Mandating in-person attendance for the preliminary hearings do not make sense even from a logistical sense.
By Ted Sherman
Enterprise and Investigations Reporter
NJ.com
Before the pandemic struck, immigration court proceedings would typically be held in a crowded, hot and uncomfortable windowless courtroom on the 12th floor of the Peter W. Rodino Jr. Federal Building in Newark.
For the past two years, however, those hearings have been held virtually, over the internet — with even the immigration judges working from home — due to health and safety concerns related to COVID-19. But on Monday, the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, reopened the immigration courts in New Jersey.
That decision is raising concerns by attorneys and others being forced to return, who complain that the policy goes far beyond the policies of all other New Jersey court systems, and is putting everyone at risk.
“I don’t know why they are going down this road,” said Jason Scott Camilo, a New Brunswick attorney who practices immigration and nationality law and serves as chairman of the New Jersey chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “I know other courts have gone back somewhat. But not to this extent.”
Justice Department officials said the decision to do in-person hearings was due to technical problems that were making it almost impossible for the judges to conduct their hearings.