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By immigrationprof

The First Circuit Jumps on the Immigration Reform Bandwagon

From http://appellatedecisions.blogspot.com/

Kim v. Gonzales, 05-2462 (1st Cir., Nov. 16, 2006) Criticizing the immigration system is no longer the exclusive province of the nutty Ninth. Posner’s doing it. The Second and Third Circuits have shown that they are keeping score of immigration judges. And today, Chief Judge Boudin brings the First Circuit into the fray. But rather than criticizing the Department of Homeland Security or its hapless apparachniks, Judge Boudin lays the blame at Congress’s feet. His opinion, which affirms the deportation of an alien who was convicted of manslaughter, concludes: “It is not the business of the courts to tell Congress what to do about public policy choices, but we are entitled to warn when the machinery that we help administer is breaking down. The current structure of deportation law, greatly complicated by rapid amendments and loop-hole plugging, is now something closer to a many-layered archeological dig than a rational construct. The regime is badly in need of an overhaul.”

Check out the decision at http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/05-2462-01A.pdf or http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=05-2462.01A

Federal Judge Denies Guantanamo Detainee Access to Counsel:  Majid Khan Must Await Decision from Court of Appeals on Federal Courts’ Jurisdiction over Detainee Cases In the Meantime, Judge Urges Gov’t to Evaluate Khan’s Mental and Physical Health

Today a federal judge denied attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) access to their client, Guantánamo detainee Majid Khan a Baltimore, Maryland resident recently transferred to detention in Guantánamo after three years imprisonment in secret CIA black sites. The court ruled that it could not order the government to allow Mr. Khan’s attorney to meet with him until the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decides whether federal courts still have jurisdiction over Guantánamo detainees’ habeas cases after the passage of the Military Commission Act of 2006. This question is before the Court of Appeals in the consolidated cases Al Odah v. United States of America and Boumediene v. Bush, litigated by CCR along with co-counsel. The jurisdictional question will be fully briefed before the Court of Appeals on November 20, 2006.   Click here for the full press release.

KJ