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Immigration Courts’ Independence in Danger, NYC Bar Warns

The New York Bar called out the immigration court backlog and other "conflicts of interest" jeopardizing fair immigration court processes

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Last week, the New York City Bar Association issued a “report on the independence of the Immigration Courts” to highlight concerns about immigration policy changes and “their impact on independence of the immigration court system as well as the due process rights of those who pass through the immigration system.” In particular, they called it an “inherent conflict of interest” to house the body overseeing the immigration courts within the Department of Justice, as the DOJ is tasked with law enforcement. This and other legal and structural changes within the immigration judicial system have restricted public access to certain information, driven up asylum denial rates and the immigration court backlog and kept the system’s failures from independent observers. New York City Bar 

In other local immigration news…

ICE Raids Continue in New York City

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents appear to be active in New York City neighborhoods, such as Sunset Park, Red Hook, Bay Ridge and Fort Greene in Brooklyn, as well as upper Manhattan and the Bronx. They’ve posed as NYPD officers and attempted to enter buildings, residents say. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office is asking ICE to stop disguising themselves as NYPD officers. Arrests declined due to the pandemic, but ICE resumed activity and arrested 125 immigrants between Sept. 28 and Oct. 2 in California and 172 immigrants between Oct. 3 and 9 in six sanctuary cities (Baltimore, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington). City Limits

New Jersey Hispanic Voters Talk About 2020 Election Affecting Immigration

The Hispanic community serves as the second largest ethnic-racial electoral faction in the U.S, after whites. Roughly 32 million Latinos are qualified to vote this coming election, according to the Pew Research Center, equating to 13.3 percent of voters. But some Hispanic New Jersey residents say they feel the presidential candidates are not campaigning for the Latino community, including immigrants, in the state. In New Jersey, 22.9 percent of the population are immigrants, according to “The New American Integration Report.” One resident implied the candidates have spoken a lot about COVID-19, but not enough about improving immigration. NJ.com

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