Immigrants who saw their court dates cancelled by Trump's shutdown continue to wait in limbo

Donald Trump’s shutdown over his racist campaign chant also shut down immigration courts for most immigrants, resulting in anywhere from 50,000 to 95,000 cases getting canceled. Many of these people, attorneys tell CBS News, are seeking asylum and are depending on the court for this life-saving protection. They now have no idea when they’ll see their case back on the calendar:

For the immigrants with cancelled hearings, getting back in front of a judge could take years. At the Newark, New Jersey immigration court, some cancelled hearings have been penciled in as far back as August 2021, said Alan Pollack, an immigration attorney in New Jersey, in an interview with CBS News. In Houston, the immigration court begun issuing dates in 2022, said Ruby Powers, an immigration attorney.

Unable to go in front of a judge, one man facing a deportation order in a case that had already been closed went into sanctuary rather than risk being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (notice they continued their jobs uninterrupted, eyeroll). “There are no judges to decide that motion to reopen,” Miguel Ramirez Valiente’s attorney said at the time. “There is no office of chief council to speak with about the case. We are basically in legal limbo, waiting for the government to reopen.”

The government is now back open, but the already overloaded immigration court system is  struggling to catch up. "It is ironic that this administration's obsession with building a wall only increased the number of immigrants in limbo, aggravating an already serious crisis," said New York Rep. Jose Serrano, who chaired a recent hearing on the issue. "There needs to be a serious effort to reschedule these hearings quickly.”

from Daily Kos https://ift.tt/2NZBIVl