Lily Axelrod, a lawyer at Siskind Susser, posted a Twitter thread yesterday aimed at EOIR, the agency in charge of our immigration courts.
When will EOIR announce guidelines for how courts will help prevent contagion? Director McHenry told us that @ALT_DOJ DoJ is coordinating an agency-wide response. I told him I hope DOJ is listening to EOIR folks on the ground because we need transparent leadership on this ASAP.
— Lily S. Axelrod (@LilySAxelrod) March 11, 2020
For example:
1. EOIR could announce that respondents and attorneys with fever or cough should file emergency requests to continue, which will be granted as a matter of policy.
2. EOIR could encourage IJs to allow telephonic hearings even for local counsel.— Lily S. Axelrod (@LilySAxelrod) March 11, 2020
3. EOIR could encourage IJs to automatically waive the presence of minors, and encourage motions to waive the presence of elderly or immunocompromised respondents.
4. EOIR could publicly state that IJs won’t be punished in their stats for continuances related to COVID-19.— Lily S. Axelrod (@LilySAxelrod) March 11, 2020
5. EOIR could order all hearings to use consecutive rather than simultaneous interpretation, which would slow down hearings but would avoid having hundreds of people share the same pair of headphones.
— Lily S. Axelrod (@LilySAxelrod) March 11, 2020
These are all EOIR-specific solutions that EOIR could implement w/o waiting for DOJ. DOJ if you aren’t ready to go forward to implement common-sense solutions to protect staff, respondents, & attorneys, get out of the way so EOIR HQ & local ACIJS & Court Adms can get it done.
— Lily S. Axelrod (@LilySAxelrod) March 11, 2020