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/

advice from a 5-year asylum officer

Mr. J.J. was an asylum officer for five years. He gives this advice:
1. to research country conditions, use "refworld."
the next best authority is Freedom House.
2. if grandmother writes a letter, make sure it is consistent with the story of the applicant!
3. the longer the declaration, the more chance for inconsistencies.
4. One Judge said, "just use the boxes on the I-589; do not even write a declaration; b/c someone will be inconsistent."
=
5. Officers often reject applicants due to lack of detail in their oral responses. For example, "why did you join the party?" a common, bad answer: "because I want democracy." Be specific. If you hate the dictator in your country, explain why: for example, "the dictator stole land from my father 20 years ago. That made my father mad; so I too am mad."
=
6. A better answer to "why did you join the XXX party?" "Because that party advocates for glass-walled ballot boxes, for the installation of drinking fountains in the middle of the city, for NOT paying high salaries to senators."
=
7. Officers love membership cards.
8. Yes, the officers care about the harm you suffered, but the officers care more about why you did the thing which caused the harm: i.e. you were hit on the head at the protest; yes, being hit is suffering harm, but why were you at the protest?
9. the head of your political party should write a letter of support.
10. When mailing package to Texas, put G-28 at the top. The people in Texas do not care about the cover letter [it will be taken from the top and put back into the middle of the package.