Interim Rule from the @DOJ_EOIR rearranging EOIR's org chart to reflect changes made in the Trump era, plus some odd new changes to the BIA and to the Director's role.
@DOJ_EOIR The biggest new change to EOIR's organizational structure is the Office of Policy, created in 2017 and just now being formalized in regulations. This office has been the source of many of the Trump administration's worst changes to immigration courts.
@DOJ_EOIR Board of Immigration Appeals members, known since the creation of the Board as "Board Members," are now going to be officially also called "Appellate Immigration Judges."
The politics of that choice are... interesting.
@DOJ_EOIR The interim rule will also permit, in circumstances where an appeal hasn't been decided within certain time periods, for the EOIR Director to decide appeals!
The regulations previously allowed the A.G. to decide cases in those scenarios, and the A.G. says he's too busy.
@DOJ_EOIR Finally, because allowing the Director to decide appeals conflicts with a current regulation saying the Director cannot do that, the Interim Rule edits the old regulation to make the new delegation of authority permissible.
The rule goes into effect 60 days from Monday.
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Vance is badly wrong here. In 2019, a police informant alleged the guy was in MS-13. He spent a year in ICE detention as a result, then won his case. He’s been out for the last five years, married to a U.S. citizen, has two kids, and STILL has no criminal record at all.
In 2019, Mr. Abrego was arrested outside a Home Depot, his only criminal arrest.
A cop declared that he was a gang member because he was wearing a Bulls jersey and a "confidential informant" said he was in an MS-13 clique in a state he'd never lived in.
When ICE filed evidence against Mr. Abrego in 2019, it submitted its own arrest document, which falsely claimed he had been arrested as part of a murder investigation. Despite this error, the immigration judge had to trust ICE's allegations b/c of caselaw, so he was denied bond.
This guy is part of the group of alleged MS-13 members sent to El Salvador on March 15.
In 2019, a PG County Police informant alleged he was connect to MS-13. He has only traffic tickets and has apparently been living a quiet life with family since winning protection in 2019.
In 2019, an immigration judge agreed he was likely to be persecuted if sent back to El Salvador - a protection known as "withholding of removal."
Despite having won his case, on March 12, 2025, ICE arrested him. Three days later, he was illegally sent to El Salvador.
NEW: An ACLU filing sheds light on how "Andry," the gay make-up artist sent to rot in a prison in El Salvador, ended up labeled "Tren de Aragua" by ICE.
Documents filed by ICE shows that the ONLY evidence ICE listed for membership in TdA was a tattoo of a crown with "mom" below.
Here are the tattoos that ICE declared were evidence that Andry, a gay make-up artist who came to a port of entry seeking asylum from Venezuela, was a member of the vicious gang "Tren de Aragua."
I am not making this up. This is it. "Mom" and "Dad" with crowns over them.
The document, a gang questionnaire that was filled out when Andry was first detained by ICE, is maddening.
Andry keeps saying he has no connection with the gangs, yet the ICE officer filling out the form keeps writing in things suggesting he's linked to Tren de Aragua.
NEW: Another documents filed by the ACLU is an unclassified ICE document showing what it alleges are Tren de Aragua tattoos. The @nypost also published these in 2024.
But reverse image search shows these images were stolen from the internet and have nothing to do with TdA! 🧵
The "Jump-Man" imagine, which the New York Post claimed "refers to 23 de Enero ... a Venezuelan neighborhood" (it's Michael Jordan's number, guys), was first posted on Twitter in 2015 by a random Michael Jordan fan account.
The AK-47 tattoo posted in the ICE Homeland Security Investigations "intelligence report" appears to be taken from a random Turkish tattoo artist's profile.
NEW: @ACLU obtained ICE's "Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide," confirming all it takes to be sent to rot in prison in El Salvador is 1) having a tattoo an ICE officer says is a "gang tattoo" and 2) displaying "logos," "symbols," or clothes an ICE officer says are gang signs.
In order for ICE to declare someone an "Alien Enemy," ICE must first determine they are a Venezuelan over age 14, and then second find 8 points on a scoring guide they made up.
It's 4 points for having alleged gang tattoos and 4 points for displaying gang "logos" or "symbols."
This checklist is shocking. A person can be declared an "Alien Enemy" based ONLY on communications with someone ICE says is a member, and nothing more.
6 points for texting a "known member of TDA" + 3 points for Venmoing or CashApping a "known member" = 9 points = TDA member.
NEW: Judge Brinkema UNLOADED on ICE's "evidence" of TdA membership:
"This is a terrible, terrible affidavit. If this were before me in a criminal case and you were asking to get a warrant issued on this, I'd throw you out of my chambers."
Here's an example of the "rigorous vetting" of gang membership that the Trump admin claims it's doing:
A woman admitted that her dead ex-husband, who she left 10 years ago, had been a TdA member.
From that — and nothing more! — ICE declared she "is a senior member of the TDA."
Judge Brinkema, on ICE's "evidence" a woman was a Tren de Aragua member:
- "Terrible, terrible affidavit"
- "Very shoddy work"
- "No agent should do this type of editorializing, not when people's liberty is at stake"
- "This is assumptions and putting words in people's mouths."