Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Aug 23, 2019 5 tweets 3 min read Read on X
NEW!

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.

Reading them now.
s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspect…
@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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More from @ReichlinMelnick

Mar 30
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. Image
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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. Image
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. Image
Read 9 tweets
Mar 30
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! 🧵 Image
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. Image
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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. Image
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Read 11 tweets
Mar 30
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. Image
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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." Image
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. Image
Read 11 tweets
Mar 28
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."

This is why due process matters! This is a terrible, terrible affidavit. If this were before me in a criminal case and you were asking to get a warrant issue on this, I'd throw you out of my chambers. No agent should do this type of editorializing, not when people's liberty is at stake. I expect more from the government than this kind of very shoddy work. This is assumptions and putting words in people's mouths. You don't have it here. I was shocked when I saw this. It came in late on Thursday afternoon and I was getting tired at the end of the day and it woke me up. But anyway, you don't have it. It's not here.
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." THE COURT: All right. And it is the sorriest statement I've ever seen. First of all, it's pure hearsay in the sense that it's not any evidence that he himself, as I understand it, directly has. In other words, he did not interrogate either of these two people and hear this directly. His statement is that it was reported to him that this was done. And if you look at the seminal paragraphs in his statement, paragraph 14, this is what he says:
(As read): "Upon arrest, the petitioners were read their Miranda Rights. agreed to speak with the border patrol agents. She stated that she is associated with the TDA terrorist organization. She stated that she was previously married to Mr. , a member of TDA. She stated that she is from the municipality of Aragua, Venezuela, where TDA is based, and she knows members of TDA. She stated that she separated from her ex-husband approximately 10 years ago. She stated that her ex-husband was killed by the Venezuelan government due to his affiliation with TDA. She stated she met after separati...
illegally." Two paragraphs later, paragraph 16, the same apparently investigating agents, draw the conclusion: (As read): is a senior member of the TDA." How do you get from somebody who was married possibly 10 years ago to a TDA gang member, marriage, all of a sudden she's a senior member? This is a terrible, terrible affidavit. If this were before me in a criminal case and you were asking to get a warrant issue on this, I'd throw you out of my chambers.
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."
Read 5 tweets
Mar 27
NEW! The Trump administration appears to have sent a married father with NO CRIMINAL RECORD to rot in a prison in El Salvador because of a PAPERWORK ERROR.

This man doesn’t even have tattoos! But his paperwork has two different peoples’ ID numbers listed and the wrong last name! Image
More from the article: his family even got evidence from Venezuela proving he has no criminal record in that country either.

This adds yet another case to the growing list of examples of people seemingly sent to rot in prison in El Salvador due to the Trump admin's sloppiness. Image
ALSO: from this reporting, even if the paperwork errors didn't happen, Mr. Reyes Mota should not have been sent to El Salvador!

The President's proclamation applies only to MEMBERS of the gang. But here the accusation is that he "may" have been an "associate." Not even a member! Image
Read 4 tweets
Mar 26
NEW: @MotherJones reports that one of the men renditioned to El Salvador is Neri Alvarado, who was working in Dallas as a baker. An ICE agent told him they were questioning all men with tattoos.

Neri has an AUTISM AWARENESS TATTOO in honor of his 15-year-old brother with autism. Image
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An ICE agent told Neri Alvarado "We're finding and questioning everyone who has tattoos, and that's why he was arrested.

Stunningly, after Neri explained his autism tattoos' meanings, THE ICE AGENT SAID HE WAS CLEAN. And yet he stayed detained — then got sent to El Salvador! Still, Alvarado was detained by ICE outside his apartment in early February and brought in for questioning, Juan Enrique Hernández, the owner of two Venezuelan bakeries in the Dallas area and Alvarado’s boss, told Mother Jones. One day later, Hernández went to see him in detention and asked him to explain what had happened. Alvarado told Hernández that an ICE agent had asked him if he knew why he had been picked up; Alvarado said that he did not. “Well, you’re here because of your tattoos,” the ICE agent replied, according to Hernández. “We’re finding and questioning everyone who has tattoo...
Another man renditioned to El Salvador by the Trump admin has been identified as Arturo Suárez, a Venezuelan musician who first entered the US at a port of entry (not illegally). He has no criminal record here or in ANY country — but like Neri Alvarado and others, he has tattoos. Image
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Read 6 tweets

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