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hay rick

(8,895 posts)
Fri Jul 18, 2025, 11:29 AM Friday

ICE lawyers seeking anonymity in Immigration Courts

Article from The Intercept here: https://theintercept.com/2025/07/15/ice-lawyers-hiding-names-court/

Inside a federal immigration courtroom in New York City last month, a judge took an exceedingly unusual step: declining to state the name of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorney pressing to deport asylum seekers.
......
Immigration courts, which are run by the Executive Office for Immigration Review- part of the executive branch, not the judiciary- are far less transparent than most courts. Their prosecutors work for ICE and DHS; they have no obligation to provide defense lawyers; and their judges are appointed — and fired — by the president.

On a Tuesday morning in late June, [Judge ShaSha Xu]... was running through several brief, preliminary hearings known as “master calendars.” Nationwide, these proceedings always start out the same way. An immigrant will appear with their attorney — if they have the good fortune to retain one — often on Webex. A judge presides at a big desk in an actual courtroom, in this case in lower Manhattan. An ICE lawyer represents the government in its attempts to deport the immigrant.

As each case commences, the judge recites their own name, followed by the immigrant’s name, the name of the immigrant’s attorney (if they have one), and finally, the name of the ICE lawyer. It’s an on-the-record census that enables due process.
.....
Xu attributed the change to “privacy” because “things lately have changed.” Xu told Okun that he could use Webex’s direct messaging function to send the ICE lawyer his email, and the ICE lawyer would probably respond with her own name and address. Okun accepted the arrangement.


Immigrants ,who often have been detained by unidentified masked men but are fortunate enough to get a smidgen of virtual due process via Webex, face cases brought by attorneys remaining anonymous to hide their shame in front of judges tolerated by the Trump administration as long as they meet high deportation-friendly goals.
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ICE lawyers seeking anonymity in Immigration Courts (Original Post) hay rick Friday OP
Any legal document that is intended to be filed with The Court, no_hypocrisy Friday #1
Immigration Courts are part of the executive branch. hay rick Friday #3
Secret police, secret witnesses? SCantiGOP Friday #2
When justice is dispensed based on quotas instead of rules... hay rick Friday #4
This is an Intolerable Act JustAnotherGen Friday #5

no_hypocrisy

(52,349 posts)
1. Any legal document that is intended to be filed with The Court,
Fri Jul 18, 2025, 11:38 AM
Friday

e.g., Complaint, Answer, Motions, Answers to Motions, Depositions, etc., should be rejected if they don't have the representing counsel's name on it for any reason.

Civil Procedure Rule 11. Signing Pleadings, Motions, and Other Papers; Representations to the Court; Sanctions
(a) Signature. Every pleading, written motion, and other paper must be signed by at least one attorney of record in the attorney's name—or by a party personally if the party is unrepresented. The paper must state the signer's address, e-mail address, and telephone number. Unless a rule or statute specifically states otherwise, a pleading need not be verified or accompanied by an affidavit. The court must strike an unsigned paper unless the omission is promptly corrected after being called to the attorney's or party's attention.


(b) Representations to the Court. By presenting to the court a pleading, written motion, or other paper—whether by signing, filing, submitting, or later advocating it—an attorney or unrepresented party certifies that to the best of the person's knowledge, information, and belief, formed after an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances:

(1) it is not being presented for any improper purpose, such as to harass, cause unnecessary delay, or needlessly increase the cost of litigation;

(2) the claims, defenses, and other legal contentions are warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for extending, modifying, or reversing existing law or for establishing new law;

(3) the factual contentions have evidentiary support or, if specifically so identified, will likely have evidentiary support after a reasonable opportunity for further investigation or discovery; and

(4) the denials of factual contentions are warranted on the evidence or, if specifically so identified, are reasonably based on belief or a lack of information.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_11

Without a name, how can a so-called attorney certify the veracity of the statements made?

hay rick

(8,895 posts)
3. Immigration Courts are part of the executive branch.
Fri Jul 18, 2025, 11:59 AM
Friday

I expect that they have looser standards, and if they don't, they are in the process of rewriting, reinterpreting, or simply ignoring documentation standards.

SCantiGOP

(14,547 posts)
2. Secret police, secret witnesses?
Fri Jul 18, 2025, 11:39 AM
Friday

The only step left is to have court proceedings held in closed settings with no public awareness.

hay rick

(8,895 posts)
4. When justice is dispensed based on quotas instead of rules...
Fri Jul 18, 2025, 12:13 PM
Friday

Also from the article:

The asylum system has suffered a stunning collapse under President Donald Trump’s second term. In the past six months, judges’ denials of asylum have skyrocketed from rates of 62 to 80 percent — and immigration enforcement statistics expert Austin Kocher predicts that the figure could soon top out at 95 percent.

As the Trump administration orders ICE to ramp up its removal operations, hundreds of immigrants to the United States are being arrested and beaten by people with their faces covered and no proof of who they are. Now, they may not know the names of the attorneys making the case to deport them, either.
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