NEW YORK, CMC—Immigration advocates have condemned a Trump administration memo calling for sanctions, critiques, and stricter oversight of attorneys representing Caribbean and different immigrants in immigration and federal courts in the USA.
If carried out, immigration advocates say the directive would create one other barrier for Caribbean and different immigrants searching for authorized illustration.
Donald Trump
“The Trump administration’s newest memo is a direct assault on due course of and entry to justice,” Murad Awawdeh, president and chief government officer of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), informed the Caribbean Media Company on Sunday.
“By imposing pointless sanctions and oversight, this directive seeks to intimidate attorneys from representing immigrants, making it even simpler for the federal government to fast-track deportations with out honest hearings. That is an assault on our constitutional proper to a good day in courtroom.
“Because the federal authorities escalates its assaults on immigrant rights, New York should take motion to guard our communities from Trump’s mass deportation agenda,” mentioned Awawdeh, including that passing the New York For All Act, Entry to Illustration Act and the BUILD Act “will clarify that our state won’t be complicit in Trump’s horrific anti-New York insurance policies.”
He mentioned these payments would broaden authorized illustration for Caribbean and different immigrants and “strengthen protections towards unjust deportations.
“The state should totally make investments US$165 million in authorized companies funding to make sure that all New Yorkers, no matter standing, have the authorized assist they want,” Awawdeh mentioned.
Immigration Impression, a venture of the American Immigration Council, famous that the Trump memo directs the Lawyer Basic and the Division of Homeland Safety Secretary to take disciplinary and punitive motion towards attorneys working towards in nationwide courts.
“Whereas the memo is broad, it takes specific goal at immigration legal professionals, professional bono attorneys representing asylum seekers in immigration courtroom, and organizations, such because the American Immigration Council, that problem the federal authorities’s immigration insurance policies in courtroom,” it mentioned.
Immigration Impression mentioned the memo comes amidst a number of others concentrating on regulation companies which have challenged the present or prior Trump administration in “quite a lot of methods.”
In an unprecedented use of government energy, Immigration Impression mentioned the White Home has “stripped safety clearances, restricted authorities contracts, and in any other case interfered with a number of regulation companies.”
It mentioned this isn’t the primary time the Trump administration has aimed toward immigration attorneys.
Immigration Impression mentioned that, in 2017, for instance, then legal professional basic Jeff Periods, the US Division of Justice official in command of the immigration courts and the disciplinary procedures towards immigration attorneys, made comparable statements, “declaring us ‘soiled immigration legal professionals’ who have been gaming the system.
“Attorneys representing asylum seekers in immigration courtroom and difficult the federal government’s unlawful practices are essential to sustaining a modicum of due course of and equity in our immigration system,” Immigration Impression mentioned.
“And as we did in the course of the first Trump administration, the American Immigration Council will proceed the essential work of its litigation crew and the Immigration Justice Marketing campaign,” it added. “As legal professionals like to say: ‘We’ll see you in courtroom’.”
Regardless of Trump’s memo, Nationwide Immigrant Justice Heart (NIJC) government director Mary Meg McCarthy mentioned NIJC “stays steadfast in our dedication to justice and our immigrant communities.
“The Nationwide Immigrant Justice Heart’s authorized companies have saved households collectively, freed folks from the hazards of immigrant detention, and prevented the deportation of refugees and asylum seekers to hurt. Our litigation has protected due course of, entry to justice, and the rule of regulation.
“Our authorized employees maintain ourselves to exacting authorized and moral requirements whereas defending the human rights of a number of the most weak folks on the planet,” McCarthy added.
Within the White Home memo, President Trump mentioned, “Legal professionals and regulation companies that interact in actions that violate the legal guidelines of the USA or guidelines governing legal professional conduct have to be effectively and successfully held accountable.
“Accountability is important when misconduct by legal professionals and regulation companies threatens our nationwide safety, homeland safety, public security, or election integrity,” he mentioned.
“The immigration system — the place rampant fraud and meritless claims have supplanted the constitutional and lawful bases upon which the President workouts core powers below Article II of the USA Structure — is likewise replete with examples of unscrupulous habits by attorneys and regulation companies,” he mentioned.
Trump alleged that the immigration bar and highly effective Large Regulation professional bono practices ceaselessly coach purchasers to hide their previous or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims, all in an try to bypass immigration insurance policies.
“Gathering the required data to refute these fraudulent claims imposes an infinite burden on the Federal authorities. And this fraud, in flip, undermines the integrity of our immigration legal guidelines and the authorized career extra broadly,” Trump mentioned, directing the Lawyer Basic to “search sanctions towards attorneys and regulation companies who interact in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation towards the USA or issues earlier than government departments and companies of the USA.
“I additional direct the Lawyer Basic and the Secretary of Homeland Safety to prioritize enforcement of their respective laws,” Trump mentioned.
