It is clearly troubling when you have these kinds of gross disparities, said Karen Musalo, director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies at the University of California Hastings School of the Law in San Francisco. In 2020, of the 30,173 individuals from the Northern Triangle that received a decision on asylum claims 27,020 were denied. After walking for an hour and a half, lost and desperate, Gutierrez and her sons sat down in the middle of a dirt road and waited for someone to pass. Ana declined to be interviewed for this article. STEP 2: Apply for Asylum STEP 3: Fingerprinting and Background/Security Checks STEP 4: Receive an Interview Notice STEP 5: Interview STEP 6: Asylum Officer Makes Determination on Eligibility and Supervisory Asylum Officer Reviews the Decision STEP 7: Receive Decision Related Links Close All Open All Last Reviewed/Updated: Litigating before the US Supreme Courtand winningmight be the pinnacle of many legal careers, but Judge Marks was not one to sit on her laurels. I got in that moment what that was going to be. We discussed cases together. In addition to helping her colleagues with the analysis of cases, Judge Marks was available for emotional support. Shes the GOAT of immigration judges! declares Francisco Ugarte, Manager of the Immigration Defense Unit of San Franciscos Public Defenders Office. Well-established law recognizes family as a protected social group, according to the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies. Before: Richard A. Paez and John B. Owens, Circuit Judges, and Morrison C. England, Jr., * Senior District Judge. Judge Fords dehumanizing treatment of those who appear in his courtroom is unacceptable, said Lisa Knox, Legal Director for the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. Its an emotionally trying job. Youre hearing stories of trauma and torture all day long, says Carol King, also a retired immigration judge, and the judge must then make decisions about peoples futures. She helped create an inspiring model for how courtscanbe, says Ugarte, and Judge Webber states, simply, She inspires people all the time., While she has had some limelight in her career, the vast majority of her work has been thankless, says Judge King. We were the brave ones. Central Americans are among the least successful at gaining asylum from U.S. immigration court judges, a Reuters analysis found. She is known for her fierce advocacy for the court. The word Reviews; Business Tech; Finance; Markets; . As has been true in earlier years, having representation greatly increases the odds of winning asylum or other relief, TRACs Oct. 28 report says. Updated 10:55 AM EDT, Wed July 1, 2020 Link Copied! Dana Marks, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said each case is like a 1,000 piece puzzle. While two cases might look identical on the surface, she said, each judge has to weigh the nuances of immigration law to allow someone to stay in the country, which could lead to different outcomes. In the San Francisco court, Gutierrezs lawyers argued that she qualified for asylum because as a leader of the parent-teacher association, she was at risk for her political opinion her stand against gangs and for belonging to a particular social group of Hondurans opposed to gang violence and recruitment in schools. San Francisco, CA. Individuals and organizations are encouraged to sign on to a public letter (bit.ly/removeford or bit.ly/fueraford) making the same request of EOIR and the DOJ. "EOIR takes all complaints seriously, investigates all colorable complaints, and takes corrective action when appropriate, Montenegro said in an email statement. It has also been politically charged, as immigration courts fall under the jurisdiction of the, US Department of Justice (DOJ), Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), . ICE has not released their estimate of how many cases would be cleared under this plan. New Company Ratings Recent Salaries by Company. Hon. I began to panic and shake, she said. That experience, the Reuters analysis found, makes them 23 percent more likely to order deportation. Four judges in Atlanta turned down 98 out of 100 asylum claims presented to them; nine judges in Houston said no 95% of the time. Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. . TheCleveland Immigration Court, much like the rest of the country, saw dramatic personnel changes during Donald Trumps presidency. The judge denied her petition and ordered her deported. Coincidence or not, denial rates have shot up more than 30% since Donald Trump became president. Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle 2019. The courts facedand continue to grapple witha crisis of backlogged cases. Oh, my goodness, says Donald Ungar, now retired, as he thinks back to his first impressions. Numerous legal providers and community members have expressed strong concerns about Fords racist history influencing his work in San Francisco. Judges are not always made aware of the existence of a complaint in a timely fashion, and there is no transparency or consistency when it comes to sanctions imposed in a particular case, according to Dana Marks, president emerita at the National Association of Immigration Judges who spent 35 years on the bench in San Francisco, California, before retiring in December. The court used to have only three judges, all of whom have since left their posts. The schools principal, who asked that he and the school not be identified out of fear of retaliation, worked with the board. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. I vowed to be my authentic sense of self. Retired Immigration Judge Polly Webber, saw an aspirational role model. This is the phone number you can use to contact the court's clerks or the judges' legal assistants. These are life or death matters. The coalition has urged EOIR to thoroughly investigate IJ Fords conduct and take appropriate action to ensure that individuals who appear in the San Francisco Immigration Court are treated with due process, dignity, and respect. It occurred to me I had a meeting, Ungar says, So I asked, Would you mind if we continued this? They walked to Market Street, where they hopped on the #5 bus to the Federal Courthouse. Judge Marks says her biggest success was seeing, H.R. EOIR spokeswoman Kathryn Mattingly said the agency does not comment on external analyses of its data. Hon. And according to the Department of Homeland Security, most of those coming across the border without authorization since are from Mexico. My client was seriously mentally ill, there were a lot of complexities in his case. She is known for her fierce advocacy for the court. Learn more about how to check your immigration court date and the status of your immigration case from here. ; On June 24, 2020 we collaborated with NLG-Los Angeles, National Immigration Project of the NLG, and the NLG National Office to provide a CLE on 'Fighting for the Release of Detained . Opinion by Judge Owens * The Honorable Morrison C. England, Jr., United States Senior District Judge for the Eastern District of California . But complainants like Juan and their attorneys said they have beendisappointed that their efforts did not lead to any lasting changes and that there was little transparency in the investigation process. Posted November 10th, 2015. She quickly discarded that notion. Asylum applicants cannot gain legal U.S. residency because they fled their countries in mortal fear of civil strife or rampant crime or a natural disaster. They were allowed to stay in the United States in just 16 percent of cases, the Reuters analysis found. Judges fail to apply binding legal standards, make decisions based on illegally invented rules, engage in abusive treatment of noncitizens and their counsel and even decide cases before holding hearings.. In New York City, 24 percent do. She is known for her intelligence and wit, having coined oft-repeated, appropriate zingers that help people better understand the challenges of immigration court, including Immigration judges do death penalty cases in a traffic court setting and Immigration is more complicated than tax law. Judge Stuart Couch, who heard Anas case in Charlotte, orders immigrants deported 89 percent of the time, according to a Reuters analysis of more than 370,000 cases heard in all 58 U.S. immigration courts over the past 10 years. John W. Richardson, Immigration Judge, Phoenix, 1990-2018. . Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in April that the Justice Department planned to hire more than 50 judges this year and 75 in 2018, which would put the total number of sitting judges above 400. The Reuters analysis used data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the U.S. Justice Department unit that oversees immigration courts. Of the Mexicans, 5,196 of the 6,113 who applied were told to go back home. Additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia and Kristina Cooke, By Mica Rosenberg in Oakland, California, and Reade Levinson and Ryan McNeill in New York, with additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco, Photo editing: Steve McKinley and Barbara Adhiya, Edited by Sue Horton, Janet Roberts and John Blanton. Immigration judges in New York and San Francisco stayed home from work Tuesday, and their union announced a judge in Denver had COVID-19 symptoms and an Atlanta attorney tested positive. 200 Their stories illustrate what a Reuters analysis of thousands of court decisions found: The difference between residency and deportation depends largely on who hears the case, and where. (Reuters) - A conservative judge appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. The case was transferred to a new judge who sentenced Puente to time . 0% San Francisco; 0% Denver; 0% Dallas, TX; 0% Boston; 0% Los Angeles; 0% Atlanta; Salary Ranges for Immigration Judges. The Government Accountability Office studied some proposals for reform in 2017, without endorsing any particular model. Shortly after, he applied for an immigration benefit called cancellation of removal to adjust his status, arguing that his removal would cause hardship to his three U.S. citizen children, aged 12, 15 and 16. Those who presented their petitions in Texas, Georgia and southern California had high denial rates, as well. Judge Mabry is a member of the State Bar of Arizona and State Bar of New Mexico. Judge-by-Judge Asylum Decisions in Immigration Courts. She deeply cared about due process, says Ugarte. Romy L. Lerner, Immigration Judge, Miami (Krome) Immigration Court. The Reuters analysis also found that an immigration judges particular characteristics and situation can affect outcomes. Demonstrates unlawful and inappropriate manifestations of bias in the courtroom. But it wont really change anything in my clients case. Constanza Hevia H. / Special to The Chronicle 2020 *Today Judge Marks is known as NanaDana, a title that celebrates her role as caretaker for her granddaughter and helps people correctly pronounce her name (dan-uh, not day-nuh). Cases are assigned to an immigration court based on where the immigrant lives. He jokes he decided to hire her the minute she insisted on paying her own fare. In late 2014, the two women were released on bond. Throughout, Jamil says, Judge Marks articulated to the press and to the public the stress of doing the job of immigration judge. This years 71.6% denial rate excludes those who didnt win asylum but were granted a stay of removal, otherwise itd be even higher. Under President Barack Obama, the courts began efforts to hire more immigration judges to reduce the systems burgeoning backlog, which now stands at more than 620,000 cases, nearly 100,000 of them added since last December. 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