advice from a judge 2/21

An Immigration Judge made these suggestions:
1. do not use excerpts, unless you give me the entire report
2. during the hearing, interrupt, and say, "Judge, i call your attention to page 32, which is a letter from mother, which corroborates this event"
3. talk to DHS in advance, to narrow the issues
4. to determine fraud: interrupt the client with an irrelevant question, such as what color was the shirt of the guard; then see if client can return to his story'
4a. during the six months after the terrible event, did you get involved in any fights?
5. Ask this, "why did he hit you?"
6. if client writes part of the Dec, in bad English, it will have a ring of truth
7. prepare a one page summary, with bullet points
8. tell a story; judges are people, tell a story
9. we do not have a lot of time
10. this has the ring of truth: "A was raped, but she said the worst thing was to have to bend over to sweep with a short broom"
11. was there public or social humiliation?
12. get the prescription off of the bottle
13. be simple: "she has trouble sleeping"
14. what does IJ benchbook say?
15. many victims do not want to talk about their harm. They will tell the therapist things they will not tell their lawyer.
16. "fill in the boxes on the 589!"
17. compliment the client: "It takes courage to talk about these things"
18. what does the NY Times and the BBC say?
19. did your group suffer more than others/