SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — As the Trump administration looks to increase the number of deportations of undocumented immigrants, a new battle has opened inside the nation’s immigration courts.
Immigration judges and lawyers are being targeted for following established procedures.
“I think there is a valid fear among the immigration community of attorneys and legal service providers that we are putting ourselves at risk, putting our careers at risk, our license at risk if we’re too vocal about the work that we do,” said Millie Atkinson of the San Francisco Bar Association’s Immigrant Legal Defense Program.
The fear intensified in March when President Donald Trump issued an executive order that accused immigration lawyers of coaching their clients to lie in asylum petitions.
The president then directed the U.S. Attorney General to identify misconduct “such as filing frivolous litigation or engaging in fraudulent practices” and sanction attorneys who “violate professional conduct rules.”
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“The language in that executive order was very threatening, that by helping someone apply for asylum we’re violating our ethical rules as attorneys and that we will be investigated and could be charged and lose our licenses if we continue to help people seeking asylum,” said former immigration judge Ilyce Shugall.
Shugall was an immigration judge between 2017 to 2019. She resigned after then Attorney General Jeff Sessions implemented case quotas during the first Trump administration.
“The executive order is written in such a way that it suggests that even attorneys who are acting as zealous advocates to help individuals pursue relief and are presenting truthful claims may be targeted for their zealous advocacy,” said Shugall, who is now the managing attorney at Immigrant Legal Defense.
She expressed concern about the large number of people being arrested in immigration courts since Trump began his second term.
Shugall said many of those being targeted were allowed to enter the country under humanitarian parole when large caravans of migrants were flooding the border with Mexico during the last two years of Biden’s presidency. These migrants were then able to asylum. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates 2.8 million immigrants were granted humanitarian parole.
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Trump ended that program in January, exposing these migrants to deportation if Department of Homeland Security lawyers can convince immigration judges to close their cases.
“DHS is moving to dismiss the removal proceedings so that DHS can pursue something called expedited removal,” Shugall said..
Immigrants put into expedited removal can still present an asylum claim with the Department of Homeland Security, but it has to be done while they are in detention, where they don’t have the same protections they have in immigration court. If DHS denies their claim they can be deported immediately.
“Representation matters in terms of individuals being granted relief. So by putting them into detention, it reduces the likelihood of representation and reduces the likelihood of being granted relief,” Shugall said.
There’s been an ongoing purge of immigration judges since Trump took office.
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On Inauguration Day, the Justice Department fired the acting head of the immigration court system and three top officials. Since then, more than 100 immigration judges have been fired.
Many were hired in the past two years and were still in their probationary period, but others — like Jennifer Peyton, who oversaw Chicago’s immigration court as assistant chief judge — were also fired with no reason given. She got a three sentence email from Sirce Owen, acting director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), that simply stated “your removal is effective today.”
EOIR, which oversees the nation’s immigration courts, has declined to comment on the firings.
Immigration judges are different than criminal court judges. They are not appointed or elected. They’re civil servants and can be fired like other federal employees. In San Francisco, four judges have been fired in the past three months.
A review of Tracreports, a website run by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, shows several of those fired were approving more than 90% of asylum cases. For comparison, just 4% of asylum seekers are being approved at Adelanto ICE Detention Center in San Bernardino County. Immigration judges have gotten policy memos pressuring them to reject more asylum cases.
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“They can’t flat out say if you don’t do this, you will get fired. But it kind of puts pressure on the judges, knowing if they don’t follow the advice in that memo, they might be putting themselves at risk for being fired or being targeted or being reassigned,” Atkinson said.
As a result of the firing, immigration courts are now down to 600 immigration judges out of the 800 authorized by EOIR. It’s expected the judges that will be hired will be more focused on the Trump administration’s goals.
The rise in detentions at the country’s immigration courts has mobilized immigration advocates to camp out in front of San Francisco’s immigration courthouse to keep an eye out for ICE agents.
“We’re doing protective presence at the immigration court. The idea is that if enough people are here, ICE won’t bother abducting people out of the communities,” said one demonstrator who did not want to be identified.
The activists hand out informational leaflets and offer to accompany immigrants to their appointments. Others are regularly going inside immigration courtrooms to watch over the proceedings and recording people’s names and relevant information in case they get detained.
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“Immigration courts are open to the public, and it’s very important that we have observers there to make sure that due process is being followed and that the immigrants are aware of their rights,” said Eric Leenson, who co-founded the Friends of La Peña Immigrant Rights Committee.
He said he has seen teenagers without a lawyer attend hearings and forced to make decisions about their asylum case.
Leenson said court watchers are also attending hearings in case ICE agents try to detain someone.
“We like to have more people there in case someone needs to go outside the room to accompany an immigrant out, and then we like to have more people there in case there is an incident in which someone does feel intimidated,” Leenson said.
Detentions in the hallways of immigration court have become contentious.
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In June, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested while trying to hold onto a person being detained by immigration agents.
Despite the risk, more than 100 people turned out recently for a court observer training at La Peña in Berkeley.
“It’s important to kind of follow people’s whereabouts, because once they’re picked up, they get lost in the system. And if we know who they were and what time they were picked, it’s much easier subsequently to follow them within the system to look out for their rights,” Leenson said.
Court observers noted that since the courthouse arrests began there’s been an increase in the number of immigrants who are too afraid to show up for a hearing.
“There are a lot of no shows now. People are really scared,” said one observer.
Immigrants who don’t show up for an appointment could have their case dismissed, making them immediately deportable.
“If you don’t show up, you basically abandon any claim that you have to stay in the United States legally,” Atkinson said.
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