HARLINGEN, Texas (Border Report) — In a change to recent trends, U.S. immigration courts are asking for more in-person hearings where migrant asylum-seekers face the potential for being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, immigration lawyer Claudia Galan says.
Galan joins South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez in the latest edition of Border Report Live where she weighs in on lawyers from the Army Reserve and National Guard who have been tapped as U.S. immigration judges, and how the current government shutdown is affecting immigration court proceedings.
Training is to begin Monday for over 100 Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers, or military lawyers, who will go through a six-week course before taking the bench to oversee immigration cases.
Galan says immigration judges typically train for seven years to learn complex immigration laws. And she doubts they will be fully versed in U.S. immigration law, which is different from military laws and court proceedings.
This comes after dozens of immigration judges were fired in July by the Trump administration.
Galan also talks about recent pressures on unaccompanied migrant children to self-deport. They’re reportedly being offered $2,500 or face ICE detention until they are 18.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been urging migrants who are in the country illegally to self deport and says the U.S. government will pay them and reimburse their travel once they return to their home country.
Galan says she has clients who have self deported but she has not heard of reimbursement funds being sent.
The potential for DACA applicants to reapply and whether they will qualify for work permits also is discussed in this issue of Border Report Live.
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