9/10/2018

COURTS/IMMIGRATION/JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions told a new group of immigration judges Monday [9-10-18] that it is their job to ‘restore the rule of law’ to the immigration system over the contrary efforts of the lawyers who represent immigrants. The remarks at the training of the largest-ever class of new immigration judges implied that the judges were on the same team as the Trump administration, and that immigrants and their attorneys were trying to undermine their efforts…The comments came in the context of Sessions’ repeated moves to exert his unique authority over the immigration courts, a separate legal system for immigrants that is entirely run by the Justice Department. Sessions approves every judge hired and can instruct them on how to interpret law, and thus decide cases, as well as how to manage cases. He has used that authority multiple times in the past year, including issuing a sweeping ruling that will substantially narrow the types of cases that qualify for asylum protections in the US. Those decisions overrode the evolution of years of immigration judges’ and the immigration appellate board’s decisions.”

Tal Kopan, “Sessions criticizes immigrants’ attorneys before immigration judges,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, September 10, 2018 4:39 pm