I've always said that ICE's lawless excesses would inevitably become too big for Americans to ignore, and while that day may not be here yet this report should get us there a little faster. This goes *so* far beyond immigration enforcement
You should already care that ICE constantly lies to the public and the courts about the people it rips from their families, detains in terrible conditions, and violently deports. But a lot of US citizens don't + never will, so let's say you're one of them. This report is for you
Read this paragraph, and then read it again, and then read it out loud to someone nearby and start a conversation about why an immigration agency has any right to conduct warrantless surveillance on all of us in the course of enforcing non-criminal statutes
"small government conservative" or "person who supports ICE"
If you can read this and think that ICE should not only still exist but should be expanded, you're not a "conservative." You're a fascist.
I welcome the support of everyone who has been yelling about "states rights" since the Alito draft leak in the struggle to #abolishICE. Surely if the states can deny women healthcare they can try to mitigate this unaccountable surveillance state, who's with me
Fascism always starts with claims of threats to the nation's borders which justify extralegal measures, usually before letting border cops loose in the interior and identifying domestic threats among us.
This has all happened before elsewhere. It's already here, now.
If you haven't already, please read @BuddJenn's take on the existential threat DHS poses to our future
It's good to have everyone see what honest lawyers always knew: #SCOTUS decisions are historically unmoored from compelling arguments, "Constitutional reasoning," or much more than the will of the majority voting block.
Wtf else did you think "substantive due process" ever was?
Originalism, textualism, balancing tests, the "reasonable man," strict scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny, "penumbras" of rights--it's all made up, folks
Bill Douglas scrawled opinions out on airline cocktail napkins, Scalia had his seances with Thomas Jefferson, Kavanaugh I assume drinks beer until it makes sense
1/ Marriage should be a two-year initial contract, renewable at the joint option of the parties for whatever period of time they choose with a default renewal period of five years the first time and ten each subsequent renewal
2/ If the parties are in the minority of humanity who can realistically commit to sexual monogamy for life that can be specified as a term of the contract, subject to amendment at the parties' joint option at any time
3/ (and for those who think I'm being too transactional about this the current model is already a legally binding contract)
Hey #immigrationtwitter, quick question live from USCIS Lawrence: what is a "reasonable period of time"? 5 mins? 25? We're going on 30
Interviewer has refused to interview my client on the actual subject of the interview we are here for, relying on absurdly bad prior findings without giving us a chance to (1) see the report they were based on or (2) offer any testimony to address USCIS's hearsay summary of them
Interviewer is also using entirely the wrong legal standard, shifting the burden to someone who has nothing to do with the allegations--but that hardly even seems like the point anymore after watching my clients being treated the way they just were
1/ The current 10+ month delay to process and issue basic 1-yr immigrant work permits (EADs) suggests a part of the system which should be not reformed or made more efficient, but abolished. Your EAD should come stapled to a qualifying application's filing receipt, full stop.
2/ An EAD currently issues when applicants have demonstrated (1) ID + (2) that they have a qualifying application (eg permanent residency) pending which meets the basic eligibility requirements for that application. What if #2 were "has paid the filing fee for that application"?
3/ sure you'd get some frivolous filers totally unqualified for the application they are filing desperate to score a 1-yr EAD + the rights to work/drive which come with it. But there are ways to screen for totally bogus filings w/out the totally unacceptable backlogs we now have
the fake German heiress from the Netflix show also tried to seek #asylum in the US from an EU member state based on the inconvenience that might result from ppl knowing she was a fake German heiress, which feels like it should have been more of a story all around
Inventing Anna('s Particular Social Group)
(just a little asylum humor there, don't mind me)
Anyway if you agree with Jeff Sessions that my clients fleeing torture and death at the hands of Central American gangs are abusing the system when they apply for asylum, pls accept this as a helpful example of what abusing the system looks like
how were we ever supposed to know that the woman who spent months siding with an abusive mother in lying about her child's suicide while publicly fundraising off of accusing another child of her murder was a shameless grifter?
Sorry for the hyperlocal subtweet, but IYKYK. I didn't have much of an opinion about her before that, but just beyond all accepted norms of decency, humanity, and what I understand to be activism--and if we were still doing journalism around here you'd already know that
When all you've got is "only a right-wing "citizen journalist" troll was covering this!" all I'm hearing is an indictment of our Boston media class. Not the troll.
This is what happens when we put people over causes, and personalities over principle.