Me uploading shit on MyUSCIS and clicking the button repeatedly, ending up with like 20 duplicates

Garry Malphrus, who wrote today's decision, is one of just two people left on the BIA not appointed to the role during Trump 1.0 or Trump 2.0. However, he's infamously one of the most conservative members, and was made the Chief of the Board by Trump last year. He's also a Brooks Brothers rioter.

In 1990, when Congress created a protection for migrant children subject to abuse, it didn't anticipate backlogs would get bad enough that beneficiaries would wait years for a visa, and so never thought to explicitly bar deportation for winners. Today the BIA greenlit deportation in that situation.

Matter of Pinzon came out today, making it even harder for kids to stay here where custody has been granted to someone in the US to keep the kids safe from having to return to abandonment or abuse in their country of origin The GOP hates kids links-1.govdelivery.com/CL0/https:%2...

Heritage is also a driving force behind the attack on the 14th Amendment and the campaign to eradicate trans people. Everything it does is immoral and anti-American. Its radical ideology has infiltrated corporate and elite media

I think - and others do - that the Trump regime is planning to strike Cuba in some way to call the regime as changed and deactivate the Cuban Adjustment Act route to residency for Cubans (it allows the govt to say Cuba no longer has a dictatorship and that the Act shouldn’t apply)

OK, *ongoing* thread of books to read on Palestine. Some recent, some not at all so recent.

Update: situation mostly resolved, but i don't think it's ok that I need to be like an obsessed angry goose to keep people safe

Something bad happened that I can't talk about publicly (I'm safe, it's not something affecting me directly) and I really hate this period of history

The DA in Minneapolis is investigating Bovino and others.

Breaking news: A federal judge found that the IRS violated federal law “approximately 42,695 times” when it shared confidential taxpayer addresses with immigration enforcement officials last summer.

HAPPENING NOW: Good morning from the federal courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee. A federal judge is set to preside over an evidentiary hearing on whether the United States government is vindictively prosecuting Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I'm here for @lawfaremedia.org. Follow along ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Me trying to get some information from a client

so now ECAS (ECF but for immigration court) has been weird and down all morning - but oddly not for immigration judges or for DHS kinda sus, but also just looks like they're hacking at the internet setup for the DOJ carelessly

New interim final rule narrows rights of asylum seekers further, winnows down circumstances where people can work lawfully Dishonest, bad-faith news release by DHS talks about it: www.dhs.gov/news/2026/02... No one outside of ppl directly affected understands this. It's just hate for its own sake

God, every day with these BIA decisions attempting to just make asylum impossible

“There have been previous incidents, including one in 2009, when a bird is believed to have dropped a baguette onto critical electrical systems.”

All, or nearly all, of the arrests of anti-ICE protesters that ICE made were lawless and illegal. They're arresting them for nothing, beating them up, impounding their cars, then releasing them with an "oops". It's a terror tactic, not law enforcement.

DHS attorney at this hearing: "I don't necessarily know what triggers a Notice to Appear to be issued" Fascinating. If not you, who?

2026 basically

oh interesting, I have to remember what CA's own provisions state

the "Asylum Cooperation Agreements" are all basically chain refoulement, and it's unethical for any ICE lawyer to pursue third-country removal for the reasons apparent in this article

ICE deports asylum seeker to Africa, where abuser who bought her as ‘wife’ is waiting to kill her, lawyers claim

Another day of immigrants and children of immigrants working for the government to deport people like themselves or their parents

Correction re the EOIR practice manual: The website was just shittified and some parts of the manual were taken out This is irritating and bad

NEW — An obscure Navy contractor program is making Trump’s plans to quickly build out and supply immigrant concentration camps around the country a reality. Here I explain WEXMAC TITUS, an acronym you need to understand:

Unless there's a completely new link that doesn't show up on a web search, the Practice Manual page remains down

M&Ms CEO: 'most, if not all' meals can be replaced by M&Ms within 12-18 months

Excitingly the EOIR website’s Immigration Court Practice Manual page isn’t working For some reason the appendices page is Is the Manual being down the error, or the appendices being up?

This is a very, very bad decision from one of the two Reagan judges left on the Fifth Circuit, joined by one of the two most extreme Trump appointees on the court. And, it is about the issue I walked through at Law Dork earlier this week, in the context of Minnesota: www.lawdork.com/i/186796727/...

Did he eat a dinosaur

This is fucking evil I personally think that in retribution cases like these the government officers and/or attorneys should be monitored particularly closely I think the relevant attorneys for the government are acting in breach of their ethical duties

Just like with Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the biggest sin any targeted immigrant can commit is winning battles — legal or PR battles — against the government, and they just won’t let those losses go

No. 8 is *VERY INTERESTING* &, sure, that will make for patchwork enforcement, but that cld help (to a degree,see how bad police brutality investigations are) No.9: Aside from it being bizarre for DHS to not coordinate w local govt, we shldn't have large-scale operations, they're fishing expeditions

No.12 I'd hazard is already constitutionally-required and it's creepy as fuck that they're punishing political dissidents No.13 sure, but it's worth remembering their limited impact No.14 honestly like, we shouldn't even need to ask for this Most of the list is shit that is already the law

No. 5 was existing practice IIRC before the current regime No.6 WAS THE LAW until Kavanaugh stops (he loves beer but not the constitution) No.7, it's absurd that they stay on the field after murdering, but I have no faith that training or certification will help

NGL, no.1 is even part of the law now, they can't come in without a judicial warrant, not those "my boss told me to come get you" admin warrants No.2 is something they should be doing already - they don't have the power to detain US citizens Nos.3 and 4, it's just absurd to have to require this shit

Ban billionaires, end aristocracies, remove the ability to hoard wealth and power to the point that it compromises a person's humanity.

Castle High School students in Kaneohe, Hawaii walk out to oppose ICE trying to destroy their communities. Multiple levels of bravery from bullies in the school admin who threatened to suspend them and in their peer groups. #Solidarity

More to come on this; the rule makes a number of other changes to the Board of Immigration Appeals process (such that it will exist should this rule go into effect in 30 days without a court order blocking it). But top line; it's quite bad! public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-02326.pdf

These changes are so absurdly awful they’re worse than a bad farce Good to know that at least in the Ninth Circuit the legality of the summary dismissal process even before this change was alrdy in question In my work I’ll urge the Ninth to find this change unlawful tho of c impact lit is needed

Happy New Year everyone! Feliz Ano Novo! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

This year AILa tried to convince lawyers to use “AI” to write briefs Lol Lmao, even That’s fucking malpractice for multiple reasons

The anti-birthright citizenship element in the legal academy has all the hallmarks of a high school debate club and none of actual scholarship.

Did I miss an EOIR operational status memo where the courts would be closed today?

The Board of Immigration Appeals kicked off Christmas Eve eve by ensuring someone stayed detained and became ineligible for most forms of protection from deportation: Matter of GHANBARI, 29 I&N Dec. 376 (BIA 2025). links-1.govdelivery.com/CL0/https:%2...

Disgusting language in an official news release by USCIS today: “From fiscal years 2020 to 2024, the overall number of Form I-360 VAWA self-petitions increased by approximately 360% and male self-petitioners increased by 259%. These trends are alarming and unprecedented.”

Fed. judge (Boasberg) holds that the U.S. had constructive custody of the AEA detainees that were deported to CECOT and that they were denied due process. Orders U.S. to facilitate their opportunity to contest their designation as AEA detainees. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The Olivia Nuzzi story and the Bari Weiss at CBS story are the same story, which is that the upper echelons of legacy media are absolutely rife with people who worship power and don't feel burdened by any sense of responsibility to their profession or the public.

Just fancy that! Time Person of the Year. From the new Private Eye, out now.