Thread by @LilySAxelrod

1/? I’m at the @AILANational conference where @USCIS director Ur Jaddou is speaking. She says the agency has almost 20% staff vacancy due to hiring freeze and they are aggressively hiring with the goal of 5% by the end of the calendar year.

2/ Unsurprisingly she says to be ready for a “fee restructure” that they are “carefully reviewing” now. Hope to issue new proposed rule structure for an “equitable” structure “in the coming months.” (Courts nixed Trump admin’s last attempt to raise fees)

3/Jaddou reminds us that USCIS has not received extra funding to staff up for new, large, time sensitive programs like Uniting for Ukraine.

4/Jaddou commits to continuing and improving communication and public engagement with AILA. This has been a big improvement since the shutdown of all liaison relationships and attorney lines of communication.

5/ @USCIS Ur Jaddou to @AILANational attorneys: “We are all serving same people.” Nice words. Hope to see more action.

6/ Now Doyle of OPLA (ICE prosecutors in immigration court) is hyping up her team. Acknowledges that “dismissals” jn EOIR is causing problems as well as good news for attorneys and our clients.

6/ Re: litigation on prosecutorial discretion — Doyle says that Texas and Louisiana “took a page out of AILA’s book” in suing the government on new immigration policy. I do not have the bandwidth to dig through the many layers of bs that this statement is covered with.

7/ Stay on new PD memo extended through the 24th. Lots of uncertainty about what’s next. “PD memo isn’t just about the backlog” - “we have to run after EOIR” adding courts and judges across the country. ICE staffing has to catch up and PD is part of that too.

8/ Doyle of OPLA says ICE attorneys are working hard this week and next to get cases processed under the current prosecutorial discretion memo since there’s such uncertainty about what’s next. She seems pessimistic.

9/ She mentions jaywalking in NYC without getting a ticket as an example of PD. It’s not incorrect but wow what an awful example. A ticket is not deportation… and who exactly gets to openly violate the law in the street without getting harassed or killed by cops?

10/ For FY2023 there is “commitment” to hire 260+ attorneys and a bunch of support staff but if EOIR keeps expanding OPLA may still be playing catch-up.

11/ Doyle complains that EOIR is slow to move into digitization that would allow more efficient remote appearances by ICE counsel, so setting up new offices for new courts etc is expensive. “We compete within the budget” with ERO (deportation officers), CBP etc.

12/ AILA asks Jaddou: what’s your wishlist / priority for approving efficiency to reduce the backlog?
Jaddou: one example, why do defensive asylum winners having to go to Infopass? Why don’t we just get info ourselves and process it? “Antiquated technology.”

13/ Jaddou brags that USCIS is embracing new technology and prioritizing tech to figure out “what are humans doing in the adjudication process that a computer could do”? Eg why not just have computer issue an EAD based on pending application rather than another person?

14/ Jaddou: EB AOS - “we have to pull those [physical] files” which is hard without admin staff. Would save resources and time to digitize paper up front to avoid moving boxes around even if we are still accepting apps on paper.

15/ AILA to Jaddou: if your tech doesn’t work for lawyers, it doesn’t work for you.
Jaddou: we get that you can’t use myUSCIS with your electronic intake. We know we need to build an API to communicate between your systems and ours eg the way the IRS does. Not easy.

16/ New asylum processing rule is weeks old, we are doing our best but the humanitarian mission needs funding from Congress - we can’t continue to get all that funding from filing fees as our humanitarian programs (asylum etc) grow.

17/ AILA: we have serious concerns that due process will be the first thing out the window w new rule, that asylum applicants will get “chewed up” in the fast processing time.
Doyle: maybe less OPLA role in referred asylum cases - maybe we won’t even appear.

18/ Jaddou: a lot of the new asylum officers are hires within RAIO, with solid experience.
Doyle: says it’s good for an initial asylum adjudication to be non adversarial.
AILA: yes in principal but is there actually due process esp for folks who have to rush forward w/o counsel

19/ Switching gears to #DACA. Jaddou “celebrates” 10th anniversary of DACA yesterday. This is bs because it means as of today, there are zero new children “aging in” because anyone meets the requirement of arrival before 6/15/07 is now over 15.

20/ Doyle mentions, out of nowhere, interest / initiative to expand eligibility for military service beyond US citizens and LPRs. Anybody know what that’s about?

21/ Everybody is mad at Congress for failure at updating / fixing the system. The one thing we can all agree on.

22/ Jaddou: we are playing whackamole with allocating limited resources to “whatever is important today” - vulnerable to being paralyzed by a new humanitarian need or new immigration reform.

23/ Doyle complaining about ICE morale when there are “safety issues” eg getting doxxed when giving their government emails to the public (??), morale affected by the constant priority changes and “hot temperature” around immigration policy “though ERO mission isn’t political.”

24/ Now there’s yet another multi-layered bs statement. It’s not “political” to “represent the agency in immigration court”…?!

25/ Jaddou: talk to us before litigating! “Our litigation portfolio has quadrupled and once we’re in that posture it’s harder to come to a solution. It takes time away from other things.”
…if you would talk to us and listen to us, and do your job, we wouldn’t have to sue!

26/ Don’t beg us to talk to you about our concerns when your system is built to ignore and divert our inquiries, and to fight us in court instead of working to settle cases and fix the illegal shit we are suing about in the first place?

27/ Panel is over but I have to say there is nothing funnier to me than @DHSgov complaining that they don't have enough money / staff to handle growing immigration courts and large numbers of respondents. Which agency do they think put all these people in removal proceedings...?

28/ Grabbed a glass of champagne and missed the award! 🤷🏻‍♀️

There we go!