And Then They Came for the Immigration Lawyers
Because of course they did.
If you’re not an immigration lawyer you can be excused if this one flew under your radar. But in addition to the Trump regime’s overall attack on the courts, judges, prosecutors, law firms, and the legal professional in general, Donald Trump has issued an Executive Order specifically targeting immigration lawyers.
You’ll forgive me if I take this one personally. As it happens, I have recently retired from the paid practice of immigration law. But as my husband quipped today, evidence of my long career as an immigration lawyer is on my permanent record.
Many others have already written detailed analyses of this latest order, as well as Trump’s attacks on the legal profession as a whole. If you’re interested in a deeper dive, I can recommend that you spend some time reading some of the links I have embedded here (by
, , and — just for a start; many other pundits, analysts and commentators are equally worried about these developments).
But to give a quick summary, the first paragraph contains vague allegations that lawyers and law firms are themselves law-breakers, and the second paragraph attacks Marc Elias, a lawyer who represented the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton, for his role in the creation of the so-called Steele Dossier. Prepared by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS, the dossier was a piece of opposition political research alleging connections between Trump and the Russians. Trump has recently gone after Elias’ former firm, Perkins Coie, in retaliation, evidently seeking to destroy and bankrupt the firm and its partners.
After the first two paragraphs, the recent order is all about immigration lawyers, suggesting that they routinely engage in rampant fraud, put forth meritless and frivolous claims on behalf of their clients, coach clients to lie, and engage in numerous kinds of unscrupulous behavior and unethical conduct.
The EO goes on to direct the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to leverage existing regulatory authority to seek broad sanctions against attorneys and law firms — especially those engaged in practicing immigration law — and to prioritize such enforcement against attorneys.
The order specifically singles out Big Law pro bono practices, which makes clear that this is a part of Trump’s larger effort to destroy law firms who have represented parties that brought suit against Trump or his campaign. More broadly, this attack on all lawyers who dare to serve as counsel in lawsuits brought against Trump or his government is part of the Trump regime’s campaign to dismantle the rule of law.
Who will be harmed by this latest attack on lawyers? Lawyers and law firms, for sure. But immigrants will be harmed the most if lawyers are hampered from representing them. Children will be harmed most of all, as the government is already doing everything it can to ensure that unaccompanied immigrant children have no lawyers at all when facing deportation.
In 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions called out what he called “dirty immigration lawyers” who, he alleged, provided asylum-seekers with the “magic words” that would get them past their first legal hurdle. At the time, many of us took a kind of perverse pride in being singled out. I even got the tee shirt.
It doesn’t feel the least bit funny this time around (though of course in retrospect it’s clear that Sessions and Trump were dead serious). Of course after going after immigrants, Trump is going after their lawyers! But he’s going after all lawyers, including government lawyers whose jobs involved seeking to prosecute Trump himself.
It has become a cliché to quote William Shakespeare’s famous line, “The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers” from Henry VI, Part II. But it is instructive to note that none other than Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens referred to that quote when he wrote in a 1985 decision (Regan v. United States), “As a careful reading of that text will reveal, Shakespeare insightfully realized that disposing of lawyers is a step in the direction of a totalitarian form of government.”
This is why we all need to care about these attacks on lawyers and law firms.
And then they came for the [immigration] lawyers….
-First were attacks on the journalists (now many do not trust journalists).
-Second were attacks on the “other”: immigrants, LGBTQ+ (especially transgender individuals), and black people (now many states have bathroom laws, even private companies are canceling DEI programs, and black people are not protected from police violence).
-Third were attacks on women — removing basic human healthcare (Roe v Wade overturned and many red states w/ no basic healthcare for women. Not just not allowing abortions, but not being able to get pap smears, education on family planning, and contraception.)
-Fourth were attacks on the judicial system — heck, there were T-shirts being sold that read “I’m voting for the felon.” (and the felon was voted in.)
-Now is the attack on lawyers who call Trump and his minions on laws they continually break and lawyers that help the poorest and most vulnerable—immigration lawyers (attacks on Jack Smith, Letitia James, Fani Willis have been going on for years … so now they add-in Immigration Lawyers)
God bless the brave lawyers and people that help the asylum seekers and all lawyers that fight for The People.
Thank you, Careen, for informing us.