09/20/2026
AILA Executive Director responds: "DHS purposely broke the asylum system and now has the audacity to blame immigration lawyers & AILA for the wreckage. AILA won’t stand for the false claims, rather, we stand for the highest standards of professional responsibility. We will fiercely defend lawyers who fulfill their ethical obligation to represent their clients, challenge unlawful government action, and insist that constitutional protections mean something in practice.
"DHS fired immigration judges, pressured their new hires to deny relief faster, restricted judicial discretion, and starved the system of resources (then poured money into detention and mass deportation instead of fixing adjudication). aila.org/library/policy-brief-america-needs-independent-fair-and-efficient-immigration-courts
"DHS routed asylum cases away from trained asylum officers into overwhelmed immigration courts, pushed for cases to get dismissed before people could present evidence, and arrested people outside courtrooms after they showed up for required hearings. aila.org/library/policy-brief-modernizing-americas-asylum-system
"An asylum claim isn't meritless or fraudulent because the government doesn't like it. Fraud requires knowing deception, not an adverse ruling, not trauma-related inconsistencies, not translation gaps, not missing evidence from a collapsing state. The hypocrisy is staggering: the US sent the military after Maduro for narcoterrorism, calls gang violence and state collapse in Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti & Nicaragua a 'grave hemispheric security threat' then insists asylum claims from those exact conditions are inherently fake.
"Immigration lawyers don't write asylum law. Congress does. They don't decide cases. Judges do. Their job is making sure people get the hearing the law promises. If DHS wants real reform: more trained asylum officers, more adjudication capacity, fewer attacks on due process. A 'Better Way' can be found here: aila.org/library/a-better-way-on-immigration"
