Conyers, Lofgren: Mukasey Slams the Door on Immigrants on the Way Out

(Washington)-Today House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) condemned the decision issued on January 7 by Attorney General in Matter of Compean, 24 I & N Dec. 710 (A.G. 2009). The attorney general's decision overruled long-standing Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decisions on ineffective assistance of counsel in removal proceedings.

The attorney general's ruling - which has the force of law - holds that immigrants do not have a right to receive new deportation hearings when their attorneys or representatives were acting incompetently or fraudulently, because (in the attorney general's opinion) they do not have a right to counsel. This ruling contradicts long-standing BIA practice and decisions of seven appellate courts by directing the BIA and immigration judges to "apply the [new] framework ... in toto, even in circuits that have previously held that there is a constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel."

"Under the cover of transition, the Bush administration has tried to override federal appellate courts that hold that the sins of the lawyer should not be held against the immigrant who suffers inadequate representation," said Conyers. "This pattern of midnight regulations is simply unacceptable, especially when it leaves vulnerable immigrants unprotected from incompetent counsel."

"This decision represents a callous indifference to immigrants who suffer because of shoddy legal representation, or no representation at all," said Lofgren. "This last minute decree from the attorney general strips away one of the few remaining protections that those facing removal proceedings have."

The decision is linked here.