Judge in S.F. blocks Trump’s lastminute deportation rules
Eleventhhour rules by Trump administration immigration officials that made it harder to challenge deportation orders have been blocked by a federal judge in San Francisco, who said the restrictions could force migrants to face persecution in their homelands.
The rules, which took effect Jan. 15, included substantial reductions in the time allowed to appeal a judge’s deportation ruling. Immigration judges were barred from putting cases on hold to allow time for more investigation or negotiations. Immigration appeals courts were given more latitude to uphold deportation orders, and the Justice Department official who oversees those courts was granted authority to remove many cases from the courts and decide them himself.
These changes “will foreclose noncitizens from seeking humanitarian relief to which they may be entitled and will result in the deportation of noncitizens who have meritorious claims,” U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said Wednesday in granting a nationwide injunction against the rules.
Quoting a federal appeals court ruling in another case, she said the U.S. must not return migrants “into the hands of their persecutors.” Undocumented immigrants who can show they face persecution for reasons such as their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or political views are entitled to asylum, and others may be protected if they are victims of trafficking or parental abuse.
Illston also said the government violated the public’s right to adequately review the changes by allowing only 30 days for comments before the rules became final.
“This ruling is a small step forward on the path to stopping our government from criminalizing, caging and deporting people away from their families and community,” said Priya Patel, a lawyer with Centro Legal de la Raza, an immigrant support organization in Oakland and a plaintiff in the case.
She and other plaintiffs noted that the Biden administration’s Justice Department has continued to represent the government in the case.
“We demand that the Biden administration stop defending the rule and begin safeguarding the rights of noncitizens to a fair and just adjudication of their cases,” said Tami Goodlette, a lawyer for RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
The immigration courts, which have 460 judges in 67 locations, are a branch of the Justice Department. Unlike criminal defendants, migrants facing deportation have no right to a lawyer at government expense in immigration court. Illston said most of them appear on their own, often with little ability to understand the proceedings, and would be further impacted by the rules’ restrictions on the time allowed to find an attorney after a hearing and file an appeal.
“As a result, more noncitizens will be unrepresented and less likely to obtain relief to which they are entitled,” she said.