Lawyers, judges push to close immigration courts

SAN DIEGO: Immigration attorneys have sported swim goggles and masks borrowed from friends to meet with clients in detention centers. Masked judges are stocking their cramped courtrooms with hand sanitizer for hearings they want to do by phone.

While much of daily life has ground to a halt to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the Trump administration is resisting calls from immigration judges and attorneys to stop in-person hearings and shutter all immigration courts. They say the most pressing hearings can still be done by phone so immigrants aren’t stuck in detention indefinitely.

The Justice Department on Monday postponed hearings for asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico, but only after judges in San Diego defied orders to keep their courtrooms running amid the pandemic. The government has delayed hearings for immigrants who aren’t in detention but is moving forward for those who are.

Suspected coronavirus infections have forced immigration courts in New York, New Jersey and Colorado to temporarily shut down in the past week. As a precaution, the government announced the closure of several more Wednesday and said others would be reopened only to accept documents. But many of the 68 U.S. immigration courts continue to hold hearings.

That’s leaving judges and attorneys to try to protect themselves. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told lawyers to bring their own masks and gloves, which many hospitals can’t even find.

And social distancing in a small courtroom is challenging, with judges passing paperwork back and forth to legal assistants while lawyers and immigrants’ families crowd in. Interpreters fly across the country for hearings.

Immigration lawyers and unions for judges and the Homeland Security Department’s own attorneys have jointly demanded that all courts close.

“We know the coronavirus is contagious even when people are not symptomatic, and so everyone is very concerned about it. It’s not enough to be reactive. At that point, it’s too late,” said Samuel Cole, an immigration judge in Chicago who is also spokesman for the National Association of Immigration Judges. “So everyone is being put at risk.”