – from the use of public transportation, to security lines, crowded elevators, cramped cubicle spaces of court staff, packed waiting room facilities in the courthouses, and inadequate sanitizing resources at the courts – place lives at risk.

AILA Doc. No. 20032630. (Posted 3/26/20)

Every state and the District of Columbia have declared a state of emergency giving government leaders the opportunity to implement bold and unprecedented measures to slow and eventually

eliminate the spread of the virus. Some officials are releasing prisoners, allowing them to shelter in place at home. Cities, county, and state governments have moved swiftly to implement stay at home orders to ensure the protection of community members from this highly communicable virus. These measures include the scaling back of mass transit conveyances to most urban centers where the immigration courts are located, creating significant logistical problems for anyone needing to access the courts. On March 21, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it

will now require all legal visitors to provide and wear personal protective equipment (PPE) (disposable vinyl gloves, N-95 or surgical masks, and eye protection) in order to enter any

detention facility, despite the nationwide shortage of PPE.

Yet EOIR continues to operate courts in a business-as-usual manner, placing court personnel,

litigants, and all community members in harm’s way. To make matters worse, DOJ and EOIR decision-making has been opaque, with inadequate information being released, causing confusion

and leading to litigants showing up at hearings that are cancelled without notice.

DOJ’s current response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its spread is frighteningly disconnected from the realities of our communities, and the advice of local leaders and scientific experts. DOJ must immediately implement the temporary closure all immigration courts. Failing to take this action now will exacerbate a once-in-a-century public health crisis and lead to a greater loss

of life.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Laura Lynch, Senior Policy Counsel, AILA (llynch@aila.org), Judge Ashley Tabaddor, President, NAIJ (ashleytabaddor@gmail.com), or Fanny Behar-Ostrow, President, AFGE Local 511 (fbehar1@gmail.com).

Sincerely,

Fanny Behar-Ostrow ESQ
Assistant Chief Counsel, DHS
President AFGE Local 511

Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc.

America’s Voice

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 511 American Immigration Council

American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)

Americans for Immigrant Justice, Inc.

Amnesty International USA

Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence

Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO

Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence

ASISTA

Association of Deportation Defense Attorneys, Inc.

Ayuda

Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition

Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.

Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

   AILA Doc. No. 20032630. (Posted 3/26/20)

Center for Victims of Torture

Central American Resource Center

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)

Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Provinces End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Federal Bar Association Immigration Law Section

*Disclaimer, this is the position of the Immigration Law Section and not the Federal Bar Association as a

whole.

Freedom Network USA

Government Accountability Project

Her Justice

HIAS

Human Rights First

Human Rights Initiative of North Texas

Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Immigrant Families Together

Immigration Equality

International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers International Rescue Committee

InterReligious Task Force on Central America

Just Neighbors

Justice for Our Neighbors-Michigan

Las America’s Immigrant Advocacy Center

Latin America Working Group

Leadership Conference of Women Religious

League of United Latin American Citizens

Legal Aid Justice Center

Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd National Association of Immigration Judges

National Council of Jewish Women

National Justice for Our Neighbors

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Neighbors Immigration Clinic

NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice

New York Immigration Coalition

New York Justice for Our Neighbors

Northern Illinois Justice for Our Neighbors

Ohio Immigrant Alliance

Pax Christi USA

Restoration Immigration Legal Aid

Rian Immigrant Center

Round Table of Former Immigration Judges

Santa Fe Dreamers Project

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team

AILA Doc. No. 20032630. (Posted 3/26/20)

South Texas Human Rights Center

Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors

The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Ujima Inc: The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence

Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights

Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations

Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

Washington Office on Latin America

Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Wellspring United Church of Christ

Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights

AILA Doc. No. 20032630. (Posted 3/26/20)

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

Pretty disturbingly graphic example of how little EOIR & the DOJ care about the health, safety, and welfare of their own employees, let alone the public they have long ceased serving!

Also appreciate the courageous leadership of AFGE Local 511 President and DHS Assistant Chief Counsel Fanny Behar-Ostrow in joining the effort to end the regime’s reckless insanity. An “Honorary Member” of the NDPA to be sure! Folks like Fanny, Ashley, Laura, Jeff, and Dan are among America’s unsung heroes! Thanks for all you do!

Due Process Forever! Political “Courts” Endangering Public Welfare & Safety, Never!

PWS

03-26-20

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Beware of Billy Barr & His Minions — We Must Resist The Kakistocracy’s Vile “Power Grab”

Betsy Woodruff Swan
FederalLaw Enforcement Reporter
Politico

March 21, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

Mar 22

Today’s big news came from Politico writer Betsy Woodruff Swan, who broke the story that the Department of Justice has quietly asked Congress for dramatic new powers during emergencies… emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic. She has reviewed documents from the DOJ asking Congress to give top judges the power to pause court proceedings during emergencies. This would include “any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings.”

The executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Norman L. Reimer, explained that this “means you could be arrested and never brought before a judge until they decide that the emergency or the civil disobedience is over. I find it absolutely terrifying,” he said. “Especially in a time of emergency, we should be very careful about granting new powers to the government.”

The House of Representatives, controlled by Democrats, is extremely unlikely to pass any such measures, and Mike Lee, a libertarian-leaning Republican Senator from Utah, tweeted in all caps: “OVER MY DEAD BODY.” (This prompted reminders that he had voted to acquit Trump during the impeachment trial and thus keep him in office, so, as one tweet read: “If this happens you own it.”)

Lee demanded that Trump disown the idea– he did not– and the DOJ declined to comment on the story, so it may be a trial balloon, inaccurate, or even false.

But it has gotten attention because it dovetails with recent stories that suggest those currently in power feel it is their right, and maybe their duty, to run the country in their own interest, ignoring– or suppressing– dissent.

In the last two days, we learned that the administration and Republican members of Congress heard dire warnings about the coming coronavirus and continued to lie to the American people, telling us the Democrats trying to alert us were simply bent on undermining Trump.

We also learned that Trump has refused to use the Defense Production Act, passed under President Harry S. Truman, who used it during the Korean War. This law would enable Trump to demand that American industries produce the medical equipment we currently need so badly. Business leaders say the invoking the law isn’t necessary, and Trump claims they are volunteering to produce what the nation needs in a public-private partnership. Currently there is such a critical shortage of medical equipment that some hospitals are asking people to sew basic masks at home, but today Trump announced that the clothing manufacturer Hanes is retrofitting factories to make masks; it has joined a consortium that is expected to produce 5-6 million masks weekly.

These two stories reveal the same ideology that would underlay a law permitting arrest and imprisonment without trial: that society works best when it defers to a few special people who have access to information, resources, and power. Those people, in turn, use their power to direct the lives of the rest of us in larger patterns whose benefit we cannot necessarily see. We might think we need medical supplies but, in this worldview, using the government to force individual companies to make those supplies would hurt us in the long run. This ideology argues that we are better off leaving the decisions about producing medical supplies to business leaders. Similarly, we need leaders to run our economy and government, trusting that they will lead us, as a society, toward progress.

But there is another way to look at the world, one that is at the heart of American society. That ideology says that society works best if everyone has equal access to information and resources, and has an equal say in government. In this worldview, innovation and production come from people across society, ordinary people as well as elites, and society can overcome challenges much more effectively with a multiplicity of voices than with only a few who tend to share the same perspective. To guarantee equal access to information, resources, and government, we all must have equality before the law, including the right to liberty unless we have been charged with a crime.

For decades, now, America has increasingly moved toward the idea that a few people should consolidate wealth and power with the idea that they will most effectively use it to move America in a good direction. But the novel coronavirus pandemic has undercut the idea that a few leaders can run society most effectively. The administration’s response to this heavy challenge has been poor. And now we know that the very people who were publicly downplaying the severity of the coronavirus were told by our intelligence agencies that it was very bad indeed, and they were sharing that information with a few, favored individuals. Their leadership will literally, and quite immediately, cost a number of our lives.

But even as those embracing the idea of a hierarchical society have fallen down on the job, ordinary Americans are stepping up and demonstrating the power of the other worldview. State governors—Gavin Newsom of California, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Jay Inslee of Washington, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, David Ige of Hawaii, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, Andrew Cuomo of New York, and Mike DeWine of Ohio—have distinguished themselves. (I’m sure I’ve forgotten some; please add them in the comments.) Not just governors, but also mayors and city councils have stepped up to the plate. So have business leaders and unions, figuring out ways to work from home and to pay workers whose jobs suddenly disappeared. Teachers have moved their classes on-line overnight; National Guard troops are delivering necessary supplies. Ordinary people all over the country are helping each other however they can.

And then there are the health care workers. What they are doing, leaping into the breach to save us all, despite their dire lack of protective gear, is heroic.

This pandemic, and the accompanying economic downturn, are a turning point. Just as Americans have done in other crises in our history, we are rediscovering that our greatest strength is not in how rich and powerful we can make a few, but rather in all of us, working together. It strikes me as no accident that it is at this moment a report has surfaced that Attorney General William Barr, a leading member of this administration, has asked for the ability to arrest and imprison people without trial, for to preserve a hierarchy under these conditions will require an extraordinary assumption of power to suppress dissent.

Notes:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/doj-coronavirus-emergency-powers-140023

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/doj-suspend-constitutional-rights-coronavirus-970935/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-supplies.html

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/hanes-start-making-masks-health-care-professionals-treating/story

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

No surprise to me that the amazing Betsy Swan Woodruff, now of Politico, is breaking this story.

The warnings about Billy Barr and his schemes come as no surprise to those of us in the New Due Process Army and the Round Table. We have been resisting the Sessions, Whitaker, Barr White Nationalist, neo-fascist, kakistocracy’s attack on Consitutional rights, the rule of law, and human decency since “Day One.”

I also appreciate Heather’s “outing” of the disgusiting disingenuous behavior of GOP Senators like Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) who claims to stand for one thing but actually voted to overlook the overwhelming evidence of Trump’s abuse of his office and enable his continuing existentially dangerous tenure.

Due Process Forever! Billy Bar & The Kakistocracy, Never!

PWS

03-22-20

ATTENTION NDPA: “CAN’T MISS” ONLINE LEARNING OPPORTUNITY: THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE FABULOUS JUDGE (RET.) DENISE NOONAN SLAVIN WILL SHARE HER SECRETS FOR LITIGATION SUCCESS! – “Do’s and Don’ts for Demonstrative Evidence in Immigration Court” – MARCH 31, 2020, 1:00 PM EDT – FREE Webcast – “Next Day On-Demand” – Sponsored By Your “Due Process Heroes” @ The National Institute For Trial Advocacy (“NITA”)!

fl-undocumented-minors 2 – Judge Denise Slavin, executive vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges in an immigration courtrrom in Miami. Mike Stocker, Sun Sentinel

Subject: Do’s and Don’ts for Demonstrative Evidence in Immigration Court – NITA’s studio71 March Webcast

FREE LIVE WEBCAST

Do’s and Don’ts for Demonstrative Evidence in Immigration Court

Presented by:

Judge Denise Slavin

Retired Immigration Judge and President Emerita of the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ)

March

10:00am PDT / 1:00pm EDT

Demonstrative evidence – maps, drawings, photos, diagrams – to help demonstrate or illustrate the testimony of a witness is a vastly underutilized litigation tool in immigration court. But immigration court – where the pivotal events have occurred in another country and the witness might not have access to real evidence to corroborate his/her story – is the ideal place for the use of such evidence to assist the Immigration Judge by clarifying testimony and explaining the facts. This webcast will discuss various ways that demonstrative evidence may be useful in immigration court, provide the mechanics or “how to” for using such evidence, and address some special concerns in the for the use of such evidence in immigration court.

REGISTER NOW

If you can’t make the live presentation, this webcast will be available to view on demand, beginning the next day.

The National Institute for Trial Advocacy
1685 38th Street, Suite 200
Boulder, CO 80301-2735Follow NITA’s social accountsTo view our non-discrimination policy, click here

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

What a great chance to learn the “nitty gritty” from former DOJ litigator, labor negotiator, union executive, “Knightess of the Round Table,” and one of “America’s Best Judges”* — Hon. Denise Noonan Slavin. Don’t miss it!

As determined by Courtside’s* “Panel of Judicial Experts.”

DUE PROCESS FOREVER! SLOPPY LITIGATION NEVER!

PWS

03-17-20

ARTICLE I: National Association of Women Judges (“NAWJ”) Advocates Independent U.S. Immigration Court

Round Table superstar Judge Joan Churchill reports:

The letter has been addressed to the Chairs and Ranking Members of both the Senate and HR Judiciary Committees, as well as to the HR Immigration Subcommittee, and to Senator Whitehouse of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who sent a letter last month to the AG, cosigned by several other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressing concerns about due process at the Immigration Courts. There are 7 letters, attached below for your records.

Because all seven letters are similar in content, I’m linking and reprinting only the one to Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren of the House Subcommittee on Immigration & Citizenship.

Zoe Lofgren, Chair, HR Immigration Subcommittee

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN JUDGES

1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 1138, Washington, D.C. 20036 T: (202) 393-0222 W: www.nawj.org

February 28, 2020

The Honorable Zoe Lofgren

1401 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative Lofgren:

In your role as Chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, the National Association of Women Judges [NAWJ] writes in support of the creation of an independent Immigration Court. We respectfully call on Congress to establish an Article I Immigration Court system that is independent of the Department of Justice, or any other prosecutorial agency, in order to guarantee due process and a fair hearing with justice for all.

Currently, the Immigration Courts are housed in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review [EOIR], which manages Immigration Courts at both the trial and appellate levels.

1

This structure presents an inherent conflict of interest. The Immigration Courts are adjudicatory bodies

tasked with providing due process hearings to respondents in removal proceedings. It is essential that its judges be neutral adjudicators who are not subject to the policy making chain of command of an executive agency, or to direction by a party to the cases before them.

NAWJ has been the leading voice of women jurists across the country for over forty years. Founded in 1979, our non-partisan membership includes over 1,000 judges, women and men, serving at all levels of the state and federal judiciary. Our membership includes judges on administrative, military, tribal, and other specialized courts, in addition to the regular state and federal courts. NAWJ has, since our founding, championed the advancement of women and minorities in the legal profession, the independence of the judiciary, and equal access to justice.

NAWJ’s support for an independent Immigration Court outside the Department of Justice is long standing. We adopted a resolution in support on April 16, 2002 stating that:

1 The appellate level of the Immigration Court system is known as the Board of Immigration Appeals or BIA.

Chair Zoe Lofgren Page Two

“The NAWJ supports an independent structure for the Immigration Courts (at both the trial and appellate levels) outside the Department of Justice, to assure fairness and equal access to justice, and to assure both the appearance and reality of impartiality.”

We followed up with another resolution adopted on October 18, 2008 stating:

“The National Association of Women Judges supports the enactment of federal immigration legislation that provides for full and fair administrative adjudication and review of deportation orders.”

We are pleased to hear that Congress is currently considering introduction of legislation on this important topic.

Due process by adjudicatory tribunals requires case by case adjudication in which a neutral decision maker, using his/her independent judgment, renders a decision based entirely on the record before him/her, the facts of the case, the submissions of the parties, and the governing law and regulations, without direction from above or consideration of outside (ex parte) influences. The current structure of the Immigration Courts, however, presents a systemic problem to neutral adjudication, as the structure allows:

(1) a supervisory role regarding the content of Immigration Judges’ rulings and

decisions, as a factor in their performance evaluations, and

(2) participation in the adjudicatory process by policy makers who are, in turn,

answerable to one of the parties, an executive agency of the Government.

We respectfully urge Congress to establish an independent Immigration Court system, under Article I of the United States Constitution, that would assure due process and judicial independence.

Thank you for consideration of our views. Sincerely,

The Honorable Bernadette D’Souza President

National Association of Women Judges

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For those of you who don’t already know my long-time friend and colleague Judge Joan Churchill, here is a little background.

Joan and I worked together as Attorney Advisors at the BIA in the early 1970s. She was the leader of the movement to start an employees’ union at the BIA, largely to insure fair and respectful treatment of our support staff. I was a “charter member,” and Joan served as our first President.

Later, after becoming one of the first women Immigration Judges at the “Legacy INS,” Joan served as the President of the Immigration Judges’ Association, the predecessor to the National Association of Immigration Judges. Among her many accomplishments, Joan successfully, and almost single handedly, argued the “Due Process case” against an INS proposal to take asylum cases out of Immigration Court and assign them exclusively to the newly created Asylum Office.

Later in our careers, Joan and I were “reunited” as colleagues at the Arlington Immigration Court. I was the “keynote speaker” at her retirement ceremony.

Following retirement, Joan hasn’t missed a beat. She served as President of the NAWJ and has actively and effectively pressed the case for Article I status as a member of the ABA National Conference on the Administrative Judiciary (of which I also am a member). Undoubtedly, Joan’s efforts were a key factor in getting such strong support for the Article I proposal from the ABA.

All of us who served as Immigration Judges and believe in the fundamental value of Due Process under law owe a debt of gratitude to Joan for her courageous, effective, pioneering work and her continued involvement in fulfilling the one-time “EOIR vision” of “through teamwork and innovation, being the world’s best administrative tribunals insuring fairness and due process for all.”

I might add, that it wasn’t always easy for Joan who has constantly demonstrated courage, an incredible work ethic, and “grace under fire.” But, that’s another story.

For now, I’m just thankful to be able to call Joan a friend and colleague and to continue to benefit from her wisdom, scholarship, and hard work in behalf of all of us in the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges.

Well done, my friend and colleague!

Due Process Forever; “Captive” Courts Never!

PWS

03-10-20

ROUND TABLE NEWS: Getting The Due Process Message Across — 9th Cir. Orders Regime To Respond To Round Table’s Amicus Briefs in Matter of A-B- Challenges!

Lory Rosenberg — Hon. Lory Diana Rosenberg
Senior Advisor
Immigrant Defenders Law Group, PLLC

Round Table stalwarts Judge Jeffrey S. Chase and Judge Lory Diana Rosenberg report:

Notice of Docket Activity

The following transaction was entered on 03/03/2020 at 3:25:28 PM PST and filed on 03/03/2020

Case Name: Sontos Diaz-Reynoso v. William Barr

Case Number: 18-72833

Document(s): Document(s)

Docket Text:

Filed clerk order (Deputy Clerk: AF): The panel previously ordered that argument for the above-captioned cases would proceed with Diaz-Reynoso v. Barr, No. 18-72833 being argued first. The panel supplements its previous order for argument in this first case, as follows: Petitioner will argue, reserving time for rebuttal if desired, then Amicus Curiae The Center for Gender and Refugee Studies will argue, then Respondent will have an opportunity to respond to both Petitioner and the Amicus, and finally Petitioner may use any time reserved for rebuttal. Additionally, Respondent should be prepared to address the arguments raised by Amici Curiae Thirty-Nine Former Immigration Judges and Members of the Board of Immigration Appeals. [11616996] [18-72833, 18-72735, 18-73434, 19-70489] (AF)

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Great to know that at least some Article IIIs are paying attention. We can only hope that they will act on our expert views and save some very deserving and highly vulnerable lives. Of course, we couldn’t have gotten this far without the amazing pro bono team over at Gibson Dunn!

PWS

03-08-20

HERE’S A SEPARATE LETTER ON THE URGENT NEED FOR AN ARTICLE I U.S. IMMIGRATION COURT THAT I SENT TO MY SENATORS AND CONGRESSMAN TODAY!

Sent to Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Representative Don Beyer (D-VA) and a few others today:

Dear

RE: Independent Article I U.S. Immigration Court

As an American, human being, taxpayer, and retired career civil servant, I am outraged at the totally unconstitutional and maliciously incompetent destruction of due process and the rule of law, not to mention simple human decency, in our U.S. Immigration Courts by the Department of Justice and the Trump Administration. They have created unprecedented dysfunction and grotesque unfairness.

The current mess, with already record low and plummeting morale and an out of control, largely self-created backlog of more than 1.3 million cases, serves neither the human beings condemned to its daily injustices and intentional degradations of humanity nor the legitimate needs of DHS enforcement. The latter should not be confused with the many outright lies and intentionally false narratives about the need for massive, counterproductive, fiscally wasteful, and intentionally cruel immigration enforcement spread by this Administration. I call on you to join your colleagues in supporting bipartisan legislation to create an independent, Article I U.S. Immigration Court as one of our highest and most pressing national priorities.

I have been involved in the field of immigration, law enforcement, refugees, and human rights for 47 years. More than 35 of those years were spent at the U.S. Department of Justice, where I worked under both Republican and Democratic Administrations. Indeed, as a career Senior Executive under the Reagan Administration, I helped create the Executive Office for Immigration Review (“EOIR”) to house the Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”).

Our aim then was to increase judicial independence, due process, fundamental fairness, and professionalism. The Department that I loyally served bears no resemblance whatsoever to the unbelievable ethical and legal morass that now exists under Bill Barr, one of the three most totally unmqualified individuals to hold that post during my lifetime (the others being convicted felon John Mitchell and notorious White Nationalist enforcement zealot Jeff Sessions, who was primarily responsible for the Administration’s cruel and unconstitutional “child separation” program).

Prior to my retirement on June 30, 2019, I spent 13 years as an Immigration Judge at the U.S. Immigration Court in Arlington, Virginia. Before that, I was a Board Member and Appellate Immigration Judge at the BIA, for eight years, the first six as BIA Chair. I also spent more than a decade at the “Legacy Immigration & Naturalization Service,” (“INS”) where as Deputy General Counsel, and Acting General Counsel during portions of the Carter and Reagan Administrations, I was responsible for the overall operation of the nationwide legal program, including all representation before the Immigration Courts and the BIA. I have also practiced immigration law as a partner at the D.C. Office of Jones Day and as managing partner of the D.C. Office of Fragomen.

I currently teach Immigration Law & Policy as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Law, as well as making numerous speeches and other public appearances, and publishing my own blog, immigrationcourtside.com. I am a proud member of the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges, a voluntary organization, with more than 40 former judges as members, committed to filing amicus briefs, public statements, and taking part in educational efforts intended to increase public and judicial understanding of the Immigration Courts and to promote an essential restoration of due process and fundamental fairness as its focus.

I know of few, if any, other participants in the current “immigration dialogue,” who have personally been involved in more cases either helping deserving individuals achieve legal status under our laws or, conversely, ordering the removal of individuals found not to qualify to remain here under our laws. In other words, I know what I’m talking about, much of it from face to face encounters with individuals on all sides of the issue in Immigration Court, as well as years of experience in shaping national immigration policy and legislation in both the public and private sectors.

I have had to personally deliver to individuals and their families the “bad news” that I was required by the law to return them to countries where I had little doubt that they would suffer torture, rape, dehumanization, or even death. It’s a sobering experience not shared by most of those clueless demagogues now bragging about how “success” should be measured by our ability to inflict more unnecessary cruelty and inhumanity on some of the most vulnerable individuals in the world and how “court efficiency” means nothing other than assembly line removals with neither due process nor fundamental fairness.

What’s happening now in our Immigration Courts is a travesty and a national catastrophe. It is wrong, from a Constitutional, legal, and moral standpoint. It eventually will join Jim Crow as one of the most heinous abuses of legal authority and human rights in modern American legal history. Surely, we all want to be on “the right side of history” on this fundamental issue.

Today, many NGOs involved in justice, immigration, and human rights launched a “twitter storm” to raise awareness of the tragic abuses of the legal system going on at the Administration’s instigation daily in our failed and unconscionably “weaponized” Immigration Courts. Innocent lives are literally being lost and families and futures ruined while we stand by and watch. America’s future as a great nation and “beacon of hope” for the rest of the world is literally being dissolved and washed down the drain.

Please take time to read the detailed letter that our Round Table of Former Immigration Judges signed, along with the American Immigration Lawyers Association and 53 other distinguished non-governmental organizations, demanding an end to the abusive Immigration Courts under DOJ control and the establishment of a constitutionally required independent Immigration Court that will insure due process and fundamental fairness as required by our Constitution.

That letter may be found at this link: https://www.aila.org/advo-media/aila-correspondence/2020/advocates-call-on-congress-establish-independent

Also, if you have not already done so, I urge you to read the letter signed by me and more than 2,500 other former DOJ officials deploring the corruption and unethical behavior that Bill Barr has “normalized” at the DOJ and demanding his resignation.

That letter may be found at this link: https://medium.com/@dojalumni/doj-alumni-statement-on-the-events-surrounding-the-sentencing-of-roger-stone-c2cb75ae4937

American justice is facing an existential crisis resulting from this Administration’s weaponization and maliciously incompetent management of what is perhaps our biggest, and certainly most important in terms of human lives and American’s future in the world, court systems: The Immigration Courts. When these courts finally implode under the Trump Administration’s continued abuses, they will take with them a large portion of our American justice system and that which makes America different from the rest of the world.

I should know – I dealt with the human wreckage caused by the failure of courts and justice systems in other countries nearly every working day for more than four decades. This Administration has turned our once-proud Immigration Courts into a “parody of justice” usually found in third-world dictatorships or authoritarian states where due process is but a mirage.

Therefore, I respectfully ask for your support in creating an independent Article I U.S. Immigration Court. Due Process Forever!

With my thanks and very best wishes,

Paul Wickham Schmidt

U.S. Immigration Judge (Retired)

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PWS

02-19-20

54 NGOs DECLARE EOIR A DUE PROCESS DISASTER AREA, URGE CONGRESS TO CREATE INDEPENDENT ARTICLE I COURT — Round Table of Former Immigration Judges Among Groups Seeking Change — Join AILA’S “Twitterstorm” Today (Wednesday)

Hi Local Asylum Liaisons-

Today AILA, the American Immigration Council, and 52 additional organizations sent a letter to members of Congress, urging them to establish an independent immigration court! This letter was sent in advance of tomorrow’s twitterstorm that aims to bring attention to the dysfunction in the immigration court system and call for reform.

Asks:

Please amplify this letter on social media.

Twitter: You can retweet AILANational’s tweet or use some of the sample tweets below.

·          Click to tweet: Case-completion quotas force immigration judges to rush through cases, often at the expense of due process. This assembly-line justice is unacceptable. Read the letter @AILANational & others sent to Congress calling for independent courts. http://ow.ly/mV3730qiMW5

·          Click to tweet: The Trump administration’s certification decisions have undermined due process and weakened protections for asylum seekers. Read more in this letter @AILANational and over 50 orgs sent to Congress. #JudicialIndependence http://ow.ly/mV3730qiMW5

·          Click to tweet: Due process and #JudicialIndependence should never be sacrificed in the name of political expediency. Read the letter @AILANational sent with over 50 other orgs calling for the establishment of an independent immigration court. http://ow.ly/mV3730qiMW5

Sample LinkedIn/Facebook Post: Please share AILA’s Facebook post or use sample post below.

Due process and judicial independence should never be sacrificed in the name of political expediency. Read the letter AILA National sent with 50 other organizations calling for the establishment of an independent immigration court. http://ow.ly/mV3730qiMW5

Please join us tomorrow, Wednesday (2/19) from 3pm – 4pm ET to participate in a Twitterstorm hosted by AILA, NIJC, and Human Rights First.

You can share tweets from our social media toolkit or craft your own using the hashtag #JudicialIndependence. Looking forward to seeing you on Twitter!

Thank you! -Laura

Also ICYMI –last week a group of Senators accused the Department of Justice of politicizing the immigration courts in a letter to Attorney General Barr. Read more here.

Laura A. Lynch, Esq.

Senior Policy Counsel

Direct: 202.507.7627 I Email: llynch@aila.org

American Immigration Lawyers Association

Main: 202.507.7600 I Fax: 202.783.7853 I www.aila.org

1331 G Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005

Here’s the link to our letter:

NGOLTREOIR20021838

DUE PROCESS FOREVER!

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PWS

02-19-20

JOIN MORE THAN 1,100 FORMER DOJ OFFICIALS, INCLUDING MANY MEMBERS OF THE ROUND TABLE OF RETIRED JUDGES, IN SPEAKING OUT AGAINST BARR’S UNETHICAL ACTIONS AT DOJ & CALLING FOR HIS RESIGNATION — It’s Not Too Late To Get On Board For Protecting America’s Democratic Institutions From Corruption & Undue Political Influence!

Katie Benner reports for The NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/16/us/politics/barr-trump-justice-department.html

WASHINGTON — More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials called on Attorney General William P. Barr on Sunday to step down after he intervened last week to lower the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation for President Trump’s longtime friend Roger J. Stone Jr.

They also urged current government employees to report any signs of unethical behavior at the Justice Department to the agency’s inspector general and to Congress.

“Each of us strongly condemns President Trump’s and Attorney General Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice,” the former Justice Department lawyers, who came from across the political spectrum, wrote in an open letter on Sunday. Those actions, they said, “require Mr. Barr to resign.”

The sharp denunciation of Mr. Barr underlined the extent of the fallout over the case of Mr. Stone, capping a week that strained the attorney general’s relationship with his rank and file, and with the president himself.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

After prosecutors on Monday recommended a prison sentence of up to nine years for Mr. Stone, who was convicted of obstructing a congressional inquiry, Mr. Trump lashed out at federal law enforcement. Senior officials at the department, including Mr. Barr, overrode the recommendation the next day with a more lenient one, immediately prompting accusations of political interference, and the four lawyers on the Stone case abruptly withdrew in protest.

The Justice Department said the case had not been discussed with anyone at the White House, but that Mr. Trump congratulated Mr. Barr on his decision did little to dispel the perception of political influence. And as the president widened his attacks on law enforcement, Mr. Barr publicly reproached the president, saying that Mr. Trump’s statements undermined him, as well the department.

“I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me,” Mr. Barr said during a televised interview on Thursday with ABC News.

In the days after the interview, Mr. Trump has been relatively muted. He said on Twitter that he had not asked Mr. Barr to “do anything in a criminal case.” As president, he added, he had “the legal right to do so” but had “so far chosen not to!”

But lawyers across the Justice Department continue to worry about political interference from the president despite public pushback by Mr. Barr, long considered a close ally of Mr. Trump’s.

Protect Democracy, a nonprofit legal group, gathered the signatures from Justice Department alumni and said it would collect more.

In May, Protect Democracy gathered signatures for a letter that said the Mueller report presented enough evidence to charge Mr. Trump with obstruction of justice were that an option. At the close of his investigation, the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III declined to indicate whether Mr. Trump illegally obstructed justice, citing a decades-old department opinion that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime. That letter was also critical of Mr. Barr.

Even as the lawyers condemned Mr. Barr on Sunday, they said they welcomed his rebuke of Mr. Trump and his assertions that law enforcement must be independent of politics.

But Mr. Barr’s “actions in doing the president’s personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words,” they said.

The letter comes days after some Democratic senators pressed for Mr. Barr to resign, and after the New York City Bar Association said that it had formally reported the attorney general’s behavior to the Justice Department’s inspector general.

Strikingly, the lawyers called upon current department employees to be on the lookout for future abuses and to be willing to bring oversight to the department.

“Be prepared to report future abuses to the inspector general, the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Congress,” they wrote, and “to refuse to carry out directives that are inconsistent with their oaths of office.”

Prosecutors who currently work at the department should withdraw from cases that involve abuses or political interference, the lawyers said.

As a last resort, they asked Justice Department employees “to resign and report publicly — in a manner consistent with professional ethics — to the American people the reasons for their resignation.”

Katie Benner covers the Justice Department. She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for public service for reporting on workplace sexual harassment issues. @ktbenner

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Here’s the statement:

DOJ Alumni Statement on the Events Surrounding the Sentencing of Roger Stone

DOJ Alumni Statement

Feb 16 · 4 min read

We, the undersigned, are alumni of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) who have collectively served both Republican and Democratic administrations. Each of us strongly condemns President Trump’s and Attorney General Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice.

As former DOJ officials, we each proudly took an oath to support and defend our Constitution and faithfully execute the duties of our offices. The very first of these duties is to apply the law equally to all Americans. This obligation flows directly from the Constitution, and it is embedded in countless rules and laws governing the conduct of DOJ lawyers. The Justice Manual — the DOJ’s rulebook for its lawyers — states that “the rule of law depends on the evenhanded administration of justice”; that the Department’s legal decisions “must be impartial and insulated from political influence”; and that the Department’s prosecutorial powers, in particular, must be “exercised free from partisan consideration.”

All DOJ lawyers are well-versed in these rules, regulations, and constitutional commands. They stand for the proposition that political interference in the conduct of a criminal prosecution is anathema to the Department’s core mission and to its sacred obligation to ensure equal justice under the law.

And yet, President Trump and Attorney General Barr have openly and repeatedly flouted this fundamental principle, most recently in connection with the sentencing of President Trump’s close associate, Roger Stone, who was convicted of serious crimes. The Department has a long-standing practice in which political appointees set broad policies that line prosecutors apply to individual cases. That practice exists to animate the constitutional principles regarding the even-handed application of the law. Although there are times when political leadership appropriately weighs in on individual prosecutions, it is unheard of for the Department’s top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the President, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case. It is even more outrageous for the Attorney General to intervene as he did here — after the President publicly condemned the sentencing recommendation that line prosecutors had already filed in court.

Such behavior is a grave threat to the fair administration of justice. In this nation, we are all equal before the law. A person should not be given special treatment in a criminal prosecution because they are a close political ally of the President. Governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies.

We welcome Attorney General Barr’s belated acknowledgment that the DOJ’s law enforcement decisions must be independent of politics; that it is wrong for the President to interfere in specific enforcement matters, either to punish his opponents or to help his friends; and that the President’s public comments on DOJ matters have gravely damaged the Department’s credibility. But Mr. Barr’s actions in doing the President’s personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words. Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice’s reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign. But because we have little expectation he will do so, it falls to the Department’s career officials to take appropriate action to uphold their oaths of office and defend nonpartisan, apolitical justice.

For these reasons, we support and commend the four career prosecutors who upheld their oaths and stood up for the Department’s independence by withdrawing from the Stone case and/or resigning from the Department. Our simple message to them is that we — and millions of other Americans — stand with them. And we call on every DOJ employee to follow their heroic example and be prepared to report future abuses to the Inspector General, the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Congress; to refuse to carry out directives that are inconsistent with their oaths of office; to withdraw from cases that involve such directives or other misconduct; and, if necessary, to resign and report publicly — in a manner consistent with professional ethics — to the American people the reasons for their resignation. We likewise call on the other branches of government to protect from retaliation those employees who uphold their oaths in the face of unlawful directives. The rule of law and the survival of our Republic demand nothing less.

If you are a former DOJ employee and would like to add your name below, click here. Protect Democracy will update this list daily with new signatories.

Dianne

LAST NAME

(Kelly) Sanford

HIGHEST DOJ TITLE

Assistant United States Attorney (D.C.); Assistant Section Chief, Environment and Natural Resources Division

# YEARS DOJ SERVICE

13

ADMINS SERVED UNDER

Bush I, Reagan, Carter

Stephanie

LAST NAME

(Lachman) Golden

HIGHEST DOJ TITLE

Trial Attorney

# YEARS DOJ SERVICE

10

ADMINS SERVED UNDER

Reagan, Carter, Ford

Jonathan

LAST NAME

Abernethy

HIGHEST DOJ TITLE

Assistant United States Attorney, SDNY

# YEARS DOJ SERVICE

7

ADMINS SERVED UNDER

Bush II

Elkan

LAST NAME

Abramowitz

HIGHEST DOJ TITLE

Chief of the Criminal Division, SDNY

# YEARS DOJ SERVICE

6

ADMINS SERVED UNDER

Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson

View larger version

Signatories have been vetted to the best of our ability.

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It’s NOT Too Late! Let YOUR Voice Be Heard For Justice In America!

Here’s how more former DOJ employees can sign on:

I’m honored to join 1100+ of my fellow DOJ alumni in standing up for the rule of law. I encourage my former colleagues to add their names—>https://medium.com/@dojalumni/doj-alumni-statement-on-the-events-surrounding-the-sentencing-of-roger-stone-c2cb75ae4937
”Each of us strongly condemns President Trump’s and Attorney General Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice.” The Department of Justice and the American public deserve better, the rule of law demands it. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/16/us/politics/barr-trump-justice-department.html

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Due Process Forever! Corruption & Unethical Behavior At The USDOJ Never!

PWS

02-16-20

DEM SENS BLAST REGIME’S CONTINUING DUE PROCESS FARCE IN IMMIGRATION COURTS! – Round Table Member Hon. Charles Honeyman Takes to Airwaves to Call For Independent U.S Immigration Court!

https://www.wabe.org/senate-democrats-accuse-justice-department-of-politicizing-immigration-courts/

Joel Rose reports for NPR:

Senate Democrats Accuse Justice Department Of Politicizing Immigration Courts

JOEL ROSE • FEB 13, 2020

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.(left), and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter accusing the Trump administration of politicizing the immigration courts.

CREDIT J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / AP

Top Senate Democrats warn that the Trump administration is deliberately undermining the independence of immigration courts.

In a bluntly-worded letter to the Justice Department, which oversees the immigration courts, the senators accuse the administration of waging an “ongoing campaign to erode the independence of immigration courts,” including changing court rules to allow more political influence over decisions, and promoting partisan judges to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

“The administration’s gross mismanagement of these courts,” they write, threatens to do “lasting damage to public confidence in the immigration court system.”

The letter was sent Thursday to Attorney General William Barr. It was signed by nine Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. They are requesting extensive information about the department’s hiring practices for trial-level and appellate judges, among other documents.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

The senators’ concerns echo those voiced by former and current immigration judges, including the head of the union representing those judges. Ashley Tabaddor, the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, testified at a House Judiciary Committee hearing last month that immigration courts should no longer be overseen by the Justice Department.

“The only real and lasting solution is the establishment of an independent Immigration Court,” Tabaddor wrote in her testimony. “It must be free from the constantly changing (often diametrically opposed) politicized policy directives of the Department of Justice.”

The judge’s union has pushed back against productivity quotas for immigration judges, which were announced in 2018. The union also opposed new Trump administration rules that gave more power to the director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a political appointee.

The Trump administration, for its part, has moved to decertify the judges’ union.

Immigration courts face a massive backlog of more than a million cases. And there’s wide agreement that the court system needs reform. But not everyone believes that removing immigration courts from the Justice Department is the right approach.

“The attorney general and his subordinates are actively working to remedy this problem, by providing the needed resources to the immigration courts,” wrote Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge who is now a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, in his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last month. “Restructuring the immigration courts … will almost certainly not address the core problems that are facing those courts,” Arthur added.

At a time when caseloads are surging, some immigration judges are quitting, citing frustration and exhaustion. Judge Charles Honeyman retired from the Philadelphia Immigration Court in January after 24 years on the job.

“I would want future administrations and the Congress to think of immigration judges as judges, literally, and give them the autonomy and the independence and the confidence to make decisions without political interference or overreach,” he said in an interview with NPR’s Noel King.

“The only way to do that is to create an independent court where the judge makes a decision and the judge isn’t afraid of how many cases he has to complete for the year or whether some political actor is going to be looking over his shoulder and say, I don’t agree with that decision; we’re going to find a way to put pressure on you,” Honeyman said.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

WABE brings you the local stories and national news that you value and trust. Please make a gift today.

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Here’s the letter:

https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2020-02-13%20Ltr%20to%20AJ%20Barr%20re%20independence%20of%20immigration%20courts%20(004).pdf

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

Thanks, Charlie, my friend, for speaking out so forcefully for Due Process and justice in our Immigration Courts!

After seeing how Trump attacked an Article III life-tenured U.S. District Judge this week, does anyone seriously think that an Immigration Judge, a mere civil servant, who ruled against the Trump/Miller White Nationalist agenda in a case that came to Trump’s attention would retain their job under Billy Barr? After seeing how Trump treated some career civil servants and military officers after they “spoke truth to power” does anyone seriously think that Billy Barr of any other regime sycophant would defend fair and impartial decision making that Trump didn’t like?

No way! So how can ANY foreign national get a fair hearing before a “fake court system” where the prosecution authorities retain the right to change any result that goes against them and to remove subordinates who are supposed to be exercising independent judgement from their jobs if they don’t like the result.

The entire Immigraton Court system is and has been for some time now a cruel, unconstitutional hoax. Why haven’t the Article III Courts, whose judges are protected by life tenure, done their duty by stepping in and putting an end to this unconstitutional dysfunctional mess that is destroying innocent lives and ruining futures?

PWS

02-13-20

ART/PHOTOGRAPHY: “A Knight in Italy” – A Photographic Collage From Hon. Jeffrey Chase, Leading Knight of Our Round Table!

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Always nice to have some beauty injected into the unrelenting ugliness of America under the Trump regime.

In a truly Hitlerian move, the “Supreme Leader” now wants to dictate that only so-called “classical” architecture can be used for future government buildings.

PWS

02-10-20

LATEST JOUSTING NEWS FROM THE ROUND TABLE – Amicus Brief Filed With Supremes In Pereida v. Barr (Categorical Approach) With Lots Of Help From Our Pro Bono Heroes @ PILLSBURY WINTHROP SHAW PITTMAN LLP

Here’s the full brief:

Pereida-Supremes-Amicus-19-438 Amici Brief Former US Immigration Judges

Here’s a summary of our argument:

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT

This brief presents the view of former IJs and BIA members on an issue of vital importance to the functioning of our immigration system: how requiring IJs to assess inconclusive conviction records to determine whether a prior criminal conviction disqualifies a noncitizen from applying for relief from removal is contrary to longstanding application of the categorical approach, will create further delays in an already overburdened immigration system, and will deprive IJs of their discretionary power.

Mr. Pereida is correct that inconclusive state conviction records cannot satisfy the categorical approach’s requirement that the state conviction necessarily establishes federal predicate offenses. Affirming this interpretation of the categorical approach will promote the expeditious and fair adjudication of the hundreds of thousands of cases pending in immigration courts.

7

The Government incorrectly asserts that when the conviction record is inconclusive as to whether a conviction was for a disqualifying offense, a noncitizen does not carry his or her burden of proof to show statutory eligibility for relief. That argument is faulty because it would require IJs to conduct an inquiry, which the Government wrongly argues is governed by the Immigration and Nationality Act’s (“INA”) burden of proof allocation, focusing on the facts underlying the conviction. Moreover, rather than aid IJs in resolving cases, the Government’s position would impede the application of the modified categorical approach by forcing IJs to delay the proceedings. IJs will be forced to wait for the noncitizen to obtain and present criminal records that may not even exist or be obtainable and then examine those criminal records to make factual determinations the categorical approach is meant to avoid. The Government’s novel gloss on the modified categorical approach is antithetical to the analysis IJs have employed for decades and would preclude the exercise of discretion essential to the functioning of immigration courts.

Contrary to the Government’s contention, the modified categorical approach does not involve a separate factual inquiry. The requisite analysis is a legal one: whether the conviction rests upon nothing more than the minimum conduct necessary for a conviction. Deviating from the categorical approach’s sole focus on a direct and uncomplicated comparison between state and federal offenses, as the Government would require, threatens to disturb the uniformity of outcomes in similar circumstances that the categorical approach safeguards. Mr. Pereida’s interpretation of

8

the categorical approach would avoid this undesirable outcome.

For the reasons explained in the balance of this brief, Mr. Pereida’s solution is the correct one. Section I provides a real-world overview of how removal proceedings operate, focusing on the typical sequence of immigration court proceedings, how criminal records are introduced and considered, and the limited ability of noncitizens (many of whom are detained during such proceedings) to procure relevant records. Section II discusses the administrability of the categorical approach and its modified variant, highlighting the benefits of the approach, how Mr. Pereida’s position is in harmony with the way in which IJs apply the approach to reach just results, and how the Government’s interpretation would impede the workings of immigration courts. Finally, Section III explains how the Government’s position would curtail IJs’ discretionary power to analyze the facts of each case to reach a just result.

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

Many, many, many thanks to David G. Keyko, Counsel of Record, Robert L. Sills, Matthew F. Putorti, Stephanie S. Gomez, Jihyun Park and the rest of the amazing pro bono team over at Pillsbury for their outstanding and timely research and writing.

And, as always, it’s a privilege and an honor to be listed with the rest of my friends and colleagues on our Round Table of Former Immigration Judges!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-07-20

Case Name:	Sontos Diaz-Reynoso v. William Barr
Case Number:	18-72833
Document(s):	Document(s)

Due Process Forever! Star Chambers Never!

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Due Process Forever! Judicial Complicity in Weaponized Captive “Courts,” That Aren’t Courts At All, Never!

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Due Process Forever! Political “Courts” Endangering Public Welfare & Safety, Never!

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Due Process Forever! Billy Bar & The Kakistocracy, Never!

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FREE LIVE WEBCAST

Do’s and Don’ts for Demonstrative Evidence in Immigration Court

Presented by:

Judge Denise Slavin

Retired Immigration Judge and President Emerita of the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ)

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

What a great chance to learn the “nitty gritty” from former DOJ litigator, labor negotiator, union executive, “Knightess of the Round Table,” and one of “America’s Best Judges”* — Hon. Denise Noonan Slavin. Don’t miss it!

*As determined by Courtside’s “Panel of Judicial Experts.”

DUE PROCESS FOREVER! SLOPPY LITIGATION NEVER!

PWS

03-17-20

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Due Process Forever; “Captive” Courts Never!

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DUE PROCESS FOREVER!

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Here’s the statement:

It’s NOT Too Late! Let YOUR Voice Be Heard For Justice In America!

Here’s how more former DOJ employees can sign on:

Due Process Forever! Corruption & Unethical Behavior At The USDOJ Never!

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Senate Democrats Accuse Justice Department Of Politicizing Immigration Courts

Here’s the letter:

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Here’s the full brief:

Here’s a summary of our argument:

Due Process Forever!

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As determined by Courtside’s* “Panel of Judicial Experts.”