AP visits immigrant courts, finds nonstop chaos
LUMPKIN, GA. »
COME BACK IN 2023 In a federal building in downtown Manhattan, the docket lists stretch to a second page outside the immigration courtrooms. Crowds of people wait in the hallways for their turn to see a judge, murmuring to each other and their lawyers, pressing up against the wall to let others through.
When judges assign future court dates, immigrants are asked to come back in February or March — of 2023.
On average, cases on the country’s immigration docket have been churning through the courts for nearly two years. Many immigrants have been waiting much longer, especially those who aren’t held in detention facilities.
SEVEN YEARS In Boston, Audencio Lopez applied for asylum seven years ago. The 39- year- old left a Guatemalan farming town to cross the border illegally as a teenager in 1997 and soon found a job at a landscaping company where he still works, maintaining the grounds at area schools.
But it was just this past November that he headed to the imposing Boston courthouse to learn his fate.
Lopez tells the judge about his devout Christianity and Bible studies, his kids’ education at a charter school and dreams of going to college, his fear of having to move his children to a dangerous place they’ve never been.
After about an hour of questioning, Judge Lincoln Jalelian tells Lopez he’ll take the case under advisement. The government attorney says she won’t oppose granting Lopez a visa due to his “exemplary” record and community service, which means he’ll likely be able to stay.
But even as he dreams of his family’s future in America, Lopez admits the hope and joy are tempered by uncertainty because his wife’s status is still unresolved. She applied separately for asylum five years ago and has yet to have her immigration court hearing.
CHILDREN EVERYWHERE
A t oddler’s gleeful screams fill the immigration courtroom in a Salt Lake City suburb as he plays with toy cars while his mother waits for her turn to go before the judge.
Ninety minutes later, the boy is restless, and the 32- year- old woman from Honduras is still waiting. She pulls out her phone, opens YouTube and plays children’s songs in Spanish to calm his cries.
Many children have immigration cases of their own. AP reporters saw appearances by children as young as 3. They sit on wooden benches with their parents, grandparents or foster families.
Te e n a g e r s scroll through smartphones; a toddler with a superheroes backpack swings his tiny feet.
There are also American- born kids tagging along with immigrant parents the government seeks to deport.
Veronica Mejia left El Salvador as a young teen and has now lived a third of her life in the United States.
And it took her that long to get her day in a Los Angeles immigration court.
Now 20, Mejia raises her right hand and vows to tell the truth. She has a job in a California warehouse, a boyfriend and an 8-month- old daughter with chubby cheeks and pierced ears waiting down the hall.
Immigrat i on Judge Ashley Tabaddor asks questions about her situation, and the government lawyer questions the immigrant’s credibility.
Tabaddor breaks the news to Mejia: She doesn’t qualify for asylum under the law and issues an order for her to return to El Salvador.
Mejia walks down the hall with her lawyer. Her boyfriend hands her the baby.
“We’re going to appeal,” she says, sitting down to nurse the wide- eyed infant. “For her — how am I going to leave her here?”
OVERWORKED JUDGES
On Tabaddor’s computer, there are eight color- coded dashboards showing how close she is to meeting goals set by the Department of Justice for the country’s 440 immigration judges. Like many, she’s nowhere near completing the annual case completion target, and her dashboard is a deep red.
“So far, everyone has told us they’re failing the measure,” says Tabaddor.
Officials at the Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review are adding interpreters in Spanish and Mandarin, judges and clerks. They’ve started special centers to handle video hearings for immigrants on the U. S.Mexico border.
They’re also moving to an electronic system to try to put an end to the heaps of paper files hoisted in and out of courtrooms.
The entire ef fort is a quest for efficiency, though director James McHenry acknowledges “we’re still getting outpaced” by new cases.
COURT APPEARANCE BY VIDEO
The disorder stretches well beyond the bustling courts of the country’s cities. A lawyer takes a red eye from Los Angeles to Houston, then flies to Louisiana, rents a car and drives for an hour to reach a remote detention facility.
He and his client watch a video monitor for their hearing before an immigration judge who sits 1,000 miles away in Miami, Florida, along with the government’s attorney.
The system requires careful choreography among judges, lawyers and interpreters. Immigration attorneys travel long distances to reach remote courts and follow clients shuffled to different detention facilities, while interpreters crisscross the country to provide translation to immigrants when and where they need it.
DEPORTED AFTER TWO DECADES IN US
Miguel Bor rayo, a 40- year- old mechanic, sits before an immigration judge in a courtroom outside Salt Lake City. He was able to find a lawyer to help him argue he should be allowed to stay in the country with his American children, despite lacking legal papers, but he was told it would cost up to $8,000.
So he goes it alone. Borrayo tells the judge he never had any trouble with the law since slipping across the border from Mexico in 1997 until he turned his car into a McDonald’s parking lot and came close to a passing man.
The man was an immigration agent. Shortly after pulling into the drivethru, Borrayo was arrested.
But Immigration Judge Philip Truman spends little time on how Borrayo ended up in his courtroom. He asks about the immigrant’s two teenage children.
Borrayo tells Truman they are both healthy and good students. His 16-yearold daughter dreams of someday becoming a veterinarian. His 13-year- old son wants to become a mechanic, like his dad.
His wife, the teens’ mother, works part- time so she can care for them.
Ironically, this all dooms his case. Truman says it doesn’t seem like his children would suffer tremendously if Borrayo returned to Mexico. Regrettably, he must deport him.
He’s given a month to leave the country — one last Christmas in his family’s home surrounded by snow- capped mountains.
He shrugs off the loss and leaves the courtroom. But days later, he wonders what went wrong.
“I just tried to tell the truth so that they would help me,” he says.
While I often write about how to set your course for a more responsible, happy and successful life, it seems that perhaps I have been missing the mark.
While some readers appear to seek change and growth, there is an expanding population who seem to be striving for the mediocre life. Today’s article is designed to help them hone their skills and master the tools for the most mediocre life possible. You may, or perhaps may not, want to share this with someone you know.
For anyone seeking to rise to the top of the mediocre lifestyle, these tips are a must! sential life skill for mastering the mediocre. Take these folks as your role model.
Learn to have an excuse ever ready for any shortcoming or mistake. Better yet, try to explain how it wasn’t really a mistake. Never, of course, take responsibility regardless of how blatantly obvious it is that you, or someone is suffering, because of your stupidity. This would translate to a moment of taking responsibility, and this is alien to the mediocre lifestyle.
2. Spend Most of Life Complaining & Criticizing Others. Don’t Do Anything.
How to do this is simple? Complain, argue, put down, criticize, and speak very negatively about anything other than your choices. The cloud of words must be relentless, so few can see through this to what is really happening in your life. You must keep expending your energy into a world where the words keep flowing… but nothing changes.
Live every day in a fantasy world, where you truly and deeply imagine that all this time and energy flowing ‘out there’ is meaningful. Whether it’s a friend, a teacher, a parent or sibling, just keep the complaints and focus ‘out there’ so there is no moment available to turn someone’s attention to your choices. If you master this, you can spend years avoiding any focus on how your life is escaping you.
You can even avoid considering the impact of your choices on your health, your happiness and your family. Don’t do anything that would resemble responsible action, of course. This would destroy the mediocre life.
3. Seek Superficial Attention and Pretend Your Life Is Always Good.
To keep this simple, simple pretend that your life is better than it is. Do this by only capturing the moments that you want others to see. And please, fake this to be the best possible moment.
Work hard to develop the mindset where you can think ahead and have the phone ready to capture moments that appear like they are simply the best possible experience anyone can have. Seek to daily ‘ trump’ every friend you have…so they can sleep in envy of your pretend life. Make sure your smile hides that sense of ‘dullness” that inevitably flows from mediocrity.
4. Master Being the Victim!
This is grand master material here. If you have a job, grumble about the boss. If you don’t have a job, blame the economy. If work is busy, complain about a lack of time. If it’s slow, whine that it’s boring. If you get invited, snub your nose at the food. If you don’t get invited, blame the neighbor.
You get the idea. No matter what, make sure others see how you have been done wrong.
The secret here is parlaying in our previous point, with a bit more focus on personal blame. So, you first complain, and then you blame. Warm up with a few complaints, and then shift into blame mode. Remember: You are never responsible for your happiness or your success.
Someone else, or something else is always the cause of your struggles. This guarantees your position as the Grand Victim on the throne of mediocrity.
5. The Ultimate Secret: Never Examine the Consequences of Your Choices Objectively.
This is the crown jewel of the mediocre life. At its core, the key is the avoidance of responsibility. So never, under any circumstances, do you take responsibility for your choices.
If you have been paying attention so far, you likely know how to do this. Blame, keep the complaints focused on others, always have an excuse. And do not relent to reality, even if it’s right in front of you. For example, if you are caught on video doing something stupid, just deny that it’s you. That’s right. Deny. Then blame someone else. (Remember: You must revert to be the victim here, rather than owning up to anything!)
If you are really a master, you can take this as far as you want. Comments like, ‘ That’s not me’ or even ‘ That’s not what really happened’ can be useful. ‘ Someone set me up’ is also a good ploy here. Deny, project responsibility on someone else and then you instantly become the victim. Get it?
Now others might get exasperated with you because the evidence is right in front of you, but never mind that. That’s the goal! You suddenly have them confused, upset and frustrated…and guess who is in control? You are! You control their state of mind in that moment, and you are the King or Queen of Mediocrity. You win! They are frustrated with you.
You have their attention. And yet you are unshaken in your mediocre life, free of taking any responsibility Striving for mediocrity: Five fundamentals
DEARANNIE » About a year and a half ago, I met a woman whom I liked very much. She moved in with me after about six months. After living together some time, I’ve come to see that our relationship is impossible and I would like her to move out. The problem is that she has nowhere to go. She has one daughter, whom she was living with when I met her, but the daughter is in the process of moving. Other than her, she has no one.
Her only income is Social Security, and that is $1,000 a month. She is a good woman, but impossible to live with. She doesn’t love me, and I feel used. I have always felt sorry for her, but I can’t go on in this loveless relationship. She is 72, and I am 73. I can’t put her out on the street, but I’m not sure where to turn or what to do. I am willing to give her some money to help her move, but I am not sure where she could go. I have been good to her and helped her as much as I can. Do you have any idea of how I can get out of this dilemma? — Time to Go
DEAR TIME TO GO » This woman made it through 70 years of her life without you. Have a little faith that she’ll figure out how to carry on. Let her know as cordially as possible that this relationship is no longer working, and you’ll need for her to move out. Give her a deadline that you think is fair, whether that’s two weeks or a month or some other amount. (It rather depends on how much stuff she needs to pack up.) But be firm on the deadline — and don’t delay in breaking the news. Your heart is in the right place, to be sure, but you aren’t doing either of you any favors by staying in this relationship out of pity.
DEARANNIE » As an attorney, I was appalled and repelled to read “Not A Hugger’s” letter and how this man continues to stalk the women at his church for hugs. My husband (a retired cop) was appalled, too. He seems to feel entitled to do this for whatever reason, even in the face of her refusals and even to the point of waiting for her till she exits the church and interrupting her prayers. She has been extremely tolerant of this behavior while trying to avoid it.
What he is doing is stalking, harassing and assaulting the women, and it should be stopped. This is abuse, and the abuser is very clever in doing this at a church to make it look innocent. It could even be a form of bullying.
The legal definition of assault is an “unwanted touching.” That is what this man is doing. Perhaps she should tell him he is assaulting her and get a warrant for his arrest to get the point home (an extreme measure but possibly effective).
I’m surprised that the priest has not stepped in to alter the situation. Or her husband. Or perhaps the women of the parish could do this as a group to stop this offensive and abusive behavior. That’s my two cents worth. — Concerned Attorney
DEAR CONCERNED ATTORNEY » I’m always grateful to have my readers enriched with some expert advice, and I thank you for offering yours. I’m printing your letter to give “Not a Hugger” some added confidence — even if it doesn’t get to this point, knowing that you’ve legal ground to stand on can help you find firmer footing in standing up for yourself.
“Ask Me Anything: A Year of Advice From Dear Annie” is out now! Annie Lane’s debut book — featuring favorite columns on love, friendship, family and etiquette — is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com.