Twice I had the honor of being the San Diego AILA chapter chairman, or “chapter chair” as it has long been called, even before gender neutrality became mainstream (It still sounds horribly wrong to me when a speaker uses the plural pronoun “they” when they want to avoid a gendered single one like “he” or “she”). As the chair, I thought it was important to disseminate the local AILA/immigration news to the chapter by sending out a weekly email news…

While one encounters many definitions of Trumpism based on President Trump’s statements and actions, because of the contradiction in Trump’s statements and actions, I favor a less textual and policy-based definition. To me, Trumpism is believing things despite there being no basis in fact for them. As a necessary corollary, Trumpism requires ignoring obvious contradictions between accepted values and the racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-democratic, and immoral beliefs adopted by Trump and Trumpists. A Trumpist holds close to heart a belief…

Popular support for President Trump is based on his immigration stances. A Frontline documentary lays it out. Others attribute the attraction of Trumpism to social concerns – an opposition to LGBT rights, sex education, and promiscuity and its horrid result, babies.  There may be some truth to this, though Trump is an odd person to choose as the leader of the chastity and anti-abortion movement – a thrice marrried, pussy grabbing, porn star-shtupper who likely has left his weight of…

Friday afternoon. Try to wrap up what’s almost done on your desk. Deal with those nettlesome late-in-the-day emails and phone calls. Get the mail out so it will be moving across the country over the weekend. Oh, and absorb a bomb shell from the Attorney General. To begin, a little “administrative law” primer. Under the immigration laws, removal proceedings are handled by immigration judges, employees of the Department of Justice. (Yes, Virginia, the executive branch has adjudicative bodies (courts); in…