One of my clients was abused by dad, raped at 8, raped at 14 (DV), kidnapped by the gang/held as a sex slave at 17 where she was raped daily and burned with acid, the gang member kidnapped and raped HER 8 year old child, and her last spouse raped her and her other child (16)(DV). All of this abuse was from different men. Gender-based persecution qualifies for asylum. EOIR pretends women are not attacked, mutilated, and tortured on the basis of their gender, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. When will the gaslighting from @DOJ_EOIR end?

The asylum system is now designed to deny people asylum. ICE exercises near complete control. They appeal almost every grant of asylum in many jurisdictions, and the Board has specific case law for how grants are treated on appeal to make it nearly impossible to defend a grant. The system discriminates against people on the basis of national origin. For example, Central American and Mexican asylum seekers are held to different legal standards and burdens of proof than asylum seekers from other parts of the world.

This case is garbage: a thread. The Board issued a decision in Matter of H-L-S-A-, 28 I&N Dec. 228 (BIA 2021). In this case, the Board picks a fact pattern that doesn't apply to most Central American gang informant/witness cases, and ignores/distorts the law to attempt to deny 100s of 1000s of people asylum.

My fury cannot be contained today. I will say it again: practicing before EOIR as a woman is like being constantly gaslit by your abuser. And for the women fighting for their lives, it's yet another place where their voice isn't heard. These men (and women!) sit in their chairs wearing their robes and tell us all that women aren't targeting for being women, that men don't abuse women, that we're imagining it, that the government protects women, that giving a woman a piece of paper is protection...

Another excerpt. The 10th has published case law finding gender + nationality sufficient for a particular social group. We cited the case. A breath later he denied saying the 10th had not spoken to the issue and he found the 11th persuasive instead. It’s just someone’s life. This IJ also found that my client wasn't persecuted on account of being a woman. Her husband abused her and her two female daughters for years and tried to kill her. The abuse started because he was mad when she gave birth that the baby was not a boy.

I turn 37 tomorrow. I’ve represented asylum seekers (mostly Central American families) for 7 long years under two administrations. I can’t stop thinking about how many of my clients are brave women around the same age who are still fighting for the basic right to live. I have a client who was detained in a detention camp in the desert under Obama, who argued she/her kids were national security threats who couldn’t have a bond. They were released after 6 months and won asylum 6 years later. She’s applied to be a resident. She turns 38 next week.

Another DISGUSTING proposed rule from EOIR to completely f*ck over asylum seekers. WHEN WILL THIS BULLSHIT END? A THREAD:

https://twitter.com/charanya_k/status/1308146233136078852

Asylum applications are 12 page applications. It asks about years and years of background information, as well as info on the harm a person has experienced or fears. It uses legal terms of art non-lawyers cannot understand and must be completed in English.

EOIR is terrible: a thread. An IJ found that (1) the resetting of a hearing with a 21 day notice making it IMPOSSIBLE to comply with 15 day standing order requirements and prepare a case under completely new COVID-19 rules with new filing requirements, (2) my explanation that I cannot prepare a case in 2 business days EVER to meet the 15 day filing deadline (also argued a due process violation), but particularly in this moment because of my daily involvement in my father's ongoing medical care for his recent paralyzation,

The system is so unbelievably stacked against those seeking protection and this admin has done everything it can to completely undermine the truth in asylum hearings. The IJs love to point to US Govt reports as "best" authority on country conditions and they are being manipulated

https://twitter.com/camiloreports/status/1303768145451196417

"Notwithstanding the clarification provided by Mr. Murphy, he has a good faith belief that the testimony Secretary Nielsen subsequently provided on December 20, 2018, regarding KSTs constituted a knowing and deliberate submission of false material information."

Good Morning to everyone except EOIR, who wouldn’t know what due process looked like if it beat them over the head.
1/4 “The Board of Immigration Appeals welcomes interested members of the public to file amicus curiae briefs discussing the below issue:
2/4

The latest BS from the Dept of “Justice” today: The Board of Immigration Appeals has issued a decision in the Matter of R-C-R, 28 I&N Dec. 74 (BIA 2020). justice.gov/eoir/page/file… Short version: unrepresented asylum seeker is detained and in a preliminary hearing by video is ordered to submit asylum application on a date prior to the next preliminary hearing, in English. When the app isn’t filed on time, IJ orders removal before next hrg.

Excerpt from oral decision of an immigration judge sentencing someone to death in Mexico: Finally court acknowledges expert testimony that respondent is very vulnerable and likely to be persecuted and tortured if returned. However, expert testified to multiple motivations of cartels and court finds cartels are motivated by money and power and thus any targeting of respondent is to further their criminal enterprise.

I have to go into immigration court today. It's another location where state violence regularly occurs, only it's out of the public eye. It's where immigration judges sentence people to death... ...because of a political system hell bent on sending people seeking protection back into the hands of corrupt governments and transnational gangs KNOWING they will be tortured and murdered.

If you don’t know what rubber bullets look like, here’s a collection of the ones DPD shot at us yesterday. The black tall one hit me in the leg. The three in the back are hard foam-topped and solid plastic on the bottom. The two in front are like hockey pucks. #EndPoliceBrutality Police have been shooting these at people at point black range. One also hit me directly in the face. I’ve seen multiple people being carried out of protests with head and eye injuries from direct hits. This is in addition to flash bangs, tear gas, and pepper spray.

The state violence being unleashed across the country by police departments and national guard units is despicable. Ppl are protesting police brutality against communities of color and the police and elected officials seem to believe doubling down on the violence is the answer. In Denver tonight protestors were on their knees before the police chanting and peacefully protesting minutes before DPD and the CO national guard unleashed a torrent of tear gas into then crowd, followed by the firing of rubber bullets into the chaos as ppl fled.

You literally cannot make this shit up. I tweeted about my client, a former Mexican LEO who was LITERALLY kidnapped by government officials who called the cartel, put the phone to his ear, and was threatened to be burned alive? His CAT case was denied today. This is bullshit. Utter bullshit. Family member was kidnapped one month ago by people in military uniforms who beat him in front of his family and asked about my client. Family member hasn't been heard from. IJ says it's "convenient" that family member was just kidnapped. WTF?!

Imagine this: attorney files motion to withdraw in asylum case 10 days before a final hrg. Judge grants withdrawal TWO DAYS before final asylum hrg. Person shows up to court, is denied a continuance to find a new attorney, and is told she is unlikely to win an "extortion case." Judge spends 2 full minutes discussing how she won't win her asylum case if she goes forward while she cries, b4 he has heard a word about her case, and then tells her she can take pre-conclusion vol. departure. She cries, indicates she doesn't understand, cries more. Takes VD.

No decision in the case today but I want to talk about what I saw at GEO. I saw a guard at the front desk wearing a mask below his nose and interacting with mail carriers, attorneys, and other GEO employees coming into the facility unmasked. All visitors used the same two plastic pens, without gloves, to fill out forms saying they are healthy. I witnessed GEO guards walking around without masks and transporting detainees without masks.

So @ICEgov wants to directly take PPE for immigration enforcement. My sister is a nurse and can’t use N95 respirators in her hospital to care for COVID-19 patients because the supply is so low. This vital PPE needs to go to med profs to care for the sick - no to help deport ppl.

https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1241445480271413251

Update: @ICEgov is doubling down on their reckless disregard for public health and access to counsel. They refuse to release those in detention and will now require all visitors, including lawyers, to find and wear PPE including N95 masks which no one can get. #freethemall

This is blatantly political. @realDonaldTrump continues to use this global pandemic as a way to push through racist and xenophobic policies in order to keep his re-election campaign running. He has fought for years to eliminate asylum and is now using COVID-19 as an excuse. At the same time he puts you at risk by disregarding the threat of COVID-19 and by his incompetence in the current handling of this crisis. We have no tests, no real numbers of those who have contracted the virus, and hospitals lack vital supplies.

The deportation machine is up and running. My client detained at GEO was told he is being deported tomorrow. He has a case pending in the 10th Circuit. Meanwhile I potentially have COVID-19 and cannot go to the detention center. To clarify: I have not yet been able to confirm with ICE. I have sent an email to the person in charge at the detention center to see if this is true. People are told lots of things in detention by lots of people. Phone lines are backed up because of COVID-19 and I can't go.