"The Voice of the New Due Process Army" ————– Musings on Events in U.S. Immigration Court, Immigration Law, Sports, Music, Politics, and Other Random Topics by Retired United States Immigration Judge (Arlington, Virginia) and former Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals PAUL WICKHAM SCHMIDT and DR. ALICIA TRICHE, expert brief writer, practical scholar, emeritus Editor-in-Chief of The Green Card (FBA), and 2022 Federal Bar Association Immigration Section Lawyer of the Year. She is a/k/a “Delta Ondine,” a blues-based alt-rock singer-songwriter, who performs regularly in Memphis, where she hosts her own Blues Brunch series, and will soon be recording her first full, professional album. Stay tuned! 🎶 To see our complete professional bios, just click on the link below.
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If only our national leaders were paying attention! 🤯 The best answers are out here, and they don’t involve expensive and counterproductive “mass deportations,” more inhumane detention facilities, or spreading fear among communities! Never too young to become a member of the “New Due Process Army!”
PWS
12-07-24
In life’s journey, the aspiration to leave a mark that resonates through generations is a common thread that binds humanity. Immigrants, in particular, face unique challenges and opportunities in crafting legacies.
The essence of your journey, enriched by diverse cultures and experiences, offers unparalleled potential to influence the world positively. Embracing this potential requires intentional actions and decisions that reflect your deepest values and aspirations. Below, immigrationcourtside.com shares more:
You hold the power to mold your legacy through the daily embodiment of your core values. Let kindness, integrity, and generosity be the guiding principles of your actions. When lived out loud, these virtues serve as beacons that inspire those around you. Consistently demonstrating these qualities becomes the foundation upon which your legacy is built, ensuring that your influence endures through time.
In today’s digital age, safeguarding your history and accomplishments is crucial. Take the time to digitize important documents to protect them from physical degradation and ensure they remain accessible for generations. Converting these files into PDFs helps maintain their integrity across various platforms and means you can share them quickly and securely.
Use a straightforward drag-and-drop tool to crop and resize pages (this deserves a look). Take this essential step to preserve the narratives and achievements that define your legacy.
The strength and depth of your relationships reflect the essence of your legacy. Foster meaningful connections with family, friends, and community members. These bonds are the fabric of your legacy, weaving together a network of support and love that mirrors your values. Through these relationships, you create a living legacy of warmth and support that resonates well beyond your immediate circle.
Your knowledge and skills are invaluable gifts that can significantly impact others. Sharing your expertise not only helps others grow but also cements your legacy as someone who contributes to the advancement of others. Whether mentoring the younger generation or volunteering your time for those in need, these acts of generosity amplify your legacy, making a lasting difference in the world.
In business, nurturing a lasting legacy involves a steadfast commitment to ethical standards. Constructing an enterprise that mirrors your core values fosters a more equitable marketplace and sets a precedent for others to emulate.
Delve into the advantages of establishing an LLC, including limited liability, tax benefits, streamlined paperwork, and heightened flexibility. Guiding the formation process and evading exorbitant legal fees through self-filing or utilizing a formation service demonstrates a dedication to prudence and resourceful decision-making.
Your support for causes close to your heart extends the reach of your legacy far beyond your personal sphere. Whether through financial donations, advocacy, or hands-on involvement, your engagement in these causes leaves an indelible mark. This commitment to making a difference embodies the essence of a legacy that transcends time and geography, cementing your role as a catalyst for change.
Embark on endeavors that mirror your passions and beliefs, be it through a business venture, community project, or artistic expression. These initiatives are monuments to your dedication and vision, reflecting your unique contributions to the world. Such endeavors enrich your legacy and inspire others to pursue their passions with similar fervor and commitment.
Ensuring your financial and legal affairs are in order is fundamental to legacy building. Proper management of wills, trusts, and other legal documents guarantees that your assets support your loved ones and the causes you cherish, even in your absence. This foresight and planning ensure that your legacy’s impact is felt long after you departed, offering future generations support and opportunities.
Your choices and values are pivotal in building a lasting legacy. As an immigrant, your diverse experiences present a unique opportunity to shape a legacy that transcends cultures and time. By embodying your values, preserving your heritage, and making meaningful contributions, you can leave a lasting impact that inspires others for generations to come.
If you enjoyed this article, you can find more helpful content at immigrationcourtside.com!
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There is so much misinformation, misdirection, ignorance, and hate out there these days. Since we are indisputably “a nation of immigrants,” it’s really a bizarre form of “self loathing” promoted by the GOP and embraced by a disturbing number of our fellow citizens.
That’s why my day always gets brighter when one of these thoughtful, helpful, encouraging, informative, and well-written PSAs from my friend Diane Harrison appears in my “Courtside inbox!” As always, thanks Diane for reminding us who we are and what we can achieve if we work together to welcome, value, cherish, assimilate, and maximize the opportunities and values of human migration — the most ancient and inevitable phenomenon in human history!
PWS
02-14-24
https://www.law.gwu.edu/10-scholars-join-gw-law-community-teach-first-year-students
Ten Scholars Join the GW Law Community to Teach First-Year Students
August 01, 2022
GW Law is excited to announce the appointment of ten new full-time faculty members to join the Fundamentals of Lawyering Program. The new FL faculty join Interim Director Iselin Gambert and Associate Director Anita Singh as full-time members of the GW Law faculty. The FL program introduces first-year students to the skills necessary for a successful transition from the classroom to the law firm, boardroom, courtroom, and the many other settings where law is practiced.
These ten professors join our experienced community of scholars to teach 1Ls the critical lawyering skills they will need in practice.
Cori Alonso-Yoder
Natalia Blinkova
Leslie Callahan
Katya Cronin
Robin Juni
Cheryl Kettler
Brooke Ellinwood McDonough
Robert Parrish
Jennifer Wimsatt Pusateri
Erika N. Pont
Why GW Law?
Cori Alonso Yoder
Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
“I am so pleased to be joining GW Law and its community of distinguished scholars, dedicated professionals, and accomplished students. Teaching with the Fundamentals of Lawyering Program to equip students in exploring a sense of place and purpose in the law while developing their professional skills is particularly thrilling to me.”
Natalia Blinkova
Acting Writing Center Coordinator; Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
“As for why I chose to stay at GW — that part is easy! I love shepherding our wonderfully talented students through their 1L experience, introducing them to the critical lawyering skills they will need in practice, and helping them think through what kind of lawyers they would like to become. I also feel like I’ve found a home among the FL faculty, who are the most collaborative, forward-thinking, and supportive group of professionals I have ever encountered.”
Leslie Callahan
Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
“I’m thrilled to join GW Law’s innovative ‘Fundamentals of Lawyering Program’ which is at the forefront of our profession in preparing students to excel in the workplace. The Fundamentals program integrates traditional research and writing skills with a broader array of skills such as client counseling, all while providing the opportunity for professional identity formation. GW Law’s program is truly unique among top law schools and I cannot wait to begin working with this extraordinary group of professionals!”
Katya Cronin
Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
“GW Law’s Fundamentals of Lawyering Program is on the cutting edge of legal experiential education and I am thrilled to work side by side with its many accomplished and dedicated faculty members who share a commitment to excellence in teaching, student well-being, and rigorous and impactful scholarship.”
Robin Juni
Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
“GW Law is a special place. I’m thrilled to be teaching Fundamentals of Lawyering, in particular, because the whole community is invested in and supportive of the groundwork we lay in FL that allows students to pursue any of the countless opportunities GW Law offers to become the lawyers they want to be.”
Cheryl A. Kettler
Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
“I have had the pleasure of teaching at GW Law for six of the last seven years. During that time, I have worked with numerous highly talented and energetic first-year law students. Their enthusiasm for learning has made teaching here very rewarding. Moreover, GW Law has offered me opportunities to work with esteemed faculty, generous adjuncts, dedicated Dean’s Fellows, the Writing Center’s earnestly caring Writing Fellows, our various journals’ many writers, and the Inns of Court student members and advisors. Visitors at other schools are lucky if they engage with a few colleagues. Here, they are part of a larger community.
The fundamentals of lawyering are more than the name of a course at GW Law. They are ingrained in curriculum, extracurricular activity, and the culture of the law school. By bringing people together to support our first-year law students, we ensure they leave here with a network of support and the skills to face the challenges of practice.”
Brooke Ellinwood McDonough
Acting Coordinator of Scholarly Writing and Co-Coordinator of Problem Development; Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
“For nearly thirty years, GW has been part of my life. In the ‘90s, I was an undergrad. In the ‘00s, a law student. In the ‘10s an adjunct and visiting professor. From those experiences, I have a deeply rooted appreciation for the unique contributions that the school has on its students and the larger community, and seek to carry on that tradition for the next generation as I enter my fourth decade with GW.”
Robert Parrish
Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
“I chose GW Law because of its Fundamentals of Lawyering program and the unique opportunity it presents to be a small part of an innovative program that has the potential to be a model for law schools across the nation.”
Jennifer Wimsatt Pusateri
Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
“GW Law students are special. They have a grit and practicality about them that makes them a joy to teach. I’m excited to continue teaching them the skills they need to develop into successful lawyers as part of the Fundamentals of Lawyering program.”
Erika N. Pont
Interim Associate Director, Fundamentals of Lawyering Program; Coordinator of the Dean’s Fellow Program; Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
“I joke that I “grew up” at GW Law: first as a student and Deans Fellow, then as an adjunct professor for over a decade, and finally as full-time faculty in the Fundamentals of Lawyering Program. I chose to teach at GW Law for many of the same reasons I chose to attend GW Law as a student: an unparalleled location in Washington, DC, a uniquely talented and collegial student body, and an institutional commitment to graduating “practice ready” lawyers. Joining the Fundamentals of Lawyering faculty is a dream come true. I’m grateful for the opportunity to build on GW Law’s rich foundation of professional development and experiential learning. It’s an honor to help develop and teach our 1L students this innovative curriculum that’s designed to prepare our students to serve clients, impact their community, and better their profession — and to be their healthiest happiest selves in the process.”
Fundamentals of Lawyering
At GW Law, the Fundamentals of Lawyering Program introduces first-year students to the skills that will advance them from the classroom to the law firm, boardroom, courtroom, and the many other settings where law is practiced. The FL Program, an innovative yearlong course for 1Ls which works hand-in-hand with Inns of Court, was launched in fall of 2019. The centerpiece of the most significant reform of GW Law’s first-year curriculum in a generation, the six-credit course was designed to reflect the changing practice of law and gives graduates the essential lawyering skills employers value most.
First-year students work with a faculty drawn from law firms of all sizes, governmental agencies, and nonprofits to learn what it takes to succeed in a profession that demands the highest commitment to adherence to the rule of law and delivering justice. Our faculty members bring decades of experience building relationships with clients and meeting their needs with creativity and skill.
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Cori Alonso-Yoder
- Title:
- Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering
- Address:
- The George Washington University Law School
2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
Ana Corina “Cori” Alonso-Yoder is an Associate Professor in the Fundamentals of Lawyering. Prior to joining the GW Law faculty, professor Alonso-Yoder was a visiting assistant professor at Howard University School of Law. She has also instructed students on lawyering skills in the Immigrant Justice Clinic at American University Washington College and as the former director of the Federal Legislation Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center.
Professor Alonso-Yoder is a nationally recognized scholar on immigration legislation and the impacts of state, local, and federal laws on immigrant communities. As an expert in health policy for immigrants, she has lectured in interdisciplinary settings including at the Pediatric Academic Society, Georgetown University School of Medicine, the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences, and the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Sciences. Professor Alonso-Yoder’s commentary on immigrants’ rights has been featured by ABC News, The Hill, Law360, and the Washington Post, among others. She also regularly comments on Supreme Court decisions that affect the statutory and constitutional rights of noncitizens for the George Washington Law Review online. Her legal scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in Denver Law Review, American University Legislation and Policy Brief, and Rutgers Law Review.
In her public interest legal practice, Professor Alonso-Yoder has worked on a variety of equal justice issues, with a special emphasis on advocacy for LGBT and HIV-positive immigrants. Prior to teaching, Professor Alonso-Yoder was the supervising attorney at Whitman-Walker Health, the country’s longest serving medical-legal partnership. Early in her legal career, Professor Alonso-Yoder represented low-income immigrants in family law and immigration matters at Ayuda. While there, she established an innovative project to meet the civil legal needs of notario fraud victims and coordinated with local stakeholders to enact legislation to protect consumers. In her work to promote immigrants’ rights, she has collaborated on transnational labor policy and worker outreach in central Mexico, provided legal orientation and advice and counsel to inmates in U.S. immigration detention facilities, and served as an assistant to the chair of the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva. Her service to the Latino community has been recognized with the Hispanic Law Conference’s 2020 Edward Bou Award and the DC Courts’ 2016 Legal Community Award. She is actively involved in board service with the immigrant advocacy organizations La Clínica del Pueblo and Centro de los Derechos del Migrante.
Professor Alonso-Yoder holds an AB magna cum laude from Georgetown University and a JD cum laude from American University Washington College of Law, where she was awarded a full-tuition public interest merit scholarship. Born in Mexico, she grew up in Denver, Colorado and speaks English, French, and Spanish.
Education
AB, Georgetown University; JD, American University Washington College of Law
Congrats, Cori, my friend! What a great use of your skills as a practical scholar and nonprofit law “guru.” And, what a great step for GW to focus first-year students on the practical skills needed to practice law (and lead a successful life) and the many, diverse, critically important opportunities for improving our nation and defending and advancing our democracy that effective, ethical, values-based lawyering presents!
Values like fairness, scholarship, timeliness, respect, and teamwork should be at the core of legal education! Cori and the other “practical scholars” described above are the embodiment of those values!
I have suggested that a legal education system that turned out some of the grossly dishonest and unethical lawyers behind Trump’s “big lie” and cowardly far-right politicos who advocate for the destruction of democracy and for “the new Jim Crow” needs to take a hard internal look — particularly in the area of legal ethics. Exposing students to those like Cori who used their skills to interact with and help some of the most vulnerable in society — and thereby to improve rather than undermine our nation — is a significant step toward “values-based” legal education.
It’s also important that a versatile immigration and human rights practical scholar like Cori be part of this innovative, forward-looking approach to legal education.
PWS
08-18-22
DC Values Coalition Statement in Response to Governor Abbott’s Announcement
Apr 08, 2022
On Wednesday, April 6, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas announced he will start busing immigrants to Washington, DC in response to the decision by the government to end Title 42. Title 42 is a cruel policy, which used the pandemic as an excuse to expel families and individuals from the United States under the guise of public health.
We as the DC Values Coalition condemn Governor Abbott’s announcement. We do not believe in using human beings to make political statements. Regardless of what happens next, DC welcomes all immigrants, including DACA recipients, TPS holders, refugees and asylum seekers from all nations to our area, offering them help and support.
Organizations in the DC Values Coalition will support these individuals with their needs and make sure that DC remains a place that is welcoming and safe for immigrants. We will also push to guarantee they are not detained and we will continue to advocate for ICE to exercise discretion in detention and deportation efforts.
The DC Values Coalition is a coalition of DC-based immigration legal and social service providers that seeks to defend immigrants’ rights.
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Many thanks to all concerned for this terrific response! I particularly appreciate the efforts of my friend Adina Appelbaum of CAIR Coalition, my former star student in Refugee Law & Policy at Georgetown Law, a former Arlington Immigration Court Legal Intern, and a “charter member” of the NDPA.
PWS
04-08-22
By
Columnist
Jan. 17, 2020 at 2:47 p.m. EST
It was a 25-year-old Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday is celebrated on Monday, who stood in the pulpit of Detroit’s Second Baptist Church on Feb. 28, 1954. The Montgomery bus boycott, which would launch the future leader of the American civil rights movement to national prominence, was nearly two years away.
King roused the Second Baptist congregation that Sunday morning with a sermon that did not once mention race. Discrimination, segregation, protest demonstrations — these were not on his agenda. The young preacher went deeper, if such a thing was possible during an era of racial turmoil.
King got the congregation thinking about values, a subject as relevant today as it was in 1954.
King talked about lost values and the need for rediscovering them.
Listen to the Voices of the Movement podcast: Stories from civil rights leaders who changed America
Something seemed fundamentally wrong in society, he preached. And it wasn’t because society didn’t know enough. Scientific progress was amazing. King said in 18th-century America, it took three days for a letter to go from New York City to Washington; in 1954, a person could go from Detroit to China in less time.
It’s even more astonishing today. Breakfast can be had in Washington, teatime enjoyed in London and a nightcap swallowed in New York City — all in the same day.
The trouble, he said, was not that we don’t know enough but that “we aren’t good enough.” Scientific genius, he said, has outpaced “our moral genius.” The greater danger facing the country in ’54, King noted, was not “the atomic bomb that was created by physical science” that could be dropped on the heads of thousands of people, but “that atomic bomb which lies in the hearts and souls of men, capable of exploding into the vilest of hate and into the most damaging selfishness.”
That thought calls to mind the more than three dozen countries in the world with unmanned, missile-armed drones capable of being launched from afar under remote control and striking and killing with precision. Think about what lies within the hearts and souls of leaders in countries such as North Korea, China, Iran, Russia, Turkey and, yes, the United States.
King called attention to shaky moral foundations and the “relativistic ethic” that was being applied to right and wrong. He described it as an ethic that says “since everybody is doing it, it must be right” — an ethic that means “people can’t stand up for their . . . convictions, because the majority of people might not be doing it.” He said it’s “a sort of numerical interpretation of what’s right.”
King’s teaching got me to thinking about the 53 Senate Republicans who know that some things are right and some things are wrong, but adjust their attitudes relative to the behavior of President Trump.
King said he was at Second Baptist to say that some things are right and wrong, eternally and absolutely. “It’s wrong to hate,” he declared. “It has always been wrong, and it always will be wrong. It’s wrong in America, it’s wrong in Germany, it’s wrong in Russia, it’s wrong in China. It was wrong in 2000 B.C., and it’s wrong in 1954 A.D. It always has been wrong, and it always will be wrong!”
That got me thinking about White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. How can a person who pushes white nationalism, invokes a 1924 American immigration law extolled by Adolf Hitler, is bigoted and racially intolerant — how can he end up in the White House?
Then I stopped to think about who put Miller where he is — President Trump. The same President Trump who recently retweeted to his 71 million followers a doctored photo of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wearing a hijab and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) with a turban on his head in front of an Iranian flag with a caption reading, “the corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah’s rescue.” Why wouldn’t an insulter of Islam and Muslims, who also inflicts cruelty at our southern border, want to have the likes of Stephen Miller at his side?
King’s sermon derided what he regarded as a pragmatic test applied to right and wrong: “If it works, it’s all right. Nothing is wrong but that which does not work. If you don’t get caught, it’s right.”
=Which made me think of Trump using the powers of his office to solicit a foreign government to help take down a domestic political opponent, lying about his successes and taking credit for things he didn’t do — all because it works. And his adoring believers eat it up.
King reminded the Second Baptist worshipers that “it’s possible to affirm the existence of God with your lips and deny his existence with your life.”
Which makes me visualize Trump basking at evangelical rallies and paying lip service to God, while paying actual service to himself.
Knowing right from wrong; honesty; justice. Basic values preached by Martin Luther King Jr. still need rediscovering in 2020.
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Amen!
PWS
01-20-20
https://apple.news/ARnAxuYYATOy78Bq8BYOy7g
Angelina Jolie writes in Time:
Angelina Jolie: The Crisis We Face at the Border Does Not Require Us to Choose Between Security and Humanity
Angelina Jolie
Jolie, a TIME contributing editor, is an Academy Award–winning actor and Special Envoy of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
We Americans have been confronted by devastating images from our southern border and increasingly polarized views on how to address this untenable situation.
At times I wonder if we are retreating from the ideal of America as a country founded by and for brave, bold, freedom-seeking rebels, and becoming instead inward-looking and fearful.
I suspect many of us will refuse to retreat. We grew up in this beautiful, free country, in all its diversity. We know nothing good ever came of fear, and that our own history — including the shameful mistreatment of Native Americans — should incline us to humility and respect when considering the question of migration.
I’m not a lawyer, an asylum seeker, or one of the people working every day to protect our borders and run our immigration system. But I work with the UN Refugee Agency, which operates in 134 countries to protect and support many of the over 70 million people displaced by conflict and persecution.
We in America are starting to experience on our borders some of the pressures other nations have faced for years: countries like Turkey, Uganda and Sudan, which host 6 million refugees between them. Or Lebanon, where every sixth person is a refugee. Or Colombia, which is hosting over 1 million Venezuelans in a country slightly less than twice the size of Texas. There are lessons — and warnings — we can derive from the global refugee situation.
The first is that this is about more than just one border. Unless we address the factors forcing people to move, from war to economic desperation to climate change, we will face ever-growing human displacement. If you don’t address these problems at their source, you will always have people at your borders. People fleeing out of desperation will brave any obstacle in front of them.
Second, countries producing the migration or refugee flow have the greatest responsibility to take measures to protect their citizens and address the insecurity, corruption and violence causing people to flee. But assisting them with that task is in our interest. Former senior military figures urge the restoration of U.S. aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, arguing that helping to build the rule of law, respect for human rights and stability is the only way to create alternatives to migration. The UN Refugee Agency is calling for an urgent summit of governments in the Americas to address the displacement crisis. These seem logical, overdue steps. Our development assistance to other countries is not a bargaining chip, it is an investment in our long-term security. Showing leadership and working with other countries is a measure of strength, not a sign of weakness.
Third, we have a vital interest in upholding international laws and standards on asylum and protection. It is troubling to see our country backing away from these, while expecting other countries, who are hosting millions of refugees and asylum seekers, to adhere to a stricter code. If we go down this path, we risk a race to the bottom and far greater chaos. An international rules-based system brings order. Breaking international standards only encourages more rule-breaking.
Fourth, the legal experts I meet suggest there are ways of making the immigration system function much more effectively, fairly and humanely. For instance, by resourcing the immigration courts to address the enormous backlog of cases built up over years. They argue this would help enable prompt determination of who legally qualifies for protection and who does not, and at the same time disincentivize anyone inclined to misuse the asylum system for economic or other reasons. The American Bar Association and other legal scholars and associations are calling for immigration court to be made independent and free from external influence, so that cases can be fairly, efficiently and impartially decided under the law.
There are also proven models of working with legal firms to provide pro-bono legal assistance to unaccompanied children in the immigration system without increasing the burden on the U.S. taxpayer. Expanding these kinds of initiative would help to ensure that vulnerable children don’t have to represent themselves in court, and improve the effectiveness, fairness and speed of immigration proceedings. Approximately 65% of children in the U.S. immigration system still face court without an attorney.
We all want our borders to be secure and our laws to be upheld, but it is not true that we face a choice between security and our humanity: between sealing our country off and turning our back to the world on the one hand, or having open borders on the other. The best way of protecting our security is by upholding our values and addressing the roots of this crisis. We can be fearless, generous and open-minded in seeking solutions.
TIME Ideas hosts the world’s leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.
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Wow! Great thoughts on how caring people might actually help to constructively address human migration issues rather than cruelly making them worse through “malicious incompetence.”
It’s painfully clear that we have the wrong “celebrity” leading our nation. But, Jolie wasn’t on the ballot (not will she be). Nevertheless, in a saner and more law-abiding Government, there should be a place for ideas and leadership from Jolie and others like her.
HISTORICAL NOTE: If my memory serves me correctly, Angelina Jolie once appeared before my esteemed retired colleague U.S. Immigration Judge M. Christopher Grant, as an expert witness in an asylum case before the Arlington Immigration Court.
PWS
08-02-19
Elizabeth writes:
A reductive, but not incorrect view of the Democratic debacle in the 2016 elections holds that when President Trump took office, centrists lost the present and leftists lost the future. In 2020, Democrats will have a new opportunity to either reach backward for the Obama era, or to lay the foundation for a bolder, progressive future. Deciding which goal to pursue will likely become the chief party fault line as the 2020 primaries approach. My advice to progressives: Don’t back down.
For the party’s center-leaning establishment, a return to the Obama era makes sense. Centrists were happy then — thrilled to witness the passage of health-care reform that did something but not too much (so long, public option !), comfortable with what one might gently label a muscular foreign policy , pleased with the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, though it came at the expense of homeowners in foreclosure while coddling Wall Street . All in all, things seemed stable and sustainable. Only tweaks and patches lay ahead.
But then, history — presumed dead by those who believed, with socialism extinguished, the future held nothing but increasing gains for liberal democracy — happened again. The 2016 election witnessed a swell of populist disenchantment with the status quo and concluded with the election of Trump. With Trump came a queasy uncertainty that still characterizes politics to this day,leaving old norms dissolved and common sense unequal to its task.
So much of centrist-Democrat fantasizing about 2020 already seems aimed at repeating a golden past. Consider the groundswell of interest in Beto O’Rourke, the Texas congressman who narrowly lost his recent Senate race against Sen. Ted Cruz. For Democrats excited about O’Rourke, his primary draw is his similarity to Barack Obama — both in form and content. O’Rourke has held conversations with the former president about a possible run, to build on a belief that O’Rourke, as my colleague Matt Viser described it, is “capable of the same kind of inspirational campaign that caught fire in the 2008 presidential election.”
O’Rourke’s politics also fall into the same ambiguously centrist zone as Obama’s. “Like Mr. Obama as he entered the 2008 campaign, Mr. O’Rourke can be difficult to place on an ideological spectrum, allowing supporters to project their own politics onto a messaging palette of national unity and common ground,” a recent New York Times report observed . Meanwhile, other candidates straight from Obama’s orbit — such as former vice president Joe Biden and former housing secretary Julián Castro — are also eyeing the nomination, with appeals to unity and centrist perspectives.
When not absorbed in hopes of re-creating the Obama era, Democrats mainly seem intent on beating Trump, with little comment or insight, at least so far, on what they will do with power once they have it. (After I questioned in my last column whether O’Rourke has demonstrated serious commitment to progressive values, some readers responded by arguing they’re glad he hasn’t — that Democrats need to run an Obama-style centrist to win back conservatives who might otherwise favor Trump. “A too-progressive Democratic nominee in 2020,” one reader wrote, “would be a gift to President Trump.”) Likewise, at a recent event in New York, former FBI director James B. Comey implored Democrats to put aside their political projects in favor of an all-consuming focus on simply beating Trump . “I understand the Democrats have important debates now over who their candidate should be,” Comey said, “but they have to win. They have to win.”
Presidential elections provide an opportunity for parties to identify and rally around their principles — and even to radically reshape them. If all the Democrats can manage is to hark back to the past and focus on winning for its own sake, they’re missing an opportunity to lay out a blueprint for the future. I don’t think that putting forth progressive priorities is incompatible with beating Trump; in fact, I think that having a clear and persuasive vision of what a better America can look like is likely to be more attractive to voters than promising them something vaguely like the past. One of the political lessons of recent years is that history is never over. The future is waiting, if we want to build it.
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Certainly the Obama Administration was “golden” by comparison with the current corrupt, White Nationalist regime that has made overt racism and hate front and center. However, despite some good things like DACA, stateside processing, and a late stab at wider use of prosecutorial discretion (“PD”), Obama was fairly disappointing from an immigration standpoint.
Under Obama, there was lots of ambiguity and misdirected enforcement, substantial overuse of detention (particularly substandard private detention), and the forerunner of the Trump Administration’s failed “border deterrence” strategy. Obama folks didn’t seek and glory in the cruelty and dehumanization the way that this Administration does. But, in human terms, the results often were similar for the individuals concerned: split families, indefinite detention, kids in jails, a failing U.S. Immigration Court system, and only a smattering of real “immigration pros” in key positions where they too often were not ” driving the train” or being taken seriously.
Can an immigration system based on the reality that immigration is good and necessary for our country, a professionally run independent U.S. Immigration Court dedicated to Due Process with efficiency, a more robust acceptance of refugees, a secure border, cooperation with the international community in solving problems, and treating those who can’t be accepted fairly, humanely, and respectfully be part of winning political strategy?
PWS
12-17-18
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pope-christmas-eve-migrants_us_5a4025cfe4b025f99e17c35b
Phillip Pullella reports for HuffPost:
“Pope Francis strongly defended immigrants at his Christmas Eve Mass on Sunday, comparing them to Mary and Joseph finding no place to stay in Bethlehem and saying faith demands that foreigners be welcomed.
Francis, celebrating his fifth Christmas as leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, led a solemn Mass for about 10,000 people in St. Peter’s Basilica while many others followed the service from the square outside.
Security was stepped up, with participants checked as they approached St. Peter’s Square even before going through metal detectors to enter the basilica. The square had been cleared out hours earlier so security procedures could be put in place.
The Gospel reading at the Mass in Christendom’s largest church recounted the Biblical story of how Mary and Jesus had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be registered for a census ordered by Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus.
“So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary. We see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away, but driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones,” Francis said.
Even the shepherds who the Bible says were the first to see the child Jesus were “forced to live on the edges of society” and considered dirty, smelly foreigners, he said. “Everything about them generated mistrust. They were men and women to be kept at a distance, to be feared.”“NEW SOCIAL IMAGINATION”
Wearing white vestments in the flower-bedecked church, Francis called for a “new social imagination … in which none have to feel that there is no room for them on this earth.”
The 81-year-old pope, who was born of Italian immigrant stock in Argentina, has made defense of migrants a major plank of his papacy, often putting him at odds with politicians.
Austria’s new chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, has aligned himself with central European neighbors like Hungary and the Czech Republic in opposing German-backed proposals to distribute asylum seekers around EU member states.
In elections in Germany in September, the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made significant gains, with electors punishing Chancellor Angela Merkel for her open-door policy and pushing migration policy to the top of the agenda in talks to form a coalition government.
Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League, whose leader Matteo Salvini often gives fiery speeches against migrants, is expected to make gains in national elections next year. A law that would give citizenship to children born in Italy to migrant parents is stalled in parliament.
In his homily, Francis said, “Our document of citizenship” comes from God, making respect of migrants an integral part of Christianity.
“This is the joy that we tonight are called to share, to celebrate and to proclaim. The joy with which God, in his infinite mercy, has embraced us pagans, sinners and foreigners, and demands that we do the same,” Francis said.
Francis also condemned human traffickers who make money off desperate migrants as the “Herods of today” with blood on their hands, a reference to the Biblical story of the king who ordered the killing of all newborn male children near Bethlehem because he feared Jesus would one day displace him.
More than 14,000 people have died trying to make the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe in the past four years.
On Christmas Day, Francis will deliver his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and to the World) blessing and message from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
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Compare the Pope’s very clear statement of true Christian values with the fear-mongering, false narratives, and xenophobic rantings and actions of the so-called “Christians” in the Trump Administration.
PWS
12-26-17
http://immigrationimpact.com/2017/06/27/immigration-system-in-line-values/
Guillermo Cantor writes in Immigration Impact:
Over the past two decades, much of the immigration policy debate has focused on issues related to immigration enforcement. In fact, many argue that “enforcement first”—the notion that we must adequately enforce the laws on the books before considering broader immigration reforms—has de facto become the nation’s singular immigration policy. This preoccupation with enforcement has come at the expense of consideration of other key components of a robust immigration system. Specifically, policymakers have failed to directly and adequately address some of the most fundamental questions, including what the legal immigration system should look like, what principles should guide admissions moving forward, and how to intentionally and strategically tie immigration policy to other domestic policies.
In an effort to refocus the debate, a recent article by Donald Kerwin and Robert Warren offers a range of ideas that address some structural issues concerning the legal immigration system. Arguing that the U.S. immigration system does not reflect the values and interests that it is supposed to serve, the authors propose a series of recommendations to reform the system and deliver on its promises.
After examining nearly a century’s worth of presidential signing statements of seminal immigration legislation, the authors identify a list of basic principles that, at least in theory, guide the U.S. immigration and refugee system. These include, but are not limited to, the belief that: families should be preserved; admission policies should not be based on national origin, race, or privilege; fairness and due process are essential in admission and removal decisions; individuals fleeing persecution and violence should be provided with a safe haven; immigrants embody the U.S. value of self-sufficiency, hard work, and drive to succeed; fair, orderly, and secure migration sustains the rule of law; and criminals and security threats defy U.S. ideals and, therefore, should not be admitted or allowed to remain.
If we accept as fact the premise that these principles should guide our immigration and refugee laws and policies, it becomes evident that such laws and policies—and their implementation—often fall short of serving the aforementioned objectives. In recent years, for example, mass deportations have led to large-scale family separation; backlogs in the family-based immigration system have kept numerous families apart for years; the routine detention and expedited removal of asylum seekers have been used to deter other asylum seekers from coming to the border; highly skilled immigrants often cannot work in their fields due to credentialing barriers; and the widespread use of summary removal procedures in the deportation of noncitizens has signaled a dramatic departure from fundamental principles of fairness and due process. And these are just a few examples.”
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Read the entire very worthwhile article at the link.
OK, let’s say we have around 11 million undocumented individuals here today. At least 10 million of them are basically law abiding working folks who are contributing to our economy and our society. Most have at least some US citizen children or other relatives. Many pay taxes, and all of them would if they were in legal status and we made it easy for them to do so. It’s reasonable to assume that nearly all of them entered over the past 40 years. Folks who came prior to that are likely to have legalized, gone home, or died.
So, we could easily have admitted at least 250,000 additional individuals each year under our legal immigration system and we’d be right where we are today. Except, we wouldn’t have spent as much money on immigration enforcement, detention, removal, and divisive legal battles in the courts.
PWS
06-29-17
