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Trump's Second Term

As one of those things that's mostly been behind the scenes compared to the loud stuff -

Former judges speak out on Trump admin's immigration court purges

When Wood retired a little more than a year ago, he was an assistant chief immigration judge in the Midwest. He probably could've stayed on. He was appointed during President Trump's first term, and denied many more asylum applications than he granted.

But even so, he didn't like what he was seeing: "I have seen judges that have not made it very long in this new regime, where they've been walked off the bench for whatever reasons … They're in the middle of dictating an oral decision and they get an email, or they get a tap on the shoulder, literally on the bench, saying, 'Please come with me.'"

Asked if that had happened in years past, Wood replied, "No, never. We've never seen anything like this."
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Anam Petit was fired last September. "It was crushing," she said. She'd given up a well-paid job as a law partner to take on a job as an immigration judge in Annandale, Virginia. "It was a dream job for me in a lot of ways. I made personal and professional sacrifices to take that job, because I believed I could be a good and fair judge.

"In my two years of being a judge, I never received any negative feedback from colleagues [or] superiors," she said. "All my probationary reviews were positive, and no reason was given [for my dismissal]."

Asked what her gut tells her about why she was fired, Petit said, "I came from a background where I represented immigrants previously. I was a law professor at Georgetown Law, where I taught on gender-based immigration issues. I am a woman, a person of color."

Jeremiah Johnson was an immigration judge in San Francisco for eight years. "My last words on the bench were to a family of four: 'You've been granted asylum in the United States. Welcome to the United States,'" he said.


Johnson was appointed during the last Trump administration. He was caught off-guard last November when he was terminated: "I logged onto the computer and I saw the email notification with attached letter indicating that I had been fired," he said. "Within 30 seconds, I was locked out of the computer system, unable to print that letter. And then, I was escorted out of the building."

He said no reason was ever given for why he was fired.
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According to a count by the Associated Press, 30,000 immigrants have filed what's known as a habeas corpus petition, claiming illegal detention because they haven't been granted a bond hearing.

"These are basic due process issues," said Wood. "American citizens are taken into custody. They're flown across the country and held without bond. That's extremely concerning. Even if you are wanting to deport more people, that's fine, but we should follow the laws that are in place. And if we don't like the laws, Congress should change them."

Wood said it is not clear how many American citizens have been detained. "The real answer is that I don't think we know on some of these cases. There's such strong incentives to self-deport and to give up and to sign papers without talking to counsel or even talking to a judge. And I think we're gonna learn, years from now, about some really egregious examples of where we didn't do what we were supposed to be doing."

A year ago, 31 percent of those seeking asylum in this country were successful. According to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) for this past February, that number hit an all-time low of 5 percent. The legal pathway for asylum seekers to the United States is approaching zero.

"I'm very concerned that we're doing a lot of things right now without any changes to the law," said Wood. "We're doing it by executive order and executive power alone, whether it's firing of immigration judges, or deportation orders. That's not the way a democracy is supposed to be run."
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Yeah, things are really bad, specifically because of Trump and his Administration.
 
Andy_Ross said:
Rigged election

BARTIROMO: Do you have anything to tell us about the 2020 election being rigged against President Trump?

KASH PATEL: Absolutely. I am never going to let this go. They tried to rig the entire system. That's something I'm not going to allow. We are going to be making arrests. It's coming. I promise you it's coming soon

Link
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Like.. In two weeks?
 
Andy_Ross said:
Defamation

BARTIROMO: So you're gonna sue them?

KASH PATEL: Absolutely. It's coming tomorrow

BARTIROMO: Tomorrow you will be dropping a lawsuit against The Atlantic?

PATEL: Yes I will. For defamation

Link
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"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll sue ya, tomorrow.
It's always a daaaaay aaaaaaaaawwwaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy!"

-Little Orphan Kashi
 
The Great Zaganza said:
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Called it in the war thread.


jimbob said:
It takes time to build up credibility but no time to lose it. This is not a new concept; Machiavelli discussed it, and it permeates gangster films.

You know what else will be affected by a history of breaking agreements? The cost of doing business. If you renege on agreements, I will need compensation for the additional risk of investing in you, again, whether you are a mob boss or the leader of a country. After all if you renege on agreements with other countries, why would I believe you're not going to renege on your government bonds.
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