Hondurans enjoy no special considerations. Immigration attorneys and their clients are not the only ones who said they are distrustful of the judicial complaint process. REUTERS/Ross D. Franklin/Pool/File Photo. Variations among judges and courts are broad. Unlike federal court judges, whose authority stems from the U.S. Constitutions establishment of an independent judicial branch, immigration judges fall under the executive branch and thus are hired, and can be fired, by the attorney general. Judge Marks also thrived in this arena because she saw beyond the expectation that her role was solely to facilitate deportations; she saw the humanity inherent in the proceedings. For example, courts ruled in favor of Chinese immigrants 75 percent of the time, the Reuters analysis found. Throughout, Jamil says, Judge Marks articulated to the press and to the public the stress of doing the job of immigration judge. I vowed to be my authentic sense of self. Retired Immigration Judge Polly Webber, saw an aspirational role model. *Today Judge Marks is known as NanaDana, a title that celebrates her role as caretaker for her granddaughter and helps people correctly pronounce her name (dan-uh, not day-nuh). Click here for the news release. I was the first to do the Families with Children Docket, which became known as rocket docket, Judge King recalls. The question of equality of treatment among judges has gained urgency as the number of cases in immigration court has ballooned to record highs. The definition of a particular social group has been subject to conflicting interpretations in the courts, but in general, such a group comprises people who share basic beliefs or traits that cant or shouldnt have to be changed. She was our fearless leader in the union, says Judge King, who was Union site representative in San Francisco while Judge Marks was president. She and her lawyers declined to share more detailed information about her situation because she remains fearful of the gangs in Honduras. Talking with her former colleaguesmany of whom are now also her friendsis an uplifting experience. 0% San Francisco; 0% Denver; 0% Dallas, TX; 0% Boston; 0% Los Angeles; 0% Atlanta; Salary Ranges for Immigration Judges. Numerous legal providers and community members have expressed strong concerns about Fords racist history influencing his work in San Francisco. Persecutors dont give affidavits, said Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge who now works at the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonprofit organization that supports lower levels of immigration. The October announcement explained that " [s]ince Jan. 20, 2017, the [Department of Justice] has increased EOIR's immigration judge corps from 306 to 520 adjudicators an increase of nearly 70 percent." ), In a wish list of immigration proposals sent to Congress on Oct. 8, the White House said that lax legal standards had led to the immigration court backlog and that misguided judicial decisions have prevented the removal of numerous criminal aliens, while also rendering those aliens eligible to apply for asylum. Among the proposals offered in exchange for a deal with Congress on the roughly 800,000 dreamers children brought to the country illegally by their parents the Trump administration said it wanted to hire even more immigration judges and 1,000 ICE attorneys, while establishing performance metrics for Immigration Judges.. Couch and Holyoak and their courts. Gutierrez said that was when she first learned that her fellow parent-teacher association board member had been threatened and had fled from home. She is known for her compassion and fairmindedness. When Theodore Murphy, a former ICE prosecutor who now represents immigrants, has a client in a jurisdiction with a high deportation rate but near one with a lower rate, I tell them to move, he said. Ana declined to be interviewed for this article. Judge Marks says her biggest success was seeingH.R. You really get those Perry Mason moments in immigration court. The courts in Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas and Atlanta also received the designation. Legal Aid at Work. Were more productive if theyre comfortable, she says. Now they had come to deliver a message to Gutierrez. Two officials in uniforms picked them up. Now, they were extorting teachers, selling drugs openly and assaulting or killing anyone who confronted them. Disregards basic legal rules, causing undue prejudice and wasting public resources. STEP 2: Apply for Asylum STEP 3: Fingerprinting and Background/Security Checks STEP 4: Receive an Interview Notice STEP 5: Interview STEP 6: Asylum Officer Makes Determination on Eligibility and Supervisory Asylum Officer Reviews the Decision STEP 7: Receive Decision Related Links Close All Open All Last Reviewed/Updated: But the bulk of asylum seekers who came during the 2018-2019 migrant surge were Central Americans. In May2021, the Ohio chapter of theAmerican Immigration Lawyers Association submitted a group complaint against Riley to the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), an agency within the Department of Justice that oversees immigration courts. They were elected in 2013 to the board of the parent-teacher association at their children's school in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. The new lawyers argued that her previous representation had been ineffective. After her, all these really amazing women came to the bench, says Shugall, women Judge Marks mentored and encouraged to apply for the bench. She is known for her fierce advocacy for the court. She is known for her fierce advocacy for the court. . Another 35% ended with additional counseling or training of the judge involved. They had confidence in her that she was doing everything she could for them. She demonstrated this on a national level in October of 1986 when Judge Marks (along with Bill O. Hing, Susan Lydon, and Kip Steinberg) argued on behalf of Luz Marina Cardoza-Fonseca before the US Supreme Court (. In Atlanta, 89 percent of cases result in a deportation order. In the asylum application, Olawales client, a 22-year-old asylum seeker from Cameroon, said armed officers from that country sexually assaulted her when she was a minor while they were searching for English-speaking dissidents like her family. Two of them grabbed Ana and her daughter, pinned their wrists behind their backs, and pointed a gun at the childs head. (Neither Holyoak nor Couch worked as an ICE prosecutor, according to their EOIR biographies. I vowed to be my authentic sense of self. Retired Immigration Judge Polly Webber, saw an aspirational role model. Many immigrants released on bond before their cases are heard have no idea that where they settle could make the difference between obtaining legal status and deportation. She explains things well. Immigration judges in New York and San Francisco stayed home from work Tuesday, and their union announced a judge in Denver had COVID-19 symptoms and an Atlanta attorney tested positive. San Francisco immigration judge begs officials to close her courtroom over coronavirus. They were allowed to stay in the United States in just 16 percent of cases, the Reuters analysis found. His demonstrated bias undermines due process for asylum seekers and immigrants of color. It is imperative that President-elect Biden swiftly direct the Department of Justice to reign in or remove hostile adjudicators like IJ Ford from the courts and ensure due process for immigrants. U.S. Department of Justice U.S. Department of Justice. El Paso federal immigration judges denied 85.4% of asylum claims in fiscal year 2020. Anas assertion that she learned from Gutierrez in detention about gang threats to the parent-teacher association was not persuasive, Couch wrote. In response to the rising criticism, the Executive Office for Immigration Review began tracking decisions to identify judges with unusually high or low rates of granting asylum. The case was transferred to a new judge who sentenced Puente to time . Judge Monique Harris in Houston allows immigrants to stay in just four percent of cases. EOIR held a two-day training session last year. The journey took three weeks. Judge Olivia Cassin in New York City allows immigrants to remain in the country in 93 percent of cases she hears. Through her lawyers, she asked that her full name not be used because of her uncertain status and her fear that Honduran gangs could find her. The Executive Office for Immigration Review had 2,383 employees in 2015 with an average pay (base salary + bonus) of $118,095.97. Phone number. Dana embodied that proactive spirit., Highly technical and often confusing, immigration law can intersect with family, dependency, and criminal law. "EOIR takes all complaints seriously, investigates all colorable complaints, and takes corrective action when appropriate, Montenegro said in an email statement. And then one day we went to lunch, and there they were.. The courts handle cases to determine whether an individual should be deported. The judges in San Francisco, where I served, were told we could not schedule any cases in 2022 until our calendars showed that three cases were scheduled every day through the end of 2021. While in Cook County, Ford was accused of complicity in a Chicago police torture scandal that targeted Black people and used torture to coerce criminal confessions for over two decades. In 2014, an unprecedented 68,000 parents and children, most of them fleeing violence and lawlessness in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, crossed into the United States from Mexico a refugee crisis that has contributed to the bloated backlog of asylum petitions. It feels like the judge has no compassion for us and doesnt like Latinos.. Judges fail to apply binding legal standards, make decisions based on illegally invented rules, engage in abusive treatment of noncitizens and their counsel and even decide cases before holding hearings.. After walking for an hour and a half, lost and desperate, Gutierrez and her sons sat down in the middle of a dirt road and waited for someone to pass. I got in that moment what that was going to be. The Government Accountability Office studied some proposals for reform in 2017, without endorsing any particular model. In immigration court, the asylum seeker is typically the only witness. Judge-by-Judge Asylum Decisions in Immigration Courts. ; On June 24, 2020 we collaborated with NLG-Los Angeles, National Immigration Project of the NLG, and the NLG National Office to provide a CLE on 'Fighting for the Release of Detained . The rest were requests for cancellation of deportation orders or other adjustments to immigration status. Couch wrote in his opinion that Anas difficulty recounting the names of the women on the association board weighed against her credibility. Cynthia M. Nunez, Immigration Judge, San Francisco Immigration Court Cynthia M. 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