Thread by @matt_cam

Another sad day for immigration law: The Board of Imm. Appeals proved today that it is not only willing to openly violate our international treaty obligations, but that it really may not understand the basic concept of rogue cops operating with impunity in failed states.

Uniformed officers w/service weapons came to this #asylum applicant's door & violently extorted him, and the BIA went ahead and found that they probably weren't real cops...

because they told him not to tell the cops

And he should have reported to the real cops

what

WHAT

That is absolutely not how any of this works, as anyone who has given even a few seconds of thought to what it might be like to try to survive in a gang-compromised nation like Guatemala would understand.

Rogue cops do this kind of thing *all the time,* and no one can stop them

The simple truth is that the United States only reluctantly (and under pressure) assented to signing the Convention Against Torture, and we've never really been behind it at all. (And, of course, we're not entirely opposed to employing it ourselves.)

newrepublic.com/article/119928…

Immigration judges and ICE attorneys tend to be extremely pro-law enforcement and generally want to believe that cops everywhere are good. This is one of the most galling of all of the many frustrations of trying to present messy, trauma-tinged, extremely human #asylum cases

Shorter BIA:

-let's not assume anyone in uniform w/a service weapon is a cop
-a reasonable person would call police when rogue cops had just threatened to take his eye out if he did
-higher-ups would not know/condone of rogues
-Guat is basically able to control corruption

So, why?

1) We've barred most from seeking #asylum at our border; CAT is one of the only remaining options and must be (further) limited

2) We're forcing asylum-seekers to wait in Guatemala, forcing the absurd pretense that the country & institutions are basically safe

Remember that the Board is not a court, but a politically-appointed collection of DOJ lawyers--quite a few of whom have been recently appointed by either Sessions or Barr.

We have got to bring the #immigrationcourts into the judiciary & make them Article III courts. Now.