NEW YORK, United States (CMC) – Immigration advocates have condemned a Trump administration memo calling for sanctions, reviews and stricter oversight of attorneys representing Caribbean and other immigrants in both immigration and federal courts in the United States.

If implemented, immigration advocates say the directive would create another barrier for Caribbean and other immigrants seeking legal representation.

“The Trump administration’s latest memo is a direct attack on due process and access to justice,” Murad Awawdeh, president and chief executive officer of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), told the Caribbean Media Corporation on Sunday.

“By imposing unnecessary sanctions and oversight, this directive seeks to intimidate attorneys from representing immigrants, making it even easier for the government to fast-track deportations without fair hearings. This is an assault on our constitutional right to a fair day in court.

“As the federal government escalates its attacks on immigrant rights, New York must take action to protect our communities from Trump’s mass deportation agenda,” said Awawdeh, adding that passing the New York For All Act, Access to Representation Act and the BUILD Act “will make clear that our state will not be complicit in Trump’s horrific anti-New York policies.”

He said these bills will expand legal representation for Caribbean and other immigrants, and “strengthen protections against unjust deportations.

“The state must fully invest US$165 million in legal services funding to ensure that all New Yorkers, regardless of status, have the legal support they need,” Awawdeh said.

Immigration Impact, a project of the American Immigration Council, noted that the Trump memo directs the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to take disciplinary and punitive action against attorneys practicing in national courts.

“While the memo is broad, it takes particular aim at immigration lawyers, pro bono attorneys representing asylum seekers in immigration court, and organisations, such as the American Immigration Council, that challenge the federal government’s immigration policies in court,” it said.

Immigration Impact said the memo comes amidst several others targeting law firms that have challenged the current or prior Trump administration in “a variety of ways.”

In an unprecedented use of executive power, Immigration Impact said the White House has “stripped security clearances, restricted government contracts, and otherwise interfered with several law firms.”

It said this is not the first time a Trump administration has aimed at immigration attorneys.

Immigration Impact said that, in 2017, for example, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the US Department of Justice official in charge of the immigration courts and the disciplinary procedures against immigration attorneys, made similar statements, “declaring us ‘dirty immigration lawyers’ who were gaming the system.

“Attorneys representing asylum seekers in immigration court and challenging the government’s illegal practices are critical to maintaining a modicum of due process and fairness in our immigration system,” Immigration Impact said.

“And as we did during the first Trump administration, the American Immigration Council will continue the critical work of its litigation team and the Immigration Justice Campaign,” it added. “As lawyers love to say: ‘we’ll see you in court’”.

Despite Trump’s memo, National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) executive director, Mary Meg McCarthy, said NIJC “remains steadfast in our commitment to justice and our immigrant communities.

“The National Immigrant Justice Center’s legal services have kept families together, freed people from the dangers of immigrant detention, and prevented the deportation of refugees and asylum seekers to harm. Our litigation has protected due process, access to justice, and the rule of law.

“Our legal staff hold ourselves to exacting legal and ethical standards while defending the human rights of some of the most vulnerable people on the planet,” McCarthy added.

In the White House Memo, President Trump said that “lawyers and law firms that engage in actions that violate the laws of the United States or rules governing attorney conduct must be efficiently and effectively held accountable.

“Accountability is especially important when misconduct by lawyers and law firms threatens our national security, homeland security, public safety, or election integrity,” he said.

“The immigration system — where rampant fraud and meritless claims have supplanted the constitutional and lawful bases upon which the president exercises core powers under Article II of the United States Constitution — is likewise replete with examples of unscrupulous behavior by attorneys and law firms,” he said.

Trump alleged that the immigration bar and powerful Big Law pro bono practices frequently coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims, all in an attempt to circumvent immigration policies.

“Gathering the necessary information to refute these fraudulent claims imposes an enormous burden on the Federal government. And this fraud in turn undermines the integrity of our immigration laws and the legal profession more broadly,” Trump said, directing the Attorney General to “seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States or in matters before executive departments and agencies of the United States.