Just jumped into listening to the Tipton status hearing in the Texas case and the Texas AG just said something wildly incorrect, that all 14,000 people held in ICE detention would be released—but that's just completely wrong. It only applies to those with final orders!

Tipton, admitting his lack of knowledge on immigration law, asks a series of questions about detention that suggests he completely buys into Texas's argument that anyone with a criminal record is per se dangerous. But they served their time! If they were a citizen they'd be out.
Kirschner pushing back on Tipton and the AG's focus on detention, making clear that the case is about "removal," not detention. He asks Tipton to lay out his questions fully so they can answer them.
Texas's AG office completely botches Zadvydas, claiming that if removable is not foreseeable the government has no authority to detain them.

That is simply false (DHS can always continue to detain on public safety grounds), and @CodyWofsy jumps in to correct that issue.
Pushing back, @CodyWofsy makes clear that "as a practical matter, people who have final removal orders are often detained for years," including in circumstances where there are practical issues with their removal (diplomatic issues, e.g.) and Texas's claim was just wrong.
Now @CodyWofsy is explaining the very basics of the removal system's interaction with the criminal justice system to Judge Tipton, making clear that removal is not automatic on conviction, that there's a whole immigration court process.
Tipton now goes to the basic question at the top, asking whether or not people who don't have final orders of removal are covered by the memorandum (they are not!).

Kirschner for DOJ explains that the memo is ONLY about final orders.

Tipton thanks @CodyWofsy for background.
Tipton: "Are people who have been in prison, served their debt, are they covered by this pause.... or are they governed by some other statute about what happens to them on release?" He should read our IHP fact sheet.
https://t.co/IPBpqdl9eE
Tipton is clearly very open to learning more about the immigration system, and keeps asking for more information about how it actually works, which is good... but he already jumped in before getting the info, which is not good. @CodyWofsy doing a great job explaining basics.
Tipton says that he is going to extend the Temporary Restraining Order to "get it into a fashion for appellate review" and "I just want to make sure that the Fifth Circuit has the best record that it can, and that the parties have had the opportunity to provide fulsome briefing."
Tipton proposes a briefing schedule where Texas's briefing will be due on February 5th, DOJ's response due February 12, and a reply brief due Tuesday February 16th, and an argument on February 19. He asks for practical concerns from the parties first. Texas says they agree.
My fundamental issue with Tipton's solicitude to the schedules of the lawyers involved (he keeps apologizing for rushing them and empathizing with the work they have to do) is that the burden on lawyers doing more work is far less than the burden on people being deported.
Kirschner says that the Solicitor General will be making a determination as to whether to appeal Tipton's decision, but that he's going to be working along Tipton's schedule no matter what.

Tipton asks about appealability of TROs in general and conversion to a PI.
Kirschner says that they'll follow Tipton's schedule, but also that DOJ may try to appeal Tipton's decision anyway.

Tipton asks Texas to agree that DOJ's filing a brief on the extended TRO schedule isn't waiving their right to appeal the extension of the TRO. Texas agrees.
Now we're just on to practical question about word counts for briefs. But long story short, the TRO is going to be extended to February 23, and then Tipton will try to get a ruling in on converting it into a preliminary injunction or not. However, DOJ may appeal the extension.

More from Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

We finally have the U.S. Citizenship Act Bill Text! I'm going to go through some portions of the bill right now and highlight some of the major changes and improvements that it would make to our immigration system.

Thread:


First the Bill makes a series of promises changes to the way we talk about immigrants and immigration law.

Gone would be the term "alien" and in its place is "noncitizen."

Also gone would be the term "alienage," replaced with "noncitizenship."


Now we get to the "earned path to citizenship" for all undocumented immigrants present in the United States on January 1, 2021.

Under this bill, anyone who satisfies the eligibility criteria for a new "lawful prospective immigrant status" can come out of the shadows.


So, what are the eligibility criteria for becoming a "lawful prospective immigrant status"? Those are in a new INA 245G and include:

- Payment of the appropriate fees
- Continuous presence after January 1, 2021
- Not having certain criminal record (but there's a waiver)


After a person has been in "lawful prospective immigrant status" for at least 5 years, they can apply for a green card, so long as they still pass background checks and have paid back any taxes they are required to do so by law.

However! Some groups don't have to wait 5 years.
Sitting down to work for the first day of the Biden presidency is a surreal feeling.

So much happened yesterday. I'm going to collect my threads here on yesterday's big immigration news.

First, we got key details of Biden's big immigration


Once Biden had officially taken office, we got the first major action. As part of a standard transition process, the Biden White House froze all regulations which Trump had been trying to finalize at the last hour. I did a thread on what we


Last night we started getting more changes. One of the first was an order telling CBP to stop putting people into the so-called "Migrant Protection Protocols," a cruel program that's left thousands in a dangerous limbo. But there's still more to do!


After that, we began getting the text of immigration executive orders. The first one put onto the White House's website was the order ending the Muslim Ban/Africa Ban and ordering the State Department to come up with a plan for reconsidering


The next immigration executive order put on the White House's website revoked a Trump executive order from January 26, 2017 which made all undocumented immigrants a priority for deportation and directed a DHS-wide review of immigration

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I hate when I learn something new (to me) & stunning about the Jeff Epstein network (h/t MoodyKnowsNada.)

Where to begin?

So our new Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's stepfather, Samuel Pisar, was "longtime lawyer and confidant of...Robert Maxwell," Ghislaine Maxwell's Dad.


"Pisar was one of the last people to speak to Maxwell, by phone, probably an hour before the chairman of Mirror Group Newspapers fell off his luxury yacht the Lady Ghislaine on 5 November, 1991."
https://t.co/DAEgchNyTP


OK, so that's just a coincidence. Moving on, Anthony Blinken "attended the prestigious Dalton School in New York City"...wait, what? https://t.co/DnE6AvHmJg

Dalton School...Dalton School...rings a

Oh that's right.

The dad of the U.S. Attorney General under both George W. Bush & Donald Trump, William Barr, was headmaster of the Dalton School.

Donald Barr was also quite a


I'm not going to even mention that Blinken's stepdad Sam Pisar's name was in Epstein's "black book."

Lots of names in that book. I mean, for example, Cuomo, Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen - all in that book, and their reputations are spotless.