Bush DOJ Rule Revokes Immigrants’ Right to Counsel

[babylonsister]

http://washingtonindependent.com/31090/immigration-advocates-rail-against-mukasey-rule

Bush DOJ Rule Revokes Immigrants’ Right to Counsel
Asylum Seekers Cannot Appeal Lawyer Incompetence
By Daphne Eviatar 2/24/09 6:00 AM


On Jan. 7, just two weeks before the inauguration of President Obama, Attorney General Michael Mukasey ruled that immigrants have no right to be represented by a lawyer, and no right to appeal an adverse ruling based on a lawyer’s mistakes.

“Neither the Constitution nor any statutory or regulatory provision,” the Attorney General wrote, “entitles an alien to a do-over if his initial removal proceeding is prejudiced by the mistakes of a privately retained lawyer.”

This last-minute decision has gotten little media attention, but it has dismayed immigration lawyers, who say clients frequently come to them with legitimate asylum or other claims that should allow them to remain in the United States, but that their previous lawyers either didn’t know the law, missed a critical deadline or just didn’t bother to communicate with their client. For the last 20 years, immigrants have had the right to re-open a case if they could show that they were denied a fair hearing due to their lawyer’s mistakes.

snip//

Responding to a written question about Mukasey’s ruling before his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in response: “The Constitution guarantees due process of law to those who are the subjects of deportation proceeding. I understand Attorney General Mukasey’s desire to expedite immigration court proceedings, but the Constitution requires that those proceedings be fundamentally fair. For this reason, I intend to reexamine the decision should I become Attorney General.”

Immigrants’ advocates are hopeful.

“How far do you want to go in pushing your apparent authority in continuing to reduce due process for immigrants?” asked Johnson, of the American Immigration Law Foundation. “Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should.”

[alstephenson]

1. k & r

because it's important.

[EFerrari]

2. When I see BushCo doing something like this, I wonder who they intended to deport.

Because you know they don't want their underpaid workers deported so readily. It has to be someone they find inconvenient. :shrug:

[babylonsister]

3. Good point. Who knows too much? We could start there. nt

[EFerrari]

4. It's weird, isn't it? BushCo did everything to keep undocumented workers

flowing in except when they were also trying to milk the prison industry for our tax $$$.

Who were they trying to trap? :shrug:

[babylonsister]

5. Or to keep from talking? This was instituted January 7th of this

year. Did they think there'd be no review? Maybe it was to be cover for ICE illegal arrests under their watch?

[EFerrari]

6. They've done this stuff before. Remember, Bush appointed Torquemada

to cover for the fact that Gonzalez signed off on illegal wiretapping when Ashcroft would not and when Gonzalez had no standing to do so. So, they appointed him to make their crime look good in retro. :shrug:

[Metta]

7. Mukasey gets to inherit some of the suffering he's caused. Happy karma, Mikey.

Chickens always come home to roost though we might not be around when they do. You can't plant seeds without them coming to bear fruit.