'Fake meetings': why USCIS gives wrong dates of immigration hearings in court, and what to do

When the woman from Key West finally received a notice of the date of the hearing of her case in the immigration court, she prepared for a grueling trip to Miami. But the answer in court shocked her, causing a panic attack, writes Seattle Times.

Фото: Depositphotos

A Russian immigrant victim of domestic violence who works as a mechanic took unpaid leave from work and went to immigration court in Miami.

After an hour of waiting in line, she found out that the court date printed in her letter was untrue. There was no hearing on her case that day.

“I started having a panic attack,” said the woman, whose name is not being released due to her immigration status and privacy concerns.

“I drove halfway across the state and spent money to get here. And it turned out, just like that,” she adds.

Women odysseys are just one in hundreds of cases in South Florida and thousands across the country.

“People received notifications asking them to come on federal holidays, at the weekend, and even at midnight, when we all know that the immigration court is not working,” said Tammy Fox-Isikoff, a woman’s lawyer and board member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

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Justin Sweeney, an immigration attorney in Fresno, California, said some people received notices for dates that don't exist, such as Nov. 31. Even if immigrants came to court on the “correct” dates, it turned out that their case was not scheduled or was scheduled for a completely different date.

"'Fake meetings' is a term that's been thrown around," Sweeney said. “This is a serious problem across the country.” – she added.

So why are the wrong dates published primarily by agencies such as USCIS and the US Immigration and Customs Service?

Immigration authorities send notifications to people who have been denied residency or citizenship. But until June 2018, USCIS sent notifications without dates, because the function of writing cases to the calendar was left to the discretion of local courts. The forms simply said that at such-and-such a time and in such-and-such a place, they should "determine" the date. In fact, this often happened years later.

The reason USCIS sends notifications is because it is the official prosecution document that allows the state to deport a foreigner. Immigration attorneys, in turn, filed a lawsuit stating that notifications without a court date and time were illegal.

In November 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled that notifications should include the date and place.

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To fulfill this decision, immigration officials began sending notifications indicating the time and place, even if they were not true.

The reason, according to lawyers, is that having a notice indicating the date and place allows the government to deprive immigrants of the right to receive assistance with deportation.

Under immigration law, a foreign national can be exempted from deportation if the person has lived in the United States for 10 years before receiving notice. This is why the date printed on the notice is important: if an immigrant receives a notice indicating the date and time before the expiration of 10 years, the government may argue that this is enough to start the deportation process.

“This is arbitrary. This results in quite long queues in immigration court because these individuals cannot find their case on the docket. They spend significant money on a lawyer and waste the time of court workers,” Fox-Isikov said.

The situation is complicated by the fact that USCIS does not communicate with ships in real time when issuing dates.

“This creates chaos in the work of the court. People show up at the scheduled time and it turns out their date is wrong,” said Kelly Stump, an immigration attorney whose practice is based in Oklahoma City.

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“This is a ploy to deny people eligibility for certain immigration relief in court and perhaps even create a wave of fear and anxiety,” he added.

Immigrants who receive an NTA notice with an incorrect date must wait until the next notice from the appropriate immigration court to learn the actual hearing date. This process may take several months. “I'm still waiting for my real court date,” the Key West woman said.

In an email, a USCIS spokesman told Herald that the agency "is unaware of any NTA problems."

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