📰 SPECIAL EDITION: D.C. PREMIERE OF “THE COURTROOM” HEADLINES AYUDA/GEORGETOWN FUND RAISER AT NEW McCOURT SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY!

Here’s a report on the night’s activities from AYUDAS’s amazing Executive Director Paula Fitzgerald:

Dear Friends,

I hope you enjoyed our screening of The Courtroom as much as I did. The panel discussion connected us back to Ayuda’s mission and the greatest challenges our clients face as they navigate the legal system in an unfamiliar language.

I want to give a big thanks some special supporters who make this evening possible:

  • A special thank you to Georgetown University’s Community Engagement Manager and Ayuda’s Advisory Board Member, Erick Castro, for coordinating this reception and film screening, as well as Georgetown University for hosting this event in their new Capitol Campus building.
  • We’re honored to have had Waterwell Productions with us, specifically Co-Founder & Board Chair Arian Moayed and Managing Director Sarah Scafidi. Thank you for sharing this powerful story with Ayuda’s community.
  • Thank you to the Honorable Paul Schmidt for helping us bring The Courtroom to DC and sharing your connection to the film.
  • A moment of appreciation for our stellar panelists, Edgar and Marilyn, and wonderful moderator, Sandra. Thank you all for closing out the evening with an engaging conversation.

A warm round of applause to each of you for joining us. It was truly a delightful evening and I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to connect with many of you.

Are you interested in learning more about Ayuda’s advocacy program? Email us at advocacy@ayuda.com. Are you interested in volunteering? Check out our volunteer portal for current opportunities. Are you interested in making a gift to support Ayuda’s mission? Visit our website or email us atdevelopment@ayuda.com.

AYUDA/GEORGETOWN “THE COURTROOM”

Warm regards,

Paula Fitzgerald

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

Here’s the text of my opening remarks:

Ayuda’s Film Screening of The Courtroom – Opening Remarks by Paul Wickham Schmidt 

Georgetown University, McCourt School of Public Policy

September 18, 2024


Good evening and welcome everyone! Thanks for coming out to support Georgetown’s partnership with Ayuda.

My name is Paul Wickham Schmidt, and I’ve been given the privilege to introduce this powerful film, The Courtroom. Before I introduce a special guest, who is no stranger to the film and silver screen, I would like to share why this story is so important to me.  My experience has landed me in an interesting corner of many of tonight’s themes and key players in making this event possible.

I was appointed as a federal immigration judge and served for 21 years, at both the trial and appellate levels. During my time as an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law, I’ve written extensively about immigration law. And, I’m currently a proud Advisory Board member for Ayuda, an organization that I truly care about and has deep roots in this community.

In fact, Ayuda helped all of us during my tenure in the “Legacy” Arlington Immigration Court with their superior pro bono representation. You will witness this evening the critical, life-saving and future-determining, role played by great legal representation in Immigration Court.

And, if you don’t already know, you will be astounded to learn that in Immigration Court individuals, including infants and toddlers, face trial for their lives without the right to appointed counsel!  I want you to imagine how this case might have come out if this individual had been required to represent herself throughout her various legal proceedings. Yet, that is the predicament in which far, far too many individuals now find themselves.

I just read a TRAC Syracuse report that fewer than 15% of those ordered deported in Immigration Court in August 2024 were represented. I find that appalling! It’s actually a regressive trend since I left the bench. That’s why the role played by organizations like Ayuda and the teaching function of the CALS Asylum Clinic here at Georgetown Law are so completely essential to American Justice at what I call the “retail level.”

Now, I’m not here to read my resume. Instead, I will share why The Courtroom holds so much significance for us. The late film critic Roger Ebert once said, “the movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” The classic legal dramas like “12 Angry Men,” or “To Kill A Mockingbird,” for example, give us great insight into the devastating experience of being tried for a crime one did not commit.

But never had I seen a filmmaker put the empathy machine to work in Immigration Court. That is, until I learned about The Courtroom from my friend and colleague retired Immigration Judge Jeffrey S. Chase of New York. He actually served as an informal advisor on the production and played an important “cameo role” in the earlier award-winning stage versions of The Courtroom, as did other of our retired judicial colleagues.

Many of us will be fortunate enough never to have to endure a removal proceeding as a subject ourselves. We will never understand what it’s like to face the fear of being separated from our children, our families, our jobs, and our communities: In the words of the Supreme Court “all that makes life worth living!”  (Ng Fung Ho v. White | 259 U.S. 276 (1922)).

The film you’re about to watch tells one woman’s story confronting these terrors, with the utmost compassion. The “script” is a verbatim transcript of an actual immigration case, brought to life by the great actors, directors, and producers at Waterwell.

When the credits roll, I hope you’ll remember that The Courtroom is much more than a story. It’s real-life drama, “living theater” as I used to describe it to my Georgetown Law students – and right now, more than 3 million immigrants undergoing deportation proceedings are living it, along with their families, friends, co-workers, and other community members whom they interact with on a daily basis.

It’s with great honor that I get the opportunity to introduce our next speaker. He’s an actor, director, and the screenplay writer of our feature presentation. He has received two Tony Award nominations and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and you might recognize him from Marvel Cinematic Universe. Please give a warm round of applause for Waterwell Co-Founder, Arian Moayed!

Arian, I really, really appreciate your taking time out of your hectic schedule to be with us tonight for this important D.C. Area premiere!

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

Due Process Forever!😎

PWS

09-19-24

⚖️🗽🎭 HON. “SIR JEFFREY” CHASE HELPS WATERWELL CELEBRATE 20 YEARS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION THROUGH THEATER!

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

“Sir Jeffrey” writes:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C15BxTdPD8T/?igsh=eXFtYjY3czY5eDVv

I am featured in the attached “20 Stories for 20 Years” video for Waterwell’s 20th anniversary with Kristin Villanueva, the star of the play and film versions of “The Courtroom.”

Waterwell is the theater company co-founded by the actor Arian Moayed that has been a great advocate on behalf of immigrants.

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

Congrats, my friend and Round Table colleague, to you and to Waterwell!👏

Come to think of it, “Sir Jeffrey” is a pretty good moniker for an actor, as well as a leading warrior of the Round Table!🛡️⚔️

And, certainly, Immigration Court is a continuing human drama. Some would say “Repertory Theater of the Absurd!”🎭🤯

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

01-12-24

🎭 HON. JEFFREY S. CHASE ASKS: CAN LIFE IMITATE ART IMITATING LIFE?  — Lessons From The Play/Movie “The Courtroom!”

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

https://www.jeffreyschase.com/blog/2022/8/16/can-keathley-be-applied-more-broadly

JEFFREY S. CHASE | OPINIONS/ANALYSIS ON IMMIGRATION LAW

Blog Archive Press and Interviews Calendar Contact

Can Keathley Be Applied More Broadly?

The Off-Broadway play The Courtroom is now a film; it recently screened as part of the Tribeca Film Festival.  I think it is excellent, and would highly recommend that all those interested in immigration law see it.  As you might know, the film depicts the actual immigration court case that culminated on appeal in the Seventh Circuit’s 2012 precedent decision in Keathley v. Holder.1

While there is so much artistic talent to applaud among the film’s cast (especially the excellent Kristin Villanueva as the respondent, Elizabeth Keathley), director Lee Sunday Evans, and Arian Moayed (who created the script from actual court transcripts), as a lawyer and former judge, I was particularly impressed with the legal theory employed in the case by the real-life attorney Richard Hanus.

To summarize the facts of the case, Ms. Keathley went to the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles to obtain a state identification card while in non-immigrant status, having been admitted to the U.S. on a fiancee visa.  In processing her application, the DMV official asked (as he was required to do) whether she wanted to be an organ donor, and more consequentially, whether she wanted to register to vote.  Having just shown the DMV official her non-U.S. passport and non-immigrant visa, Ms. Keathley took the question to mean that she was eligible to vote.  And an Illinois law designed to deter discrimination in voter registration precluded the DMV official from offering her further guidance to dispel that belief.  When at her adjustment of status interview with DHS, Ms. Keathley answered honestly that she had voted in the 2006 midterm election, she soon found herself in removal proceedings before an immigration judge.

Furthermore, her situation appeared hopeless.  Section 237(a)(6)(A) of the Immigration & Nationality Act requires only a finding that a noncitizen voted in violation of any Federal, State, or local statute in order to make the individual deportable; it does not require a criminal conviction for having done so.  Ms. Keathley readily admitted that she had voted.  And of course, a federal statute, namely, 18 U.S.C. section 611, prohibits non-citizens from doing so.

But Ms. Keathley’s attorney argued that she was not in fact deportable, because there was a legal defense for her action, called “entrapment by estoppel.”  As Judge Frank Easterbrook, writing the Seventh Circuit’s decision in the case, explained, criminal defenses are relevant in removal proceedings.  He provided the example of a noncitizen who kills another in self-defense, raising the question of whether that person would then be deportable for having committed the crime of murder.  While Judge Easterbrook explained that the statute might define murder as the intentional killing of a human being, a person who kills in self defense is not guilty of murder, and would thus not be deportable.2  The same logic applies to voting.

Judge Easterbrook further explained that while its name is confusing, the defense of entrapment by estoppel can be better described as “official authorization.”  In his oral argument, Hanus offered the analogy of a police officer waving a driver through a red light; because the officer authorized the action, the driver could not be ticketed for their action.

Judge Easterbrook provided another example: if a Secret Service agent authorizes someone to distribute counterfeit currency as part of a criminal investigation, the person doing so cannot then be criminally charged for such action.

But the judge also emphasized an important requirement for the defense: the person authorizing the action must have the authority to do so.  As Judge Easterbrook pointed out, a Secret Service agent can authorize someone to pass counterfeit bills, but (choosing a seemingly random example) a high school principal, in spite of being a government employee, would have no authority over who is qualified to vote.

He continued that in Ms. Keathley’s case, while Department of Motor Vehicle officials lack the authority to specifically register non-citizens to vote, they are authorized to register people for federal elections.  In the words of Judge Easterbrook, “The power to register someone supposes some authority to ascertain whether legal qualifications have been met,” meaning that such officials “thus are entitled to speak for the government” on the subject of eligibility to vote.3

The Seventh Circuit remanded the matter, advising that “If the IJ does credit Keathley’s statements about what occurred, the Department of Homeland Security should give serious consideration to withdrawing its proposal that she be declared inadmissible and be removed from the United States. A person who behaves with scrupulous honesty only to be misled by a state official should be as welcome in this country in 2012 as she was when she entered in 2004.”4

On remand, Immigration Judge Craig Zerbe determined that the charge of removability was not sustained in light of the Seventh Circuit’s decision; Ms. Keathley’s application for adjustment of status was thus granted.  As those who saw the movie or play know, she has since become a U.S. citizen.

I hold Richard Hanus in the highest regard, and find his arguments in litigating this case to be brilliant.  I’ve also wondered if his argument might have broader applications.

With that thought in mind, I have heard of a disturbing position being taken by DHS in response to the increasing number of states legalizing marijuana, which presently remains a controlled substance under federal law.

The issue is that a noncitizen seeking to adjust their status to that of a lawful permanent resident must demonstrate that they are not inadmissible to the U.S.  (It was in this same posture that Ms. Keathley was also found inadmissible at her adjustment of status interview).   But section 212(a)(2)(C)(i) of the Act makes inadmissible not only any noncitizen who “is or has been an illicit trafficker in any controlled substance,” but also one who “is or has been a knowing aider, abettor, assister, conspirator, or colluder with others in the illicit trafficking in any such controlled or listed substance…or endeavored to do so.”

Like the voting provision, this exclusion ground does not require a criminal conviction.  But while whether or not someone voted is a clearcut question, what constitutes aiding, abetting, assisting, or colluding with marijuana-related businesses that are operating legally at the state level is far less obvious.

For example, DHS has taken the position that those providing accounting and payroll services to marijuana-related businesses constitute aiding or assisting with drug trafficking within the meaning of the Act.  It’s not clear how far that theory can be extended.  What about those providing banking services?  Or the landlords renting to such businesses? Or those providing them with phones, electricity, or internet service?  And in at least one case, USCIS has applied the trafficking bar to an individual who maintained video surveillance equipment in a marijuana collective.5

My question is whether the “entrapment by estoppel” defense successfully raised in Keathley could also apply to someone such as an accountant who performed services typical of their profession for a client who happened to be in the marijuana business, and who is then charged by DHS of aiding or assisting in marijuana trafficking.  I’m posing this and all that follows as thoughts for discussion; they certainly are not an authoritative opinion.  I am curious to hear what readers think.

First, in terms of “official authorization,” legalizing states have set up agencies to closely regulate the marijuana industry. In Colorado, even non-employees providing support services that require them to be unescorted in what the state has termed “limited access areas” within marijuana-related businesses must be issued a license by the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division.6  Would the application process and  issuance of such authorization by the relevant state agency be sufficient to trigger an entrapment by estoppel defense?

There is a question of whether a state agency can provide authorization that would carry any weight at federal level.  As noted above, the DMV official in Keathley, although working for the state, had the authority to register individuals to vote in federal as well as state elections; in the view of the Seventh Circuit, that authority carried with it an entitlement to speak to issues of eligibility.

I would here point to an August 29, 2013 memo to all U.S. Attorneys from then Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, titled “Guidance Regarding Marijuana Enforcement.”  Importantly, this memo refers to a “traditional joint federal-state approach to narcotics enforcement,” adding that this approach has been affected by “[t]he enactment of state laws that endeavor to authorize marijuana production, distribution, and possession by establishing a regulatory scheme for these purposes…”

The Cole Memo listed the federal government’s specific enforcement priorities as follows:

  • Preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors;
  • Preventing revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels;
  • Preventing the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states;
  • Preventing state-authorized marijuana activity from being used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs or other illegal activity;
  • Preventing violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana;
  • Preventing drugged driving and the exacerbation of other adverse public health consequences associated with marijuana use;
  • Preventing the growth of marijuana on public lands and the attendant public safety and environmental dangers posed by marijuana production on public lands; and
  • Preventing marijuana possession or use on federal property.

The memo continues by stating that outside of the above-listed priorities, “the federal government has traditionally relied on states and local law enforcement agencies to address marijuana activity through enforcement of their own narcotics laws.”

So if the federal government views state governments as partners in a “traditional” joint approach, in which the federal government limits its own enforcement to the above-listed priorities, and leaves the rest to its enforcement partners at the state level, then could someone authorized by the state to engage in activity of the type that the federal government has announced it was ceding to the state to enforce have a valid argument that state permission covered them at the federal level as well?

It also bears noting that subsequent to the Cole Memo, a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (or “FinCEN” for short) issued guidance “ to clarify Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) expectations for financial institutions seeking to provide services to marijuana-related businesses.”7

It is noteworthy that this federal government guidance does not warn that providing banking or other financial services to MRBs constitutes aiding, assisting, or abetting in the commission of a federal crime.  The guidance does require such institutions to exercise due diligence, and to file suspicious activity reports with FinCEN if it believes activity it observes might violate the federal government’s enforcement priorities.  In doing so, those institutions are actually aiding and assisting the federal government in its enforcement.

So in providing such guidance, is FinCEN “waving through” businesses who provide supporting services to marijuana-related businesses, providing that they adhere to the guidance?  Could the FinCEN guidance be interpreted by non-financial institutions for the premise that it’s OK to provide services to marijuana-related businesses as long as one keeps their eyes open for suspicious activity, and reports all suspect activity to the authorities?

Copyright 2022 Jeffrey S. Chase.  All rights reserved.

Notes:

  1. 696 F.3d 644 (7th Cir. 2012).
  2. Id. at 646.
  3. Id. at 646-47.
  4. Id. at 647.
  5. Voronin v. Garland, No. 2:20-cv-07019-ODW (AGRx) (C.D. Cal. Apr. 20, 2021).  Thanks to Marie Mark at the Immigrant Defense Project for flagging.
  6. 1 Code of Colorado Regulations 212-3 at Section 1-115.
  7. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, “BSA Expectations Regarding Marijuana-Related Businesses,” FIN- 2014-G001, Feb. 14, 2014.

AUGUST 16, 2022

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Jeffrey S. Chase is an immigration lawyer in New York City.  Jeffrey is a former Immigration Judge and Senior Legal Advisor at the Board of Immigration Appeals.  He is the founder of the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges, which was awarded AILA’s 2019 Advocacy Award.  Jeffrey is also a past recipient of AILA’s Pro Bono Award.  He sits on the Board of Directors of the Association of Deportation Defense Attorneys, and Central American Legal Assistance.

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

The DHS position described by Jeffrey appears to fall on a scale somewhere between “bizarre and incredibly stupid!” But, that doesn’t mean immigrants and their lawyers shouldn’t be concerned and prepared to respond! 

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-26-22

🎞🎭 MOVIES/DRAMA: “THE COURTROOM” GOES TO TRIBECA!

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

Hon. “Sir Jeffrey” Chase reports:

I talk all the time about the play “The Courtroom,” for which I served as a consultant, and then actually performed in four times on stage.

The film version (which I am not in) is now an entry in the Tribeca Film Festival, where it can be screened from home over a ten-day window next month.  The “script” is entirely taken from the transcript of the Immigration Court hearing of an actual case, and then from the transcript of that same case as argued before the Seventh Circuit (Keathley v. Holder).

Onstage, several actual judges (present and retired) took turns playing the judge in the naturalization scene at the end.  Two other retired IJs in addition to myself (Betty Lamb and Terry Bain), and one presently sitting IJ (Mimi Tsankov) performed.  But in the film, the actor BD Wong plays Judge Denny Chin of  the Second Circuit Court of Appeals; the real Judge Chin also performed that same role onstage.  We all got to write our own remarks to address the newly naturalized audience.  Judge Chin spoke so poignantly about his own family immigration story, and his remarks appear in the film.

In real life, this was another case in which the IJ and the BIA got it wrong.  I feel this story is a tribute to those Paul has labeled the “New Due Process Army.”  The real life Chicago attorney Richard Hanus had a brilliant legal argument, his very sympathetic client and her US citizen husband maintained faith in both him and in our legal system, and in the end, justice prevailed.

I hope that you will watch the film (Kristin Villanueva, who plays the respondent, was so moving in the role onstage; my wife, no stranger to immigration court, cried the first time she saw it performed), and maybe let others in our community know of it.  Waterwell, the performing arts company responsible for this, is comprised of truly wonderful, talented, and caring people dedicated to creating socially conscious works.

https://www.thecourtroomfilm.com/

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The COURTROOM

Current Page:

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Watch the Film

”the legal thriller is given a bold and innovative twist” 

– Saidah Russell 

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Stream the Film at Tribeca Film Festival June 16 – 26

Tickets are limited. Buy them HERE.

Watch the Film (password required)

CAST & CREDITS

Directed by Lee Sunday Evans

SCREENWRITER: Arian Moayed

CAST: Marsha Stephanie Blake, Michael Braun, Kathleen Chalfant, Hanna Cheek, Michael Chernus, Michael Bryan French, Mick Hilgers, Linda Powell, Kristin Villanueva, BD Wong

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Anne Carey, Ryan Chanatry, Gena Konstantinakos, Lee Sunday Evans, Arian Moayed

PRODUCERS: Damon Owlia, Jonathan Olson

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Rebecca Choi

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Daisy Zhou

EDITOR: Cecilia Delgado

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Emmeline Wilks DuPoise

COSTUME DESIGNER: Junghyun Georgia Lee

COMPOSER: Daniel Kluger

For sales enquiries:  United Talent Agency, Jake Carter + Rachel Viola

For press enquiries: Falco

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

I don’t know whether Waterwell has “academic rates” or “specials” for social justice fundraising. This could be a great teaching tool for clinical and other immigration professors as well as a potential fundraiser for clinics and community nonprofits dedicated to social justice.

Thanks, Jeffrey, for highlighting this great work. And thanks for the “mini-review.”

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-28-22

 

LEE SUNDAY EVANS @ WATERWELL: “The Power of Transcripts”— “It wasn’t hard to recognize the power of each individual story, and the patterns revealed when reading two, three, ten testimonies were a disturbing depiction of how the protections outlined in the Flores Settlement Agreement (FSA) were being violated.”

Lee Sunday Evans
Lee Sunday Evans
Artistic Director
Waterwell
Arian Moayed
Arian Moayed
Actor
Professor Elora Mukherjee
Professor Elora Mukherjee
Columbia Law
Jeffrey S. Chase
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase
Jeffrey S. Chase Blog
Coordinator & Chief Spokesperson, Round Table of Retired Immigration Judges

FYI, an essay by Waterwell Artistic Director Lee Sunday Evans on the company’s immigration law related work.  Best, Jeff

https://howlround.com/power-transcripts

The Power of Transcripts

In July 2019, I sat down with a few people at the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School to discuss the possibility of bringing a performance of The Courtroom: a re-enactment of one woman’s deportation proceedings—a production by the New York City–based theatre company Waterwell, where I’m artistic director—to their campus. Fast forward thirty minutes and Elora Mukherjee—the director of the clinic, an immigration lawyer and professor—had our attention focused in a different direction.

Elora was describing her work as a monitor for the Flores Settlement Agreement—a court settlement that sets the time limit and conditions under which children can be held in immigration detention—over the past twelve years; two weeks earlier, she had provided testimony in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform about the deplorable conditions she and her colleagues had witnessed in two immigration detention facilities in Clint and Ursula, Texas. Then, Elora politely declined to bring The Courtroom to Columbia Law School—at least for the time being—and asked if Waterwell would consider making a new project using first-person testimonies of the children and young parents she had met at the border.

I’ll start at the beginning of our company’s engagement with immigration and then describe The Flores Exhibits—the project Waterwell created in response to this conversation with Elora Mukherjee.

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The Courtroom. Photo by Miguel Amortegui

The Courtroom

In the summer of 2018, Arian Moayed—an actor, writer, director, and co-founder of Waterwell—was watching, along with the rest of the United States, as an increasingly heated debate about immigration enveloped our country. Family separations at the border and the uproar that followed flooded the news, along with stories about how increasingly rapid deportation proceedings were compromising due process. Arian was born in Iran, immigrated here when he was seven years old, and became a citizen when he was twenty-six. The stories of how the United States was treating immigrants hit him personally.

He thought: How can Waterwell respond? What can we do to add something meaningful to this conversation?

Then a new question crystallized in his mind: We hear about them in the media, but what does a deportation proceeding in court actually look like? How do deportation proceedings work?

While reaching out to a handful of immigration lawyers and asking them to share transcripts of deportation proceedings, Arian met Richard Hanus, an immigration lawyer in Chicago, who has been practicing for over twenty-five years. Richard shared transcripts of one case he thought might be of interest, and Arian read it right away. The case was powerful.

The transcripts gave the story a certain kind of objectivity, an unvarnished truthfulness about immigration.

A few months later, I started as the newly appointed artistic director of Waterwell. Arian and I dove into these transcripts, did a rough edit of them, then another, then another, then an intense three-day text workshop with incredible actors, and came out with a script that had a three-act structure, with all the dialogue taken entirely from the court transcripts.

We asked Jeffrey S. Chase, a former immigration judge and widely respected leader in the field, to help us understand legal terms in the transcripts and to advise us on how to make most accurate representation of immigration court. He made a terrific recommendation: Go watch some proceedings.

We met at 26 Federal Plaza, went through the metal detectors, and headed up to the floors where proceedings take place. The courtrooms are small, with drop ceilings. There are no witness boxes and there is often no lawyer representing the immigrant—if you are an immigrant required to appear in immigration court, you don’t have automatic access to legal representation. This was not news to Arian, but for me, as a person born in the United States who had never interacted with the immigration system, I found it surprising and unsettling. Immigrants represent themselves, or pay not-unsubstantial sums to hire a lawyer. Non-profits and law school clinics step in to fill this gap, but they do not—and cannot—reach everyone.

Watching court proceedings—the combination of banal procedural details and life-and-death stakes—fundamentally shaped our thinking. What we witnessed was quiet, tense, tedious, disorienting. We knew that, for our performance, we’d have to risk recreating those very dynamics. It wouldn’t be quite a play but a reenactment. As we created The Courtroom, we focused on the small, regular mistakes shown in the transcripts—awkward phrasing of a thought, the quick mistaken use of a word—embracing them as interesting windows into how people function in court when they are prepared but don’t have a script, and set out to find real courtrooms to perform in. We created the original staging in our most hallowed venue: a grand courtroom on the seventeenth floor of the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, the seat of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Though this prestigious courtroom was very different from small, plain immigration courts, the architecture taught us a lot about how courtrooms work.

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The Courtroom. Photo by Maria Baranova.

The transcripts we used to create the script were from the case of Elizabeth Keathley, an immigrant from the Philippines who came to the United States on a K3 visa after she married her husband, who was a United States citizen. After inadvertently registering to vote at the DMV in Bloomington, Illinois, receiving a voter registration card in the mail, and voting, Elizabeth had to appear in court for deportation hearings. She lost the first case, but her appeal was heard in the Seventh Circuit, where the federal judges ruled in her favor.

The first performances were terrifying. We had no idea if the piece would capture people’s interest and hold their attention. But we put our faith in how this case encapsulated the age-old adage about the personal and the political. Through this story about a married couple in the early stages of building their family, who had made one honest mistake that put the wife in danger of being deported, the audience got to see a portrait of our nation’s legal system that exposed its catastrophic flaws and showed its singular, profound potential.

We were floored by audiences’ responses to the performances and started to understand the real power of the transcripts.

The transcripts gave the story a certain kind of objectivity, an unvarnished truthfulness about immigration—a polarizing issue that seems relentlessly distorted when we encounter it in the media, something that is all the more painful because it is central to our country’s identity. Ali Noorani, director of the National Immigration Forum, put it perfectly in his book, There Goes the Neighborhood: “Immigration gets at the core of who we are, and who we want to be, as a country.”

The Courtroom gave audiences an opportunity to get closer to the immigration legal system’s inner workings. Not to be told what to think, not to be told again how bad things are, but to get closer to something true and real. It was our realization about the power of unaltered transcripts that guided us when we started to think about what to make in response to our conversation with Elora Mukherjee.

The Flores Exhibits

We told Elora we would think deeply about how we could make a meaningful project, and she said she’d send us the testimonies. We took the conversation with her very seriously, feeling a sincere responsibility as artists to take up the need she put before us but having very little idea what we could create in response.

I printed out everything Elora sent me and sat down to read the sixty-nine testimonies. I thought: Again, here is that combination of procedural banality alongside life-and-death stakes. It unnerved me. The project needed to capture that specific disorienting, haunting aspect of the testimonies. It wasn’t hard to recognize the power of each individual story, and the patterns revealed when reading two, three, ten testimonies were a disturbing depiction of how the protections outlined in the Flores Settlement Agreement (FSA) were being violated.

Here’s a quick history of the FSA and why it’s important: In 1985, a fifteen-year-old Salvadoran girl named Jenny Flores was held in substandard conditions in immigration detention for a prolonged period of time. Based on her experience, a number of legal organizations filed a lawsuit against the government, which in 1997 resulted in the Flores Settlement Agreement. This set standards for the treatment of unaccompanied children (anyone under the age of eighteen) while they are in detention, including requiring the government to provide reasonable standards of care as well as safe and sanitary living conditions, and to release minors without any unnecessary delay, setting a cap of twenty days.

It is often impossible for people held in detention to socially distance, and there are many reports that there is no access to soap or sanitizer in numerous facilities.

The sixty-nine testimonies that Elora gave us were exhibits filed by the National Youth Law Center in a temporary restraining order requesting emergency relief for minors held in Customs and Border Patrol facilities; the firsthand accounts demonstrated violations of the Flores Settlement. Wrenching news reports about children being held in detention facilities for extended period of times—sometimes in cages—without access to basic hygiene supplies and adequate nutrition or sleep were based on these lawyers’ experiences and these testimonies.

What could we create to respond? We wanted people to experience the testimonies in full. We wanted people outside of New York City, where we’re based, to hear them. We wanted to involve actors but also all the incredible people we’d met during the process of creating The Courtroom who were not actors: lawyers, former judges, immigrant-rights advocates, immigrants who are not in the arts, and playwrights, designers, and other artists invested in this issue.

We decided not to make a piece of theatre. We decided to make a series of videos.

The testimonies would be read in full, without any textual or cinematic editing. We would ask readers from different sectors of society to participate with the hope that it would demonstrate—in a quiet, un-didactic way—a wide-ranging solidarity and investment in the issue. Each reader would sit at a simple wooden table with a glass of clean water, which is often described in the testimonies as being hard for immigrants to get in detention.

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The Flores Exhibits. Photo courtesy of Andrew Kluger.

We wanted the readers to be good storytellers but I directed them not to take on any “character” they gleaned from the text or embody the experience described by the person who gave the testimony to the lawyers. We said the goal was for people to hear the words as clearly as possible—without emphasis, without dramatization.

To date, we have filmed forty-three out of the sixty-nine testimonies and are working to complete the filming of the remaining ones. This coming fall, we hope to instigate and facilitate live screenings of The Flores Exhibits around the country as a way to bolster support, organizing, and advocacy for the protections outlined in the Flores Settlement Agreement to be upheld and improved.

Taking Action

Right now, there are efforts around the country to decarcerate as many people held in jails, prisons, and detention facilities as possible due to the amplified dangers posed by COVID-19 to anyone in this kind of environment. It is often impossible for people held in detention to socially distance, and there are many reports that there is no access to soap or sanitizer in numerous facilities.

Using excerpts from videos in The Flores Exhibits, we released this ninety-second video connecting firsthand testimonies of people held in detention in June 2019 to the urgent need to get people out of detention during the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you are interested in getting involved, here are a few ways to start:

  • Find out where there are detention facilities near you: local jails and prisons often have contracts with ICE, and there are dedicated ICE facilities, often in rural areas. Once you know where those facilities are in your state, follow them in the news and connect with and support local organizations and elected representatives who advocate for the release of immigrants, proper living conditions, and access to healthcare in detention. (For a full explanation of government agencies involved in immigration detention, watch this video.)

  • Join and amplify the efforts of Detention Watch Network, a coalition of eight hundred organizations around the country to get urgent messages to governors, ICE directors, sheriffs, and other represented officials to release people from detention during COVID-19.

  • Join New Sanctuary’s efforts to advocate to free unaccompanied minors held in immigration detention.

  • Join Freedom for Immigrants to get involved in your area.

  • Read the Southern Border Community Coalition’s New Border Vision so you can be part of their proactive movement to transform culture, values, and policy at our southern border.

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Think about the grotesque perversions of justice going on in the US today! Desperate kids seeking protection and entitled to legal process being illegally held in detention as unlawful punishment and coercion in violation of U.S. Court orders.

Some of the criminals who masterminded and carried out these illegal, unethical, and totally immoral schemes not only remain free but, outrageously, are on our public payroll: Thugs like Stephen Miller, Chad Wolf, Billy Barr, and Ken Cuccinelli. “Cooch Cooch” actually continues to spew his vile propaganda after being held by a Federal Judge to have been illegally appointed.

Another notorious human rights criminal and child abuser, Jeff “Gonzo Apocalypto” Sessions, remains at large and is outrageously running for return to the Senate, a position he already had abused and misused to promote a White Nationalist racist agenda in the past.

Still others like “Big Mac With Lies” and Kirstjen Nielsen are also at large, disingenuously trying to “reinvent” themselves by having the audacity to tout their past criminal activities, public lies, and human rights abuses as “senior executive experience.”

As these transcripts show, it’s a “world turned upside down” under the vile Trump kakistocracy. But, we all have a chance to redeem our nation in November by voting the kakistocracy out and re-establishing honesty, human values, mutual respect, cooperation, our Constitution, and the rule of law as the hallmarks of America.

On the other hand, the despicable performance by those public officials who abandoned their legal and moral obligations to humanity also shines a light on the many unsung heroes of our time: folks like Professor Elora Mukherjee, Lee Sunday Evans, Arian Moayed, Judge Jeffrey Chase, and the many other members of the New Due Process Army throughout the U.S. Unlike many of our public officials, they are standing up for Due Process and the rule of law in the face of seemingly never-ending tyranny, racism, xenophobia, and hate-mongering from the Trump regime.

Due Process Forever! The Regime’s Continuing Child Abuse ☠️☠️ Never! 

PWS

04-26-20

JUST “OFF BROADWAY,” BUT REACHING THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF AMERICA – Waterwell’s “The Courtroom” & “The Flores Exhibits” Paint a Chilling Picture Of Justice That All Americans Should See!  — Retired Immigration Judges & Pro Bono Advocates Join “A-List” Actors In Giving Human Voices To The Dispossessed Struggling For Their Lives In A Badly Broken & Dysfunctional System That All too Often Leaves Humanity Behind As It Mindlessly Grinds Down Lives!

Arian Moayed
Arian Moayed
Actor
Lee Sunday Evans
Lee Sunday Evans
Artistic Director
Waterwell
Jeffrey S. Chase
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase
Jeffrey S. Chase Blog
Hon. Robert D. Weisel
Hon. Robert D. Weisel
Retired U.S. Immigration Judge
Member, Round Table of Retired Immigration Judges
Hon. Elizabeth Lamb
Hon. Elizabeth Lamb
Retired U.S. Immigration Judge
Member, Round Table of Retired Immigration Judges
Elora Mukherjee
Elora Mukherjee
“American Hero”
Clinical Professor of Law & Director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic
Columbia Law School

Here’s a recent anecdote from my good friend, colleague, and leader of our Round Table of Former Immigration Judges,  Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase:

 

More theater news!  On Monday, the director of The Courtroom emailed me in Rome to ask if I would perform at a special performance at the Lucille Lortel Theater in NYC on Wednesday night, in which three Tony winners were making guest appearances.  Curtain was at 7 pm; our flight was scheduled to land at JFK at 4 pm.  Just as we were about to board the flight, a delay was announced due to mechanical problems.  We took off an hour and a half late, and were told we would be further slowed by strong headwinds.  As I was worrying about making it in time, it occurred to me what a charmed life I am living in which worrying whether I will return from a 10-day vacation in Italy in time to act with three Tony Award winners constitutes a problem.

 

Landing at almost 6 pm, we cleared customs and jumped in a taxi; we arrived at the theater about 15 minutes into the play.  I had emailed my daughter in NY asking her to bring one of her fiancé’s ties and a printed copy of my script (since we write out own remarks) to the theater.  I performed my part; my wife and daughter each got to meet their theater idols; and my daughter and I attended the after-party in the West Village.  I had been awake since 1 am NYC time, and got home at 11:30 pm.

 

At the party, I was talking with Arian Moayed (Stewy in “Succession” on HBO) and Kelli O’Hara (Tony Award winner who played the lead on Broadway in both South Pacific and The King and I).  Kelli had played the IJ in Act I, and said that she had been in the audience at one of the very early performances, at which our group’s Betty Lamb had performed.  Both Kelli and Arian said how powerful and impressive Betty’s performance had been!

 

I’m hoping others from this group get the opportunity to perform in the future.  The Chicago IJs in our group probably know the real-life lawyer in the case, Richard Hanus, and you certainly know the real-life IJ, Craig Zerbe.  The ICE attorney was Gregory Guckenberger.  Do the last two realize they are being portrayed by actors of such caliber in a play that made the New York Times Best Theater of 2019 list?

Click on the link below to listen to the 37 minute podcast:

https://broadwaypodcastnetwork.com/the-backdrop/episode-2-waterwells-the-courtroom/

 

  • Episode 2: Waterwell’s THE COURTROOM

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EPISODE 2: WATERWELL’S THE COURTROOM

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Waterwell Theater Company’s latest play, The Courtroom, has no playwright. Or even a theater. But as Waterwell founder (from HBO’s “Succession” and Tony nominee) Arian Moayed and Artistic Director Lee Sunday Evans tell Kevin, that’s the point. They found their inspiration — and their script — in the actual language of a deportation trial. And as immigrant rights advocate/attorney Elora Mukherjee reveals, they also found themselves pulled to ground zero of today’s drama: all the way to the border.

Resources

The Courtroom returns for monthly performances at civic venues in NYC through November 2020. For information and tickets visit https://waterwell.org/.

View The Flores Exhibits at https://flores-exhibits.org/.

For other resources and to get involved, visit https://www.newsanctuarynyc.org/.

Jeffrey S. Chase, a former immigration judge, was the legal advisor for The Courtroom. Read his article “The Immigration Court: Issues and Solutions” here.

Follow guest Arian Moayed on Twitter at @arianmoayed.

Credits

The Backdrop is hosted by Kevin Bleyer and produced by Nella Vera.

The Backdrop artwork is by Philip Romano.

Follow Kevin Bleyer and Nella Vera on Twitter: @kevinbleyer / @spinstripes

 

VISIT THIS PODCAST’S PAGE

ABOUT BPN

© 2019 BROADWAY PODCAST NETWORK. All Rights Reserved. Site by AAC.

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Congrats and thanks to all involved. This should be “required theater” at all Federal Judicial Conferences.

PWS

02-15-20

TIME FOR SOME GOOD NEWS: Waterwell’s Immigration Court Drama “The Courtroom,” Featuring Roles By Some “Judges Of The Roundtable,” Makes NY Times “Best Theater of 2019” List! — “[W]e citizens are on trial, too. What kind of a nation are we? How cruel have we permitted ourselves to be?”

 

Jeffrey S. Chase
Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase
Jeffrey S. Chase Blog

Retired Judge Jeffrey S. Chase, leader of our “Roundtable of Former Immigration Judges” reports:

Waterwell’s wonderful play The Courtroom, in which the script is an actual transcript of an immigration court hearing, and in which three of us (Betty Lamb, Terry Bain, and myself) so far have acted along with stars of Broadway, TV, and film, was named today by the New York Times to its  “Best Theater of 2019” list!

 

Waterwell plans to hold a performance a month through next September or so, so if you are coming to NYC, you can still see it (or maybe act in it!)

 

BTW, the role played by some of us was the judge performing the naturalization ceremony at the end of the play, in which the entire audience stands and takes the oath.  The best anecdote I have heard so far was after a performance at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where a non-citizen audience member asked a member of the Waterwell staff if that was a real judge performing the scene.  When told yes, it was, the audience member replied “Well, then I guess I’m a U.S. citizen now!”

 

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Here’s the link to the NY Times and the summary of “The Courtroom” by Laura Collins-Hughes:

Laura Collins-Hughes
Laura Collins-Hughes
Arts Journalist
NY Times

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/arts/best-broadway-theater-show.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

 

LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES

Political Punches

One of the most heart-gripping shows of the year could hardly be simpler: It’s not even a full production, just a staged reading of trial transcripts.

Michael Braun and Kristin Villanueva in “The Courtroom.”Credit...Maria Baranova
Michael Braun and Kristin Villanueva in “The Courtroom.”Credit…Maria Baranova

In Waterwell’s The Courtroom,” the accused is an immigrant in danger of deportation, her unassuming American life at risk of being torn apart over a mistake she insists was innocent. The sneaky thing about this riveting re-enactment, though, is that in watching it, we citizens are on trial, too. What kind of a nation are we? How cruel have we permitted ourselves to be?

That work, recently returned for monthly site-specific performances around New York, is part of 2019’s thrillingly vital bumper crop of political theater — shows that implicate the audience with bracing artistry.

 

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Some of you have probably heard me say that being an Immigration Judge was “half scholar, half performing artist.”

Congrats to Waterwell and to “Roundtable Drama Stars” Retired Judges Jeffrey S. Chase, Betty Lamb, and Terry Bain, all formerly of the NY Immigration Court. Proud of you guys! There are so many ways in which our Roundtable contributes to the New Due Process Army’s daily battle to restore Due Process and save our democracy, beyond filing amicus briefs throughout the country (which we do almost every week, with lots of pro bono help from our talented friends at many law firms)!

Many of those contributions are through the arts. See Judge Polly Webber and her triptych “Refugee Dilemma” fiber artwork, which has received national acclaim and recognition. https://wp.me/p8eeJm-48d As I said just today in an earlier blog about the disturbingly poor and tone deaf performance by three life-tenured judges of the 11th Circuit, this really is not about different legal views any more. https://wp.me/p8eeJm-4RO

It’s a moral and ethical battle to preserve our democracy and its commitment to humanity from the forces of evil, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, authoritarianism, corruption, and White Nationalism that threaten to destroy it. It so happens that courtrooms are among the most visible battlegrounds. But, it goes far beyond that – to the very fabric of our society and our values — to our very humanity and how we view our fellow human beings.

That’s why complicit judges are so dangerous to the system. As with “Jim Crow,” there is only one “right side of history” here! We deserve better performance from America’s judges, particularly those with Article III protections!

As Laura so cogently said in her review:

[W]e citizens are on trial, too. What kind of a nation are we? How cruel have we permitted ourselves to be?

“The Courtroom” should be required viewing for every judge, law professor, judicial law clerk, law student, legislator, congressional staff member, and immigration bureaucrat in America!

Due Process Forever!

 

PWS

12-04-19

 

 

 

HON. JEFFREY S. CHASE: The Drama Of Immigration Court!

Feb 10 All The World’s A Stage (including the 2d Cir.!)

How did we get here?  How the hell…

Pan left – close on the steeple of the church.”

  • Jonathan Larson, “Halloween,” from Rent

The above lines popped into my head as I sat in an ice-cold dressing room in the basement of Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village just prior to curtain for the final performance of the world premiere run of Waterwell’s play The Courtroom.  I was performing the role of the judge in the final scene who conducts a naturalization ceremony in which the journey of the protagonist, Elizabeth Keathley, through the immigration system ends with her becoming a U.S. citizen.  The castwas comprised of stars of stage and screen, including a Tony Award winner, and a Tony nominee and Obie, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle winner.  “How did I get here?”

The Courtroomis the result of the inspired vision of Waterwell’s co-founder, Arian Moayed, himself a Tony-nominated Broadway actor who currently plays Stewie on the HBO hit Succession.  A civic-minded theater company, Waterwell has staged musicals written during WW II aboard The Intrepid with a cast of actors and veterans, and a bilingual Farsi-English production of Hamlet set in 1918 Tehran.  (Waterwell also runs an incredible educational program with New York City High School students, and its film division produces the Emmy-nominated web series The Accidental Wolf.)

An immigrant himself, Arian was moved by his own family history to respond to the present immigration climate, and took the unorthodox approach of seeking out actual immigration court transcripts to serve as the script.  The production’s wonderful associate producer, Madelyn Murphy, quickly connected with Chicago immigration attorney Richard Hanus. He suggested the case of Elizabeth Keathley, whose path to a green card based on her marriage to a U.S. citizen was put in jeopardy over an innocent mistake regarding voter registration while applying for a driver’s license.   Years later, Elizabeth prevailed on appeal to the 7th Cir. Court of Appeals in Keathley v. Holder, when Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook was persuaded by Hanus’s argument that the criminal common-law defense of entrapment by estoppel should apply in the immigration law context.

The script for the first act of The Courtroomis the verbatim transcript of Ms. Keathley’s immigration court proceedings in 2008.  The script for the second act is the verbatim oral argument before the 7th Cir. and the panel’s written decision.  So instead of a piece written by a playwright seeking to make a statement about our immigration system, one case plucked from that system was allowed to speak for itself.  I had the pleasure of attending the first table read-through at Waterwell’s Manhattan offices. I remember Arian asking “Will this work as drama?” but he had a strong feeling that it would, and his instincts proved right.

What I found compelling about the case was that everyone involved in the immigration court hearing was respectful, professional, and thoughtful.  After witnessing the complete immigration court hearing, the audience does not feel animosity towards the judge or ICE attorney. Nevertheless, the wrong result was reached.  To me, an important theme is that of faith in an imperfect system – and not only the faith of the protagonist and her loving husband who are unexpectedly caught in a system they don’t understand, or of the brilliant lawyer who perseveres knowing that the correctness of his argument is no guarantee of a satisfying outcome.  It also speaks to the faith that our justice system requires from society, a point I touched on in my stage remarks.

Waterwell’s managing director, Adam Frank, came up with the idea for a third act portraying Elizabeth’s naturalization ceremony.  Adam told me the idea was inspired by his hearing Arian speak emotionally about his own naturalization, an experience that native-born Americans never have.  So in the last act, the entire audience is naturalized. The role of the judge in that last scene was played by actual judges. My fellow former immigration judge, Betty Lamb, sitting immigration judge Mimi Tsankov, Magistrate Judge Sanket J. Bulsara of the Eastern District of New York, and myself took turns playing the role.  And each of us were allowed to write our own remarks following the oath. This imbued each performance with a personalized view of the process in the words of actual judges who have performed these ceremonies in real life. My remarks are copied below.

I was first invited to perform at one of the two performances held inside the main courtroom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in lower Manhattan.  (Other performances were held at Fordham Law School, St. Mark’s Church in the East Village, and Judson Church). For the courthouse performances, audience members had to have their names on a list, go through security, and check their cell phones at the door.  I still can’t believe that I was fortunate enough to perform on the stage of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, a once in a lifetime experience. The courtroom held an energy unlike any of the other venues. The setting created the sense of watching an actual hearing in a real courtroom, without the usual sense of separation when sitting in the audience watching a play on a stage.  As one of the actors pointed out, in the courtroom performances, when he read the line “please rise,” the whole audience rose to its feet without hesitation.

Ruthie Ann Miles, Kathleen Chalfant, Happy Anderson, Kristin Villanueva, Linda Powell, Michael Braun, Michael Bryan French, Mick Hilgers, and Hanna Cheek comprised the brilliant cast.  Lee Sunday Evans’ inspired direction had to contend not only with the unorthodox nature of the script, but with the constantly changing layouts and acoustics over the four different venues.  In the hands of these outstanding professionals, it all worked beautifully.

The real-life Keathleys and Richard Hanus traveled to New York and attended two of the performances, sitting in the audience just a few rows behind the actors portraying them.

I was left in awe of the talent and dedication of all involved; it was also without exception the warmest, kindest group of individuals I have ever had the privilege to be involved with.  Thanks to all of them for briefly welcoming me into their world.
Hereis a link to a New York Times’ article about the play.

My remarks from the naturalization ceremony:

“It is my great honor and pleasure to congratulate you all and address you for the first time as fellow citizens of the United States.  Performing these ceremonies is undoubtedly the best part of my job. Judges have a number of powers, but none is greater or more humbling than the act we just performed together.  Just a few minutes ago, you were citizens of many different countries. But by raising your hands and repeating an oath, you all instantly, almost magically, became citizens of the United States.  To fully comprehend the significance of this, think back to the first time you ever heard of this country – maybe from a book or in a movie, or through a family friend or relative who was visiting from America.   Imagine if you were told at that moment that you would be standing here today as an American citizen. Hopefully, that memory will capture the wonder of this great ceremony.

For some of you, the path to U.S. citizenship may have been short and without incident; others might have traveled a longer, more difficult road to arrive here today. Regardless, you should all be congratulated on reaching this most important milestone.  

You should not feel a sense of loss today.  American citizenship does not erase your past; to the contrary, it simply adds a new dimension to who you already are.  We are a country of hyphenated Americans. Whether we are Mexican-American, African-American, Iranian-American, or Filipino-American, we should all wear our heritage as a source of pride, as the culture, thoughts and traditions that we bring to the American experience makes all of us richer.

There are of course responsibilities that come with citizenship.  I’m going to mention two such responsibilities today. First, you have the responsibility to perform jury duty if called upon to do so.  In a democracy, faith in our judicial institutions is paramount. However, our courts will not always reach the right result. But society will abide by judicial outcomes that they disagree with if they believe that the result was reached impartially by people who were genuinely trying to get it right.  Abiding by judicial decisions is a key to democracy. It is what prevents angry mobs from taking justice into their own hands. In the words of Balzac, “to distrust the judiciary marks the beginning of the end of society.” To keep this public trust, we must all try our best every day to get it right. Your participation in this system as part of a jury of one’s peers, and your fairness in trying to reach the correct result under the law is crucial to this process.

The other responsibility I want to mention today is the responsibility to vote.  As a U.S. citizen, your vote counts the same as that of anyone else, no matter how rich or powerful they may be.  You should exercise that right by voting responsibly and often. No election is too small for you to exercise your right to vote.  As Abraham Lincoln famously said in his Gettysburg Address, this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. As of today, you all now share the responsibility for ensuring that those words remain true.

Once again, congratulations!”

Copyright 2019 Jeffrey S. Chase.  All rights reserved.

 

JEFF CHASE

 

Jeffrey S. Chase is an immigration lawyer in New York City.  Jeffrey is a former Immigration Judge, senior legal advisor at the Board of Immigration Appeals, and volunteer staff attorney at Human Rights First.  He is a past recipient of AILA’s annual Pro Bono Award, and previously chaired AILA’s Asylum Reform Task Force.

 

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Thanks, Jeffrey.  I’m speaking with Adam Frank tomorrow about how we might use this production as a teaching vehicle in a number of contexts!

 

I always said that being an immigration was “50% scholar, 50% performing artist.”

 

And, congrats to “Our Gang” member, retired Immigration Judge Betty Lamb on making her stage debut!

Watch the “trailer/teaser” for “The Courtroom” here:

http://waterwell.org/watch-the-courtroom-trailer/

PWS

02-11-19