McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Immigration lawyers and legal advocacy groups are expressing outrage and fear after President Donald Trump issued a memo warning against “frivolous” lawsuits against the U.S. government.
Legal experts say Trump’s memo issued Friday puts unnecessary and unwarranted scrutiny on them by ordering sanctions placed on law firms that are found to act with “unscrupulous behavior.”
“The immigration system — where rampant fraud and meritless claims have supplanted the constitutional and lawful bases upon which the President exercises core powers under Article II of the United States Constitution — is likewise replete with examples of unscrupulous behavior by attorneys and law firms,” the White House memo sent to the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security says. “Lawyers and law firms that engage in actions that violate the laws of the United States or rules governing attorney conduct must be efficiently and effectively held accountable. Accountability is especially important when misconduct by lawyers and law firms threatens our national security, homeland security, public safety, or election integrity.”
The memo, “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court,” claims that “the immigration bar, and powerful Big Law pro bono practices, frequently coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims, all in an attempt to circumvent immigration policies enacted to protect our national security and deceive the immigration authorities and courts into granting them undeserved relief. Gathering the necessary information to refute these fraudulent claims imposes an enormous burden on the federal government. And this fraud in turn undermines the integrity of our immigration laws and the legal profession more broadly.”
Trump has ordered sanctions against attorneys and law firms “who engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States or in matters before executive departments and agencies of the United States.”
Several groups representing immigration lawyers refute the claims
“This memo is an attempt to scare and punish attorneys and volunteers from helping immigrants present their cases. This attempt to eliminate basic due process will hurt people who already have few options,” said Rebekah Wolf, director of the American Immigration Council’s Immigration Justice Campaign.
Several studies produced over the years by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse have found that migrants with legal representation fare better in their case outcomes.
In July, the Biden administration asked legal firms to provide pro bono services for asylum-seekers.
Nearly 2 million immigrants are currently awaiting asylum hearings, according to TRAC. And there are 3.6 million backlogged immigration court cases — the most ever in U.S. history, the nonprofit says.
Trump’s executive memo orders the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to take sweeping disciplinary action against attorneys they believe challenge the administration.
In doing so, legal experts say this threatens not only lawyers and law firms but migrants access to legal representation.
Trump last week called for the impeachment of a federal judge in Washington, D.C., who was overseeing a case involving Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. On Friday, U.S. Chief District Judge James Boasberg admonished the Trump administration for deporting 260 Venezuelans to El Salvador on a flight after he ordered the planes to return to the United States.
On Monday, Boasberg declined to lift a restraining order barring the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act.
Trump’s memo says the law clearly states that lawyers cannot file frivolous claims, and must display ethical conduct in federal courts.
Those found to violate this could have their security clearances and federal contracts they have been hired for revoked.
Trump has ordered a review of attorneys’ actions to be conducted for the past eight years.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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