Last Thursday, five non-profit organizations, represented by the ACLU, sued Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), accusing the agency of "making it difficult for lawyers to meet with detainees." Specifically, the lawsuit accuses ICE of preventing regular contact with detainees by not providing sufficient meeting spaces, preventing lawyers from scheduling calls and leaving messages for clients, and denying access to videoconferencing technology. The lawsuit focuses on detention centers in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. I do not have extensive personal experience with detention centers in Texas, Arizona, or Florida. I have represented detained individuals in all three states, but not with the frequency necessary to make me feel comfortable with corroborating the experiences outlined in the lawsuit (although I do believe them to be true based on my limited experience there). Louisiana is a different story. Most immigrants detained in Arkansas are transferred to ...
The Memphis Immigration Court is not an independent, Article III, court of law. Rather, it is an administrative law court falling under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Chief Immigration Judge , a component of the Executive Office forImmigration Review under the Department of Justice. The court in Memphis has jurisdiction over all non-detained removal proceedings originating in Arkansas, Tennessee and Northern Mississippi. As we're located in Arkansas, the vast majority of our clients facing removal end up in Memphis. Our cases involving detained immigrants will find themselves before one of the Louisiana courts and we sometimes have clients who find themselves before the Dallas or Kansas City immigration courts either because they are placed there by accident or they live in eastern Oklahoma or southwest Missouri. Regardless, Memphis is the general rule... 80 Monroe Avenue, Memphis, TN Photo courtesy of Google As such, it might be helpful to get to know the...
Even though the non-detained immigration courts remain closed to hearings and other in-person services at this time, that does not mean the immigration courts are not making moves. For those following the Memphis Immigration Court in particular, it is common knowledge that a pair of retirements last year had been causing a considerable amount of confusion and delay well before COVID-19. The retirements were not totally unexpected as the immigration courts in general have struggled to retain judges under this administration. Regardless, chaos and confusion are the natural consequences when a court that has been operating for several years with 4 immigration judges is suddenly reduced down to two. Recently, the Department of Justice has moved to re-staff and re-structure the Memphis court. The first change came shortly into the pandemic when Immigration Judge Renae M. Hansell was promoted to the position of Assistant Chief Immigration Judge (“ACIJ”) for the Memphis court...
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