I stop dead at the wording. The Salt Lake Tribune article suggests 40,000 immigration cases were canceled as of Jan. 11 as a result of the government shutdown, with an estimate that 20,000 more would be canceled each week the shutdown continued.
The story did not say the hearings have been postponed. No, it said they were canceled. Since when do you cancel a court case? Now, consider this as you mull on that question: While the immigration courts were shuttered, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers remained on their beats. The Salt Lake Tribune article opened with a story of a man who wanted to go into the immigration court and file to reopen his case, but couldn't because the court was closed. He was then picked up by ICE -- which was still open -- and deported.
We'll do all we can to get rid of you. And canceled any efforts to save you.
Since when do you cancel a court case? We might as well ask, since when do you cancel justice?
These immigrants depend on a day in court in order to obtain justice. If you are not allowed to argue your case, is that justice?
I realize that even when canceled, a case can be reopened. But, consider that our immigration courts are clogged with cases, and that the government shutdown backlogged them only so much the worse. Will it take months to catch up? Or years? Consider that many will never be reopened. Consider that even before the government shutdown, cases already were taking years to wind their ways through. Consider that the immigrants' rights -- and often their freedoms -- are on hold.
Consider that by canceling a case, it means it basically must be started all over. Go back to Start. And, in the mean time, stay in jail, if that is where we've got you.
It is all as if the government is saying, Whatever we can do to thwart your justice, we'll do it. We are not concerned about giving you justice, but only in what we see as justice -- and that is that you be gone.
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