Trump Administration – Page 54 – immigrationcourtside.com

🏴‍☠️HONDURAS IS A HOTBED OF MISOGYNY, CORRUPTION, & ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS ☠️ COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD — The Trump Regime Fraudulently Designated As A “Safe Third Country” — Persecuted Women Still Struggle To Get Protection In EOIR’s Broken & Biased System!🦹🏿‍♂️

Trump Dumping Asylum Seekers in Hondiras — Dumping Asylum Seekers in Honduras
Artist: Monte Wolverton
Reproduced under license

Woman Tortured — “She struggled madly in the torturing Ray”
Amazing StoriesArtist Unknown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/12/honduras-femicide-keyla-martinez-women-violence?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Nina Lakhani reports for The Guardian:

Keyla Martínez screamed for help from inside the police cell, but no one came to save her.

Martínez, a 26-year-old trainee nurse from La Esperanza, western Honduras, died in police custody last weekend after being detained for breaching a coronavirus curfew.

Police officers initially claimed Martínez had killed herself. But a preliminary autopsy found she had died from “mechanical asphyxiation” and prosecutors announced they were investigating her death as a murder.

How Honduras became one of the most dangerous countries to defend natural resources

She was the latest victim in a relentless wave of misogynistic killings and state-sponsored violence in Honduras – one of the most dangerous and corrupt countries in the Americas. Twenty-nine women have been killed so far this year in Honduras, which has a population of about 9 million – only slightly more than New York City.

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This week, security forces have teargassed protesters demanding truth and justice for the young nurse. Human rights groups are also demanding accountability amid the alarming escalation of deadly violence against women. At least six women have been killed since Martínez died.

“This killing has all the hallmarks of an extrajudicial execution and must be investigated as such,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

“Grave human rights violations such as the killing of Keyla Martínez do not happen in a vacuum. They are the product of rampant impunity and the lack of political will to address the human rights crisis in Honduras. This dire context has produced a relentless and widespread stream of abuses by state security forces.”

Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a woman or girl. It is a deeply machista society where conservative church leaders exert a powerful influence over the personal and political spheres – including women’s access to reproductive healthcare and protection from violence.

Last month, congress voted to amend the constitution to make it virtually impossible to overturn the country’s abortion laws – which are already some of the strictest in Latin America.

In 2009, a coup orchestrated by a network of military, economic, political and religious elites, ushered in an authoritarian government, which remains in power despite multiple allegations of corruption, extrajudicial killings, electoral fraud and ties to international drug trafficking networks.

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Since then emigration has risen dramatically, as hundreds of thousands of men, women and children have fled north looking for safety and jobs. A culture of impunity has also meant that violence against women has only worsened.

In the decade before the coup, 222 women were murdered annually, according to analysis by the Centre for Women’s Studies – Honduras (CEM-H). In the past five years, 381 have been killed on average annually. Ninety-six per cent of the murders remain unsolved.

Honduras lawmakers seek to lock in ban on abortion for ever

“The militarization of the country since the coup has increased the threat to women’s lives, there are guns everywhere and we know the police have links to criminal gangs,” said Suyapa Martínez (no relation to Keyla Martínez) from CEM-H, a feminist organisation based in Tegucigalpa.

. . . .

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

Read the rest of the article at the link.

Refugee women continue to flee Honduras, even though the Trump regime misogynist nativists have skewed asylum law to make it more difficult for them to gain legal protection.

The Biden Administration has directed consideration of gender-based asylum regulations. It’s hardly a new idea — former AG the late Janet Reno ordered development of regulations regularizing the granting of “gender-based” asylum claims two decades ago.

Those efforts were basically sabotaged by DOJ bureaucrats and litigators more interested in narrowing asylum eligibility and making denials easier to defend than they were in protecting women — one of the world’s most persecuted groups by any reasonable accounting.

After years of screwing around, including eight years of inaction during the Obama Administration, super-misogynist and anti-asylum racist Stephen Miller arrived. He perversely came up with absurdly illegal regulations that incredibly purported to bar gender-based asylum claims! Those illegal (not to mention immoral) regulations have been enjoined. Nevertheless, the anti-asylum, anti-woman, anti-Latino attitudes and “judicial” decision-making at EOIR and DHS remain deeply ingrained!

The lesson: Changing policies in the bureaucracy requires something in addition to high level support. It requires bureaucrats who actually believe in the change and are committed to making it happen! That’s why dismantling the Trump immigration kakistocracy and getting better qualified individuals at all levels is so important.

Moreover, for lasting “Miller proof” change: Get it into legislation!

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-13-21

🏴‍☠️TRUMP REGIME LEFT BEHIND AWFUL MESS 🤡 @ EOIR: BACKLOGS GREW EXPONENTIALLY, CASES TOOK LONGER TO COMPLETE, BUT MORE (LESS QUALIFIED) JUDGES WERE ON THE BENCH — Haste Makes Waste Gimmicks Created “Worst Of All Worlds!”

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

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse

Immigrants Facing Deportation Wait Twice as Long in FY 2021 Compared to FY 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The latest available case-by-case Immigrant Court records show that immigration cases that were completed in the first four months of FY 2021 took nearly twice as long from beginning to end as cases completed in the first four months of FY 2020. Cases that were completed between the beginning of October 2020 and the end of January 2021 took, on average, 859 days compared to 436 days over the same period a year before. The duration was calculated as the number of days between the date the Notice to Appear was issued to the date of completion as recorded in the Immigration Court’s records.

The top ten Immigration Courts with the most case completions thus far in FY 2021 accounted for four out of every ten closures (42%). The Miami Immigration Court was the most active with 2,129 case closures. Completion times at the Miami Immigration Court have increased since November 2020, but were slightly lower than the national average at 832 average days. In November, the Miami court took on average 787 days. The Immigration Court in Los Angeles had the second highest number of case completions with 1,857 case closures, followed closely by San Francisco with 1,849. Baltimore and Dallas were in fourth and fifth place.

The longest disposition times were found in the Atlanta Immigration Court where it took on average 1,577 days to close a case. The Cleveland Immigration Court was close behind, taking an average of 1,573 days. The Arlington Immigration Court was in third place with completion times so far in FY 2021 averaging 1,535 days. Newark and Boston Immigration Courts were in fourth and fifth place. Cases completed by immigration judges in Atlanta, Cleveland, Arlington, and Newark all took, on average, longer than four years.

The full report is found at:

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/639/

To examine a variety of Immigration Court data, including asylum data, the backlog, MPP, and more now updated through January 2021, use TRAC’s Immigration Court tools here:

https://trac.syr.edu/imm/tools/

If you want to be sure to receive a notification whenever updated data become available, sign up at:

https://tracfed.syr.edu/cgi-bin/tracuser.pl?pub=1

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David Burnham and Susan B. Long, co-directors

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse

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

Maliciously incompetent management fuels “Aimless Docket Reshuffling!”

It’s what happens when you combine White Nationalism, maliciously incompetent management, bad judging, and endless “enforcement-only” gimmicks that tried to cut corners and short-circuit justice — “Aimless Docket Reshuffling” (“ADR”) to the max. What has been absent from this system for years is leadership that understands immigration, views migrants as humans, and is committed to due process, fundamental fairness, and best practices.

Pretty much what AILA pointed out in today’s report (policy brief).

🎇🧨💣BLOCKBUSTER NEW REPORT MAKES COMPELLING CASE FOR IMMEDIATE END TO EOIR CLOWN SHOW! 🤡🦹🏿‍♂️ — Lays Out Blueprint For Restoring Due Process, Enhancing Justice In America’s Most Dysfunctional, Unfair, and Abusive “Courts!”

The system can’t improve without better personnel — not necessarily more — just better qualified to get the job done in a fair and timely manner consistent with due process and human dignity!

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-12-21

🎇🧨💣BLOCKBUSTER NEW REPORT MAKES COMPELLING CASE FOR IMMEDIATE END TO EOIR CLOWN SHOW! 🤡🦹🏿‍♂️ — Lays Out Blueprint For Restoring Due Process, Enhancing Justice In America’s Most Dysfunctional, Unfair, and Abusive “Courts!”

Four Horsemen — BIA Asylum Panel In Action
Albrecht Dürer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Star Chamber Justice — “Justice”
Star Chamber
Style

New from Kate Voigt @ AILA:

https://www.aila.org/advo-media/aila-policy-briefs/policy-brief-why-president-biden-needs-to-make

Policy Brief: Why President Biden Needs to Make Immediate Changes to Rehabilitate the Immigration Courts

AILA Doc. No. 21021232 | Dated February 12, 2021 | File Size: 864 K

DOWNLOAD THE DOCUMENT

In just four years, President Trump implemented radical changes that fundamentally compromised the integrity of the immigration courts. This policy brief explains the most critical and urgent changes President Biden should make to the immigration court system to ensure fairness and impartiality.

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

Download the complete policy brief at the link.

Thanks, Kate!

Great report!

I hope you have arranged to have a copy of this delivered to Judge Garland, Vanita Gupta, and Lisa Monaco. As you know better than anyone, every day the current BIA remains empowered to grossly distort and intentionally misapply the law and dish out injustice is another day of outrageous abuse for migrants and psychological harm inflicted on their representatives.

It is also essential that the folks in MPP and others applying at our borders are represented and judged according to a properly fair and generous interpretation of our asylum laws (as you point out, no more “99% denial club” assigned to Central American cases). Along with bogus “no show” rates, artificially inflated asylum denial rates have been used as key parts of the false narrative to smear and dehumanize asylum applicants at our Southern Border.

🇺🇸⚖️🗽🧑🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️👩‍⚖️Due Process Forever!

Thanks again for all you and your colleagues do, and best wishes,

PWS

02-12-21

👍🏼🗽⚖️🙂🇺🇸BREAKING: IN A STUNNING REVERSAL, BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WILL BEGIN DISMANTLING “REMAIN IN MEXICO” PROGRAM BY SCREENING & ADMITTING THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN AWAITING ASYLUM HEARINGS! — Processing To Begin On Feb. 19!

Elliott Spagat — Elliot Spagat
Reporter
Associated Press

https://madison.com/news/national/tens-of-thousands-of-asylum-seekers-waiting-in-mexico-to-be-allowed-in-us/article_088fd344-7315-55f4-9ade-ceb555035a79.html?utm_source=BadgerBeat&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Breaking%20News

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday announced plans for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico for their next immigration court hearings to be allowed into the United States while their cases proceed.

The first of an estimated 25,000 asylum-seekers in Mexico with active cases will be allowed in the United States on Feb. 19, authorities said. They plan to start slowly with two border crossings each processing up to 300 people a day and a third crossing taking fewer. Administration officials declined to name them out of fear they may encourage a rush of people to those locations.

See photos from Mexico as the US immigration debate continues in a gallery at the end of this story

The move is a major step toward dismantling one of former President Donald Trump’s most consequential policies to deter asylum-seekers from coming to the U.S. About 70,000 asylum-seekers were enrolled in “Remain in Mexico,” officially called “Migrant Protection Protocols,” since it was introduced in January 2019.

On Biden’s first day in office, the Homeland Security Department suspended the policy for new arrivals. Since then, some asylum-seekers picked up at the border have been released in the U.S. with notices to appear in court.

. . . .

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

Read the complete article and view the photo gallery of the “human side” of “Remain in Mexico” (a/k/a “Let ‘Em Die In Mexico”) at the link.

Earlier this week, Press Secretary Jen Psaki appeared to say it would take weeks if not months for the Administration to develop a plan to dismantle “Remain in Mexico.”

https://immigrationcourtside.com/2021/02/11/%f0%9f%98%a2different-tone-but-the-same-old-song-bottom-line-biden-administration-will-continue-stephen-millers-bogus-border-closing-policy-refugees-told-that-u-s/

These are all individuals who have been previously screened and found to have a “credible fear” of persecution by a USCIS Asylum Officer. Many have been waiting for hearings for more than one year and have had their hearings postponed by EOIR time after time.

Additionally, many of the Immigration Judges assigned to the “Remain in Mexico” Program have notoriously high asylum denial rates, some approaching 100% denials.

I sure hope that the Pro Bono Bar is working with USCIS and EOIR to insure that all of these individuals are represented. As we know, that’s the key not only to insuring court appearances, but also to increasing the chances for success on the asylum application.

https://immigrationcourtside.com/2021/01/29/⚖%EF%B8%8F🗽outing-the-big-nativist-lie-eoir-dhs-claim-that-migrants-dont-show-up-for-hearings-refuted-by-usgs-own-data-professor-ingrid-eagly-steven-s/

Vigorous representation of asylum seekers will also be the key to dismantling the aggressive anti-asylum, anti-due-process “jurisprudence” that the defeated regime attempted to implement at a “weaponized” EOIR. Where necessary, these cases must be litigated to the Courts of Appeals and used as examples of the pressing need for reform of the broken, unfair, and dysfunctional U.S. Immigration Courts.

For now, it remains unclear what will happen to newly arriving asylum applicants. Will they receive the “credible fear” screening to which they are legally entitled? (It appears that some families applying for asylum have been screened and released to await hearings in the U.S.) Or, will they be arbitrarily returned to harm’s way with no process at all, pursuant to Stephen Miller’s bogus “CDC border closing order” that has yet to be repealed?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/11/asylum-seekers-stuck-mexico-are-frustrated-angry-over-family-releases/

Progress! But still lots of confusion at the border as a result of the defeated regime’s extralegal shenanigans!

Still, dismantling the mess Miller left behind shouldn’t be rocket science. Just common sense and using the existing legal tools to solve human problems, rather than intentionally aggravating them. But, it will take different folks (experts) in charge to make it happen!

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-12-21

😢DIFFERENT TONE, BUT THE SAME OLD SONG — BOTTOM LINE: BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WILL CONTINUE STEPHEN MILLER’S BOGUS BORDER CLOSING POLICY — Refugees Told That U.S. Will Continue To Violate Asylum Laws, Due Process “Until Further Notice” ☠️

Death On The Rio Grande — Supremes Sign Death Warrants For Vulnerable Refugees, Trash Refugee Act of 1980

Remain in Mexico — A girl peers out from an encampment at the U.S.-Mexico border where she and several hundred people waited to present themselves to U.S. immigration to seek asylum. / Photo by David Maung

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/biden-turning-away-immigrants-border-policy

by Adolfo Flores and Hamed Aleaziz in BuzzFeed News:

After days of confusion about changes along the southern border, the Biden administration on Wednesday said immigrants should not try to enter the US because most will still be turned away under a Trump-era policy that has recently come under legal scrutiny.

. . . .

Confusion about who was being allowed into the US in recent days forced the administration to issue a stronger warning. Last week, reports of some families being allowed into the US after being apprehended at the border resulted in speculation that immigrants would no longer be immediately expelled and instead be allowed to fight their immigration cases from within the United States. In the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, immigration advocates have reported seeing about 100 people a day released by Customs and Border Protection. In other parts of Texas, shelters have also seen increasing numbers of immigrant families, but it is not clear why.

Attorneys and advocates who work with immigrants along the border have been bombarded with phone calls and texts about whether they should try their luck at getting into the US. Erika Pinheiro, policy and litigation director with the immigrant advocacy group Al Otro Lado, said it was “incredibly disappointing” that the Biden administration has continued to expel immigrants under the CDC order.

“We know now that the CDC order prohibiting asylum processing at the border did not arise from public health concerns but rather was part of Stephen Miller’s efforts to dismantle the US asylum system and was implemented despite opposition from CDC leadership,” Pinheiro said, referring to one of Trump’s former senior advisers. “US expulsions of asylum-seekers, including infants, constitute plain violations of domestic and international laws meant to protect vulnerable refugees. CBP absolutely has the resources to process asylum-seekers in a safe and humane way.”

The turnbacks, known as expulsions, are legally different from deportations, which would mean an immigrant had actually undergone the immigration process and found to not be legally allowed to stay in the US. Critics say the government is using the public health orders as an excuse to turn back immigrants at the border.

. . . .

“While we recognize that the Biden administration has been saddled with a lot of bad policy and structural problems, it cannot continue the Trump administration practice of turning away people in danger based on illegal policies, such as the notorious and pretextual Title 42 policy,” said Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the ACLU.

. . . .

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

Read the full article at the link.

“Go suffer and die somewhere else, out of our sight,” might not be the best message for an Administration trying to re-establish its human rights and humanitarian leadership and credentials. Ever hear of the “St. Louis Incident?” It’s always easy to find a way to “just say no” to refugees — and the consequences are seldom pretty.

Those who won’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. Refugee and forced migration situations happen in the “here and now;” they can’t be “back burnered” — no matter how much policy officials might wish otherwise. In a forced migration situation, “doing nothing” is an action that produces consequences for both the forced migrant and those who ignore their plight.

There are many daily potentially deadly and dehumanizing consequences of continuing to ignore asylum laws and Constitutional due process for asylum seekers at our Southern Border.

One predictable one: Instead of turning themselves in at the border or to the Border Patrol shortly after entry, as had been happening until Miller & co. intervened, those seeking refuge apparently have gotten the message that our legal system is and remains a sham for them. Consequently, increasingly they are simply evading the Border Patrol and disappearing into the interior with no screening whatsoever — health, legal, or background. Also, by intentionally driving people out of the legal system, the Administration is totally blowing a chance to harness and build upon one of the most powerful known facts — represented individuals with asylum hearings scheduled show up for their hearings!

⚖️🗽OUTING THE BIG NATIVIST LIE: EOIR/DHS CLAIM THAT MIGRANTS DON’T SHOW UP FOR HEARINGS REFUTED BY USG’S OWN DATA — Professor Ingrid Eagly & Steven Schafer Analyzed Millions Of Records To Show How False Narratives Drive Draconian Policies — Eagley, Shafer, Reichlin-Melnick, Schmidt Set Record Straight @ Press Conference!

According to an article in today’s Washington Post, the estimated number of so-called “get always” — actually human beings seeking refuge — hit 1,000 on Sunday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/border-arrests-increased-in-january/2021/02/10/8604f714-6bc0-11eb-9f80-3d7646ce1bc0_story.html

Sure, there are many aspects of this problem. But, it has been “out there” for nearly a year!

Sure seems to me that with the right experts in charge, including folks like Lee Gelernt and Erika Pinhero, this issue could and should have been addressed more constructively and with much more urgency by the Biden Administration by now. Why not harness the expertise and proven problem solving abilities of folks like Lee, Erika, and many other members of the New Due Process Army rather than fighting with and resisting them?

Instead, it looks like time and resources will continue to be wasted on forcing policy changes through litigation. Meanwhile, vulnerable asylum seekers and their families will continue to suffer as illustrated by this recent article from HuffPost about the human consequences for those caught up in the Government’s scofflaw border policies.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-trump-migrant-asylum-seekers_n_60219e61c5b6c56a89a39a32

NOTE TO PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SECRETARY JEN PSAKI: Sorry, Jen, but those fleeing for their lives don’t generally respond well to “don’t come right now, we don’t want you” messages, particularly from folks who have never been in that situation themselves. It’s actually pretty insulting to think that folks fleeing to the U.S. 1) aren’t smart enough to know the dangers involved; 2) don’t realize that the the U.S. Government doesn’t want them; and/or 3) have choices about their travel as Jen and her buddies might have when planning a summer vacation.

As one of my esteemed colleagues once told me: “Desperate people do desperate things.” What about people who keep repeating the same policy mistakes over and over while expecting different results and failing to grasp either the absolute urgency or the human side of forced migration issues? It’s sort of like going to the emergency room with a burst appendix and being told, “Why don’t you just sit in the waiting room until we doctors figure out what to do? Get back to you later!”

Somewhere out there, Stephen Miller must be gloating about how he totally outsmarted and outflanked the Biden Team!

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever! Oh, when will they ever learn, when will they learn?

PWS

02-11-21

UPDATE: THE CONTINUING REAL TRAUMA CAUSED BY THE “REMAIN IN MEXICO PROGRAM” (A/K/A “LET ‘EM DIE IN MEXICO”) WHILE THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION “STUDIES” THEIR NEXT MOVE:

Emily Green writes in Vice, as reposted in ImmigrationProf Blog:

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2021/02/the-trauma-of-being-stuck-at-the-us-mexico-border.html

PWS

02-11-21

THE “LUCAS LIST” — No, It’s Not Another “Star Trek” 🚀 🌌Prequel! — But, It Could Be The Key To Saving Our Universe!🌎

Darth Vader — Trump Era Immigration Kakistocrat
Photo: Bennie Thomas, Creative Commons License

Professor Lucas Guttentag has tracked “every known Trump-era immigration policy from January 2017 through the end of the administration.” There are over 1,000! This “easy to use” tool should be a great resource for policy makers, litigators, legislators, journalists, students, historians and teachers looking to grasp and dismantle Trump’s anti-American, anti-humanity immigration initiatives!

Needless to say, there is a whole section for the EOIR Clown Show/Kakistocracy 🤡🦹🏿‍♂️ containing 173 separate entries!

https://immpolicytracking.org/policies/department/department-of-justice/executive-office-for-immigration-review

🇺🇸🗽⚖️Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-10-21

⚒PULVERIZED AGAIN: 4TH CIR. JACKHAMMERS BIA’S LATEST ANTI-ASYLUM, MISOGYNIST 🏴‍☠️ CRUSADE TARGETING REFUGEE WOMEN FROM GUATEMALA — “Excessively narrow view of nexus” — “Record conclusively establishes that the Guatemalan government was unable or unwilling to control Diaz de Gomez’s persecutors!”

Dan Kowalski reports for LexisNexis Immigration Community:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca4-on-guatemala-nexus-argueta-diaz-de-gomez-v-wilkinson

CA4 on Guatemala, Nexus: Argueta Diaz de Gomez v. Wilkinson

Argueta Diaz de Gomez v. Wilkinson

“Diaz de Gomez claims that she received repeated death threats from a gang in Guatemala after she and her family witnessed a mass killing by gang members and refused to acquiesce to the gang’s extortion and other demands. … [W]e reject the Board’s “excessively narrow” view of the nexus requirement, and conclude that Diaz de Gomez established that her familial ties were one central reason for her persecution. … We also hold that the record conclusively establishes that the Guatemalan government was unable or unwilling to control Diaz de Gomez’s persecutors. We therefore grant the petition for review and remand for the Board to reconsider Diaz de Gomez’s claims in light of our holdings.”

[Hats off to Pamela P. Keenan!]

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

So, let’s compare the 4th Circuit’s view with the most recent abomination and intentional misconstruction of the “unable or unwilling to control” doctrine by totally unqualified political hack Jeffrey Rosen, then impersonating the “Acting Attorney General” and issuing clearly unconstitutional “precedents” to implement the defeated regime’s racially biased, misogynistic, anti-asylum agenda.

https://immigrationcourtside.com/category/asylum/failure-of-state-protection/

Absurdly, up until the Biden Administration suspended it this week, Guatemala, of all places, was fraudulently determined by the Trump immigration kakistocracy to be a “safe third country” for asylum seekers. https://www.state.gov/suspending-and-terminating-the-asylum-cooperative-agreements-with-the-governments-el-salvador-guatemala-and-honduras/

Talk about “crimes against humanity!” ☠️🏴‍☠️ Certainly, every current civil servant who supported and advanced this bogus designation should be held accountable.

Kakistocracy Kills: Obviously, with better qualified judges, competent representation, and a fair system operated in accordance with due process and a proper interpretation of asylum laws, many of those now being arbitrarily, capriciously, and unlawfully turned back at our borders would be entitled to our legal protection. This is life or death, not a problem that can “wait till tomorrow” to be addressed! Every day that the patently inadequate “judges” currently on the BIA remain in their positions means more injustice, trauma, and even death for legitimate asylum seekers!

The BIA Clown Show 🤡🦹🏿‍♂️ has got to go!

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-10-21

🗽⚖️STACEY ABRAMS @ WASHPOST: The GOP Is Out To Gut Democracy! — Here’s What It Will Take To Save It! — “No thinking person can deny that the communities of color disproportionately suffering and dying from this pandemic are also the people whose votes — and ability to hold failed leaders accountable — have been continuously suppressed.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/07/stacey-abrams-democracy-test-future/

. . . .

Make no mistake: Democracy may have survived this year, but President Biden and Vice President Harris were elected despite, not thanks to, weakened electoral systems. Together with the Democratic Congress, they now have the opportunity to implement reforms that reaffirm our nation’s promises that our country represents and works for everyone. We as Democrats must act before it is too late.

Our democratic system faces extraordinary threats today because of sustained attacks from Republican leaders who throw up roadblocks to voting and, among the worst actors, stoke the flames of white supremacy and hyper-nationalism to cling to power. There can be no clearer example than the covid-19 pandemic. The deaths of more than 450,000 people in the richest country in the world are symptomatic of a democracy in crisis and a political system that rewards cronyism over competence. Despite strong public support for the Centers for Disease Control’s work, the Affordable Care Act, and other economic justice and safety-net policies that could save lives, millions nevertheless continue to contract the disease without adequate access to health care.

No thinking person can deny that the communities of color disproportionately suffering and dying from this pandemic are also the people whose votes — and ability to hold failed leaders accountable — have been continuously suppressed.

The pandemic has been a collision of tragedy and corroded institutions, and the challenge is in how we respond. We can either engage in collective amnesia about what we have just lived through, and leave an unaccountable government in place, or we can rise to meet this moment by fixing the broken social compact. Defeating Trump was not enough. Meaningful progress on health care, racial justice and the economy requires aggressive action on voting rights, partisan gerrymandering and campaign finance.

One of the first steps must be an overhaul of the Senate filibuster, which has long been wielded as a cudgel against the needs of millions who struggle. Today, the parliamentary trick creates a more sinister threat to our nation: the ability of a minority of senators, who represent 41.5 million fewer people than the Senate majority, to block progress favored by most Americans.

Democrats in Congress must fully embrace their mandate to fast-track democracy reforms that give voters a fair fight, rather than allowing undemocratic systems to be used as tools and excuses to perpetuate that same system. This is a moment of both historic imperative and, with unified Democratic control of the White House and Congress, historic opportunity.

The agenda to restore democracy also includes passing the For the People Act to protect and expand voting rights, fight gerrymandering and reduce the influence of money in politics; the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the full protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act; and the Protecting Our Democracy Act to constrain the corruption of future presidents who deem themselves above the law. These landmark bills have broad-based support, and would have passed long ago were it not for obstructionist leaders who fear losing their own influence if the American people have more power of their own.

. . . .

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

The Trump GOP lies, insurrections, and blatantly false claims attempting to undermine the very clear Biden-Harris victory have been a smokescreen for the real voting problems — the unrelenting efforts of the GOP — “The Party of the New Jim Crow” — to suppress the votes of Americans of color. Read the rest of Abrams’s op-ed at the link.

And, as Abrams cogently points out, one reason for the denial, downplaying, and maliciously incompetent mishandling of the pandemic by the Trump regime was that so many of the victims were among communities of color — those they never cared about and whose humanity they continuously tried to deny and disparage. Death is a great way of disenfranchising minority voters. Not to mention a little fear and intimidation thrown in for a good measure.

There is a very clear connection between the dehumanization of asylum seekers and other migrants and the disenfranchisement of voters of color. It’s all part of “Dred Scottification” — a disgraceful practice sanctioned by none other than the GOP’s Supremes’ majority!

Our future as a nation depends on Judge Garland, Vanita Gupta, and their incoming team at DOJ “connecting the dots” — beginning with dismantling and replacing the White Nationalist nativist kakistocracy at EOIR. Immigrants’ rights are civil rights are human rights! The GOP actually “gets” that (in a purely negative way)! Will the Dems finally show that they do too!

🇺🇸🗽⚖️Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-09-21

⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️👩‍⚖️THE JUDICIARY: Has Justice Kagan Been Reading “Courtside?” (Her Recent Dissent Sounds Like It!) — Plus: The New Face Of A Better Federal Judiciary That Represents American Society Rather Than The Federalist Society?

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/02/covid-elena-kagan-supreme-court-kill.html

From Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom:

I fervently hope that the Court’s intervention will not worsen the Nation’s COVID crisis. But if this decision causes suffering, we will not pay. Our marble halls are now closed to the public, and our life tenure forever insulates us from responsibility for our errors. That would seem good reason to avoid disrupting a State’s pandemic response. But the Court forges ahead regardless, insisting that science-based policy yield to judicial edict.

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

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ketanji-brown-jackson-dc-appeals-court/2021/02/05/543bfeda-67f1-11eb-8468-21bc48f07fe5_story.html

Ruth Marcus writes about U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in WashPost:

. . . .

Still, Jackson, named to the district court by Obama in 2013, brings to the bench an intriguing — and for the Democratic Party’s restless progressives, attractive — piece of career diversity as well: experience as a public defender.

No current Supreme Court justice has the perspective of having been a public defender, representing indigent defendants, although several — Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Sonia Sotomayor and Brett M. Kavanaugh, in his role as associate independent counsel — have prosecutorial experience.

For Jackson, the daughter of two public school teachers (her father later became a lawyer), the criminal justice system has an unusually personal wrinkle as well: Her uncle was convicted of a low-level drug crime when she was a senior in high school, and was sentenced to life in prison under a draconian three-strikes law. (He had been convicted previously of two minor offenses.) He ended up receiving clemency from Obama after serving three decades.

She also brings the real-world perspective of a working mother. In a remarkably candid speech at the University of Georgia in 2017, Jackson described the challenges she encountered juggling private practice at a major law firm, marriage to a surgeon and motherhood to two young daughters.

“I think it is not possible to overstate the degree of difficulty that many young women, and especially new mothers, face in the law firm context,” she observed. “The hours are long; the workflow is unpredictable; you have little control over your time and schedule; and you start to feel as though the demands of the billable hour are constantly in conflict with the needs of your children and your family responsibilities.” How refreshing to hear from a self-confessed non-Superwoman.

. . . .

But a more obscure ruling, involving William Pierce, a deaf D.C. man who was imprisoned for 51 days after a domestic dispute, may offer more insight into Jackson’s belief in law as a mechanism for achieving justice. Corrections officials did nothing to accommodate Pierce’s disability, as the law requires, ignoring his repeated requests for a sign-language interpreter.

Jackson assailed prison officials’ “willful blindness regarding Pierce’s need for accommodation.” She said it was “astonishing” for D.C. to claim that it had done enough, when “prison employees took no steps whatsoever” to figure out how to help him. And she took the unusual step of ruling for Pierce even before trial.

You can learn a lot about a judge by the way she handles the biggest-profile cases, involving those at the highest levels of government. But perhaps the more revealing test is how she applies the law to help those with the least power and the greatest need for justice.

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

Read the full articles at the above links. “Willful blindness” and intentional abuses intended to “dehumanize” are daily occurrences in our warped and broken “immigration justice system” as almost any immigration/human rights/civil rights lawyer could tell you. It just operates below the radar screen, on the border, or in foreign countries (to which vulnerable humans seeking legal refuge are arbitrarily and capriciously “orbited”) where the very human trauma, torture, sickness, desolation, despair, and death are “out of sight, out of mind” to most Federal Judges and Justices.

Yes, eventually journalists and historians will document for posterity the disastrous human rights abuses in which the Federal Judiciary is complicit. But, by then it will be far too late for those who have suffered and died while those in black robes shirked their legal and moral duties!

Judge Jackson understands exactly what’s missing from today’s all too often elitist, non-diverse, non-representative Federal Judiciary (including much of the Immigration Judiciary) who are tone-deaf to, and insulated from, responsibility for the human trauma and injustice caused by their bad decisions.

Additionally, I can assure Justice Kagan that vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers (including children) have died and unnecessarily suffered lifetime trauma from the Supremes’ willful failure to enforce the Constitution against overt Executive tyranny in cases involving the “Remain in Mexico” (“Let ‘Em Die In Mexico”) Program, return of asylum seekers to torture and death with no due process whatsoever, and the “Muslim Ban.”

Indeed, the Supremes’ majority’s abdication of responsibility in the latter case led directly to Trump’s eventual insurrection against the Capitol. He was assured early on by Roberts and others that he was above the Constitution, uncountable, and exempt from normal conventions governing human decency and treatment of the most vulnerable among us in the 21st Century. I/O/W, “Dred Scottification” of the “other” — a 21st Century “Jim Crow Regime” — was A-OK with the GOP Supremes’ majority “forever insulat[ed] . . . from responsibility for [their] errors.”

Today in particular, our nation still struggles with the sense of impunity and unaccountability improperly conferred by a dilatory Supremes’ majority on their party and its leader. Insurrection, violence, attempted overthrow of democracy — it’s all “no problem” to a tone-deaf Supremes’ majority unconcerned with the fate of our democracy.

After all, the Trump’s magamoron rioters weren’t storming their marble halls — just those of the supposedly co-equal branch across the street. But, what might have happened if they had actually stood up against Trump? He might have identified them as “the enemy” and sent his rioters their way! Worth thinking about, Oh Cloistered Ones far removed from the pain and suffering you help cause and countenance!

A better judiciary 🧑🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️👩‍⚖️ for a better America! Bring on the “practical scholars” and those with actual experience representing the mostly vulnerable among us (asylum seekers are a prime example) in court.

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-09-21

THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-08-21 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

COVID-19 & Closures

Note: Policies are rapidly changing, so please verify information with the government and colleagues.

EOIR Status Overview & EOIR Court Status Map/List: Hearings in non-detained cases at courts without an announced date are postponed through, and including, February 19, 2021 (There has been no change in two weeks, but news may still come later today). There is no announced date for reopening NYC non-detained at this time.

USCIS Office Closings, Including Weather

TOP NEWS

Biden issues new immigration orders, while signaling cautious approach

WaPo: President Biden signed executive actions Tuesday ordering the review and potential reversal of the Trump administration’s deterrent policies along the Mexico border and the barriers they created to legal immigration, calling his predecessor’s actions “very counterproductive to our security.” The directives also create an interagency task force to reunite families separated by former president Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” border crackdown.

New Biden rules for ICE point to fewer arrests and deportations, and a more restrained agency

WaPo: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to issue new guidelines to agents this week that could sharply curb arrests and deportations, as the Biden administration attempts to assert more control over an agency afforded wide latitude under President Donald Trump, according to internal memos and emails obtained by The Washington Post.

ICE Won’t Make Immigration Arrests at Coronavirus Vaccination Sites, DHS Says

U.S. News: Neither ICE nor Customs and Border Protection will conduct immigration enforcement actions at vaccination sites and clinics, the agency said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will work to set up fixed facilities, pop-up locations and temporary vaccination sites, including mobile vaccination clinics, DHS said.

Biden Moves To End Trump-Era Asylum Agreements With Central American Countries

NPR: The Biden administration is ending agreements with the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras that the Trump administration said were meant to help drive down the number of migrants seeking asylum at the U.S. border.

Biden signs order to ramp up refugee admissions and plans to allocate 125,000 spots next fiscal year

CBS: In the order, Mr. Biden called for an expansion of the decades-old U.S. refugee program, which was gutted by former President Trump, who frequently portrayed refugees as economic and security risks. After former President Obama set a 110,000-person ceiling before leaving office, Mr. Trump slashed it every fiscal year, allocating a historically low 15,000 spots in 2020.

Mayorkas confirmed as secretary of Homeland Security

Politico: Alejandro Mayorkas was confirmed on Tuesday to serve as secretary of Homeland Security, putting him in charge of carrying out the Biden administration’s immigration agenda and tackling national security concerns.

Bipartisan pair of senators reintroduces immigration reform bill protecting ‘Dreamers’

CNBC: Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Thursday introduced the latest iteration of the Dream Act.

Biden Administration Faces Backlog of 380,000 Waiting to Immigrate

NYT: A State Department official said in federal court last month that, as of Dec. 31, more than 380,000 immigrant visa applicants were awaiting a consular interview. Immigration experts said it would take up to a year under normal circumstances to work through that many applications.

Border Agents In Texas Have Started Releasing Some Immigrant Families After Mexico Refused To Take Them Back

Buzzfeed: Mexico’s foreign ministry said the country continues to accept Central American nationals expelled by US border officers, but that there had been some changes at the local level in the last few days. The department said this was due to the implementation of the child protection law.

Surge of unaccompanied minors at border poses challenge for Biden administration

USA Today: The number of unaccompanied immigrant minors arriving at the U.S. border with Mexico is on a steep rise, posing an early challenge to ambitious plans by President Joe Biden to loosen immigration rules.

ICE Says Bergen County Jail Detention Center Is Overcrowded, But At-Risk Detainees Still Aren’t Getting Released

Gothamist: Immigration and Customs Enforcement says its detention center at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey is about 50% over capacity, raising concerns about the spread of the coronavirus as lawyers continue to struggle to get medically-compromised immigrants out of detention.

Mexican police charged in massacre of Guatemalan migrants near U.S. border

WaPo: Mexican police participated in a massacre last month that left 19 people dead, including at least 13 who appear to have been Guatemalan migrants on their way to the United States, a state prosecutor said late Tuesday.

US motions expand drug claims against Honduras president

ABC: U.S. federal prosecutors have filed motions saying that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández took bribes from drug traffickers and had the country’s armed forces protect a cocaine laboratory and shipments to the United States.

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

Two major Supreme Court immigration cases just went up in smoke

Vox: The Court planned to hear two cases — now known as Mayorkas v. Innovation Law Lab and Biden v. Sierra Club — which questioned the legality of anti-immigration policies put in place during the Trump administration.

But the Biden administration rescinded one of these policies and drastically curtailed the other, and asked the justices to remove arguments in both Innovation Law Lab and Sierra Club from its calendar in light of these policy changes.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court granted those requests.

Ruling in FOIA Lawsuit Is a Victory for Immigrants, Open Government

NYLAG: In a significant victory for open government advocates, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that people can sue to enforce the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requirement that federal agencies post certain documents online so that they are accessible to the public. The decision was issued in New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) v. Board of Immigration Appeals, in which Public Citizen Litigation Group served as lead counsel along with NYLAG as co-counsel.

BIA Reopens Proceedings Sua Sponte Following Reentry on Advance Parole

Unpublished BIA decision reopens proceedings sua sponte for respondent from Haiti to adjust status through U.S. citizen wife following reentry under grant of advance parole. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Pierre, 6/11/20) AILA Doc. No. 21020501

BIA Equitably Tolls MTR Deadline Following Vacatur of Convictions Due to Misconduct in State Drug Lab

Unpublished BIA decision equitably tolls MTR deadline and terminates proceedings against respondent whose convictions where vacated due to misconduct by a chemist working in the state drug lab. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Santiago, 6/10/20) AILA Doc. No. 21020500

BIA Remands to Consider Administrative Closure for Provisional Waiver

Unpublished BIA decision remands for consideration of request for administrative closure in light of intervening decision in Zuniga Romero v. Barr (4th Cir. 2019), to seek provisional unlawful presence waiver. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Ventura Santizo, 6/9/20) AILA Doc. No. 21020402

BIA Rescinds In Absentia Order Entered by Court Different Than That Listed on NTA

Unpublished BIA decision rescinds in absentia order entered by Orlando immigration court where NTA indicated that hearing would be held in Miami. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Marrero Soca, 6/5/20) AILA Doc. No. 21020401

BIA Rescinds In Absentia Order Because NTA Was Sent to Outdated Mailbox

Unpublished BIA decision rescinds in absentia order because NTA was sent to UPS mailbox that respondent was no longer renting. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Kiss, 6/2/20) AILA Doc. No. 21020400

Granados-Benitez v. Wilkinson (1st Cir) (unpublished- Jan. 28, 2021)

ASISTA: The 1st Circuit found that the BIA had abused its discretion in failing to follow Matter of Sanchez-Sosa in adjudicating the U visa petitioner’s Motion to Reopen and ordered remand. Click on the links to access the Amicus Brief and the Decision.

White House Issues Executive Order on Enhancing Refugee Resettlement Programs and Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration

President Biden issued an Executive Order revoking certain past presidential actions on refugee admissions and resettlement; directing government agencies to take steps to improve URSAP; to complete a review of SIV programs; and to submit a report on climate change and its impact on migration. AILA Doc. No. 21020530

White House Issues Executive Order on the Southern Border and the Asylum System

On 2/2/21, the White House issued an executive order to implement a comprehensive three-part plan for safe, lawful, and orderly migration across the southern border, as well as to review the MPP program. The order also directs a series of actions to restore the asylum system. (86 FR 8267, 2/5/21) AILA Doc. No. 21020237

White House Issues Executive Order to Restore Faith in Our Immigration System and Promote Integration of New Americans

On 2/2/21, the White House issued an executive order requiring agencies to conduct a review of recent regulations, policies, and guidance that have set up barriers to our legal immigration system, and ordering immediate review of agency actions on public charge inadmissibility. (86 FR 8277, 2/5/21) AILA Doc. No. 21020235

White House Issues Executive Order on the Establishment of Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families

On 2/2/21, the White House issued an executive order establishing a task force to reunite families that remain separated and also revokes the Trump administration’s executive order that sought to justify separating children from their parents (EO 13841). (86 FR 8273, 2/5/21) AILA Doc. No. 21020236

CBP to Enforce Face Mask Requirement at Ports of Entry

CBP announced that, effective February 2, 2021, it is enforcing the requirement that travelers wear face masks at all air, land, and sea ports of entry. The new requirement applies to all persons older than two years of age, with limited exceptions, and will remain in effect until further notice. AILA Doc. No. 21020432

RESOURCES

AILA: Practice Alert: State of Play Following Presidential Executive Order on Comprehensive Regional Framework and Asylum

AILA: Client Flyer: How Has President Biden Changed Immigration?

AILA: Practice Alert: Form I-485 Rejections for Employment-Based Derivative Applicants

AILA: Practice Pointer: Biden Administration Announces Limited Immediate Change to Public Charge Rules

AILA: Practice Alert: EOIR Final Rule Makes Major Changes to Board of Immigration Appeals Procedures

AILA: Practice Pointer: Suggestions for Navigating the Biometrics Process

AILA: Practice Alert:  ICE Interim Enforcement Priorities

AILA: Practice Alert: Expiring Filing Fee Checks and USCIS Delays in Issuing Receipt Notices

AILA: Practice Alert: Summary of Examples Collected by AILA Regarding USCIS Customer Service

ICYMI: Important Policy & ASISTA Updates

ILRC: Initial Jurisdiction over UC Asylum Claims: Matter of M-A-C-O-, the Lafferty Memo, and JOP v. DHS

OSJI: Providing legal services remotely: a guide to available technologies and best practices

LGBTQ Bond Fund

EVENTS

CUNY Immigration Seminar Series, Spring 2021: Feb 5: Holding Fast, Feb 19: Hyper Education, Mar 5: Citizenship Reimagined, Mar 12: The President and Immigration Law, Mar 26: The Browning of the New South, Apr 9: Reuniting Families, Apr 23: Represented But Unequal, Apr 30: Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era.

2/9/21 Early Immigration Initiatives of the Biden/Harris Administration

2/9/21 U Visa Certifications, T Visa Declarations and NYC Agencies

2/9/21 What Every Lawyer Should Know About U.S. Immigration Law

2/10/21 #EndSIJSBacklog National Strategy Call

2/10/21 Public Charge Emerging Issues

2/10/21 All About DOJ Recognition and Accreditation

2/11/21 Immigration is Local: What States Can Do To Help Immigrants Thrive

2/16/21 DACA: Updates and Changes to the Program

2/17/21 Out of Order and Out of Control – IJ Complaints, Disciplinary Procedures, Ethics, and EOIR Reform

2/17/21 ASISTA: Motions to Reopen in Immigration Court, Part I

2/18/21 Accidental Adjustments: What to Do About Wrongly Issued Residencies

2/22/21 Changes in Naturalization Application and Adjudication

2/25/21-4/8/21 Introduction to Family-Based Immigration Law

3/2/21 SIJS-based Adjustment of Status before EOIR

3/4/21 TPS Updates

3/5/21-3/26/21 Webinar Series: Selected Issues in Inadmissibility

3/10/21 All About DOJ Recognition and Accreditation

3/12/21 Strategies and Tactics for Successful Immigration Appeals

3/16/21 Representing Immigrants in Family Court

3/16/21 Ethical Issues in Crisis Lawyering: Representation and Advocacy Challenges

3/17/21-3/18/21 Legal Remedies for Immigrant Survivors: Introductory Seminar Series – Part II: Preparing The Case

3/17/21 Incorporating Holistic Services in an Immigration Legal Services Program

3/23/21 Complex Naturalization: How to Get Your Clients to Citizenship

3/23/21 Understanding the Conditional Permanent Residence Petition (Form I-751)

3/30/21 Public Charge and the Affidavit of Support

3/30/21-5/14/21 Comprehensive Overview of Immigration Law (COIL)

4/5/21-4/26/21 Webinar Series: Selected Issues in U Nonimmigrant Status

4/15/21 DACA

4/20/21 Hot Topics in Naturalization Adjudications

4/21/21 Working with Domestic Violence Immigrant Survivors: The Intersection of Basic Family Law, Immigration, Benefits, and Housing Issues in California 2021

4/28/21 Community Defense: Legal Service Partnerships with Organizers

5/4/21 Public Charge: Current State of Play

5/6/21 Hot Topics in Asylum Law

5/13/21 Marijuana and Immigrants

5/17/21-5/20/21 CLINIC Convening 2021

5/18/21 Ethics in Representing Family Members in U Visa, U AOS/929, and VAWA Cases

5/26/21 Hot Topics in Removal Defense

6/1/21 VAWA Adjustment of Status Fundamentals

6/9/21 Hot topics: Adjudication and Enforcement Trends

6/10/21 Public Charge and Hot Topics in Consular Processing

6/15/21 U Visa Hot Topics

6/22/21 Defending Immigration Removal Proceedings 2021

6/30/21 Immigration Update – June 2021

ImmProf

Monday, February 8, 2021

The Daily: “Please, Give Me Back My Daughter”

Sunday, February 7, 2021

Belonging Begins With Us

Flee: A Truly Unique Documentary

Biden administration takes steps to dismantle Trump asylum agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras

Saturday, February 6, 2021

Your Playlist: Simon & Garfunkel

Ensuring Public Safety Tops HSI’s Mission at Super Bowl 55

International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, 6 February

Immigration Article of the Day: Hernandez v. Mesa: Questions Answered and Questions Avoided by Andrew Kent

Friday, February 5, 2021

The Urban Institute on Immigrant Children

Change in Mexican Law Affects U.S. Border Policy Towards Asylum Seekers

President Biden Increases Refugee Admissions Numbers

A New Bipartisan DREAM Act Introduced in Congress

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Room to Grow: Setting Immigration Levels in a Changing America

COVID-19’s Disparate Impact on Agricultural and Restaurant Workers

Guest Blog Post: Ediberto Roman, Tired of Waiting: Comprehensive Immigration Reform a Priority

Unclogging the immigration courts

Horrifying Update To Post About Mass Murder of Migrants at Border: Police Were Involved

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

President Biden’s Busy Immigration Day

President Biden re-establishes Task Force on New Americans

Alejandro Mayorkas Confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

Migrants Travel 1,700 Miles To Their Deaths

Granting In-State Tuition to Undocumented Students Increases Their Rates of College Attendance

Summer Fellowships — Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School

President Biden Outlines Steps to Reform Our Immigration System by Keeping Families Together, Addressing the Root Causes of Irregular Migration, and Streamlining the Legal Immigration System

Monday, February 1, 2021

Bhasan Char: Remote Island Now Home to Thousands of Rohingya Refugees

Biden administration asks Supreme Court to delay border wall and Remain in Mexico cases

Welcome February’s Guest Blogger Ediberto Roman!

The Campaign to Blame Immigrants for U.S. Environmental Problems

Job Posting: Clinical Fellow in Catholic Charities Immigration Clinic at Gonzaga

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

Thanks, Elizabeth!

⚖️🗽🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-09-21

🖕ICE CONTINUES TO GIVE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, HUMANITY THE BIG MIDDLE FINGER! — Racism Also On Display As Haitian Kids & Babies Deported To “Burning House!”

https://apple.news/ATjEjX2Z_QnKYbl01eYMHNA

Ed Pilkington reports for The Guardian:

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) deported at least 72 people to Haiti on Monday, including a two-month-old baby and 21 other children, in an apparent flagrant breach of the Biden administration’s orders only to remove suspected terrorists and potentially dangerous convicted felons.

The children were deported to Haiti on Monday on two flights chartered by Ice from Laredo, Texas to the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. The removals sent vulnerable infants back to Haiti as it is being roiled by major political unrest.

New claims of migrant abuse as Ice defies Biden to continue deportations

Read more

Ice is facing a rising chorus of denunciation as a “rogue agency” for its apparent refusal to abide by the new guidelines laid down by Biden and his homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. The incoming administration ordered a 100-day moratorium on all deportations, which was temporarily blocked by a judge in Texas.

However, the judge’s restraining order left in place the new guidelines stipulating that only the most serious immigration cases should be subject to deportation.

Last Friday, the administration appeared to gain the upper hand in its attempt to rein in Ice when deportation flights to Haiti were suspended. But on Monday the immigration agency reasserted itself again with the renewed flights to Port-au-Prince, children and infants on board.

Human rights activists are dismayed by the deportations, which bear a close resemblance to the hardline course set by Donald Trump. “It is unconscionable for us as a country to continue with the same draconian, cruel policies that were pursued by the Trump administration,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the immigration support group the Haitian Bridge Alliance.

She added: “I don’t know what’s going on between Ice and the Biden administration, but we know what needs to be done: the deportations must stop.”

. . . .

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

Read the full article at the the link.

Unfortunately, as I have pointed out, ICE is totally of control. It’s going to take more than policy memos to change that!

PWS

02-08-21

HISTORY: 160 YEARS AGO A GANG OF TRAITORS AND OATH BREAKERS LED AN ARMED INSURRECTION THAT KILLED 620,000 AMERICANS — Then, “Whitewashed” American History Turned Them Into False “Heroes,” While Loyal American Citizens Were Lynched & Systematically Denied Their Constitutional & Human Rights!

Colfax Massacre — Gathering the dead after the Colfax massacre, published in Harper’s Weekly, May 10, 1873

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-southerner-who-abandoned-the-lost-cause/2021/02/04/5d01effc-5031-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

John Reeves reviews Ty Seidule’s “Robert E. Lee & Me” in WashPost:

January 1872, Jubal Early, a former Confederate corps commander, delivered an address at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., to honor Robert E. Lee, who had recently died. Believing that Lee was one of the finest military leaders in history, Early declared, “Our beloved Chief stands, like some lofty column which rears its head among the highest, in grandeur, simple, pure and sublime, needing no borrowed lustre; and he is all our own.” In subsequent years, Early and several elite ex-officers would deify Lee while creating the Lost Cause interpretation of the Civil War. According to that view, the war wasn’t about slavery but rather states’ rights. And the North won only because of its superior resources. An additional tenet is that Lee was the greatest soldier in the war on either side.

At the same time the Lee myth was being created, former rebels began reinforcing white supremacy all across the South. In Walton County, a rural community in Georgia, the Ku Klux Klan terrorized freedmen after the war. In 1871, Jake Daniels, an African American blacksmith from the county, was killed by 20 disguised men after refusing to repair a buggy for a White man, who still owed him money from previous jobs. The Klansmen showed up at Daniels’s door in the middle of the night. Daniels went outside but quickly recognized the danger. He tried to reenter his house but was shot in the back of the head. The men then shot him five or six more times before leaving the scene.

This type of violence was not uncommon in the South in the 19th and 20th centuries. In Georgia alone, 589 people were lynched between 1877 and 1950. As Ty Seidule writes in his powerful new book, “Robert E. Lee and Me,” “If Lee and Confederate worship created one side of the white supremacy coin, violent terror to enforce racial domination provided the other side.”

Seidule tells the story of his transformation from a believer in the Lost Cause to a critic. Growing up in Virginia and Georgia, he worshiped Lee. It was only later, as the head of the history department at the U.S. Military Academy, that he discovered the truth about Confederate myths. Seidule writes: “I grew up with a lie, a series of lies. Now, as a historian and a retired U.S. Army officer, I must do my best to tell the truth about the Civil War, and the best way to do that is to show my own dangerous history.”

Seidule has written a vital account of the destructiveness of the Lost Cause ideology throughout American history. He shows how films, textbooks and memorials promoted white supremacy by glorifying traitors and enslavers like Lee and other Confederate leaders. Perhaps the best attribute of this fine book is the author’s honesty. When talking of his personal metamorphosis, he vows to “quit hiding behind the impartial, know-it-all historian and open up about the southerner, the boy who grew up on Lee idolatry, and the man who wrapped his identity around the heroes of the Confederacy. Be honest. Be vulnerable. Above all, tell the truth.”

. . . .

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

Read the rest of the review at the link.

It’s never too late for the truth.

Lots of White folks still have the audacity to be upset and offended because “their” factionalized account of U.S. history — one that even those of us who grew up in the North were fed to a large extent — is (finally and incrementally) being replaced with a more accurate accounting of the truth, unhappy as facing it sometimes can be.

“Their” myths and false narratives are more important than the many African-American lives and futures snuffed out by racism. Shows that BLM has it right — the myths and fabricated visions of the past so integral to the White self-esteem of many are more important than the lives and futures of African-Americans snuffed out by institutionalized racism, much of it perpetrated by our Government and our legal system.

A frank accounting of our past, the good, the bad, and the ugly, is a necessary step to our moving forward as a nation.

PWS

02-08-21

⚖️🗽PROFESSOR CRISTINA RODRIGUEZ (YALE LAW) & SHAW DRAKE (ACLU) AMONG NDPA HEADLINERS @ 2021 ST. MARY’S LAW IMMIGRATION SYMPOSIUM!

2021 Immigration Symposium

When

Friday, Feb. 26th, 10am-4pm

Where

This is an online event.

More information

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN AT:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2021-immigration-symposium-tickets-140034403671

Our Symposium’s focus will be on the practical aspects of immigration law and the current policy debates surrounding the field. Our goal is to present a compelling CLE program for immigration and non-immigration practitioners alike, as well as to provide an engaging educational experience for current law students. This year’s theme is “The Road to Rehabilitation: Reconnecting with Humanity.”

Attendees will have the opportunity to hear a variety of notable immigration attorneys, leaders, and scholars speak on current issues within the field of immigration law in the United States.

Our event is made possible through the generous sponsorship of Terry Bassham (’85) & Zulema Carrasco Bassham.

This CLE event is pending approval by the State Bar of Texas for 5 CLE credit hours (including 1 hour of ethics).

Registration is now open and available through February 26:

Attorney registration $85
Government employee and non-attorney registration $55
Immigration volunteer registration $25
Student registration $10 (scholarships available for St. Mary’s School of Law students only; please email lawscholar@stmarytx.edu from your St. Mary’s email address telling us why you would like to attend)
St. Mary’s School of Law faculty/staff and Scholar Volume 23 member registration is free
Press/media registration is free

Hosted by The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Race and Social Justice is a student-run law review at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. The goal of The Scholar is to give a voice to the voiceless and the vulnerable in our society. The Scholar publishes three issues per volume on a variety of legal topics through the lens of race and social justice. Additionally, The Scholar hosts an Immigration Symposium annually during the spring semester.

1 Camino Santa Maria, San Antonio, TX 78228, USA lawscholar@stmarytx.edu 210-296-8056 scholarlawreview.org

Background image courtesy of Good Point, goodpointagency.com.

Illustrated by Annelisa Leinbach, annelisaleinbach.com.

Cristina Rodriguez photo by Harold Shapiro.

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Professor Cristina Rodriguez is the co-author (with Professor Adam B. Cox of NYU Law) of the widely acclaimed book The President & Immigration Law. Recently she worked on EOIR issues for the Biden-Harris Transition Team.

Shaw Drake is Staff Attorney & Policy Counsel, Border & Immigrants’ Rights, ACLU of Texas. He was one of my all-star Refugee Law & Policy students @ Georgetown Law and a Charter Member of the New Due Process Army (“NDPA”).

Last year, I was on this outstanding program. It was one of my last “in person” appearances before COVID restrictions set in.

🇺🇸🗽⚖️👍🏼Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-07-21

☠️FONT OF BAD LAW — BIA KEEPS SPEWING OUT ANTI-IMMIGRANT JURISPRUDENCE ON BIDEN’S WATCH, AS ARTICLE IIIs CONTINUE TO HIT “REJECT BUTTON” — Latest Slams Include: Blowing Probable Cause & Misusing FOIA! — “NYLAG Fought The BIA, And The Law Won!”

Dan Kowalski reports from LexisNexis Immigration Community:

8th Cir. Says BIA Blew “Probable Cause” Analysis in “Interpol Red Notice” Case:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/ca8-on-serious-reasons-for-believing—barahona-v-wilkinson

CA8 on “Serious Reasons for Believing” – Barahona v. Wilkinson

Barahona v. Wilkinson

“Willian Rubio Barahona petitions for review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) upholding the denial of his request for asylum and withholding of removal, based on a finding that serious reasons exist to believe Barahona committed a serious nonpolitical crime outside the United States. We hold that the “serious reasons for believing” standard requires a finding of probable cause before an alien can be subject to the mandatory bar set forth in 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(2)(A)(iii), 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3)(B)(iii), and 8 C.F.R. § 1208.16(d)(2). Because no such finding was made below, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.”

[Hats off to Allison Heimes]

2nd Says BIA Played “Hide The Ball” On NY Legal Assistance Group’s FOIA Request:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/LegalNewsRoom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/major-foia-victory-at-ca2-nylag-v-bia

Major FOIA Victory at CA2: NYLAG v. BIA

NYLAG v. BIA

“Plaintiff-Appellant New York Legal Assistance Group (“NYLAG”) seeks access to non-precedential “unpublished opinions” issued by Defendant-Appellee the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) in immigration cases. NYLAG wants to consult the opinions, which are not routinely made available to the public, to aid in its representation of low-income clients in removal and asylum proceedings. NYLAG asserts that the BIA’s failure to make the opinions publicly available violates the agency’s affirmative obligation under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2), to “make available for public inspection in an electronic format final opinions . . . [and] orders, made in the adjudication of cases.” In this action under FOIA’s remedial provision, 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B), which authorizes district courts “to enjoin the agency from withholding agency records and to order the production of any agency records improperly withheld from the complainant,” NYLAG seeks an order requiring the BIA to make available to the public all unpublished opinions issued since November 1, 1996, as well as future unpublished opinions. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Paul A. Crotty, J.) dismissed the case, concluding that FOIA’s remedial provision does not authorize district courts to order agencies to make records publicly available. We conclude that FOIA’s remedial provision authorizes the relief NYLAG seeks. FOIA’s text, read in light of its history and purpose, empowers district courts to order agencies to comply with their affirmative disclosure obligations under 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2), including the obligation to make certain documents publicly available. We therefore VACATE the judgment of the district court and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

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Why would the BIA even want to withhold unpublished decisions or bar someone from asylum based on less than probable cause? Why would anyone want to further impede the already difficult task of representing the most vulnerable in Immigration Court? What if the resources wasted on litigation to diminish due process were “repurposed” to working with NYLAG and other pro bono all-stars to achieve universal representation? Much of what EOIR does these days makes little or no sense unless looked at from a White Nationalist nativist perspective.

When will it end? The Biden Administration proclaimed a “new day” on immigration and human rights issues. But, you sure can’t tell from the junk continuing to come out of the BIA and being defended in court by OIL. No matter how welcome the change in tone from the President is, it requires concerted action and getting better judges, administrators, and litigators in place to actually change policies, produce fairer results, and save lives!

Congrats to Allison Heimes and the good folks at Fair Trials Americas.

Also, congrats to my former Georgetown Law superstar, Arlington Intern, & NY JLC, Elizabeth Gibson (“The Gibson Report”) and her colleagues at the NY Legal Assistance Group!

🇺🇸🗽⚖️Due Process Forever! We need “a little less talk and a lot more action!”

PWS

02-07-21

💸TAXPAYERS’ BILL FOR TRUMP’S ELECTION FRAUD, SHENANIGANS, & FALED INSURRECTION — HALF A BILLION $ & GROWING!

From WashPost:

Trump’s lie that the election was stolen has cost $519 million (and counting) as taxpayers fund enhanced security, legal fees, property repairs and more

By Toluse Olorunnipa and Michelle Ye Hee Lee

Feb. 6, 2021

46

President Donald Trump’s onslaught of falsehoods about the November election misled millions of Americans, undermined faith in the electoral system, sparked a deadly riot — and has now left taxpayers with a large, and growing, bill.

The total so far: $519 million.

The costs have mounted daily as government agencies at all levels have been forced to devote public funds to respond to actions taken by Trump and his supporters, according to a Washington Post review of local, state and federal spending records, as well as interviews with government officials. The expenditures include legal fees prompted by dozens of fruitless lawsuits, enhanced security in response to death threats against poll workers, and costly repairs needed after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. That attack triggered the expensive massing of thousands of National Guard troops on the streets of Washington amid fears of additional extremist violence.

Although more than $480 million of the total is attributable to the military’s estimated expenses for the troop deployment through mid-March, the financial impact of the president’s refusal to concede the election is probably much higher than what has been documented thus far, and the true costs may never be known.

. . . .

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Read the rest of the article at the link.

Bad government doesn’t come cheap! The absurdity of the biggest liar, grifter, fraudster in American Presidential history falsely claiming fraud — and having cowardly dishonest pols like Cruz, Hawley, and McCarthy fan the flames — isn’t lost on the majority of us outside of “magamoron world.”

And remember, the “GOP — Party Of Insurrection, Lies, Conspiracy Theories, Bad Government, & Irresponsibility — still refuses to stand up to this vile traitor and his magamoron supporters!

PWS

02-06-21

Tag: Trump Administration

🏴‍☠️TRUMP REGIME LEFT BEHIND AWFUL MESS 🤡 @ EOIR: BACKLOGS GREW EXPONENTIALLY, CASES TOOK LONGER TO COMPLETE, BUT MORE (LESS QUALIFIED) JUDGES WERE ON THE BENCH — Haste Makes Waste Gimmicks Created “Worst Of All Worlds!”

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

🎇🧨💣BLOCKBUSTER NEW REPORT MAKES COMPELLING CASE FOR IMMEDIATE END TO EOIR CLOWN SHOW! 🤡🦹🏿‍♂️ — Lays Out Blueprint For Restoring Due Process, Enhancing Justice In America’s Most Dysfunctional, Unfair, and Abusive “Courts!”

Policy Brief: Why President Biden Needs to Make Immediate Changes to Rehabilitate the Immigration Courts

🇺🇸⚖️🗽🧑🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️👩‍⚖️Due Process Forever!

👍🏼🗽⚖️🙂🇺🇸BREAKING: IN A STUNNING REVERSAL, BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WILL BEGIN DISMANTLING “REMAIN IN MEXICO” PROGRAM BY SCREENING & ADMITTING THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN AWAITING ASYLUM HEARINGS! — Processing To Begin On Feb. 19!

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

😢DIFFERENT TONE, BUT THE SAME OLD SONG — BOTTOM LINE: BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WILL CONTINUE STEPHEN MILLER’S BOGUS BORDER CLOSING POLICY — Refugees Told That U.S. Will Continue To Violate Asylum Laws, Due Process “Until Further Notice” ☠️

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever! Oh, when will they ever learn, when will they learn?

UPDATE: THE CONTINUING REAL TRAUMA CAUSED BY THE “REMAIN IN MEXICO PROGRAM” (A/K/A “LET ‘EM DIE IN MEXICO”) WHILE THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION “STUDIES” THEIR NEXT MOVE:

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

🇺🇸🗽⚖️Due Process Forever!

⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️👩‍⚖️THE JUDICIARY: Has Justice Kagan Been Reading “Courtside?” (Her Recent Dissent Sounds Like It!) — Plus: The New Face Of A Better Federal Judiciary That Represents American Society Rather Than The Federalist Society?

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

THE GIBSON REPORT — 02-08-21 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group

⚖️🗽🇺🇸Due Process Forever!