The lawyers also argued that she was part of another particular social group as the family member of someone under threat, since the gangs had terrorized her son in trying to recruit him. Administrative Law Judges Effective January 2021 . The Executive Office for Immigration Review had 2,383 employees in 2015 with an average pay (base salary + bonus) of $118,095.97. San Francisco, CA. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday blasted its immigration. Judge Marks led the union for a total of 18 years, serving seven two-year terms as president (not sequential) and four as executive vice president. In the 1980s, AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) was very stodgy, a reactive organization, Judge Webber says. More Reuters investigations and long-form narratives, Got a confidential news tip? The clients loved her, says Ungar. 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 Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters, Before, no one wanted to say anything about the gangs, Gutierrez said. Taken together, the two cases nearly indistinguishable in their outlines but with opposite outcomes illustrate a troubling fact:An immigrants chance of being allowed to stay in the United States depends largely on who hears the case and where it is heard. He is especially unsuited to hear cases involving survivors of torture applying for asylum and other forms of immigration relief. Of the 102 complaints that had been resolved when the data were published, only three resulted in discipline, defined as reprimand or suspension of the judge. Because there were no police here, (the gangs) did what they wanted," he said. The asylum appeal process is equally politicized, the group says. After graduating law school at age 23, Judge Marks went into private practice at Simmons & Ungar. She remains active today as president emerita. The courts facedand continue to grapple witha crisis of backlogged cases. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) It did not take U.S. Immigration Judge Nicholas Ford long to stir up controversy in San Francisco. Juangrew up in Guadalajara, Mexico, where his family had few resources and he often had to go to school on an empty stomach, he said. This is the phone number you can use to contact the court's clerks or the judges' legal assistants. . Her boys are in school. The journey took three weeks. Juans application for cancellation of removal was denied in November 2020. Having come from a country with one of the highest murder rates in the world may have helped establish credible fear. But the two women were already at a disadvantage precisely because they came from Honduras. Disregards basic legal rules, causing undue prejudice and wasting public resources. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research organization at Syracuse University in New York, first sounded the alarmabout disparities in immigration court decisions in 2006. Now, they were extorting teachers, selling drugs openly and assaulting or killing anyone who confronted them. After hearing Anas case, Couch concluded in his written opinion that Ana was not eligible for asylum because she had not demonstrated a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of a statutorily protected ground. He wasnt convinced that she risked persecution in Honduras because of her political opinion. Early in 2020, the immigration case backlog eclipsed 1 million, and the San Francisco court handles the second largest load in the country, roughly 70,000 cases. Judge Mabry is a member of the State Bar of Arizona and State Bar of New Mexico. She was always there for me, emotionally and intellectually.. Judge Marks says her biggest success was seeingH.R. When she started, she was one of few women. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. This, as federal immigration judges decided the second-highest number of asylum petitions on record despite partial court shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 300 judges are spread among 58 U.S. immigration courts in 27 states, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands. Senators Announce GAO Investigation of the Politicization and Mismanagement of Immigration Courts - September 14, 2020; Take Action. The schools principal, who asked that he and the school not be identified out of fear of retaliation, worked with the board. Attorneyseven conservativesrespected her., Judge Marks explains it another way. Judge Marks, in keeping with her upbeat character, reflects on the pluses of her role. Visit theBorderReport.com homepagefor the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the United States-Mexico border. Even so, the Reuters analysis determined that after controlling for such factors, who hears a case and where it is heard remain reliable predictors of how a case will be decided. There is a fine line between judges taking a harshstance on immigration and their exhibiting unprofessional behaviors, saidPaul Schmidt, aformer immigration judge based in Arlington, Virginia, who retired in 2016. She quickly discarded that notion. Were more productive if theyre comfortable, she says. Ugarte says he felt elated when he learned he would appear before her, not because all cases were granted, but because you felt heard., Judge Markss generosity extended to her colleagues on the bench. IJ Ford felt empowered to shout at and accuse my client throughout the hearing, showing little regard for the fact that she was a human being in his courtroom, said Omar de la Cruz, immigration attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza. Individually reported data submitted by users of our website Base Salary $65,625 $72,811 Medium $84,735 Highest Paying Cities for Immigration Judge in the United States Immigration Judge salaries in the United States will pay differently by cities. U.S. Department of Justice U.S. Department of Justice. Judge Butler earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2003 from Cornell College and a Juris . . In Atlanta, 89 percent of cases result in a deportation order. She and her lawyers declined to share more detailed information about her situation because she remains fearful of the gangs in Honduras. 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. The next year, researchers at Temple University and Georgetown Law School concluded in a study titled Refugee Roulettethat in many cases, the most important moment in an asylum case is the instant in which a clerk randomly assigns an application to a particular asylum officer or immigration judge. In 2008, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found similar disparitiesin its own study. Gutierrez can live and work legally in the United States and will ultimately be able to apply for citizenship. Mexicans and citizens from the Northern Triangle of Central America Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador were the most likely to be turned down. Gutierrez said that was when she first learned that her fellow parent-teacher association board member had been threatened and had fled from home. Their nature ranged from alleged due process violations to concerns over in-court conducts, records show. At first, Judge Marks wasnt sure shed like the role of judge, in part because there was an assumption about the strong-arm persona shed have to put on to manage her courtroom. The bill, if approved by the Senate, will transition the nations immigration court system into an independent judiciary consistent with Article I of the U.S. Constitution. Says Judge Marks, Thisquickly became my long-term goal outside of judging., When that does happen, it certainly will be part of her legacy, but just one part of a stellar career. I am not going to risk my childs life. . Theres also an imbalance of power in the courtroom and the fear of retaliation. And according to the Department of Homeland Security, most of those coming across the border without authorization since are from Mexico. Reviews Deals . U.S. immigration courts are administrative courts within the Department of Justices Executive Office for Immigration Review. Couch wrote in his opinion that Anas difficulty recounting the names of the women on the association board weighed against her credibility. By the time she retired fromSan Franciscos Immigration Courton December 31, 2021, Judge Dana Leigh Marks* had built an inspiring reputation as a leader, mentor, and advocate. Ana testified in her asylum hearing that she knew they were gang members because they were dressed in baggy clothing and they also had ugly tattoos all over their bodies and faces., Ana and her daughter ran home and then, fearing the gang would come after them, fled out the back door. But at the point where judges are using racially charged terms or demeaning people, then that seems to me that it goes beyond what they should be allowed to do.. But theyre not holding their breath. Judge Marks faced daunting challenges during her tenure. The head of the son was placed on the body of the mother and the head of the mother was placed on the body of the son. The state court had plexiglass barriers, an air. The mass exodus from Central America was under way when Gutierrez and Ana were elected to the board of the parent-teacher association at their childrens school in spring 2013. El Paso federal immigration judges denied 85.4% of asylum claims in fiscal year 2020. It has also been politically charged, as immigration courts fall under the jurisdiction of theUS Department of Justice (DOJ), Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). The Trump administration filled the openings and expanded the size of the bench,appointing 10 judges who currently make up the court. With the seventh and latest complaint the one led by AILA-Ohio against Riley information regarding the investigation outcome was redacted by the Department of Justice. They said they knew I was involved in the parents association, Gutierrez said. (She also refers to herself as a sit-down comedian.), Attorneys who appeared before Judge Marks were impressed by her complete command of her courtroom. The Immigration Justice Program periodically runs legal education events (CLEs) and know-your-rights trainings for lawyers, legal workers, immigrant community members, and other allies and advocates. But it wont really change anything in my clients case. 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 Halperin is a member of the Utah State Bar. The womens lawyers framed their respective cases with some important differences. An immigrant was still four times as likely to be granted asylum by Holyoak in San Francisco as by Couch in Charlotte. The kidnappers released her and her two sons near the U.S. border. 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. I opened the first file, and there was a picture of the first respondent, probably less than a year old. They had confidence in her that she was doing everything she could for them. She demonstrated this on a national level in October of 1986 when Judge Marks (along with Bill O. Hing, Susan Lydon, and Kip Steinberg) argued on behalf of Luz Marina Cardoza-Fonseca before the US Supreme Court (. Charles R. Davis. Additionally, the coalition is calling on the community to help hold San Francisco Immigration Court accountable. She was the first person I knew from our side, says Bette Stockton, who later joined Judge Marks on the bench and retired after 21.5 years as an immigration judge. Immigration Judge Emily N. Farrar-Crockett began hearing cases at the Falls Church Adjudication Center in October 2018. 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. As a result, credibility is really the key factor. She is known for her fierce advocacy for the court. In the asylum application, Olawales client, a 22-year-old asylum seeker from Cameroon, said armed officers from that country sexually assaulted her when she was a minor while they were searching for English-speaking dissidents like her family. Former immigration judge Rebecca Jamil in Fremont, California, on Dec. 28, 2018. It feels like the judge has no compassion for us and doesnt like Latinos.. 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. For example, courts ruled in favor of Chinese immigrants 75 percent of the time, the Reuters analysis found. Judge Dalin Holyoak, who heard Gutierrezs case in San Francisco, orders deportation in 43 percent of cases. Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. 6577, Real Courts, Rule of Law Act of 2022, and passed by the House Judiciary Committee in May of this year. Within each court, cases are assigned to judges on a random, rotational basis. Attorney General William P. Barr appointed Jeremy J. Butler as an immigration judge in June 2020. 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. 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