Prosecutorial Discretion: Some immigration judges may not want to play

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

Much has been written  and adorably dramatized by me and others about the new prosecutorial discretion policy announced by President Obama and his administration. Despite continued skepticism in the media, the policy is being boldly implemented, at least in San Diego, where I practice. Pilot programs are underway in Baltimore and Denver and files are being reviewed nationwide. Implementation is being carried out by the Office of Chief Counsel (OCC), a.k.a., Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of the Principal Legal…

The Juan Williams Squad

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

By now everyone probably has heard that Juan Williams, an NPR and FOX commentator, was fired by NPR because of comments he made on the Bill O’Reilly show. His comments concerned how he is afraid when he sees people in Muslim garb on airplanes. The question of whether his firing was justified is now a source of debate. On the one side are those that say he is not fit to be a commentator if he shows such a bias….

DHS, EOIR and fingerprints – a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

Aliens seeking benefits from USCIS or the immigration court need to be fingerprinted by USCIS. USCIS provides the service to aliens for the immigration court as well. The immigration judges do not have access to the fingerprint result databases, so ICE must report the results to the immigration judge. An alien in removal proceedings seeking a benefit must be printed. He must arrange it through USCIS, which then places the results in a database that ICE accesses and reports the…