Nebraska

ACLU accuses Omaha court of violating immigrants’ due process in Nebraska, Iowa – Iowa Capital Dispatch

Published

5 months ago

February 11, 2024

ACLU accuses Omaha court of violating immigrants’ due process in Nebraska, Iowa – Iowa Capital Dispatch

LINCOLN, Nebraska — A new report from the ACLU of Nebraska accuses the U.S. Department of Justice immigration court in Omaha of routinely violating due process rights in immigrants’ removal proceedings.

The new report, unveiled Friday, is based on more than 500 pretrial hearings that researchers watched between April and August 2023. A team recorded the process and outcome of each hearing, including its length, whether immigrants were advised of their rights, the language they spoke and whether they had an interpreter or attorney.

The court oversees cases for people living in Nebraska and Iowa.

Dylan Severino, legal fellow for the Nebraska ACLU and the report’s lead author, said federal law guarantees that immigrants receive a full and fair removal hearing.

“What we saw is a far cry from that guarantee,” he said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees such immigration courts, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Rights called an ‘unmovable object’

Dylan Severino is a legal fellow for the ACLU of Nebraska. (Photo courtesy of the ACLU of Nebraska)

About 40% of removal proceedings for the Omaha court include people living in Iowa, according to the ACLU of Iowa. It also said more than 2,600 new proceedings were filed against people living in Iowa in the current fiscal year. Comparable figures were not provided for Nebraska.

Severino said pressures on courts, including growing caseloads and backlogs, should not affect constitutional rights.

“That’s an unmovable object that simply cannot be fringed upon for the sake of expediency,” Severino said at a Friday news conference.

The Nebraska ACLU’s report, produced in partnership with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Legal Decision-Making Lab, presents four takeaways from 534 observed hearings:

The duration of each procedural pretrial hearing was 3.9 minutes.
Judges read immigrants their rights in 18% of observed hearings, often in group settings.
For 32 immigrants whose preferred language was a Central American Indigenous language, such as Mam, Q’anjob’al and K’iche’, 81% did not have an interpreter.
An attorney did not represent an immigrant in 19% of observed hearings.

The ACLU primarily observed non-detained cases before two of the three judges — U.S. Judges Alexandra Larsen and Abby Meyer. Judge Matthew Morrissey primarily presides over cases of detained immigrants, the ACLU said.

The report says 387 hearings before Judge Larsen were observed. They lasted an average of 3.8 minutes, and Larsen didn’t advise 79% of the immigrants of their rights. Of 147 hearings before Judge Meyer, she did not advise 92% of immigrants of their rights, and the hearings lasted an average of 3 minutes.

ACLU’s recommendations

Rose Godinez, Nebraska ACLU legal director, said the report indicates that the immigration system “is not working for anyone” and she hopes federal and state leaders pay attention.

“It is a problem that is shared by all of us, and the solution also depends on all of us,” she said.

Among the ACLU’s recommendations are for the court to advise immigrants of their rights individually before each hearing and provide adequate interpretation services. It also recommends that local or state governments create a program for guaranteed representation.

The ACLU also argues that the immigration courts should be federally restructured as an independent court system from the executive branch, with more immigration judges, who should come from diverse work experiences. Most of the system’s judges are former Immigrations and Customs Enforcement attorneys, including all three in Omaha.

In the meantime, the ACLU states, this “onus of depoliticization” falls on the DOJ.

“In a system that pits immigrants against the government, that bias can be determinative in life-or-death asylum cases,” the ACLU report states.

Severino said the Omaha court isn’t reaching the bar set by constitutional rights. He argued that reforms would help the court become more efficient by preventing retrials and appeals.

“The bottom line is that there needs to be action to address the problems we found and help more people stay in Nebraska and Iowa, put down roots, and continue to strengthen our communities,” Severino said.

Steps during a typical pretrial proceeding

A typical pretrial removal hearing for immigrants, or “Master Calendar Hearing,” is an important step that the attorneys with the ACLU of Nebraska and an immigration attorney said are some of the most important.

The following actions must occur during each immigrant’s pretrial hearing:

The immigrant’s case is called for hearing.
The judge asks the immigrant to pronounce their name.
The judge requests that the immigrant name their attorney, if they have one.
The judge advises the immigrant of their rights in the court.
An ICE attorney describes allegations against the immigrant.
The judge asks the immigrant to deny or admit to each allegation.
The judge asks the immigrant to choose a country for deportation.
If the immigrant refuses, the country is chosen for them.
The judge asks if there are legal reasons the immigrant should not be deported.
The judge sets deadlines for the submission of various forms, applications, statements and more.
The judge schedules the next pretrial hearing or a final evidentiary hearing (known as a trial or “Individual Calendar Hearing”) to decide the case.

“There is no possible way to do all of that in four minutes.” — Rose Godinez, Nebraska ACLU legal director.

This story was originally published by Nebraska Examiner, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: [email protected]. Follow Nebraska Examiner on Facebook and Twitter.

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Related Topics:aclu of nebraska asylum deportation due process rights Featured immigration courts

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Nebraska

Giltner girl wins National American Miss Nebraska pageant

Published

43 mins ago

July 4, 2024

Press Room

Giltner girl wins National American Miss Nebraska pageant

GILTNER, Neb. (KSNB) – The Olympic trials aren’t the only place you will see central Nebraska represented. Makeena Huhman will be representing Nebraska in the National American Miss pageant after being crowned Miss Nebraska Junior Pre-Teen at its pageant in Omaha. The 9-year-old says preparing for a pageant is a process; you have to pick outfits, do your hair, and maybe some nail polish and sometimes the process can be boring or frustrating, but it’s pretty easy work for Huhman.

Huhman said they wore long dresses for the formal portion and her dress was a corset back. In casual wear a jump suit or tank top and shorts are allowed, but a tank top and shorts look can go either way with the judges. Huhman said the goal is to find a happy medium because you don’t want to look perfect or sloppy.

Huhman has been attending pageants since she was six-weeks-old because of her older sister, Taylor is also in pageants. Participating in pageants helps Makenna make new friends, but even she was surprised by her victory.

“At first I was like shocked and my coach and my mom they were both crying, it was really funny,” said Huhman. “I was about to cry honestly, and I thought the girl that won two years ago was gonna win but as soon as they called her name as first runner-up or second she thought it’s gonna be Makenna.”

Huhman said overall, they’re judged on their personality and smile. Her mother, Stephanie Barthel also took a different approach with her pageantry.

“Both Taylor and Makenna have always scored pretty well in everything, but this year the thing that we did different was we hired a pageant coach,” said Barthel. “We met with her on Zoom calls once a week, and she gave us a lot of little insights that I wouldn’t have thought of and those definitely helped Makenna win the crown this year.”

Barthel said Makenna’s pageant coach worked on several things with her including her formal wear walk, casual wear modeling and interviewing skills. Huhman also has a passion for volunteering.

“That would be because my uncle and aunt are volunteer firefighters in Trumball and they don’t get paid for what they do,” said Huhman. “So they do fundraisers, and I absolutely love helping them with that because it’s making new friends and it’s also having fun.”

Huhman said the best part is seeing the firefighters show their personality. Barthel said it’s nice to see someone from central Nebraska represent the state.

“I think that it is really awesome to have a state pageant queen from the small town of Giltner, even just the Tri-Cities area,” said Barthel. “Many of the queens seem to come from like Lincoln and Omaha area; that’s where they get the most contestants from. And just having one from a small town that’s going to show those small town values is going to be really amazing.”

They’re still excited about winning the state title.

“It has been like exciting and fun so far, and I bet it’s going to be even better in Orlando because my mom said we’d be there for like eight days, and I’m like eight days in a really hot place, yay!” said Makenna.

They’re still looking for sponsors to help fund the trip, travel and stay will cost them approximately $4,000. Huhman has racked up a number of trophies during the state competition, but over the Thanksgiving weekend she hopes to add the National trophy to her collection.

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Nebraska

Nebraska petitions on abortion, sick leave, medical marijuana initiatives submitted on deadline

Published

8 hours ago

July 3, 2024

Press Room

Nebraska petitions on abortion, sick leave, medical marijuana initiatives submitted on deadline

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – Several petitions were submitted to the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office on Wednesday.

Signatures for nearly all petitions active in the state were due at 3 p.m.; the latest “school choice” referendum petition is due at 5 p.m. July 17.

Now in the hands of the state, officials will work to verify that all submitted signatures are valid. Those that aren’t will be tossed, with the remaining total dictating whether enough signatures were collected to earn the initiative a place on Nebraska ballots in November.

Organizers confirmed with 6 News that not enough signatures were collected to put forward a proposed amendment on excise taxes or a grocery exemption from consumption tax.

A petition looking to add a succinct statement about cannabis to the state constitution also failed; “All persons have the right to use all plants in the genus Cannabis,” won’t be appearing in that document.

Two medical marijuana petitions — with 114,367 signatures collected for the one to allow purchasing by patients and 114,596 on the one seeking to allow businesses to sell such products — were turned in on Wednesday. The138,000 signatures on the petition to require paid sick leave for employees of all businesses in the state was submitted on June 27.

There were also two conflicting abortion petitions turned in: Anti-abortion petitioners told 6 News they collected 205,344 signatures, while pro-choice petitioners said they had submitted 207,608 signatures. Should both be verified to appear on the ballot, the one receiving the most “yes” votes in the election will become law.

“Today is a historic day. Our initiative has submitted more signatures than any ballot measure in Nebraska’s history. It’s clear that Nebraskans believe that patients, families, and doctors should be in charge of making their most personal healthcare decisions when pregnant about abortion, not politicians. Hundreds of people volunteered, and the enthusiasm was palpable. I know Nebraskans are ready to vote to protect their rights in November.”

A related petition to grant personhood to a fetus did not receive enough signatures to appear on the ballot. There was also a petition circulated that would allow for a ban on surgical and pharmaceutical abortions with an exception for those instances when the pregnancy poses a risk to the life of the mother, but not enough signatures were collected for it to move forward.

REQUIREMENTS

In order to appear on state ballots, initiative petitions must have signatures from at least 7% of registered Nebraska voters — according to the total pulled by the state on Friday — at the time of the filing deadline. Petitions seeking to add an amendment to the state constitution must collect signatures from at least 10% of registered voters; referendum petitions aiming to repeal a law require 5%.

All petitions must contain signatures from voters in at least 5% of registered Nebraska voters in 38 of the state’s 93 counties.

VERIFICATION

County election offices will have 40 days to verify signatures collected from their counties, checking that those who signed are a registered voter, and that they provided their correct address, date of birth, and signature. They will also invalidate any duplicate signatures.

“It will take several weeks to verify signatures,” Wednesda’s release from the Secretary of State’s office says.

Nebraska’s November ballot must be certified by Sept. 13.

NEBRASKA PETITIONS

Read the petitions

—

News Director Cassie Crowe, Assistant News Director Katherine Bjoraas, Digital Director Gina Dvorak, and Reporter Johan Marin contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this story contained an inaccurate submission date for one of the petitions. 6 News regrets the error.

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Nebraska

Nebraska State Patrol Encourages Safe Travel this Independence Day Weekend

Published

15 hours ago

July 3, 2024

Press Room

Nebraska State Patrol cruiser fireworks (Courtesy of Nebraska State Patrol)

Nebraska State Patrol

(LINCOLN, NEB.) — Independence Day calls for more than fireworks and freedom. With many people travelling to celebrate the holiday with friends and family, Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol will be working hard to keep Nebraska roadways safe and help motorists in need of an assist.

“Our Nebraska communities are full of amazing Fourth of July celebrations, and we want everyone to be as safe as possible during their travels this week,” said Colonel John Bolduc, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol. “If your party involves alcohol, make sure to plan for a sober driver. Make safe decisions and have a great Independence Day.”

NSP urges all motorists to make plans to ensure a sober ride, such as designating a driver, using a rideshare, calling a cab, or taking advantage of programs like AAA’s Tow to Go, which is available by calling 855-2-TOW-2-GO.

Troopers and dispatchers will be working overtime across the state thanks in part to a grant from the Nebraska Department of Transportation – Highway Safety Office. The special effort runs from July 3 through July 7.

To report a dangerous driver or to request assistance on the road, call *55 or 800-525-5555 to reach the NSP Highway Helpline and speak with an NSP dispatcher.

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