🇺🇸ONE FINAL PUSH TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY ⚖️ — GET OUT EVERY SINGLE VOTE FOR JOE, KAMALA, AND ALL DEMS!

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Exclusive

Nov. 2, 2020. As all of us know who have spent our lives working in the fields of immigration and asylum law, there is perhaps nothing so precious to individuals, and perhaps all too rare worldwide, as the right to vote in free and fair elections. Most of us who are not members of minority groups have largely taken that right for granted. But, today in America, the right of universal suffrage has been put in jeopardy by none other than President and his political party.

Behind in the polls and the early voting, and with no ideas for America rather than a continued diet of racism, hate, anti-science, anti-environmentalism, corruption, xenophobia, and final destruction of our democratic norms, Trump and his followers have one final trick up their sleeves. Get a massive turnout on Election Day, declare victory before all the votes are counted, and then throw the final determinations into the GOP-controlled Federal Courts.

The antidote: Get out every last vote in every nook and cranny of America for Biden-Harris and other Dems. A “Blue Wave” on Election Day across the nation, and particularly in “battleground states,” is our best defense against destruction of democracy. Another four years of Trump and the GOP and there will be no democracy left to save!

U.S. JUDGE 👩‍⚖️ ORDERS “REDO” OF REGIME’S BOGUS ASYLUM DENIALS

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-orders-feds-to-reconsider-asylum-denials-in-metering-class-action/&source=gmail-imap&ust=1604942652000000&usg=AOvVaw02aXJvfD-mRNvw1ZPs4dCA

Martin Macias, Jr., reports for Courthouse News:

SAN DIEGO (CN) — A federal judge extended the scope of her preliminary injunction on Trump administration restrictions for immigrants seeking asylum at U.S. ports of entry, saying Friday that officials must reopen asylum claims that were denied before the injunction was issued last year.

On July 16, 2019, the Trump administration implemented the “Asylum Transit Rule” which made immigrants’ asylum claims invalid if they arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border from a country other than their country of origin and failed to apply for asylum there first.

Before the so-called asylum ban went into effect, immigration officials had been metering asylum seekers at the border, placing them on waitlists for claim adjudication or simply turning them away because ports of entry were purportedly full.

Immigrants rights groups sued, claiming both policies were unlawful attempts to stem the flow of immigrants attempting to enter the U.S.

Advocates also requested an injunction, arguing the ban permanently barred people from the asylum process if their 30-day window to file for asylum in Mexico — the country they transited through — had expired and if they were “metered” before July 16.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant sided with advocates and granted an injunction on Nov. 19, 2019.

Bashant said the injunction was not outside the scope of plaintiffs’ initial claims against metering because the Trump administration’s metering policies illegally blocked access to the asylum process.

The injunction barred immigration officials from using the asylum ban to block migrants who were turned back to Mexico under the metering policy.

Bashant also certified a subclass of as many as 26,000 “non-Mexican” asylum seekers who were denied access before the asylum ban went into effect on July 16.

The Trump administration’s appeal of the injunction is still pending before the Ninth Circuit.

. . . .

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

Read the rest of the article at the link.

Not only are the cruel and lawless White Nationalist policies of the regime harming and killing individuals without due process, they also waste lots of taxpayer money with endless unnecessary litigation and many court-ordered “redos!”

Vote ‘em out, vote ‘em out!

PWS

11-02-20

ON THE MOVE: NDPA SUPERSTAR 🌟 LAURA LYNCH TAPPED TO BECOME SENIOR IMMIGRATION POLICY ATTORNEY FOR NATIONAL IMMIGRATION LAW CENTER (“NILC”)

A graduate of the University of Baltimore Law, Laura has been Senior Policy Counsel at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”) National Office in Washington, D.C. for the past four years. In that role, she engaged with Federal agencies, Congress, and designated AILA committees on immigration issues with a focus on interior enforcement, due process, and removal defense. Immigration Court Reform was one of Laura’s key areas of expertise.

Importantly, from my personal standpoint, Laura has been (and will continue to be, I hope), part of the “Informal Strategic Planning Group” for the New Due Process Army (”NDPA”) that includes Dan Kowalski, Michelle Mendez, Debi Sanders, Tess Hellgren, and my Round Table colleagues Judge Jeffrey S. Chase and Judge Ilyce Shugall! Her many contributions to our camaraderie and work in behalf of due process and fundamental fairness have been nothing short of spectacular!

The good news is that, although NILC is headquartered in Los Angeles, Laura will be remaining in Washington, D.C. While she tells me that her “precise portfolio” at NILC is “TBD,” I know we will be hearing much more from our “Due Process Superstar” in the future.

Thanks for all your past contributions and all the best for the future, Laura, from all of your many “admirers and fellow soldiers in the NDPA!”

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-02-20

ROUND TABLE 🛡⚔️ SPEAKS OUT ON ACQUIESCENCE IN 9TH CIR, WITH HELP FROM PROFESSOR KARI HONG🦸‍♀️🌟

Here’s the brief:

Ramos Mendoza Amicus Roundtable 17 71841

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

Thanks, Kari!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-02-20

🇺🇸🇺🇸ELECTION 2020: Work The Phone Banks Today? — Opportunity

🇺🇸

From: Gary Sampliner <gsampliner@gmail.com>

Date: Sun, Nov 1, 2020, 11:03 AM

Subject: Fwd: Something to do on a cold, rainy pre-election Sunday

To: gary sampliner <gsampliner@hotmail.com>

Hi folks — might you have nothing special that you need to do today and be looking to burn off some pre-election nervous energy? Here’s something you might want to consider that I tried last night: make some followup calls to recipients of Reclaim Our Vote postcards, mostly people of color in NC and other battleground states who haven’t voted recently for whatever reason. This is a non-partisan group, but it seems safe to assume that most of the people they reach are in the D column. And you’ll see that many of them (e.g. ex-convicts, confused seniors, people on Indian reservations who don’t know a nearby polling place) can use our help.

Some of you are probably working on other phone banks or text banks with groups you know, but in case you aren’t, I thought these people are particularly good ones to try to reach because they need to be nudged to vote. You’ll see, on the left side of the computer screen when you call them, how many times they’ve voted in the past three elections — and it’s often 0/3. Most people don’t answer, of course, so we leave a lot of voicemails, but a few do, and say they’ll come out.

If you’re free any time from 1:00-11:00 (calling to different time zones) today, you can go to https://www.votinginformation.org/callapalooza and give it a shot — pick the state you’re interested in calling. They’ll also have a Zoom conference that you can link into for a little entertainment and inspiration, and breakout rooms for anyone who needs help in getting linked up with the network or have voter questions that aren’t answered from the online resource guide they give you.

Best — Gary

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

Get put the vote! Thanks to Deb Sanders for sending this along!

PWS

11-01-20

AILA SUIT SEEKS SKINNY ON STAR CHAMBER SCANDAL — Secret “Remote Adjudication Centers” (“The Racks”) 🤮☠️⚰️ Subvert Justice, Abuse Asylum Seekers!

Under watchful eye of regime officials, “Remote Adjudicators” hone skills in using “rack” to deter asylum seekers from seeking justice:

Star Chamber Justice — “Justice”
Star Chamber
Style

FYI – Link to Press Release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 30, 2020
Contact: Maria Frausto, mfrausto@immcouncil.org

Lawsuit Seeks to Uncover Secretive Expansion of Judicial Black Sites for Immigration Cases

WASHINGTON, DC — Immigration groups filed a lawsuit today in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)—which oversees immigration courts—and the General Services Administration (GSA) requesting information on the expansion and creation of immigration adjudication centers, which were established as part of EOIR’s Strategic Caseload Reduction plan designed to accelerate removal proceedings at the expense of due process.

The lawsuit—filed by the American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Chicago AILA Chapter, and the National Immigrant Justice Center— seeks the disclosure of records on the obscure procedural rules for immigration adjudication centers. The centers are a new initiative created under the Trump administration where immigration judges adjudicate immigration cases from around the country in remote-only settings that are closed to the public.

Immigration adjudication centers appear to have been created to address immigration court backlogs, but attorneys and immigrants facing deportation have little instruction on the procedures for appearing before these centers. Immigration lawyers and advocates have expressed concerns after public reports indicate the potential expansion of immigration adjudication centers across the country.

The lawsuit challenges EOIR’s failure to disclose information in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted in March 2020. EOIR and GSA have failed to disclose critical information about what immigration courts presently exist, immigration court expansion, and contracts governing this expansion.

“Immigration lawyers and advocates have an interest in pressing for more transparency in the immigration courts, helping ensure the due process rights of all who appear in court, and providing guidance to the lawyers representing people before these courts,” said Claudia Valenzuela, FOIA senior attorney at the American Immigration Council.

“Transparency is essential to a fair day in court. Unfortunately, the secretive creation and expansion of immigration adjudication centers where immigration judges conduct remote-only proceedings in facilities closed to the public demonstrate how opaque an already complex immigration court system has become at the hands of this administration. While the Department of Justice regulations require immigration hearings to generally be open to the public, this administration has imposed significant new barriers to the public’s ability to observe these proceedings and has led to some hearings being conducted in secret, calling into question whether the fundamental elements of due process are being met. We are proud to stand alongside our partners in this effort,” said Laura Lynch, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“Everyone deserves a fair day in court. The lack of transparency in EOIR operations compromises the integrity of our immigration system and undermines public confidence in this system,” said Nell Barker, chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Chicago Chapter. “The secretive expansion of immigration courts is a blow to due process and adds a layer of unnecessary unpredictability to a system that struggles to inform stakeholders about changing procedures. We are concerned about the increasing inaccessibility of immigration courtrooms to lawyers, clients, and the public.”

“The secretive and inaccessible immigration adjudication centers, where judges determine whether noncitizens will be deported to persecution and torture or permanent family separation, are a disturbing example of the manner in which this administration has developed and expanded numerous policies and procedures intended to expedite the deportation of noncitizens without due process,” said Sarah Thompson, senior litigation attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “EOIR must make public its plan for future adjudication centers and the procedures under which these centers operate.”

A copy of the complaint is here.

###

For more information, contact the American Immigration Council:

Maria Frausto at mfrausto@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7526.

The American Immigration Council works to strengthen America by shaping how America thinks about and acts towards immigrants and immigration and by working toward a more fair and just immigration system that opens its doors to those in need of protection and unleashes the energy and skills that immigrants bring. The Council brings together problem solvers and employs four coordinated approaches to advance change—litigation, research, legislative and administrative advocacy, and communications. Follow the latest Council news and information on ImmigrationImpact.com and Twitter @immcouncil.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members. Follow AILA on Twitter @AILANational.

The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) is a nongovernmental organization dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers through a unique combination of direct services, policy reform, impact litigation and public education. Visit immigrantjustice.org and follow @NIJC.

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

The current system is specifically designed to “break” asylum seekers and their representatives in body and mind.

Will a lawless regime get another four years to finish the job of destroying American democracy and eradicating justice? Or, will there be hope on the horizon for a better future for all Americans!

Vote ‘Em out, vote ‘Em out!

PWS

11-01-20

🇺🇸ELECTION 2020: PROTECT THE VOTE!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information: Megan Matson

415-497-2320 matson@tablerockpartners.com

SeeSay2020.com

REPORT FOR PUBLICATION TO A LIVE, CROWDSOURCED MAP ALL VOTER STORIES OF SUPPRESSION, INTIMIDATION, & BALLOT COUNTING IRREGULARITIES

The Center for Common Ground http://centerforcommonground.org/ together with other supporting organizations launched a program called SeeSay2020.com to promote an honest and fair election in 2020.

Reported incidents are reviewed, approved and mapped. Press, legal teams and the public have open access to the voter stories and data as it is published, and incidents requiring action are escalated out to partner legal and press efforts.

In addition to publishing their stories to the SeeSay2020.com Map, voters are provided with the help hotline where they can call to get free support from the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition at 866-OUR-VOTE or texting OUR VOTE to 97779.

With unprecedented levels of voter suppression, court battles over count deadlines, electioneering at the polls and ballot delay, Center for Common Ground’s live documentation processes making voters’ experience public are vital to fighting for and maintaining democracy.

We urge you to advertise how voters can report voting irregularities as well as sharing those incidents in your reporting. In fact, MSNBC will be hosting seesay2020.com in their war room on election day. We would be happy for you to do the same.

###

Laurie Grossman

(510) 482-1588

lauriegrossman88@gmail.com

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

Thanks to my good friend and fellow Round Table member Judge Carol King and her husband Allan for passing along this critical information!

Get out the vote! Make your vote for democracy count!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-01-20

🎶MUSIC FOR THE TRUMP 🏴‍☠️ ERA: Nancy Sanchez & Demi Lovato Bring Regime’s Unrestrained Cruelty, Corruption, Immorality, Racism, Hate, & Stupidity To Life In Song On You-Tube!

PURE BS 💩 — TRUMP’S “BIG LIE” ABOUT MIGRANT APPEARANCES FOR HEARINGS BOGUS AS $3 BILL 🤮👎🏻— Replacing DHS/EOIR With Rational, Qualified, Fact-Based Governance & Real Judiciary Could Bring Appearance Rate Close To 100%! — Two Items From ImmigrationProf Blog!

Professor Ingrid Eagly
UCLA Law
Blogger, ImmigrationProf Blog
Picture from ImmmigrationProf Blog

First, from ImmmigrationProf Blog:

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2020/10/op-ed-when-trump-says-immigrants-dont-show-up-for-court-hearings-he-couldnt-be-more-wrong.html

ImmigrationProf blogger Ingrid Eagly and Steven Shafer in an op/ed in the Los Angeles Times take on President Trump who “[l]ast week, during the final presidential campaign debate, President Trump renewed a claim he has often made: Migrants with pending court dates rarely show up for their hearings. In response to the charge by his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, that the administration’s treatment of would-be immigrants was inhumane, Trump told debate watchers that the number who`come back’ to immigration court is `less than 1%.’

The government’s data, however, tell a far different story.”

Check out the op/ed and the take down of President.

[Dean] K[evin] J[ohnson]

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

Also from ImmigrationProf Blog:

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2020/10/new-fact-sheet-from-vera-institute-of-justice-on-immigration-court-appearance-rates.html

A new fact sheet by Nina Siulc and Noelle Smart of the Vera Institute of Justice summarizes new evidence showing that most immigrants appear for their immigration court hearings. The report includes data from Vera’s Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Initiative that provides free representation through a universal access model of representation. Vera researchers found that 98 percent of SAFE clients released from custody have continued to appear for their court hearings. Read the full report for additional information on related research, including Vera’s ongoing evaluation of the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP).

I[ngrid] E[agly]

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

Thanks, Ingrid and Steven! Our “Round Table” has used your scholarship in amicus briefs to educate Federal Courts at all levels about the realities of Immigration Court.

It’s particularly critical in an era where the politicized and “ethically challenged” DOJ often puts forth largely fictionalization versions of their self-manufactured “immigration emergency” that is actually little more than the outcome of studied ignorance, White Nationalism, “gonzo” enforcement, and maliciously incompetent administration of the Federal immigration bureaucracy.

And, as I pointed out yesterday, “Gruppenfuhrer Miller” and his gang of neo-Nazi thugs have every intention of “doubling down” on their crimes against humanity and anti-democracy agenda if they retain power after the upcoming election. https://immigrationcourtside.com/2020/10/30/%f0%9f%91%b9%f0%9f%8e%83halloween-horror-%f0%9f%8f%b4%e2%80%8d%e2%98%a0%ef%b8%8f%e2%98%a0%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%a4%ae%e2%9a%b0%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%91%8e%f0%9f%8f%bbreichsreport-gruppenfuhrer-miller-reveals/

Attribution: Stephen Miller Monster by Peter Kuper, PoliticalCartoons.com

If we kick out the kakistocracy next week, we could put qualified “practical scholars” like Ingrid and others like her in charge and remake both DHS and the Immigration Courts to actually operate as required by Due Process while also fulfilling legitimate law-enforcement objectives. To state the obvious, neither of these objectives is being realized at present. It’s bad for America and for humanity.

For far too long, the wrong individuals, lacking the necessary expertise in immigration and human rights, and also lacking a firm commitment to equal justice under law, have been “in charge” of the Government’s immigration policy and legal apparatus and appointed to the Federal Courts, at all levels. That’s particularly true at the Supremes where only Justices Sotomayor and (some days) Kagan appear “up to the job.”

We will never end institutionalized racism, achieve equal justice for all, and realize the true human and economic potential of America until we bring our broken immigration and refugee systems and our failing Federal Judicial System into line with our Constitutional and national values. That process must start, but certainly will not end, with this election!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-31-20

👹🎃HALLOWEEN HORROR 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻REICHSREPORT: GRUPPENFUHRER MILLER REVEALS “REICHSPLAN” FOR EXTERMINATION OF IMMIGRATION, ASYLUM, REFUGE BY EXECUTIVE DECREE! — “The Final Solution??” — Parents, Protect Your Kids, Families, & Your Country From This Grotesque Un-American Monster!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-adviser-stephen-miller-reveals-aggressive-second-term-immigration-agenda-n1245407

Sahil Kapur reports for NBC News:

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump‘s senior adviser Stephen Miller has fleshed out plans to rev up Trump’s restrictive immigration agenda if he wins re-election next week, offering a stark contrast to the platform of Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

In a 30-minute phone interview Thursday with NBC News, Miller outlined four major priorities: limiting asylum grants, punishing and outlawing so-called sanctuary cities, expanding the so-called travel ban with tougher screening for visa applicants and slapping new limits on work visas.

The objective, he said, is “raising and enhancing the standard for entry” to the United States.

Some of the plans would require legislation. Others could be achieved through executive action, which the Trump administration has relied on heavily in the absence of a major immigration bill.

Examining Trump’s immigration campaign promises four years later

AUG. 25, 202005:51Some of the plans would require legislation. Others could be achieved through executive action, which the Trump administration has relied on heavily in the absence of a major immigration bill.

“In many cases, fixing these problems and restoring some semblance of sanity to our immigration programs does involve regulatory reform,” Miller said. “Congress has delegated a lot of authority. … And that underscores the depth of the choice facing the American people.”

Miller, who serves in a dual role as an adviser in the White House and to Trump’s re-election campaign, stressed that he was speaking about second-term priorities only in his capacity as campaign adviser.

Immigration has been overshadowed by surging coronavirus case numbers and an economy shattered by a nearly yearlong pandemic, but it was central to Trump’s rise to power in the Republican Party, and Miller has been a driving force for the administration’s often controversial policies to crack down on illegal migration and erect hurdles for aspiring legal immigrants.

Miller has spearheaded an immigration policy that critics describe as cruel, racist and antithetical to American values as a nation of immigrants. He scoffs at those claims, insisting that his only priority is to protect the safety and wages of Americans.

And he said he intends to stay on to see the agenda through in a second term if Trump is re-elected.

In the near term, Miller wouldn’t commit to lifting the freeze on new green cards and visas that’s set to expire at the end of the year, saying it would be “entirely contingent” on governmental analysis that factors in the state of the job market.

Asked whether he would support reinstating the controversial “zero tolerance” policy that led to families’ being separated, Miller said the Trump administration is “100 percent committed to a policy of family unity,” but he described the policy as one that would keep families together in immigration detention by changing what is known as the Flores settlement agreement.

Over the past year, the administration has sought to amend the Flores agreement, which says children can’t be held over 20 days in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. If it succeeds, immigrant families could be detained indefinitely as they await their day in immigration court.

Keep asylum down

On Trump’s watch, asylum grants have plummeted. Miller wants to keep it that way. He said a second-term Trump administration would seek to expand “burden-sharing” deals with Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that cut off pathways to the U.S. for asylum-seekers.

“The president would like to expand that to include the rest of the world,” Miller said. “And so if you create safe third partners in other continents and other countries and regions, then you have the ability to share the burden of asylum-seekers on a global basis.”

. . . .

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

Read the complete report at the link.

Kids in cages, refugees returned to torture and death, ethnic communities terrorized, lives destroyed, an economy and a society (make no mistake about it, immigrants will be essential to America’s recovery, future prosperity, and competitiveness) in tatters, tens of millions wasted on unnecessary and counterproductive Gulags, walls, and cruel enforcement while the Gruppenfuherer and his fellow human rights criminals remain at large and and an existential threat to our nation and our world!

To state the obvious, this has little or nothing to do with protecting American workers. Trump has shown that he couldn’t care less about the health, safety, and welfare of American workers (or frankly anybody except himself) except at election time. Immigration and immigrants create jobs and economic prosperity for America.

Also, even Miller couldn’t possibly believe that the Democratic House will pass any part of this racist manifesto. Truth is, Trump failed to pass any meaningful immigration legislation in four years, even when the GOP controlled all the political branches! In fact, Miller’s nativist legislative game-plan “poisoned the well” and was soundly defeated in both Houses of Congress! So, he intends to use Executive misrule, bureaucratic corruption, and a fascism-enabling, racially tone-deaf GOP Supremes’ majority to rule without Congress (as has been the case for the last four years.)

But make no mistake: the real “Reichsplan” here is directed at further institutionalizing racism, spreading hate, and targeting Americans of color. That’s what the regime’s “Dred Scottification” is really about. Reducing or eliminating YOUR Constitutional rights! Immigrants are the “usual suspects.” But, by no means will they be the only victims of Gruppenfuhrer Miller’s White Nationalist, racist, hate extravaganza.

As reported at the link above, The Biden-Harris campaign immediately and forcefully condemned the Gruppenfuhrer’s plans for “ethnic cleansing:”

“We are going to win this election so that people like Stephen Miller don’t get the chance to write more xenophobic policies that dishonor our American values,” Molina said. “Unlike Trump, Vice President Biden knows that immigrants make America stronger and helped build this country.”

America is immigration! It’s our past, present, and future! When we deny those truths, we deny ourselves and betray our own humanity!

Get out the vote for Joe, Kamala, and the Dems! Top to bottom of the ballot! Our lives and the future of American Democracy depend on it! Don’t let Gruppenfuhrer Miller and his neo-Nazi agenda, the GOP’s dark vision of the future, destroy our democracy! Vote the party of corruption, hate, and neo-fascism out!

Don’t let the Monster win!👹

Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-30-20

🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️🤮👎🏻THE TRUMP REGIME & A CORRUPT SOLICITOR GENERAL HAVE CONDUCTED A WAR OF ATTRITION AGAINST AMERICAN LAWYERS ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE BATTLE TO SAVE DEMOCRACY — John Roberts & His GOP Buddies On The Supremes Have Aided, Abetted, & Encouraged It! — Constant Improper & Ethically Questionable Interference With Thoughtful, Legally Correct Lower Court Rulings Holding The Regime Accountable Have Demoralized The Profession’s Best & Bravest! — The Answer Is Better Judges For A Better America!

https://prospect.org/justice/loneliness-of-the-immigration-lawyer/

Marcia Brown Reports in American Prospect:

Susan Church, an immigration attorney in Boston, ended the first week of the Trump administration arm in arm with protesters at Logan Airport, resisting an executive order banning travel from several predominantly Muslim countries. But what happened the next day, away from the public chants of “Let them stay!” was more typical of what the life of the former chair of the New England chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) was to become under the Trump administration.

Church and an associate filed an emergency lawsuit to secure the release of immigrants from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody. “I got a federal judge on the phone, you know, on a Saturday night at eight o’clock.” The judge told Church to go to court immediately. An hour later, the attorneys were in court defending their clients.

“For me, that was the canary in the coal mine about what the rest of my four years under the Trump administration was going to be like,” Church said. “It’s just a nonstop series of emergency litigation filed to try to rescue one or 10 or 100 or 1,000 people, depending on which issue it is.” Eventually, the speed of the work, and the physical and mental exhaustion it triggered, landed Church in the hospital. “I thought I was having a heart attack,” she said.

More from Marcia Brown

Church stayed with the fight to reunite parents with their children. She described the process of taking affidavits from clients, which require she learn every harrowing detail of a client’s trauma. In one instance, CBP ripped away one woman’s eight-year-old daughter at the border. “She had to comb her daughter’s hair and change her daughter’s clothes and put her on a bus and say goodbye to her,” Church said through tears. The two were separated for nearly two months, even after the mother was released from detention.

Church was able to reunite her client with her child, but the episode—like many, many other cases—weighs heavy on her shoulders. “I don’t think I’ll ever be quite the same person that I was beforehand,” she said.

Four years into this migration crisis, there’s a parallel migration under way—of immigration lawyers out of the profession. Survey data and interviews the Prospect conducted with more than a dozen lawyers around the country reveal the physical, mental, and financial toll endured by members of the bar. Given the extreme violence, trauma, and inhumanity their clients often endure, immigration attorneys don’t like to talk about how it affects them. But secondary trauma also leaves a mark, making it impossible to continue for some attorneys. Although numerical data is limited, there is evidence that some attorneys are cutting back on some types of cases, such as deportation defense work, or even leaving immigration law altogether. Removal defense casework is one of the most time-intensive, emotional, and exigent parts of lawyers’ loads. It’s also where the administration has aimed much of its cruelest policymaking, severely limiting lawyers’ efficacy.

Under the Trump administration, immigration law has changed not only profoundly, but also so rapidly that it’s hard for immigration attorneys to keep up. Susan Church—and several other attorneys interviewed for this article—described combating Trump’s policies as a game of whack-a-mole.

. . . .

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

Read Marcia’s full article at the link.

Forget all the right wing BS and the “originalist hoax!” This is about “democracy (or the destruction thereof) in action.”

Remember, all of these cosmic “immigration law changes” have taken place without a single piece of major legislation enacted by Congress! Indeed, the Trump regime’s ham-handed attempt to force it’s nativist agenda down the throats of the Congress as part of the “Dreamer fiasco” fell flat on its face in both Houses! But, the Supremes have both encouraged and enabled Trump (actually notorious white supremacist Stephen Miller) to rewrite the law through. “Executive fiat.” Totally inappropriate, not to mention glaringly unconstitutional.

The Supremes’ majority has time and again improperly sided with the unethical, immoral, and Constitutionally bankrupt “Dred Scottification” of migrants, particularly asylum seekers. It’s not much different from what has happened to African Americans, Latinos, and other minorities following the Civil War. But, this is supposed to be the 21st Century where we have put “Jim Crow” behind us. Obviously, we haven’t!

Failing to protect “officers of the court” (lawyers) and their clients from a scheme of abuses heaped upon them by a corrupt, biased, out of control, overtly racist Executive and his sycophants is a gross dereliction of duty by the Supremes. It’s basically like allowing, and even encouraging, the badgering of a witness during trial!

It’s painfully obvious that we have many of the wrong folks on the bench — from the Immigration Courts to the Supremes. Indeed, the nation and the world would be much better served if many more of those courageous lawyers who serve the immigrant community and human rights experts were on the Federal Bench at all levels.

Trump, Roberts, and the GOP judicial misfits have also shown us first-hand the profiles of individuals who should not be serving in judicial positions. Let them litigate their “originalist,” “unitary Executive,” and other “far out” righty philosophies as lawyers appearing before real judges —“practical scholars” who live in the 21st Century and are committed to problem solving rather than problem creating. As Joe Biden has noted, the entire judicial selection system and particularly the Supremes need a thoughtful re-examination and reform.

Never again should we have Justices like Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas performing highly inappropriate and unethical televised “campaign stunts” for an incumbent President during an ongoing election. Geez! What kind of “impartial jurists” are they?

Most first year law students could tell you that’s a “no-go!” Why have we “normalized” and “accepted” such obvious bias, misbehavior, and lack of sound judgment at the highest levels of our (not Trump’s or Mitch’s personal) Judiciary?

It’s not “Rocket Science!” The fundamental building blocks of our society are immigration, human rights, and equal justice! Any lawyer who who doesn’t embody those virtues and doesn’t publicly embrace them should not in the future be given a lifetime appointment as a Federal Judge — at any level!

We need better judges for a better America! We will never achieve constitutionally-required “equal justice for all” for African Americans, Latinos, or anyone else, nor can we reach our diverse nation’s full potential, if we don’t start “pushing back” against Roberts and the GOP’s right wing judicial oligarchy, their obtuse legal gibberish, and their anti-democratic “jurisprudence.”

It starts with voting to take back our country from the far right. But, that’s just the beginning of the changes needed if equal justice for all is to become a reality, rather than an ever unfulfilled promise, limited to certain privileged (predominantly White) groups within our society!

And, all of society owes a debt of gratitude to Ms. Church and other brave lawyers like her who represent the best our country has to offer and have actually suffered for standing up for the rule of law and the legal and human rights of the most vulnerable among us. In other words, standing up for all of our rights against a tyranny!

Compare that with the utterly dismal composition of the “Trump kakistocracy” and its “Dred Scottification” of “the other.”

Due Process Forever!

PWS

1–29-20

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY🏴‍☠️☠️🤮👎🏻: Victims Of Trump, Miller, Sessions Child Abuse May Suffer Lifelong Damage Similar To That Of Holocaust Survivors! — “My mom and I have learned along the way that nothing seems to make it go away. Not her prayers. Not my ‘American Dream’ success. Not any logical explanation of how governments work or don’t work. My mother’s touch will always feel foreign to me.” — PLUS: BREAKING UPDATE: Just Released House Report Documents Regime’s Massive Human Rights Criminal Conspiracy Against CHILDREN!

Sheltering in Cages by John Darkow — “Sheltering in Cages” by John Darkow
Reproduced under license

https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/10/family-separation-effects-holocaust-children-trump.html

Rebecca Onion reports for Slate:

“They are so well taken care of. … They’re in facilities that were so clean,” President Donald Trump said during last week’s presidential debate, of the children his administration ordered separated from their parents at the southern border. As my colleague Jeremy Stahl points out, this isn’t the first time that an administration official has argued that because the separated children—over 500 of whom are still being kept from their parents—have (supposedly!) been physically taken care of, they should be “just fine.” But if the life histories of children forced to be parted from parents for years of their childhoods are any indication, these periods of separation will have long-lasting, devastating, and unpredictable effects.

I’ve been reading historian Rebecca Clifford’s new book, Survivors: Children’s Lives After the Holocaust, which is a painful history of Jewish kids who somehow made it through World War II when they were very small, and had to figure out how to forge a life afterward. Combining analysis of survivors’ testimonies recorded over the years, documents from the archives of organizations that came into contact with these children, and oral histories Clifford herself collected, the book shows how many of these survivors struggled with the act of making sense of their lives—even the lucky ones, who didn’t witness violence, and whose material needs were well met during the period of conflict and persecution. Clifford calls the work “fundamentally a book about the history of living after, and living with, a childhood marked by chaos.”

Survivors is, of course, about a group of children whose lives were marked by the Nazi regime, not about children fleeing violence in Central America, who were then separated from their families by Border Patrol agents. But it’s also fundamentally concerned with the human consequences of children’s separations from parents. In the group of survivors in Clifford’s history, there are kids who were sent to live with host families, who hid them until the war was over; kids incarcerated in different labor camps from their parents; kids who wandered the forests alone, tended only by older siblings.

Asking the historical record, and the grown-up survivors she interviewed, how this period of separation had affected the children’s lives in the long term, Clifford found things that she described as “not only unexpected, but shocking.” One such finding was the fact that for many of the kids, the war years were fine; it was liberation that was traumatic. “Children are adept at treating the exceptional as normal, and because they had no other life to compare it with, the years of persecution did not necessarily feel dangerous, fraught, or chaotic to young survivors,” Clifford writes. But after liberation, as well-meaning adults did everything they could to bring the kids back together with their surviving family members, or to find them places in Jewish homes, many of the separated survivors were profoundly destabilized. “My war began in 1945, not in 1940,” one such survivor said.

The German Jewish parents of Felice Z., who was born in October 1939, put their 1½-year-old daughter in the hands of aid workers in early 1941, and the girl spent the war years hidden by farmers in France. Felice Z. remembered in later interviews that she loved her host parents, and in particular her host mother, Madame Patoux: “All they were interested in was taking care of me. She basically saved my life. She was always ready to run. … I took it for granted that she was my mother, I called her meme (nana) and it was really the first close relationship that I had with another human being. I became very attached to them. Very.” At the end of the war, Felice got no joy out of being reunited with her sister, who had become a stranger. Soon after that reunion, she was removed from the family where she had grown up; as she remembered it, nobody bothered to explain why.

“Family reunions could be among the most difficult and distressing experiences that children went through after the war,” Clifford writes. “The youngest children might have no memory of their parents or relatives at all, and were effectively returned to strangers. … Not one child in this study who was returned to his or her family found this process easy or joyful.” The reunions brought up feelings of anger and terror—even if, as Clifford points out, the kids could rationally understand the reasons their parents had put them in safer places for the duration of the war. They had spent years suppressing childish impulses—“they had had to be obedient, quiet, and good to stay safe during the war, whether they were in hiding, in ghettos or in camps”—and often became explosive and “difficult to manage” after the separation was over.

. . . .

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

Read the rest of Rebecca’s article at the link.

So much wanton cruelty; such gross illegality; so little accountability; such glaring lack of integrity in our justice system! What has our country become? How is this “normal” or within the proper scope of “Executive authority.” What is impeachment for if not for “crimes against humanity?”

Vote ‘Em out, vote ‘Em out! Then start re-examining the failed and continuously failing institutions that couldn’t or wouldn’t effectively stand up to Trump, Miller, Sessions, Barr, Wolf, and the rest of their gang of thugs and scofflaws!

That starts, but by no means ends, with the highly politicized Supremes and their systemic failure to uphold our Constitution, the rule of law, and human dignity against an onslaught of White Nationalist, racist-inspired abuses by Trump, Miller, and their GOP cronies. This is a Court that disgracefully has been more interested in carrying out GOP shenanigans overtly intended to suppress votes, remove minority voting rights guaranteed by statute and Constitution, and throw the election to Trump than it has been in enforcing the Constitution and the rule of law to save the lives of refugees and asylum seekers, including women and children!

Better, more courageous, more humane judges for a better America!

PWS

10-29-20

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

UPDATE: HOUSE REPORT LAYS BARE “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” COMMITTED BY REGIME OFFICIALS!

Here’s the just-released Report (courtesy of Dan Kowalski @ LexisNexis):

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://judiciary.house.gov/uploadedfiles/the_trump_administration_family_separation_policy_trauma_destruction_and_chaos.pdf&source=gmail-imap&ust=1604588017000000&usg=AOvVaw3BTURhXxyazE-2XBhECcwR

Here’s what you really need to know:

VI. Conclusion
While we may never know the full extent of the damage inflicted by the Trump Administration’s family separation policy, it is evident—as a result of this investigation and public reporting—that it was driven by an Administration that was willfully blind to its cruelty and determined to go to unthinkable extremes to deliver on political promises and stop migrants fleeingviolencefromseekingprotectionintheUnitedStates. Asillustratedinthisreport:
• Within weeks of President Trump’s inauguration, the Administration began formulating a plan to separate parents from their children as a means to deter migration.
• Before a formal policy had even been developed, the Administration was accelerating familyseparations. ByMarch2017,thenumberofseparatedchildrentransferredtoORR custody had increased by nearly 900 percent, as compared to November 2016.
• In July 2017, without warning, the Administration implemented a family separation pilot programintheElPasoBorderPatrolSector. Thepilotprogramlastedfivemonthsand resulted in hundreds of additional children being taken from their parents and placed in ORR custody.
• During the pilot program, the Administration discovered that it was unable to track separated family members in a way that would facilitate eventual reunification.
• Knowing this, and without doing anything to address the tracking systems employed by deferral agencies, the Administration chose to expand the policy nationwide in May 2018.
• To make matters worse, the Administration failed to provide advance notice of the policy to front line agents and officers, which caused unnecessary chaos and inconsistent implementation of the policy across border sectors.
121 Dan Diamond, HHS Reviews Refugee Operations as Trump Calls for Border Crackdown, POLITICO (Oct. 23, 2018), https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/23/trump-caravan-border-hhs-873152.
122 Email from Scott Lloyd to Evelyn Stauffer, Press Secretary, Dep’t of Health and Human Services (Nov. 19, 2018), at Appendix AY.
21

• When judicial intervention and political pressure eventually resulted in the end of the policy, the lack of interagency cooperation and preparedness was laid bare by the inability of the Administration to quickly reunite separated parents and children.
As a result of this dark chapter in our nation’s history, hundreds of migrant children may never be reunited with their parents.
Despite considerable stonewalling by Administration officials, Judiciary Committee Members and staff have pushed relentlessly to obtain data and conduct much needed oversight of the agencies responsible for the family separation policy. This report details the Committee’s findings thus far. We remain committed to holding the Trump Administration accountable and continuing to shed light on this dark moment in our country’s history.

As my friend, “Immigration Guru” Ira J. Kurzban would say: “Folks, this is NOT NORMAL!”

As we both say: “This is unacceptable conduct for which there must be accountability if we are to remain a nation under law.”

PWS

10-29-20

🇺🇸⚖️🗽🛡⚔️😎👍ANOTHER NDPA/ROUND TABLE VICTORY OVER DHS/EOIR SCOFFLAWS – 2d Cir. Applies Constitution To Bond Hearings – Says Burden On DHS To Show “Clear & Convincing” Evidence For Imprisonment In Gulag – Velasco Lopez v. Decker

Velasco Lopez v. Decker, 2d Cir., 10-27-20, published

Here’s a link to the opinion:

19-2284_op

Here’s a link to the Round Table’s amicus brief:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16RkOlBfGLEn_RfBEZqQDmhrY7aBhA70P/view

PANEL: PARKER, CHIN, AND CARNEY, Circuit Judges

OPINION BY: BARRINGTON D. PARKER, Circuit Judge

SUMMARY:

The Government appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Carter, J.), granting Carlos Alejandro Velasco Lopez’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Velasco Lopez was detained pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), which provides for discretionary detention of noncitizens during the pendency of removal proceedings. His habeas petition challenged the procedures employed in his bond hearings, which required him to prove, to the satisfaction of an immigration judge, that he is neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk. We hold that the district court correctly granted the petition, and provided the correct remedy by ordering a new bond hearing in which the Government bore the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence that Velasco Lopez was either a danger or a flight risk.

KEY QUOTE:

The irony in this case is that, in the end, all interested parties prevailed. The Government has prevailed because it has no interest in the continued incarceration of an individual who it cannot show to be either a flight risk or a danger to his community. Velasco Lopez has prevailed because he is no longer incarcerated. And the public’s interest in seeing that individuals who need not be jailed are not incarcerated has been vindicated.

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

Judge Parker is correct insofar as he cogently states what should be a “win-win-win” under a functioning Government. I wholeheartedly join lead counsel Julie Dona of the Legal Aid Society, NY, in appreciating and recognizing Judge Parker’s understanding of the grim realities of today’s mal-functioning Immigration Courts and the important Constitutional rights being abridged by DHS & EOIR (essentially one and the same under the Trump kakistocracy).

But, that statement of how Government should be functioning glosses over the unfortunate reality of the Trump regime’s lawless, White Nationalist, nativist immigration agenda. The Trump regime doesn’t seek to create “win-win-win” situations! Instead, they seek to make political statements, dehumanize and degrade “the other,” and promote the biases of their “base” over sound public policy that benefits the common good.

The purpose of imprisonment in the Trump Gulag all too often has little or nothing to do with the legal criteria of danger to the community or flight risk. Rather, detention in the Gulag is used by the Trump regime’s DHS, with the connivence of the DOJ and often the courts, to punish individuals who choose to assert their legal rights; make it more difficult for them to obtain effective representation; and to coerce them into abandoning viable claims for relief, appeals, and judicial review. It’s all about punishment and deterrence, not mainly about the public interest, which is ill-served by most of Trump’s biased and counterproductive immigration policies.

DHS detention in the Trump era primarily serves Trump’s political interests and the interests of those running the for-profit prisons comprising much of Trump’s New American Gulag. Any time Trump’s policies match up with a legitimate national interest, it’s purely happenstance, not part of some overall plan to govern in the public interest.

Think things couldn’t get worse? Notorious White Supremacist “Gruppenfuhrer” Stephen Miller plans to go “full-Nazi” if the Trump regime stays in power, as reported by Amanda Holpuch in The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/28/stephen-miller-trump-second-term-immigration-blitz?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Miller’s plans are so explosively ugly, overtly racist, and anti-American that they are being kept under wraps (for now) because of a (quite legitimate) fear that they could drive the small, yet potentially significant, minority of voters of color that Trump needs to have any chance of extending his rule to do something rational and in their self-interest: Vote for Biden-Harris. Look for things like eliminating birthright citizenship, eradicating all refugee and asylum laws, making it difficult or impossible for family members and people of color to immigrate legally, a wave of summary deportations, deporting “Dreamers,” and exterminating every last ounce of compassion and humanity from our laws. If you think that Black Lives don’t matter much to Trump and his cronies, just wait until he turns the Gruppenfuhrer loose! Think the Federal Courts will stop him? Just look at Trump’s “wholly owned and proud to brag about it” Supremes’ majority! And, he’s also “stacked” — effectively “packed” — the lower Federal Courts with loyalist ideologues.

America can no longer afford life-tenured judges who treat Trump as “normal” and are unwilling or incapable of “connecting the dots” among the dehumanization and demonization of migrants, institutionalized racism, and the end of American democracy. Immigrants’ rights are human rights; human rights are Constitutional rights; dehumanization of “the other” dehumanizes us all!

It’s past time that America stopped granting the privilege and responsibilities of life-tenure to those who won’t publicly adhere to those fundamental truths! Not rocket science! Just basic Constitutional law and human decency! Better judges for a better America! It all starts with a better President and a better Senate! That’s why this election might be our final chance to take back our country and preserve our democracy!

Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-28-20

THE GIBSON REPORT ⚖️🗽🇺🇸— 10-26-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — DHS & EOIR Accelerate Trashing Of Due Process, Human Rights In Desperate Push To Re-Elect Trump! — New Report Debunks, Discredits Trump DHS’s Mythical Claim That “Sanctuary Cities” Promote Crime!

COVID-19

Note: Policies are rapidly changing, so please verify information on the relevant government websites and with colleagues on listservs as best you can.

EOIR Status Overview & EOIR Court Status Map/List: Hearings in non-detained cases at courts without an announced date are postponed through, and including, November 13, 2020. [Note: Despite the standing order about practices upon reopening, an opening date has not been announced for NYC non-detained at this time.]

TOP NEWS

ICE moves to quickly deport more immigrants without court hearings

CBS: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is implementing new rules unveiled in July 2019 that allow agents to expand their use of “expedited removal,” a fast-tracked deportation process created by a 1996 law that bars certain immigrants from seeking relief before an immigration judge.

New Trump Administration Rule Further Restricts Asylum Eligibility

USNWR: Under the regulation, having fake identification documents, including a fake ID, will render an immigrant ineligible for asylum in most cases. Unlawfully receiving public benefits will similarly bar someone from being granted asylum, as will a conviction for drug possession or possession of drug paraphernalia, with the single exception of having 30 grams or less of marijuana. An immigrant with two DUI convictions, or a single DUI conviction that resulted in the harm of another person, will be ineligible for asylum protections. The rule also bars immigrants convicted of domestic violence, stalking, child abuse and similar crimes, no matter the severity, from asylum. It also notably deems ineligible for asylum any immigrant whom an asylum officer “knows or has reason to believe” engaged in acts of battery or extreme cruelty – regardless of if the immigrant was arrested for such a crime.

‘Stunning’ Executive Order Would Politicize Civil Service

Gov Exec: Positions in the new Schedule F would effectively constitute at-will employment, without any of the protections against adverse personnel actions that most federal workers currently enjoy, although individual agencies are tasked with establishing “rules to prohibit the same personnel practices prohibited” by Title 5 of the U.S. Code. The order also instructs the Federal Labor Relations Authority to examine whether Schedule F employees should be removed from their bargaining units, a move that would bar them from being represented by federal employee unions. [It is unclear at this stage how/if this would affect the BIA, IJs, and other immigration officials.]

U.S. weighs labeling leading human rights groups ‘anti-Semitic’

Politico: The Trump administration is considering declaring that several prominent international NGOs — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam — are anti-Semitic and that governments should not support them, two people familiar with the issue said.

Lawyers say they can’t find the parents of 545 migrant children separated by Trump administration

NBC: Lawyers appointed by a federal judge to identify migrant families who were separated by the Trump administration say that they have yet to track down the parents of 545 children and that about two-thirds of those parents were deported to Central America without their children, according to a filing Tuesday from the American Civil Liberties Union.

John Oliver Explains the Three Other Ways Trump Has Been Cruel to Asylum-Seekers

Slate: In the video above, Oliver breaks down three other policies the Trump administration has used to deter asylum-seekers that don’t have the same notoriety that family separation does but are nonetheless important to know about: migrant protection protocols, safe third country agreements, and Title 42.

Inside the Refugee Camp on America’s Doorstep

NYT: The members of this displaced community requested refuge in the United States but were sent back into Mexico, and told to wait. They came there after unique tragedies: violent assaults, oppressive extortions, murdered loved ones. They are bound together by the one thing they share in common — having nowhere else to go.

Senators seek IG probe of border agency’s warrantless use of phone location data

WaPo: When people use any one of a broad assortment of weather, gaming and other apps, their location data is bundled and resold by companies such as Venntel to advertisers, commercial buyers — and, in recent months, federal agencies such as CBP, which have argued the data is a powerful tool for investigating crime.

DHS Arrests International Students, Threatens College Staff for ‘Willful Ignorance’ of Student-Visa Program

Chron Higher Ed: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security today announced the arrest of 15 international students as part of an investigation into fraud in optional practical training, or OPT, the work program for international graduates. Another 1,100 will lose their work authorizations.

Study finds no crime increase in cities that adopted ‘sanctuary’ policies, despite Trump claims

WaPo: Cities that have adopted “sanctuary” policies did not record an increase in crime as a result of their decision to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, according to a new Stanford University report. The findings appear to rebut the Trump administration’s rhetoric about the policies’ dire effects on public safety.

19 women allege medical abuse in Georgia immigration detention

LA Times: The medical experts found an “alarming pattern” in which Amin allegedly subjected the women to unwarranted gynecological surgeries, in most cases performed without consent, according to the five-page report, which was submitted Thursday to members of Congress.

MPP Cases Highest Since Start of Pandemic

TRAC: In September 2020, the Immigration Court recorded 1,133 new MPP cases, up from a low of 136 in May, and the highest since the start of the pandemic in March when 2,282 MPP cases were filed. A total of 24,540 MPP cases are currently pending before the Immigration Court.

The Pandemic and ICE Use of Detainers in FY 2020

TRAC: Average weekday detainer usage, already trending downward this year, began to show some reduction starting in mid-March when it fell below 400 per weekday, and by the first of April had fallen below 300. By the second week of April the daily weekday average fell to around 240. However, after mid-April usage started climbing back up. By the end of the first week in May it was back up to a weekday average of around 300, and by mid-May usage had recovered completely.

#ICEAir #DeathFlights Week of October 19, 2020.

Witness at the Border: We believe #ICEAir ramp up over the last 4 weeks reflects more CDC/Title 42 order expulsions. 27 deportations to 7 different countries in LA & Caribbean (high possibility of deportation to India, not yet confirmed). 106 total flights – 4th week in a row over 100.

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

ICE Implements July 23, 2019, Expedited Removal Designation

ICE announced that due to an order issued by the DC Circuit Court, ICE can now expedite the removal of certain individuals pursuant to the 7/23/19 Designation of Aliens for Expedited Removal. The announcement provides information on which individuals, except for UACs, can now be subjected to ER. AILA Doc. No. 20102230

USCIS and EOIR Final Rule on Bars to Asylum Eligibility

USCIS and EOIR final rule that adds seven additional mandatory bars to eligibility for asylum, among other changes. The final rule is effective 11/20/20. (85 FR 67202, 10/21/20) AILA Doc. No. 20102031

TPS Beneficiaries, Community Group Ask Court to Halt Unlawful Ken Cuccinelli Policy That Obstructs Path to Obtain Green Card

CLINIC: even Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries — who live in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and Miami, Florida — and the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in their suit against the Trump administration for unlawfully blocking TPS beneficiaries’ path to permanent U.S. residence.

Canadian Judge May Extend Contested Asylum Deal With US

Law 360: A Canadian appellate judge indicated at a Friday hearing that he may delay the effect of a lower court ruling striking down the country’s asylum-sharing agreement with the U.S. while the government appeals, but stressed he had a “difficult decision to make.”

RESOURCES

NYCBA: Report on the Independence of the Immigration Courts

NYSBA: New Ethics Opinion: COVID-19 and Client Representation

UnLocal: Bilingual Expedicted Removal Fact Sheets

ARC: Comparative Analysis of U.S Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (2016-2019)

CLINIC: Department of State Shifts Human Rights Reports Comparison Charts

CLINIC: Fact Sheet: Immigration Court Considerations for Unaccompanied Children Who File for Asylum with USCIS While in Removal Proceedings

CLINIC: Practice Advisory: Adjustment Options for TPS Beneficiaries

CLINIC: The Unlawful Presence Bars: Do They Continue to Run After Reentry to the United States?

CLINIC: DVP Updated DACA Resources

ILRC: 100+ Policy Changes that Have Devastated Immigrants and Asylum Seekers

ILRC: National Map of 287(g) Agreements

ILRC: The Asylum Transit Ban after CAIR Coalition v. Trump: Obtaining Relief in Asylum Transit Ban Cases

ILRC & ASISTA: In Harm’s Way: The Impact of President Trump’s Actions on Immigrant Survivors of Gender-based Violence

AILA: Client Flyer: Competing Perspectives: The Potential Impact of the 2020 Presidential Election on Immigration

AILA: Practice Advisory: Telephonic Appearance of Attorneys at USCIS Interviews

AILA Featured Issue: USCIS’s Blank Space Policy

AILA: Asylum Cases on Standard of Review

AILA: Asylum Cases on Social Group

AILA: Asylum Cases on Political Opinion

AILA: Asylum Cases on Serious Nonpolitical Crime

AILA: Asylum Cases on Miscellaneous

AILA: Asylum Cases on Material Support Bar

AILA: Asylum Cases on Deferral of Removal Under CAT

AILA: Practice Alert: USCIS Increased Premium Processing Fees Effective October 19, 2020

AILA Bite-Sized Ethics: Withdrawing When a Client Goes MIA

EVENTS

10/27/20 Seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status in Removal Proceedings

10/27/20 Immigration, COVID-19, and the 2020 Election

10/28/20 Advanced U Visa Hot Topics

10/28/20 The Ecology of State-Building: Moving Capitals in Indonesia

10/28/20 Roundtable: Navigating Detention Conditions

10/29/20-10/30/20 2020 Crimes & Immigration Seminar

10/29/20 Presenting the Case

10/29/20 Marijuana: Bridging the Divide Between State and Federal Law

11/4/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

11/5/20 Introduction to Asylum Law w/ I-ARC

11/9/20 Asylum Based on Fear of Gangs w/ CALA

11/9/20, 11/12/20 Intimate Partner Violence 101

11/10/20 Practicing in Video Teleconference Courts

11/10/20 Pursuing Immigration Pro Bono Opportunities in Private Practice

11/10/20 CMS 2020 Academic and Policy Symposium

11/11/20 Climate Change and Oceanic Migrations

11/12/20 Defying Non-Reviewability: How to Proceed After a Consular Denial

11/12/20-11/13/20 Public Charge Training of Trainers

11/17/20, 11/19/20 Trauma Informed Interviewing

11/17/20 Make the Government Pay! Attorney fees in Immigration

11/17/20 Employment-Based Immigration Opportunities for Immigrant Youth

11/18/20 Gender-Based Asylum w/ CGRS

11/18/20 Applying for Asylum and Related Relief for Clients with Convictions

11/24/20 VAWA Self-Petitioning Fundamentals

11/30/20 Perfecting a Winning Strategy for Asylum Applications

12/2/20 Migration, Climate Change, and Human Adaptation

12/2/20 An Overview of Naturalization

12/2/20-12/3/20 Legal Remedies for Immigrant Survivors: Introductory Seminar Series

12/3/20 Representing Permanent Residents in LPR Cancellation Cases

12/3/20 2020 AILA Crimes and Immigration Virtual Conference

12/3/20-12/4/20 53rd Annual Immigration and Naturalization Institute

12/8/20 Litigating Your Way Out of Delay

12/9/20 Public Charge in Consular Processing

12/15/20 Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude

12/16/20 LPRs and Public Charge

12/16/20 Program Strategies for Removal Defense Practice

2/4/21 Basic Immigration Law 2021: Business, Family, Naturalization and Related Areas

2/5/21 Asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Crime Victim, and Other Immigration Relief 2021

ImmProf

Monday, October 26, 2020

Severed families, raided workplaces and a climate of fear: Assessing Trump’s immigration crackdown

John Oliver: Asylum

Guest Post — Minyao Wang: Chinese Voting in NYC in the Time of COVID-19

Naturalization Fees: A Poll Tax Hidden in Plain Sight

Immigration Article of the Day: Immigrants in Shifting Times on Long Island, NY: The Stakes of Losing Temporary Status by Kati L. Griffith, Shannon Gleeson, and Vivian Vazquez

Sunday, October 25, 2020

From the Bookshelves: Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas by Roberto Lovato

Saturday, October 24, 2020

NYT Visits Refugee Camp on US Border in Matamoros

At the Movies: The Undocumented Lawyer

Immigrant Women and Girls in the United States: A Portrait of Demographic Diversity

Friday, October 23, 2020

YLS Book Talk from Deborah Kang

Discussing Ming Hsu Chen’s Book Pursuing Citizenship [UPDATED]

Latino voter support for Trump Explained by Gender Gap

‘Criminal’: Trump and Biden square off on immigration

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Family Separations Continue In South Texas, Years After They Allegedly Ended

Trump Administration Implements Expansion of Expedited Removal

Lawyers say they can’t find the parents of 545 migrant children separated by Trump administration

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

DHS Arrests International Students, Threatens College Leaders for ‘Willful Ignorance’ of Student-Visa Program

545 Migrant Children Separated from Parents Cannot Be Reunified

An executive order worth $100 billion: The impact of an immigration ban’s announcement on Fortune 500 firms’ valuation

Activists call for Biden to Bring Immigrants and Immigration into Presidential Debate, Even if NBC and Trump Won’t

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Your Playlist: Elbow

AILA, Others Sue to Enjoin “Wage Protections” Rule

Immigrant-Origin Students in U.S. Higher Education

The Pandemic Continues: U.S. Borders With Canada and Mexico Will Stay Closed Another Month

Thoughts on the President and Immigration Law by Cristina Rodríguez and Adam Cox

Monday, October 19, 2020

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

DHS & DOJ need comprehensive leadership changes, major reorganizations, re-examination of missions, effective ethical reforms, and thorough housecleanings to restore American democracy and achieve social justice and racial equality.

The key, to borrow from “Moscow Mitch,” is political power! “Moscow” and his GOP Senate buddies have just demonstrated in “real time” how they can turn the Supremes into an anti-democracy adjunct of the RNC. Because they can! And “tough noogies” for the majority of Americans they don’t represent!

Conversely, by voting the Trump regime and the GOP out, we can regain control of our Government and get broken, incompetent, and biased institutions like DHS and EOIR working for the people, rather than a White Nationalist minority with an anti-American, anti-democracy, anti-social-justice, anti-equality agenda!

Vote like your life and America’s future depend on it. Because they most certainly do!

Turn out the vote for Joe, Kamala, and all Dem candidates! Restore due process, compassion, and human decency! Take our nation back from the forces of darkness, bias, and failure that are destroying it and needlessly endangering the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans with no plan whatsoever for addressing the current public health, social, and economic disasters crushing our nation!

Rounding the 'coroner' by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian — Rounding the ‘coroner’ by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

Put racism, intolerance, hate, and institutionalized inequality “in the rear view mirror!” Move forward as a nation of justice, peace, innovation, rationality, compassion, prosperity, strength, and the courage to look beyond our own lives to the best interests of humanity! Make the “American Dream” a reality for all Americans rather than an unfulfilled promise available to some but “off limits” to others!

Due Process Forever! 🇺🇸🗽⚖️

PWS

10-27-20

NDPA SUPERHEROINE 🦸‍♀️ HILLARY SCHOLTEN IS IN THE “HOME STRETCH” OF HER RACE IN THE MI-3 DISTRICT — Join Rep. Joaquin Castro & Us On Oct. 28 To Help Hillary Dash To The Finish Line With A HUGE Win In One Of The Key Congressional Contests Of 2020!🇺🇸🗽⚖️

Click here for the link to the invitation to this great and timely event:

10.28 Virtual Discussion on Immigration Invite

A victory for Hillary is a win for the people of Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District (who will get A++++ representation from one of the smartest, hardest working, most innovative, most dedicated, most capable, bravest, nicest, and most caring individuals I have ever known) and for justice and good government in America. Hillary Scholten is America’s bright future!

Go Hillary!🇺🇸

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

PWS

10-26-20

🇺🇸ONE FINAL PUSH TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY ⚖️ — GET OUT EVERY SINGLE VOTE FOR JOE, KAMALA, AND ALL DEMS!

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Exclusive

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Vote ‘em out, vote ‘em out!

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Thanks for all your past contributions and all the best for the future, Laura, from all of your many “admirers and fellow soldiers in the NDPA!”

Due Process Forever!

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Due Process Forever!

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Under watchful eye of regime officials, “Remote Adjudicators” hone skills in using “rack” to deter asylum seekers from seeking justice:

Vote ‘Em out, vote ‘Em out!

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Get out the vote! Make your vote for democracy count!

Due Process Forever!

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Due Process Forever!

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America is immigration! It’s our past, present, and future! When we deny those truths, we deny ourselves and betray our own humanity!

Don’t let the Monster win!👹

Due Process Forever!

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Due Process Forever!

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Better, more courageous, more humane judges for a better America!

UPDATE: HOUSE REPORT LAYS BARE “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” COMMITTED BY REGIME OFFICIALS!

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Due Process Forever!

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Due Process Forever! 🇺🇸🗽⚖️

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Click here for the link to the invitation to this great and timely event:

Go Hillary!🇺🇸

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