http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-asylum19.htmlA federal appeals judge used unusually harsh language to blast the Bush administration's immigration judges and its review panel in a ruling that grants new asylum hearings to a Chicago refugee from Sudan and one from Bulgaria.
Of the immigration judge who denied Sudanese refugee Nourain Niam's petition for asylum, federal appellate Judge Richard Posner wrote, "The immigration judge's analysis was so inadequate as to raise questions of adjudicative competence."
Posner calls attention to a problem that immigration lawyers have complained about since Attorney General John Ashcroft cut the number of judges on the Board of Immigration Appeals to "streamline" deportation hearings, said Susan Fortino-Brown, chairwoman of the American Immigration Lawyers Association's Chicago branch.
"I'm thrilled that some of these inconsistencies, these substandard adjudications are coming to light," Fortino-Brown said. "I think it's a reprimand of sorts. I've never seen a decision like this."