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'Wilson 4' judge a real free spirit


Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 31, 2005 12:00 AM

The federal judge who decided recently to toss out deportation cases against four Phoenix students is known as a maverick both inside and outside the courtroom.

U.S. Immigration Judge John W. Richardson cruises around on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on weekends and wears an earring in his left lobe, even while on the bench in the staid Phoenix Immigration Court. Probably not typical behavior for a federal judge and former lawyer and judge in the Army's Judge Advocate General Corps, the military's court system.

But since becoming an immigration judge in 1990, Richardson has demonstrated a willingness to buck the establishment, along with a special concern for children, characteristics that may have helped the "Wilson Four" escape deportation against the odds, immigration lawyers say.

Twice before his July 21 ruling, he granted lengthy delays that allowed the students to buy time while Congress debated a proposal that might have allowed undocumented immigrants brought here at a young age, as the four were, to apply for legal status.

Some on radio and television talk shows have called Richardson an activist judge trying to legislate from the bench.

But defenders in the immigration bar say he is a stickler for the law whose ruling, though unusual, is consistent with the Constitution and underscores a fearlessness to make unpopular decisions if he believes it's the right thing to do.

Richardson, one of two Phoenix immigration judges, was assigned the Wilson Four case at random, court officials said. He presides over all Phoenix cases of detained undocumented children.

The Wilson students had traveled to western New York three years ago to participate in an international solar-powered boat competition when they were questioned and detained by U.S. immigration officials during a side trip to Niagara Falls. At the time, all were honor students at Wilson Charter High School in Phoenix. Their parents brought them from Mexico illegally when they were young children.

Government lawyers argued that the young people were in the country illegally and subject to deportation.

In his decision, Richardson concluded that immigration officials had targeted the students because they looked Hispanic, and therefore had violated their Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure.

After Richardson left the courtroom, Marianne Gonko, one of the students' two lawyers, said she saw him flash her a thumbs up.

Immigration lawyers, including those representing the Wilson Four, say they doubt whether any other immigration judge in the country would have made the same decision.

"I think it's quite possible, in fact quite probable, that there would have been a different outcome," said Christopher Brelje, a Valley immigration lawyer who has known Richardson since 1990.

By tossing out the deportation cases, Richardson was clearly going out on a limb, Brelje said, because most immigration judges have ruled in the past that Fourth Amendment protections do not apply to civil immigration proceedings, only to criminal cases.

"I think it is an application of the law that is not made very often in immigration court, but he's one judge willing to exclude evidence on facts like this," Brelje said.

Tucson immigration lawyer Tarik Sultan agreed.

"I know he has been a thorn in the side of (immigration officials) because unlike a lot of judges he has not allowed them to push him around," said Sultan, who was Richardson's law clerk from 1993 to 1994. "A lot of immigration judges were former INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) prosecutors. The fact that Judge Richardson came out of a neutral environment has given him a real even-handedness to his rulings that is refreshing."

Sultan said it would be wrong to conclude Richardson is a "raving, pro-immigrant liberal."

"He's an archconservative," said Sultan, noting that Richardson's chamber is filled with photographs of the judge with President Bush, former President H.W. George Bush and other Republican luminaries. "He just has a healthy distrust of the government overreaching."

Russell Ahr, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman in Phoenix, said his office does not comment on judges.

Richardson was not interviewed for this story. It is against Justice Department policy for immigration judges to grant interviews, said Elaine Komis, a spokeswoman for the department's Executive Office for Immigration Review.

Komis said her office does not keep statistics on the number of times judges' rulings have been reversed.

The government plans to appeal Richardson's ruling in the Wilson Four case.

Richardson and his wife, Leslie, have been married more than 30 years and have two grown sons, Sultan said.

Richardson received his undergraduate (1965) and law degrees (196 from the University of Kentucky. His Southern twang is still detectible.

From 1968 to 1990, he served in the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps, holding the positions of trial attorney, trial judge, regional defense counsel, legislative counsel to the secretary of the Army, and director of Senate affairs for the secretary of Defense, according to his biography. The deputy attorney general appointed Richardson an immigration judge in April 1990. There are no limits on how long immigration judges may serve.

Immigration lawyers speak highly of Richardson; praising him for his fairness in the courtroom, keen intellect, sense of humor and infectious laugh.

"He's a real strict person about the law," said Phoenix immigration lawyer Emilia Bañuelos. "If someone is eligible, he gives them relief. but if they aren't eligible, he terminates the case."

Over the years, immigration lawyers say, Richardson has demonstrated a deep concern for children.

He also was instrumental in creating a program to provide pro-bono lawyers to represent undocumented children, who under the law are not entitled to lawyers at government expense. In 1996, after Richardson saw that unrepresented children in detention were being scheduled for immigration court hearings, he sent a memo to the State Bar Association pleading, "Please help the children!!!"

At times, however, his relationship with government officials has been acrimonious.

In December 2002, Richardson was so incensed when three top officials with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officials failed to appear in court for an asylum hearing, he cited them for contempt.

In his ruling, Richardson accused the agency of intentionally stonewalling so that a 17-year-old Guatemalan would turn 18, losing legal protections afforded to minors.

Richardson later granted the boy asylum.