SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Jeffrey Chase, a former immigration judge who is currently an immigration lawyer, accused Sessions of "characterizing decisions he personally disagrees with as being based on sympathy alone, when in fact, those decisions were driven by sympathy but based on solid legal reasoning." (Photo: Jay LaPrete/AP)
With Hundreds of Children Still Detained, Sessions Instructs Judges to Show Less 'Sympathy' for Immigrants
One immigration judge denounced the attorney general's comments as a "political statement which does not articulate a legal concept that judges are required to be aware of and follow"
Sep 11, 2018
With around 500 families still separated and hundreds of children still in detention as a result of the Trump administration's cruel "zero tolerance" policy and as the White House moves ahead with a proposal one critic called "Gitmo for children," Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday lectured incoming immigration lawyers to show less "sympathy" for immigrants trapped in President Donald Trump's mass deportation dragnet.
"When we depart from the law and create nebulous legal standards out of a sense of sympathy for the personal circumstances of a respondent in our immigration courts, we do violence to the rule of law and constitutional fabric that bind this great nation," Sessions declared in a speech delivered to 44 new judges in Virginia. "Your job is to apply the law--even in tough cases."
Sessions' comments, which come as the Trump administration continues to face international condemnation over its family separation policies, immediately provoked backlash from the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ)--the union that represents U.S. immigration judges--as well as former judges, who characterized the attorney general's instructions as politically motivated, legally baseless, and morally bankrupt.
"The reality is that it is a political statement which does not articulate a legal concept that judges are required to be aware of and follow," Dana Marks, an NAIJ spokesperson and immigration judge in San Francisco, told Buzzfeed. "It did appear to be a one-sided argument made by a prosecutor."
Jeffrey Chase, a former immigration judge who is currently an immigration lawyer, accused Sessions of "characterizing decisions he personally disagrees with as being based on sympathy alone, when in fact, those decisions were driven by sympathy but based on solid legal reasoning."
"We possess brains and hearts, not just one or the other," Chase added.
Sessions' speech was delivered just hours after new United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet denounced the Trump administration's family separation policy--which was devised and implemented by Sessions' Justice Department--as "unconscionable" in her first speech on Monday and ripped the White House for not doing nearly enough to reunite the families it forcibly ripped apart.
As Buzzfeed's Hamed Aleaziz notes, Sessions--who as attorney general oversees the nation's immigration judges--has already taken concrete steps to make an already cruel immigration system even more harmful to immigrants and asylum seekers.
"Sessions already has instituted case quotas, restricted the types of cases for which asylum can be granted, and limited when judges can indefinitely suspend certain cases," Aleaziz notes. "Advocates believe the Trump administration has made these decisions in order to speed up deportations. His comments on sympathy to immigrants appeared intended to bolster a decision he made recently to limit when asylum can be granted out of fear of domestic or gang violence."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
With around 500 families still separated and hundreds of children still in detention as a result of the Trump administration's cruel "zero tolerance" policy and as the White House moves ahead with a proposal one critic called "Gitmo for children," Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday lectured incoming immigration lawyers to show less "sympathy" for immigrants trapped in President Donald Trump's mass deportation dragnet.
"When we depart from the law and create nebulous legal standards out of a sense of sympathy for the personal circumstances of a respondent in our immigration courts, we do violence to the rule of law and constitutional fabric that bind this great nation," Sessions declared in a speech delivered to 44 new judges in Virginia. "Your job is to apply the law--even in tough cases."
Sessions' comments, which come as the Trump administration continues to face international condemnation over its family separation policies, immediately provoked backlash from the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ)--the union that represents U.S. immigration judges--as well as former judges, who characterized the attorney general's instructions as politically motivated, legally baseless, and morally bankrupt.
"The reality is that it is a political statement which does not articulate a legal concept that judges are required to be aware of and follow," Dana Marks, an NAIJ spokesperson and immigration judge in San Francisco, told Buzzfeed. "It did appear to be a one-sided argument made by a prosecutor."
Jeffrey Chase, a former immigration judge who is currently an immigration lawyer, accused Sessions of "characterizing decisions he personally disagrees with as being based on sympathy alone, when in fact, those decisions were driven by sympathy but based on solid legal reasoning."
"We possess brains and hearts, not just one or the other," Chase added.
Sessions' speech was delivered just hours after new United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet denounced the Trump administration's family separation policy--which was devised and implemented by Sessions' Justice Department--as "unconscionable" in her first speech on Monday and ripped the White House for not doing nearly enough to reunite the families it forcibly ripped apart.
As Buzzfeed's Hamed Aleaziz notes, Sessions--who as attorney general oversees the nation's immigration judges--has already taken concrete steps to make an already cruel immigration system even more harmful to immigrants and asylum seekers.
"Sessions already has instituted case quotas, restricted the types of cases for which asylum can be granted, and limited when judges can indefinitely suspend certain cases," Aleaziz notes. "Advocates believe the Trump administration has made these decisions in order to speed up deportations. His comments on sympathy to immigrants appeared intended to bolster a decision he made recently to limit when asylum can be granted out of fear of domestic or gang violence."
With around 500 families still separated and hundreds of children still in detention as a result of the Trump administration's cruel "zero tolerance" policy and as the White House moves ahead with a proposal one critic called "Gitmo for children," Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday lectured incoming immigration lawyers to show less "sympathy" for immigrants trapped in President Donald Trump's mass deportation dragnet.
"When we depart from the law and create nebulous legal standards out of a sense of sympathy for the personal circumstances of a respondent in our immigration courts, we do violence to the rule of law and constitutional fabric that bind this great nation," Sessions declared in a speech delivered to 44 new judges in Virginia. "Your job is to apply the law--even in tough cases."
Sessions' comments, which come as the Trump administration continues to face international condemnation over its family separation policies, immediately provoked backlash from the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ)--the union that represents U.S. immigration judges--as well as former judges, who characterized the attorney general's instructions as politically motivated, legally baseless, and morally bankrupt.
"The reality is that it is a political statement which does not articulate a legal concept that judges are required to be aware of and follow," Dana Marks, an NAIJ spokesperson and immigration judge in San Francisco, told Buzzfeed. "It did appear to be a one-sided argument made by a prosecutor."
Jeffrey Chase, a former immigration judge who is currently an immigration lawyer, accused Sessions of "characterizing decisions he personally disagrees with as being based on sympathy alone, when in fact, those decisions were driven by sympathy but based on solid legal reasoning."
"We possess brains and hearts, not just one or the other," Chase added.
Sessions' speech was delivered just hours after new United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet denounced the Trump administration's family separation policy--which was devised and implemented by Sessions' Justice Department--as "unconscionable" in her first speech on Monday and ripped the White House for not doing nearly enough to reunite the families it forcibly ripped apart.
As Buzzfeed's Hamed Aleaziz notes, Sessions--who as attorney general oversees the nation's immigration judges--has already taken concrete steps to make an already cruel immigration system even more harmful to immigrants and asylum seekers.
"Sessions already has instituted case quotas, restricted the types of cases for which asylum can be granted, and limited when judges can indefinitely suspend certain cases," Aleaziz notes. "Advocates believe the Trump administration has made these decisions in order to speed up deportations. His comments on sympathy to immigrants appeared intended to bolster a decision he made recently to limit when asylum can be granted out of fear of domestic or gang violence."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.