Matthew Hoppock

Accardi v. Shaughnessy, 347 U.S. 260 (1954) Accardi v. Shaughnessy

The Supreme Court settled this in 1954 (Accardi): immigration judges are supposed to be neutral. If they bend to the executive's whims instead of acting neutrally, deporting people bc the President dislikes them, the deportations are unlawful. supreme.justia.com/cases/federa...

Within a month of our President calling all Somalis "garbage," saying "they contribute nothing" that "they come from hell," "I don't want them in our country," the DOJ appears to be creating a separate process for deportation proceedings based on nationality just for Somalis.

I have never seen anything like it. I don't know what's actually going on, but several attorneys reached out to me this morning and said all of their Somali clients were also transferred to the same judge and now have court on the same date in March. And I don't know for sure why. But it's chilling

I'm not sure what to make of it, but every Somali I represent in immigration court currently (8 of them) have today had their hearings cancelled and their judges reassigned. They're now all assigned to a video judge from Louisiana and scheduled for court hearing in one month. 🧵

Homan's message: When we kill you, you have to be especially nice to us. Or else we will keep killing you.

Always wonder who buys the "paid disrupter" thing and how they manage to get through the day without accidentally sticking a fork in their eye.

I pay for “good” insurance for my small firm. Hurt my back last month. Dr. orders an MRI. Insurer says no MRI until 4 weeks of PT. I start PT. Then insurer denies coverage for the PT. I'm out of pocket for 4 wks of PT just to maybe get an MRI they may still decline to cover. With "good" insurance.

Looks like they've lost another ACIJ this week, Claudia Cubas, who was managing the Baltimore and Hyattsville courts. So now there are 28 ACIJs (down from 39) to manage Immigration Judges at 76 immigration courts. www.justice.gov/eoir/acij-as...

TL;DR: EOIR is barely functioning. The agency has a new Director but nearly every other major leadership role is vacant: no regional chiefs, shrinking ACIJ corps, less judges, no OGC, no Policy office, no visible CIO, and OCAHO appears leaderless. Millions of cases, almost no one steering the ship.

Federal courts will feel this next. As IJs deny more cases without adequate supervision and no OGC, and as the BIA handles 200k+ appeals with half its members & leadership missing, the volume of defective decisions sent to the Circuits is going to explode. We are headed for a federal-court logjam.

Without anyone leading the Office of Information Technology, EOIR’s tech infrastructure (which handles filings, records, virtual hearings, scheduling, and even interpreter access) is basically running on autopilot. Every IJ I know reports constant failures, and nobody appears to be steering the ship

So consider what this means for Immigration Judge recruiting. Newly hired IJs have no stable leadership, no regional deputies, and fewer ACIJs to train or supervise them. That means inconsistent rulings, uneven courtroom practices, and much higher odds of reversible legal error, which = more backlog

Office of Information Technology

Last, EOIR’s Office of Information Technology. No visible leader. Pre-Trump, Jason Lashbrook was CIO. Omid Fattahi was appointed to the role in February. But since July 14, EOIR hasn’t listed anyone as heading the office. Source: www.justice.gov/eoir/office-...

Office of Policy - Assistant Director

Same with EOIR's Office of Policy (created during Trump I). From the webpage, it looks to be completely vacant. It last had an Acting Assistant Director (no director), Stephanie Gorman, from February to May, but even that spot is apparently now vacant. www.justice.gov/eoir/staff-p...

Office of Administration

How about EOIR's Office of General Counsel. Seems important? Vacant. Responsible for providing EOIR with legal advice, developing regulations, assisting EOIR in federal court, and advising EOIR employees. Odd to not have one a year into this admin. www.justice.gov/eoir/office-...

So, I wasn't able to figure out from the EOIR's own website if McHenry still works at EOIR. He was the EOIR Director under Trump I. Then he moved to OCAHO just before Trump left. Then he was acting Attorney General before Bondi was confirmed. But OCAHO today looks to be rudderless.

Screenshot of OCAHO website listing the leadership at OCAHO

Is McHenry really the Chief Admin Hearing Officer? The OCAHO's website says "meet the administrative law jduges" and then lists nobody as the CALJ. So again, who’s running it? www.justice.gov/eoir/meet-ad...

screenshot of James McHenry's staff profile

Then there’s EOIR’s Office of the Chief Hearing Officer. Who’s actually running it? Unclear. One page lists James McHenry as Chief Administrative Hearing Officer but says that he’s currently detailed somewhere else. No deputy, no acting head, and the page hasn’t been updated since February. But.....

EOIR statistics on appeals pending as of October 2025

Just below them are the Board members. Trump inexplicably reduced the BIA from 28 members to just 15 – who are now responsible for adjudicating the *202,946* appeals pending. Of course, the number of appeals is also going up because courts are denying relief at much higher numbers than before.

Screenshot from EOIR website about BIA leadership

Then there’s the Board of Immigration Appeals. Garry D. Malphrus is the Chief, but the Deputy position remains vacant. That is, 50% of the BIA leadership is just missing.

Assistant Chief Immigration Judge (ACIJ) Assignments

1 year ago there were 38 ACIJs responsible for 73 courts. Today there are 76 courts and just 29 ACIJs. Each of them is responsible for managing roughly 2.6 immigration courts themselves. Multiple of them manage 5 separate courts. www.justice.gov/eoir/acij-as...

And what about the Assistant Chief Immigration Judges? They’re basically the backbone of the entire court system — managing courts and judges (even as ~1/7 of all IJs have been fired this year). Their workload has roughly doubled since January due to so many being fired and adding more courts.

screenshot from EOIR website about OCIJ leadership roles

EOIR finally got a Director in October 2025, a role that doesn’t even require Senate confirmation. But at OCIJ every senior leadership slot is still vacant or “acting.” There are zero Regional Deputy Chief Immigration Judges in place. www.justice.gov/eoir/office-...

There hasn't been much reporting on the absolute mess at EOIR (so much else going on), but it's genuinely frightening how hobbled this agency is. I've seen reporting on the judge firings and subtly racist IJ recruiting, but here's where we stand on the leadership vacuum at EOIR 🧵

Just toasted a bunch of hazelnuts for syrup (toasted hazelnut latte) and for my bakery tomorrow (hazelnut chocolate Blondies). Yikes!!

Man, find someone who loves you as much as Donald Trump loves bribery.

If I had to guess, they grant him asylum. Just like they did for El Chapo‘s family a couple months ago. I don’t think we will get to know. I would be surprised if he goes back to Honduras. But it might depend on the outcome of last week’s election.

Oh big time. As inadmissible as any person could possibly be. Conviction not required.

At this point I'm intentionally leaving typos in my pleadings just to make sure everyone knows it's not AI.