More immigration trickery

“People have been ordered to appear on national holidays, on weekends and even at midnight — when we all know immigration court isn’t operating,” said Tammy Fox-Isicoff, the woman’s attorney and board member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

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Justin Sweeney, an immigration attorney in Fresno, California, says other people have been issued nonexistent dates, such as Nov. 31, and that others have received dates that appear to be correct but, when the immigrants appear at court, they discover that their case wasn’t scheduled or that it was slated for a completely different date.

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Immigration authorities send notices to people who have been denied residence or citizenship. But until June of last year, USCIS would send the notices without dates, because the function of putting the cases on the calendar was left for the local courts to do at a later time. The forms just said the time and place was “to be determined,” which often occurred years later.

The reason USCIS sends the notices is because it is the official charging document that makes a foreign national deportable. Immigration lawyers sued, saying notices without court dates and times are defective. Last November, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed, ruling that in order for the government to claim that an immigrant is deportable, the notices have to list a date and place to appear in court.

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The reason, lawyers say, is because having a notice with a date and place allows the government to stop immigrants from qualifying for deportation relief.

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Immigrants who receive a notice to appear, or NTA, with a fake date have to wait for a follow-up notice from their respective immigration court to find out their actual hearing date — a process that can take several months.

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In an email, a USCIS spokesperson told the Herald that the agency “is unaware of any NTA issues.”

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Making it even more difficult is the fact that USCIS doesn’t communicate with the courthouses in real time when issuing the dates, so the courthouses don’t know to put it on the court calendar.

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“This causes the line at the immigration court to be quite lengthy, as these individuals cannot find their case on the docket. They have no way of knowing without going to the immigration court if the date is real or not, spending extensive funds on counsel, and often traveling huge distances.”

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Kelli Stump, an immigration attorney whose practice is based in Oklahoma City [said,] “It’s basically a ploy to disqualify people from certain immigration relief in court, and perhaps even to spark waves of fear and anxiety.”

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Stump: “I’ve seen where 100 people will show up to court and have the same date and then are told ‘you’re not having court today.’ That affects people who actually do have real court that day, because they can’t get through the lines."

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In July, a South Florida woman was ordered deported while standing in a “never-ending” line that snaked around the courthouse, witnesses told the Miami Herald. The meandering lines have become a norm.

The woman had arrived at the courthouse at around 7 a.m. for an 8:30 hearing, but was still in line when the judge called her name.

“The judge told my colleague that his client was being ordered deported in absentia, knowing that she was outside in line,” said Karla Lamers, an immigration attorney who witnessed the incident. “My colleague was so upset. He tried to go down and get her but the judge said she was sorry and that it was too late.”

A request to speak with immigration judge Madeline Garcia, who ordered the woman deported, was not granted by the Department of Justice.

  Miami Herald

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