The Trump Administration's Cruelty Haunts Our Virtual Immigration Courts How "judicial black sites"

[Judi Lynn]

How “judicial black sites” have come to shape our immigration system.
ARVIND DILAWAR FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Lisa Koop, associate director of legal services for the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), stood with her client in immigration court in September 2019. The client (name withheld for privacy) had escaped violence in Central America and fled to the United States with her young daughter. Here, they were taken into custody by immigration authorities, which landed them in this courtroom, waiting to hear whether they would be granted asylum.

They were initially scheduled with a traditional, in-person immigration judge. But that judge retired and the case was transferred to an ​“immigration adjudication center.” This new judge video conferenced in. Koop says the judge did not allow an opening statement, was not familiar with relevant precedent and did not ask Koop to address any particularities of the case in the closing argument. The judge ruled that, while the case was ​“very sad,” it did not meet the criteria for asylum, then wished Koop’s client ​“good luck” following deportation.

This experience is not unique. According to the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) — the Justice Department agency that oversees these immigration adjudication centers — nearly 300,000 asylum cases have been heard via videoconference in the past two years.

Many of those cases were likely held through these new adjudication centers, which were introduced by the Trump administration in 2017. The operations of immigration adjudication centers remain so opaque that some critics call them ​“judicial black sites.” The NIJC, which advocates on behalf of immigrants, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with other immigrant rights groups in March 2020 to learn how they work, seeking a list of the centers, their procedures and planned expansions.

More:
https://inthesetimes.com/article/virtual-courts-immigration-asylum-seekers-immigration-court

[Solly Mack]

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