@mikebakerlaw
Immigration and Criminal Defense Lawyer | Former Cook County Criminal Prosecutor Insights on immigration law, criminal defense, and other areas of interest Following, reposting, and replies do not imply endorsement. Visit my website: mikebakerlaw.com
🎉 Congratulations to Prof. Daniel Epps, who will be installed as the Howard & Caroline Cayne Distinguished Professor of Law @WashULaw! Duke summa cum laude, Harvard Law magna cum laude, Supreme Court scholar, and co-host of the Divided Argument podcast. Well deserved! law.washu.edu/news/profess...
Hegseth declared from the Pentagon that these are “Christian nations under God.” The Secretary of Defense — commanding Jewish, Muslim, and atheist troops — just told non-Christians they don’t fully belong. That’s not religion. It’s a government declaring who counts.
Expert testimony loses weight when the expert refuses to consider contrary evidence. The BIA holds that an IJ errs by giving significant weight to such testimony.
Matter of D-J-L-, 29 I&N Dec. 485 (BIA 2026). 
www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...
Somebody once asked JFK why Profiles in Courage was so short. He should’ve quipped back: “Well, if I were writing Profiles in Cowardice or Profiles in Shrugging, it would be the length of a phonebook.”
“This is a book about that most admirable of human virtues—courage. ‘Grace under pressure,’ Ernest Hemingway defined it.”
— John F. Kennedy, the opening lines of Profiles in Courage
On a Fleuti view, this is a “meaningless and irrational hazard”: two people with identical fraud and family ties get opposite results because one is already an LPR and the other is just applying. That’s hard to square with equal protection and with immigration’s usual focus on time‑based equities.
LPRs with adjustment‑only fraud are barred from § 237(a)(1)(H), while non‑LPRs with the same fraud can seek a § 212(i) waiver. They are similarly situated with respect to the law’s purpose, so basing waiver access only on posture raises equal protection concerns.
Background checks must be on backorder.
No one ever tied the Florida and New York pieces together, and instead of finally connecting them, we’re staring at redactions and missing records where a full, honest account of what the FBI knew should be.
The blunder isn’t just one bad call. In Florida, prosecutors cut Epstein a sweetheart deal that protected “co‑conspirators.” In New York, the Jane Doe civil case got dismissed under threat and never turned into a criminal case.
Matter of Francis Jude Forjoe, 29 I&N Dec. 463 (BIA 2026): overrules Agour and holds that “admission” in INA § 237(a)(1)(H) means only lawful entry after inspection, not adjustment, so fraud at adjustment is not waivable; applied prospectively. acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:...
Trump has consistently denied these allegations. The only accurate way to describe this is as a withdrawn civil lawsuit with extremely serious, detailed allegations that have never been tested or decided in court.
Days before the 2016 election, the plaintiff dropped the case, reportedly citing threats and fear for her safety. She did NOT formally retract her allegations. Because the case was dismissed, no judge or jury has ever ruled on whether her claims are true.
The suit sought civil damages for rape, sexual abuse, assault, battery, false imprisonment, emotional distress, and defamation (after Trump publicly called the claims “categorically false” and “disgusting”). It was not a criminal case and did not produce a conviction.
A witness under the pseudonym “Tiffany Doe,” described as an Epstein employee, swore that she procured underage girls for these parties and personally saw Trump and Epstein sexually abusing the plaintiff and other minors.
She also alleges Epstein later raped her vaginally and anally at another party, screamed that HE should have taken her virginity instead of Trump, and then threatened that she and her family would be seriously harmed or killed if she ever revealed what happened.
She alleges Trump refused to wear a condom when she begged him, then threw cash at her afterward and told her to get an abortion if he’d gotten her pregnant. She says he threatened that if she ever talked, she could “disappear” and that he could have her family killed.
Her most graphic allegation: Trump forced her to perform sexual acts with another underage girl while he watched, then tied her to a bed and raped her. She says she begged him to stop, he slapped her face, and said he’d do whatever he wanted.
In sworn filings, she alleges she was lured to Epstein’s parties with promises of money and a modeling career, along with other underage girls. She says Trump attended several parties, knew she was 13, and initiated sexual contact with her multiple times.
New York case caption: Jane Doe v. Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Complaint filed Sept. 30, 2016. The case was later voluntarily dismissed, so there was never a trial or verdict.
In 2016, a woman using the pseudonyms “Katie Johnson” / “Jane Doe” filed a federal civil suit accusing Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein of raping her when she was 13 at Epstein’s NYC townhouse in 1994. This was a CIVIL case, not a criminal trial. t.co/hTMeJrwKUe
Legal experts and key Democrats warn there is no election “emergency” to invoke, calling the push a serious attempt to override voters’ choices and centralize control of U.S. elections in the White House.
Trump has already vowed to impose voter ID and curb mail voting for this year’s midterms if Congress does not pass his preferred bill, and aides say he is considering an executive order to do it.
The proposal would be used to justify banning most mail ballots and voting machines, even though intelligence reviews have not found evidence of such interference and the Constitution assigns control of elections to states and Congress, not the president.
Trump allies are circulating a 17-page draft order urging President Trump to declare a national emergency over alleged Chinese interference in the 2020 election, giving him sweeping power over how Americans vote.
Trump loyalists wave a 17-page fever dream of “Chinese interference,” press him to declare a national emergency, and drive a tank through the Elections Clause so one presidency reaches for the throat of the vote itself. wapo.st/3N5cpEn
Alysa Liu’s dad fled China after Tiananmen, arrived as a refugee busboy making $4.75/hr, raised FIVE kids solo via surrogacy. His daughter just won America TWO gold medals — raccoon-dyed hair, piercings, immigrant rights marches. The country MAGA thinks they’re protecting? She is it. Deal with it.
Scale: 800+ recruits already graduated under the new curriculum; 3,200+ more projected by September 2026
DHS Response: Denies cuts, claims redundancy was eliminated and many recruits are prior law enforcement
Practical Exams: Reduced from 25 down to 9 required exams to graduate
The Constitutional Alarm: Schwank separately filed a whistleblower complaint over a new ICE policy allowing warrantless home entries — directly implicating 4th Amendment concerns
What Was Cut: Use of Force Simulation, immigration law classes, constitutional authority training, “Determine Removability” exam, and “Judgment Pistol Shooting”