DEATH VALLEY DAYS: ASYLUM SEEKERS & LAWYERS FACE HARSH CONDITIONS IN QUEST FOR ASYLUM IN GARLAND'S DYSFUNCTIONAL EOIR — Bad Law, Bias, Incompetence, Inconsistency, & Indifference To Humanity Among Obstacles — The Majority Perish Along The Way! — "Courtside" Takes You "Inside The Numbers" Of TRAC's "New Look" IJ Asylum Reports — New Format, But Same Old Broken & Unfair System!

Jennings12@aol.com

Oct 28

Asylum seekers and lawyers must cross hostile territory, with a dearth of naturally-occurring due process, to successfully negotiate Garland's dysfunctional EOIR. Most never make it!
Death Valley
Creative Commons

Here's the TRAC "New Format" IJ Asylum Report:

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/judgereports/

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INSIDE THE NUMBERS FOR THE TRAC 10-09-22 IJ REPORT

NOTE: Does not account for: IJs no longer on the bench; IJs appearing in more than one location; differences among detained, non-detained dockets; profiles of high and non-high-denying courts excluded locations with fewer than four IJs listed. No guarantee of accuracy for my "hand count" — but, in accordance with the old government motto, "I did the best I could under the circumstances."

Precipitous unexplained rise in nationwide denial rate since FY 2012, from 44.5% to 63.3%, even though human rights conditions in most so-called "sending countries" remained horrible and in some cases significantly deteriorated. See for FY2012 stats, https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/306/
Lots of "Nay-Sayers" on the Immigration Bench:
- 92 IJs denied asylum 90% or more of the time.
- Another 94 IJs denied 85-90% of the time.
- Total of 186 "High Deniers" — those who denied 85% or more — significantly (21.7% or more) above already inexplicably high 63.3% national rate.
High Denying Courts (majority of IJs listed denied 85%+)
- Atlanta (including ATD-Detained) (10 of 10 IJs)
- Charlotte (6 of 8 IJs)
- Conroe (5 of 9 IJs)
- Houston (19 of 22 IJs)
- Houston-Greenspoint (4 of 5 IJs)
- Jena (6 of 6 IJs)
- LA - North (8 of 11 IJs)
- Los Fresnos (5 of 6 IJs)
- Lumpkin (5 of 7 IJs)
- Memphis (6 of 11 IJs)
- Miami (20 of 31 IJs)
- Miamii - Krome (7 of 9 IJs)
Non-High-Denying Courts (all, or almost all, listed IJs denied less than 85%)
- Adelanto (5 IJs)
- Arlington (3 of 25 IJs High Deniers)
- Bloomington (1 of 13 IJs High Denier)
- Boston (1 of 15 IJs High Denier)
- Baltimore (1 of 16 IJs High Denier)
- Batavia (1 of 4 IJs High Denier)
- Chicago (1 of 16 IJs High Denier)
- Denver (2 of 8 IJs High Deniers)
- Detroit (4 IJs)
- Elizabeth (5 IJs)
- Imperial (5 IJs)
- New York (46 IJs, 0 High Deniers) **
- New York Detained (17 IJs, 1 High Denier)
- Newark (3 of 16 IJs High Deniers)
- Otay Mesa (7 IJs)
- Pearsall (5 IJs)
- Philadelphia (8 IJs)
- Portland OR (4 IJs)
- San Francisco (2 of 27 High Deniers)
- Seattle (8 IJs)
- Tacoma (5 IJs)
- Van Nuys (1 of 7 IJs High Denier)
Telling stats: 99.1%, 97.4%, 94.3% 90.4% — Asylum denial rates for four BIA Appellate Immigration Judges listed in the chart who continue to serve on Garland's BIA. No wonder asylum seekers are saddled with bad law and sloppy, one-sided appellate review within Garland's dysfunctional EOIR.
Best courts for asylum seekers: Generally in the Northeast and Northern California: Arlington, Boston, Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Newark, San Francisco, Chicago.
Worst places for asylum seekers: Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Houston, Louisiana.
Mind-blowing stat: Compare the performance of IJs in Arlington and Baltimore with those in Charlotte, all within the 4th Circuit.
Observations:
- New York, followed by San Francisco, appear to be the largest and best functioning courts with respect to actually following the generous standards for asylum seekers set forth by the Supremes in Cardoza-Fonseca, enunciated (but seldom followed) by the BIA in Mogharrabi, and to a large extent incorporated into sporadically enforced regulations.
- In NY, 46 IJs, 0 High Deniers, 24 listed IJs granted at least 50% or more of the cases, denial rates ranging from 7.1% to 83.5%, still a rather mind-boggling range.The 24 IJs in the 50% or more grant range would seem like a good place for Garland to look for a model for rebuilding EOIR as a fair, due-process-oriented, subject matter expert court. He doesn't seem interested in doing that, but it could be done with better leadership.
- Although generally one would expect Detention Courts to be in the "High Denier" category, that's not always the case. Courts like NY-Detained, Elizabeth, Adelanto, Otay Mesa, and Pearsall, all had some significant asylum grant rates. Conversely, several predominantly non-detained courts like Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, and Houston were unseemly "dead zones" for asylum seekers. Garland's failure to address the gross inconsistencies and abuses of asylum law going on in those and other "High Denier Courts" is disgraceful.
Overall, this is a statistical picture of a failed and dysfunctional court system where critical life or death decisions depend more on where you are and who your judge or BIA "panel" is than on the quality of the evidence or the state of the law. It has failed to deliver on its promise of being a court of widely acknowledged subject matter experts who will guarantee due process, fundamental fairness, and best judicial practices for all on some of the most important and life-determining decisions in American jurisprudence. It's bad; and not significantly improving under the Dems!