McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — U.S. immigration courts are under-staffed and overwhelmed with 3.7 million backlogged immigration cases, the most in U.S. history. On Thursday’s Border Report Live show, we discuss how courts are changing what they do and how that might affect case outcomes, as well as new laws the Trump administration is using for deportations.
Our special guest is immigration lawyer Claudia Galan, who owns Galan Law Firms with offices in Edinburg and San Antonio, Texas. She talks about the process an asylum-seeker goes through once they are apprehended by Border Patrol or U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers along the border. She discusses what charges they face, what court appearance they’ll make, and when. Most importantly, when they are allowed to seek or speak to legal counsel in the United States.
We compare current immigration court hearings to those just a few years ago and discuss how more digitization of documents, and fewer in-person hearings, can affect case outcomes.
Alien Enemies Act of 1798
President Donald Trump recently invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelan nationals he claims are members of the terrorist organization Tren de Aragua. They’ve been sent to El Salvador for a year with no chance of U.S. immigration court hearings during that time.
American Immigration Lawyers Association President Kelli Stump calls it’s “an extraordinary overreach of the president’s authority.”
“He is arguing that suspected members of a gang constitute an invading force to justify using the Alien Enemies Act,” Stump said.
The last time the act was invoked was to incarcerate Japanese-Americans who were put in internment camps during World War II.
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School said the act is only to be used during war-time by a president “to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation. The law permits the president to target these immigrants without a hearing and based only on their country of birth or citizenship.”
Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan this week told News Nation the administration plans to “keep arresting criminal aliens. We’ll keep arresting Venezuelans and we’ll deport them either through Title 8 or another way.”
Homan added “We’ll keep doing what we’re doing. We’ll let DOJ (Department of Justice) and the courts fight this out. … We’re not going to stop what we’re doing, we’re going to keep targeting the worst of the worst.”
Calling for impeachment of judges
President Trump also is calling for the impeachment of a federal judge, U.S. Chief District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered a flight carrying Venezuelans who were deported under the Alien Enemies Act to turn back, which the administration did not do.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts earlier this week issued a rare statement against impeaching judges saying “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.