A memo from President Donald Trump directs the Justice Department to pursue sanctions or other disciplinary actions against attorneys and firms with immigration cases that the government deems unethical.
The memo is directed at the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. It alleges that immigration court is full of “rampant fraud and meritless claims” that are propped up by “unscrupulous lawyers” who “coach” their clients.
Mo Goldman is an immigration lawyer in Tucson. He says immigrants and their lawyers face an uphill battle in court that already has oversight mechanisms in place.
“Not only are we being watched by an immigration judge for how we approach these cases, and many of these immigration judges already are coming out of already an enforcement background, but we also have an adversary,” he said.
Goldman says that adversary is the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement counsel, or the attorneys representing the government’s position to deny an immigration claim. Immigration court data analyzed by the research group TRAC shows almost 75% of all asylum cases litigated nationwide were denied in February.
He says it’s too soon to tell how the memo will impact individual cases.
“It's really frustrating being in this position as an immigration attorney in 2025, where so many depend on immigration lawyers — both people who are not Trump supporters and people who are, we represent everybody,” he said. “I take great pains to explain to people what their options are, what their rights are, and how they can do things in a legal and ethical way, if that's even possible. So this attack on our legal system and on immigration lawyers in particular is highly disconcerting.”
The memo also threatens law firms filing “baseless partisan lawsuits” against the administration, saying firms could be stripped of security clearances and federal contracts.
“These are not frivolous lawsuits, these are legitimate claims based on what the law and constitution requires,” Goldman said.
He says a recent example is the lawsuit filed against the administration’s use of an 18th century wartime authority to fly Venezuelan nationals to a prison in El Salvador, despite a federal court order temporarily pausing the flights while the case was litigated. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing whether the flights went against that order and whether use of the authority is legal.
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