For months, open borders advocates have been\ncomplaining about the Trump administration conducting immigration hearings via\na satellite video teleconferencing (VTC) platform. Although the U.S.\nImmigration Court has been using VTC for close to two decades, it recently\nramped up the number of video hearings in order to respond to the overwhelming\nnumber of migrants requesting asylum hearings at the southern border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, video hearings raise \u201cdue process concerns<\/a>\u201d because \u201cmigrants<\/a> face a judge on a screen and a lawyer they can\u2019t see.\u201d In essence, the complaint is that the physical disconnection caused by VTC deprives asylum seekers of a meaningful opportunity to pitch their case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The criticisms about the disconnection\nresulting from the physical separation inherent in the process have also been\naccompanied by complaints that backlogs are too large and migrants are being\nasked to wait too long in order to have their cases heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ironically, though, the physical distance created by video hearings, along with the constant public health surveillance of individuals in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody has put the Immigration Court in a position to keep operating when many other courts throughout the nation have suspended proceedings in response to the worldwide coronavirus<\/a> outbreak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, the decision to keep Immigration Courts open has also prompted criticism from the open borders contingent. According to Vox<\/em>, \u201cThe continued openings of\u2026 immigration courts point to a disturbing trend<\/a> in our judiciary system in the midst of Covid-19: The most vulnerable groups are being forced to put themselves in high-risk situations for proceedings they dare not miss.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that assertion is riddled with falsehoods\nthat the majority of the mainstream media has been unwilling to address: <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what\u2019s the real deal? Simply put, the open\nborders contingent isn\u2019t concerned about the spread of the coronavirus. It is\nmore interested in ensuring that aliens maximize their time in the U.S. Lengthy\nclosures of the Immigration Courts would give alien lawbreakers a chance to\ndisappear, try to avoid ICE, and attempt to find a way to remain permanently in\nthe U.S. If it were genuinely concerned with the global pandemic, it would be\nvociferously supporting President Trump\u2019s travel restrictions. Those measures,\nhowever, have been roundly dismissed by alien advocates as \u201cxenophobic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the Trump administration\u2019s decision to keep hearing immigration cases is a wise one<\/a>. There are nearly a million cases backlogged at the Immigration Court and the COVID-19 outbreak isn\u2019t keeping foreign nationals from breaking our immigration laws. If social distancing and isolation measures persist for any length of time, an ill-considered closure of the Immigration Court could easily lead to a marked increase in that backlog. Deportation proceedings are essential to American sovereignty and they should continue, even in the face of a national crisis. Border security and public health<\/a> security go hand in hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For months, open borders advocates have been complaining about the Trump administration conducting immigration hearings via a satellite video teleconferencing (VTC) platform. Although the U.S. Immigration Court has been using VTC for close to two decades, it recently ramped up the number of video hearings in order to respond to the overwhelming number of migrants<\/p>\n