Monday, November 2, 2009

Fragility of Immigration Law Practice

Always over our heads is the threat of detention for our clients.  "Immigrant Jail Tests US View of Legal Access," NYT, p A1, Nov 2, 2009.  In Greenwich Village immigrants detained while their cases are resolved live in conditions worse than US prisons.  They are given less than they need to eat, and forced to clean to earn $1 a day which they can use to buy commissary meals.  Legal counsel is not a right.  They can be moved arbitrarily across the country to other detention centers, even after they find local counsel.  Counsel often will not follow them across the country.  Matthew Chandler DHS spokesperson admits that the detention system the Obama administration inherited is "inadequate."  DHS wants to overhaul the system with better legal access, and a less penal system.

On Twitter

Birmingham chap sets off Twitstorm merely by calling actor Stephen Fry's twits "boring." "A Twit Read Across Britain Unleashes a Cascade of Vitriol on a User," NYT, p A8, Nov 2, 2009.  NYT's Sarah Lyall writes that it was an example of high school like behavior on Twitter, "passing rude notes, spreading exaggerated rumors and obsessing endlessly- and pointlessly- about who said what mean thing about whom."  Is the anonymity of Twitter a problem?  Do we behave as we do in our cars - gesturing rudely, protected in our bubble?