SAN DIEGO _ Federal offices responsible for immigration proceedings and enforcement have not closed despite the coronavirus pandemic and increasingly strict guidelines from all levels of government asking people to avoid even small public gatherings.
This may have already resulted in the spread of the virus as union leaders are beginning to hear from immigration court staff, including judges and government attorneys, who were either exposed in court or beginning to show symptoms of COVID-19.
Immigration judges and attorneys, including attorneys with Immigration and Customs Enforcement who represent the government in immigration proceedings, have called for courts to close temporarily. Immigration attorneys have also criticized the agency responsible for naturalizations and green cards for continuing its in-person interview processing in a way that defies public health expert recommendations regarding social distancing and COVID-19.
Unions and professional organizations representing the groups of workers who have to show up to immigration court reiterated their call for closures in a scathing phone conference with reporters on Tuesday.
"Everyone is in panic mode," said Ashley Tabaddor, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. "Measures have not been taken to protect people from exposure."
She said that at least one immigration judge had symptoms that suggested that she had contracted the virus.
ICE attorneys were not informed of the judge's condition by the court when they asked about the judge's sudden absence, according to Fanny Behar-Ostrow, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 511, the union that represents ICE attorneys.
"I've been getting inundated with emails and calls of attorneys concerned for their safety," Behar-Ostrow said.
During the call, Tabaddor received an email that someone who appeared in Atlanta immigration court Monday has now been diagnosed with the virus. Behar-Ostrow knew of a similar situation in a New York court.
Immigration courts are not an independent court system. They are operated through the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review within the executive branch.
After the groups began raising the issue of continuing court operations, EOIR announced on Twitter that certain hearings for nondetained cases would be postponed, but many hearings continue to go forward. They include final hearings to decide whether migrants will be deported, all hearings for detained migrants and all hearings for Migrant Protection Protocols cases, widely known as "Remain in Mexico."
The Seattle Immigration Court is closed through April 10 due to the high number of cases in the area. It first closed due to "a reported second-hand exposure," according to EOIR's Twitter account.
EOIR did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the continued calls for temporary closure. The Department of Homeland Security, which employs ICE attorneys and is responsible for the Migrant Protection Protocols program, deferred to the Department of Justice.
Both Tabaddor and Behar-Ostrow complained about a lack of transparency from the administration about why courts remain open during the public health crisis. Tabaddor said that EOIR has largely used the agency's Twitter account to communicate with its employees about the issue.
"When we reach out and say, 'What's happening? What's the rationale?' all we hear is, 'Our hands are tied,' " Tabaddor said. "We're told we can't do anything without higher-ups clearing it."
Jeremy McKinney of the American Immigration Lawyers Association added calls for officials to use liberal discretion in granting parole and bond from immigration detention. He also called for people in the Remain in Mexico program, which requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico and cross back and forth over the border for their hearings, to be paroled into the country due to the crisis.
Immigration courts are not the only place where federal immigration policies are continuing to conduct business in ways that defy public health recommendations.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency responsible for naturalizations, green cards and a slew of other immigration services, had at least 50 people waiting in line outside its downtown San Diego office on Tuesday morning, according to an immigration attorney.
Immigration lawyer Thomas Haine, whose office is on another floor of the same building, said the way that USCIS was continuing to operate appeared irresponsible to him in light of the increasingly strict guidelines limiting in-person interactions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"To be continuing to be open like that is just insane," Haine said.
Generally, people with USCIS appointments enter the Front Street building on the ground floor and pass through security screenings before taking elevators up to a waiting area.
Haine said people wait in that area between 40 minutes and a few hours for their turns with USCIS officials who will decide whether to grant their immigration and naturalization requests. Those interviews happen in small office rooms that place people in close proximity, Haine said.
USCIS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On its website, an agency alert encourages anyone who has traveled outside of the United States in the past two weeks, anyone who might have been exposed to the virus and anyone who is sick with any kind of symptoms _ COVID-19 or otherwise _ to reschedule appointments.
Only two of the agency's field offices _ in San Francisco and San Jose _ are listed as temporarily closed due to the virus. Both closed because of "shelter-in-place" orders made by local government officials.
Haine, 70, said one of his clients has an interview scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, but the lawyer is not planning on accompanying his client due to concerns for his own safety.
"If there are any problems, I can be available on my cellphone. There shouldn't be any problems," Haine said. "I don't know how else to handle this."
Haine said he is mostly working from home. He stopped by his office on Tuesday morning to pick up some documents and left again quickly. That's when he saw the line of people waiting for interviews.
