Every time I win an asylum claim I'm struck by how much has to go right to eke out a win.

I'm overjoyed for my client, who's breathing sighs of relief through the numbness. As his lawyer, I try to prep giving a holistic view of the entire system but that's risky: too scary.
I can't say much about the claim, but his deportation would have been a death sentence. His persecutors are still looking for him.

I can't imagine the courage it takes to testify in an asylum hearing. But our judge was willing to listen and get the truth.

That's all we ask for.
Just a chance. That's what due process is about.

It was a good case. But still so many places it could have gone wrong, not the least of which was location of the court. These things shouldn't matter, but they do.
If I could help change one thing about the system, my life's work would be complete.

Let's start with exposing the structural nativism of the system.

I hope to stand with all of you to make that happen.

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More from @HMAesq

11 Oct
Camouflaged white nationalists Exhibit 843: @JoeGuzzardi19. This guy writes for @PFIRorg (yeah: Progressives for Immigration Reform) a Tanton-Network front group.

The usual drivel: "Haitians are coming, and Afghans too, what will we do? Remember in '22!"

news-journal.com/opinion/guzzar…
What's funny - or sad - is this article came with this Bible verse: Image
What about these commandments, Joe?

“The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 19:34
Read 9 tweets
10 Oct
The anti-immigrant movement should really be called the deportation movement. that's what they're really about.

Think about how different the discourse would be if we were arguing about how to let people in instead of how to keep - and kick - them out.
Nearly seventy years ago, the Supreme Court described deportation as "a drastic punishment, and at times equivalent to banishment or exile." Finding the stakes to be high, it refused to read laws resulting in deportation broadly.
Since then, Congress has passed increasingly broad deportation laws. Long-term immigrants are deported for minor infractions to countries they never knew. Others who flee persecution are deported to their deaths. The machine sweeps up even some US citizens and immigrant veterans.
Read 14 tweets
3 Oct
We immigration lawyers have become desensitized to the struggles of our clients.

This is not to say we don't feel for them. We do. But it doesn't shock us.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of people still ask questions like, "Why can't they come legally?"
So here are some things our clients commonly face that most people may not realize.

Remember, these aren't isolated examples.

These are the rules, not the exceptions.
"My mom is dying of cancer and I can't go home to be with her."

Why? The 10 year bar to reentry, introduced by the most Draconian immigration legislation from 1996: IIRIRA.
Read 19 tweets
30 Sep
BOOM!

Just won another major milestone in the quest to unseal the #TantonPapers. If you're just getting here, some background:

motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
After our win in the Michigan Supreme Court and remand back to the Court of Claims, the University filed a motion to dismiss. This morning, it was denied.

Decision:
hmalegal.com/uploads/3/7/9/…
The University's principal argument since the beginning was that the gift agreement between Tanton and UM served to insulate the sealed papers from FOIA.

Today, they lost that argument.
Read 10 tweets
10 Sep
Who is the anti-immigrant movement?

It's time to pull off their masks. My colleague @MarkPotok with @C4ARR put together profiles of key players in this network.

They're the reason we're in this mess.
1. Dan Stein

President of Tanton flagship @FAIRImmigration and faithful acolyte of John Tanton, racist architect of the movement.

Wants to bring back racial quotas into immigration.
Thinks Latinos and Muslims are a threat to American identity.
2. Mark Krikorian

ED of @CIS_org, the Tanton "think tank."

Virulent Islamophobe and white nationalist sympathizer.
Pushes racist agenda under academic guise.
Thinks immigrant children should be sent to Guantánamo.

More: radicalrightanalysis.com/2021/08/03/mar…
Read 10 tweets
1 Sep
I've seen a lot of ink over the last two weeks attempting to explain the Taliban's lightning takeover of this beautiful country. Biden botched the withdrawal. Afghans are tribal. The Taliban wouldn't have been able to if they weren't popular. Pakistan enabled them.
I won't opine on the accuracy of these statements. People a lot smarter than I can duke it out. My calling is to help the traumatized and voiceless and take their stories to lawmakers to give them a voice. Same I did in Tijuana and Texas and at Dulles during the Muslim Ban.
I went to Dulles again on Sunday night when I found out a young Afghan had been detained there for nearly 3 days. No lawyer, no info. We dutifully filed our G-28's even though they're routinely ignored by CBP. (I've seen this movie before. A lot.)
Read 14 tweets

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