As someone who has been observing Immigration Court in El Paso (data reporting for American Bar Association) the people of the Catholic Diocese are truly heroic. Day after day.

Lil scoop of ice cream for added protein…

I guess that worked out ok. Joke aside, I was volunteering in a museum just before HS came out. A visitor turned out to be a prof of contemporary lit fiction and we got comparing notes. We were both excited about HS because we would read a phone book if you wrote it but dang it was dark in there.

They are fueling up on the last of my penstemons.

$45 billion would pay for a whole lotta solar panels.

partway to the elevators. They stopped and formed a circle as the Bishop led them in prayer. Both men were tearful.
There is much I don’t understand about this process. I assume the DHS attorney provides a list to ICE ahead of time with whose cases he expects will be dismissed (the action that

immediate what was going on until we saw his wife become visibly distraught. She was comforted by the volunteers.
Soon after, the first two men—who were expecting arrest—emerged from the courtroom waiting area. They continued conversations with the Diocese staff. A small group walked with them…

to the elevators to navigate ICE and get them on their way home. Through the glass, across the atrium, we watched as that did not happen. ICE took Man #3 and walked him away through a back hall to a freight elevator which they now use to avoid confrontations in the downstairs lobby. We couldn’t tell

and this talk with ICE, the Diocese employee told the wife that her husband would not be detained today. In my limited experience and based on what I had seen in the courtroom, I arrived at the same conclusion.
Soon, Man #3 emerged with his new date to return. Volunteers escorted he and his wife…

who was at that moment still with the judge receiving a date to return for another hearing to determine the merits of his case. The wife was concerned. So an experienced Diocese employee went to talk to the lead ICE agent on her behalf. Between what volunteers learned in the courtroom and…

lined against the wall and window of the building’s atrium. Through the window and across the vast open space of the atrium, we could see the elevators where ICE agents waited, some masked and others not. I sat with other volunteers and a pregnant woman who turned out to be the wife of Man #3,…

from the Catholic Diocese of El Paso. These representatives—today including volunteers, paid staff, and the Bishop himself—offer myriad services. They are all bilingual. I’m not sure the roles of each of the people I met. www.estrelladelpaso.org
I continued out to the waiting hallway, with chairs…

Ask for a credible fear interview with an asylum officer, right to appeal, etc. Yet, he granted the request for dismissal. Knowing ICE was waiting outside the courtroom area, by the elevators, I followed these two men out to witness the arrest.

The men went into a private room to meet with reps…

the judge that he has been here more than three years and submitted an asylum request in 2023. The judge confirmed this and set aside Man #3 for a separate hearing.
For the first two men, the judge was pointedly kind and informative, explaining processes, next steps, and rights to the immigrants…

in the U.S. and (2) within 100 miles of a U.S. land border. In Trump’s first week, he expanded it to two years and no geographic boundaries. The judge informed the three men that the DHS attorney was asking for dismissal and they would be subject to detention and deportation. One of the men told …

expedited removal. That is, they are undocumented and cannot prove residency in the United States more than two years before being picked up by ICE.

Bush II limited expedited removal to noncitizens entering the U.S. without authorization who were apprehended (1) within two weeks of their arrival…

I stumbled into them a couple mornings ago. We had coffee together. They were gorgeous.