Immigration Law

Former immigration judge is disciplined for criticizing GOP policy at deportation hearing

A retired immigration judge has been fined $1,000 and barred from federal service for 30 months for criticizing Republican immigration policy while on the bench.

Sep 18, 2019 10:50 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Judge threatens to toss prison officials in hot cells; $37M award in baby powder suit

Texas corrections chief testifies after judge threatens to lock up officials in hot prisons Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Bryan Collier acknowledged in court Tuesday that the agency had failed to record prison temperatures in seven of eight prisons covered by a settlement in a suit over stifling…

Sep 12, 2019 4:57 PM CDT

Supreme Court says US can implement rule that bans most asylum applications at southern border

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday evening allowed a Trump administration rule to take effect that effectively bans asylum applications by most immigrants at the southern border.

Sep 12, 2019 9:58 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: New win for flag burner in SCOTUS case; Johnson & Johnson seeks mistrial for stricken closing

News Roundup

Sep 11, 2019 4:00 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: A$AP Rocky’s Swedish lawyer is shot; nationwide injunction restored in asylum case

Judge restores nationwide injunction blocking asylum ban A federal judge in San Francisco has restored a nationwide injunction blocking new rules that effectively barred immigrants at the southern border from applying for asylum unless they were from Mexico. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco had narrowed…

Sep 9, 2019 4:35 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Judge says ICE can’t issue ‘blanket’ parole denials; French judge gives rooster room to crow

ICE cannot issue ‘blanket’ parole denials to immigrants seeking asylum Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New Orleans field office must make individual parole decisions rather than issue blanket denials for immigrants seeking asylum. The judge…

Sep 6, 2019 5:07 PM CDT

‘Negative impacts of the travel ban have been felt around our nation,’ ABA president says

On Wednesday, ABA President Judy Perry Martinez urged leaders of the judiciary committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate to ensure that the waiver provision of Presidential Proclamation 9645, known as the “travel ban,” is implemented.

Sep 5, 2019 10:37 AM CDT

The founders of SimpleCitizen resolve to streamline the immigration process

Thanks to love—and subpar customer service—immigration is getting simpler.

Sep 1, 2019 1:00 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Ex-law dean Norman Lefstein dies; inmate who got life for stealing $50 is released

Former law dean Norman Lefstein dies at age 82 Norman Lefstein, a former dean of Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law, died Thursday at age 82. Lefstein has been described as one of the giants in the legal profession and the architect of the modern indigent defense reform movement. He…

Aug 30, 2019 2:32 PM CDT

Debut novelist’s tale of Sri Lankan refugees wins 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

In the latest episode of the Modern Law Library, Sharon Bala talks with the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles about the true stories behind her fictional novel and what winning the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction means to her.

Aug 28, 2019 9:46 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers speak; judge gives assignment for veteran lies

Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers speak at unusual hearing For more than an hour on Tuesday, women who accused financier Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing them when they were young spoke about the impact in an unusual federal court hearing. Many of the women urged prosecutors to continue investigating Epstein’s associates after…

Aug 27, 2019 4:06 PM CDT

Pro bono hotline for immigrants says ICE retaliated after portrayal on ‘Orange Is the New Black’

Leaders of a hotline that provides pro bono lawyers for poor immigrants claim immigration officials retaliated after a fictional television portrayal of its services. Immigration and Customs Enforcement banned free calls to the hotline run in Florida by Freedom for Immigrants on Aug. 7, less than two weeks after the…

Aug 27, 2019 2:28 PM CDT

Daily government newsletter for immigration judges included links to white nationalist website

Updated: A daily government email newsletter to immigration judges sometimes summarized or linked to articles published by a white nationalist website called VDare, according to a report by BuzzFeed News. The email newsletter is distributed by the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review to all immigration court employees, according…

Aug 26, 2019 7:30 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Judge says she’d castrate defendant if law permitted it; Schulte Roth sued for alleged bias

Judge says she would castrate man if law allowed it A judge in Oklahoma City sentenced a man who installed home security systems to life in prison for putting secret cameras in clients’ bedrooms and bathrooms to make videos of girls. Judge Amy Palumbo told the defendant, Ryan Alden, that…

Aug 23, 2019 4:58 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Lawyer accused of deducting kickbacks; Greenland purchase was exam hypothetical

Lawyer is accused of claiming illegal kickbacks as business expenses Houston personal injury lawyer Jeffrey Stern is accused of paying kickbacks to case runners who illegally solicited clients and then deducting the payments as business expenses. He is also accused of trying to conceal the scheme by tampering with evidence…

Aug 21, 2019 4:26 PM CDT