[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 101 (Tuesday, June 16, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2806-S2807]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am honored to rise in concert with my 
friend and colleague from Virginia Senator Kaine for this measure that 
is going to be pending on the floor.
  I rise in support of S.J. Res. 190 to disapprove of an interim final 
rule entitled ``Appellate Procedures for the Board of Immigration 
Appeals,'' a regulation from the Justice Department that would greatly 
limit opportunities for appeal in immigration courts.
  This rule would reduce the time to file an appeal from 30 days to 
just 10 days, and if an applicant manages to meet this unreasonable 
deadline, the appeal is still likely to be thrown out under this 
regulation. That is because the regulation requires that appeals be 
summarily dismissed unless a majority of the Board of Immigration 
Appeals agrees to take on the case.
  This new regulation is just the latest in a series of actions by the 
Trump administration to end judicial independence in our immigration 
court system.
  Last year, the Trump administration fired hundreds of immigration 
judges. There is a huge, multithousand backlog that needs to be decided 
by our immigration courts. The response by the Trump administration: 
eliminate immigration judges.
  Make sense? Of course not.
  One of those who was eliminated was Assistant Chief Immigration Judge 
Jennifer Peyton. She worked for nearly 10 years at the Chicago 
Immigration Court, through Democratic and Republican administrations.
  What was the cause for the dismissal of this woman who had spent 
almost 10 years before the court? I can tell you because I witnessed it 
personally. Do you know what she did? Do you know what she had the 
nerve to do?
  When I called the immigration court and said: Can I sit in the 
audience and listen to an immigration hearing, she said: I will meet 
you at the front door and escort you to the courtroom. She met me, 
introduced herself, took me to the courtroom, and left. I didn't see 
her again that day.
  That was grounds for dismissal by the Trump administration. The fact 
that she would communicate with a Member of Congress, actually shake 
hands with a Member of Congress, actually escort a Member of Congress 
into her courtroom into what was supposed to be a public setting: 
grounds for dismissal. Gone. The end of a career.
  Why would the Trump administration want to fire an experienced, 
nonpolitical judge like Judge Peyton? Well, I explained it to you. She 
was dismissed and fired without any stated cause whatsoever.
  The administration has taken the same approach with the Board of 
Immigration Appeals, firing 13 judges appointed during the Biden 
administration and decreasing the number of Board judges from 28 to 15.
  These firings paved the way for the administration to hire what they 
are

[[Page S2807]]

calling ``deportation judges.'' The name says it all. These changes are 
not about efficiency; they are about finality, the end of the road for 
people who have been following the law every step of the way. They are 
finished. They are about dismantling due process and destroying any 
means by which an immigrant might have a fair chance at making their 
case.
  Make no mistake, this policy has Steve Miller written all over it. He 
may be the President's closest adviser, but I will also tell you he is 
relentless in his war against immigrants. Whether they are here legally 
or illegally makes no difference to him. He wants them gone.
  Just take the Board of Immigration Appeals' recent decision in 
``Matter of Santiago.'' It confirmed what we already knew: Even though 
DACA is supposed to protect Dreamers from immigration enforcement, this 
administration wants to find a way to deport Dreamers.
  Well, of course, they are going after the worst of the worst: the 
rapists, the murderers, the terrorists, the criminally insane, the 
child predators. They snuck across the border, and now they have to go.
  But wait a minute; that is not DACA. DACA is about kids, children, 
infants brought to the United States, living their whole life in the 
United States, who go through a background check, which includes 
serious efforts to determine whether there is any criminal activity in 
their background. Then they pay a $600 filing fee. Then they are 
protected for 2 years to work in the United States without fear of 
deportation.
  Does that sound like the worst of the worst criminals?
  They are teachers. They are nurses. They are doctors. They are 
police. They are members of our military. But they have to be gone in 
the world of Steve Miller. They might have an accent or something or 
maybe look like they are Hispanic, which tends to be, for Mr. Miller, 
just enough to deport them. And that is what we are up against.
  This decision paved the way for immigration judges to issue 
deportation orders to DACA recipients who grew up in this country and 
are legally protected from deportation. But even that is not enough for 
the Trump administration.
  I urge my colleagues to reject the attempt to cut due process in our 
immigration court system and vote in support of this resolution.
  How many times have I heard my Republican colleagues say: Oh, well, I 
am not against immigration; I am just against illegal immigration.
  Really? If you eliminate the legal process where an individual who is 
seeking status in America can assert their rights under the law, it 
seems to me you have already prejudged the case.
  I am happy to join with Senator Kaine in supporting this measure on 
the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.

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