Thread: Courts told to be nicer to immigrants

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/01/10/immig ... index.html

Gonzales calls some immigration judges 'abusive,' orders review

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saying judges have been "intemperate or even abusive," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday ordered a review of immigration courts and insisted that they improve their treatment of immigrants.

Gonzales did not say what prompted his sharply worded memo. However, aides said internal information and media reports prompted the unusual admonition of employees.

"I have watched with concern the reports of immigration judges who fail to treat aliens appearing before them with appropriate respect and consideration, and who fail to produce the quality of work that I expect from employees of the Department of Justice," Gonzales wrote.

Justice Department officials say critical press reports were one of many factors that prompted the memo. A recent account in The New York Times quoted a federal appeals court ruling that claimed circuit judges continuously had to rebuke immigration judges for their "intemperate and humiliating remarks."

A federal appeals court in Chicago concluded in November that handling of immigration cases had "fallen below the minimum standards of legal justice."

A Justice Department official insisted that such problems represent only a fraction of cases appealed from immigration courts, and Gonzales was quick to emphasize that he wasn't painting all immigration judges with the same brush.

"While I remain convinced that most immigration judges ably and professionally discharge their difficult duties, I believe there are some whose conduct can aptly be described as intemperate or even abusive and whose work must improve," Gonzales said.

The attorney general wrote an almost identical memo to members of the Board of Immigration Appeals, saying he instructed acting Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum to conduct a comprehensive review of immigration courts.

"I have requested that the review include the quality of work as well as the manner in which it is performed," Gonzales wrote.

Deborah Notkin, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, commended Gonzales for ordering the review.

Immigration lawyers have had "deep and long-standing concerns about the functioning of the immigration courts and the behavior of the immigration judges," she said in a written statement. "Increasingly, courts are reversing immigration decisions due to seriously flawed immigration judge decisions."

A few of the boys in black aren't giving them a wink and nod anymore?

I hope they have some cajones under those robes and tell him to BUG OFF!

He obviousy doesn't know the law or is choosing to ignore the law...following the legal temperament of the WACKIDENT.

We have a RENEGADE GOVERNMENT folks. It's as simple as that.

Call Congress and demand impeachment of BUSH and CHENEY so we can get some Real Americans to lead America instead of this pond scum we're paying to lead us into tyranny and poverty on a world-wide scale.

HB 635 sponsored by 8 Democrats is the first legislation introduced into the United States Congress to commence proceedings concerning Impeachment of the George Wackident Bush.

Does our Congress have the guts to do the right thing by the United States and the American People?

It's time to find out.

I guess we couldn't EXPECT much else from GONZALES, huh? ALWAYS look after "YOUR OWN". Does he think the Judges might be FED UP with the fact that they have to put up with people who refuse to speak their language, refuse to SHOW UP for hearings, make DEMANDS on our Courts, BREAK THE LAWS OF OUR COUNTRY??? Since WHEN do CRIMINALS get treated with RESPECT??? RESPECT is an EARNED LUXURY--NOT A RIGHT.

I guess this is what we can expect from the Bush Admin in response to all the concern of American citizens, legal immigrants, and those in Congress that are trying to clean up this mess.

Gonzalez, during his days as White House Counsel, wrote in a memo that the US Constitution is "outdated", . Yet the Administration, with the approval of the US Senate, put this traitor in as AG, the top Law enforcement officer in the Land. Well, the good Senators could hardly pass up an opportunity to stroke the Latino community, irregardless of his qualifications, or his values.

So his directtive to the immigration courts should be of no surprise; rule of law as well as the Constitution are merely inconvenient.

The Constitution is OUTDATED, huh?? I GUESS that's a better description than the one Bush used about it being a GD piece of paper???

Well, there is documentary evidence, with Gonzalez' signature on it, referring to the Constitution as outdated. I just wish we could get credible witnesses, such as the Congressmen who were present, to verify what George Bush said about the Constitution being a "GD piece of paper". If that were ever verified, impeachment would be fast-tracked. I would hope. I have no doubt that he said that, and that he really believes it. And his actions on everything from immigration to domestic spying to phantom WMDs in Iraq clearly demonstrate his disdain for the Constitution, this nation, and the principles it was founded upon. What especially irks me is that Bush and his bedfellows figuritively spit on the graves of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who served and defended this country in the military. Yet Bush is the greatest threat to the future of this nation, even moreso than the hordes of illegal aliens.

You are SO RIGHT, legal4mykids....! BUSH IS the problem. I AM a TAD concerned that we can't find DEFINITIVE PROOF that he made that statement about the Constitution. I BELIEVE he said it. It SOUNDS like something he would say but, without irrefutable evidence, we are STUCK on that one.

One more thing, though. If definitive proof ever did come out that he made that statment, in front of other elected official (Congressmen) and they (the Congressmen) have chosen to stay silent about such a traitorous declaration, would that not make them as culpable as the President?

Probably, and that is why it is unlikely it will ever be confirmed.

GOOD POINT. Maybe THAT is why we haven't gotten confirmation. BUT, they wouldn't be culpable UNLESS they had either AGREED OR WITHHELD that important information, would they? SO, IF he said it and IF a Congressman HEARD it, they better be SPEAKING OUT FAST!