January 10, 2005

EOIR Judge Sides with Child Molester (Again!) But Fight Continues

By Juan Mann

[More by Juan Mann on the Schloerb case:

Loretta Schloerb’s ongoing struggle against the federal immigration bureaucracy that failed to deport the convicted criminal alien resident who molested her daughter is far from over.

Though the criminal remains in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody, the immigration litigation drags on . . . now almost ten years after the original 1995 state court conviction that should have caused him to be deported.

Public relations material emanating from the DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division (ICE) frequently crows about how many foreign-born “child predators” its agents arrest.

But this “good news” doesn’t necessarily mean the child molesters will ever leave the United States.

It’s really not up to ICE at all.

The awful truth: the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), with its nationwide Immigration Court system and automatic appellate review leading to endless litigation in the federal courts, gets to decide whether a convicted child molester stays or goes. 

And as Loretta Schloerb has unfortunately found out, the DHS, and even crime victims and their families, have little to say in the matter.

Over the past year, Loretta has given VDARE.com readers a rare glimpse into the EOIR Immigration Court process through her involvement in testifying against Jose Barrios Castilla in deportation proceedings.  Barrios Castilla, a permanent resident alien, is an uncle of Loretta’s daughter, through marriage. 

In December 2003, Newark N.J. EOIR immigration judge William K. Strasser decided to allow Barrios Castilla to remain in the United States – despite a 1995 conviction for endangering the welfare of a child through sexual conduct.

Loretta would not accept the decision. 

She didn’t accept it because Strasser didn’t have to rule that way.  It was entirely up to him.

Strasser granted a discretionary form of relief to a child molester, despite live in-court testimony from the victim and her family. 

After the decision, Loretta immediately filed a complaint against Strasser with the EOIR’s Chief Immigration Judge Michael J. Creppy. 

Her effort was rejected by Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Gail Padgett in March, 2004. 

Padgett wrote that Strasser’s conduct was “very professional, appropriate, and caring.”

But, because of Loretta’s protests as reported on VDARE.COM, the DHS appealed Strasser’s ruling to the EOIR’s Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).  Loretta received a formal letter from ICE’s Director of Field Legal Operations, William B. Odencrantz, expressing his personal support and stating the agency’s official position: “[w]e believe the present result is unjust and we hope our appeal changes that decision.”

Upon request by the DHS, the case was sent back from the EOIR’s BIA to immigration judge Strasser for a new hearing to consider additional evidence.  The DHS offered a written statement from Loretta’s daughter.

But Strasser was not moved. 

A few days ago, Loretta updated me:

“Judge William Strasser just handed down his decision after [a new] hearing three months ago.  He made us wait three months to say he stood by his original decision to grant Barrios relief from deportation.

“A final appeal will be filed by [the DHS by January] 30, and then back to the BIA.

“This was the decision we expected, and knowing that it still angers me and makes me realize that there is little hope for sexual abuse victims in either the immigration or criminal systems.

“How can [Strasser] not believe this girl and be so pro criminal alien?

 “[Strasser’s] support and pity lie with this convicted child molester and not the real victim.  . . . What a joke Operation Predator has become with this decision.

“The courts must start to realize the long term effects on the victims, both criminal and immigration.

“I'll keep you posted.  I have no idea how long the BIA takes.  Or maybe I do, and don't want to hear their response.  I don't have a good feeling.”

Barrios Castilla may have won in immigration judge Strasser’s courtroom. But clearly, Loretta’s efforts lit a fire under the DHS and its attorneys. 

The BIA’s appellate judges will now decide whether the criminal alien child molester stays or goes. 

Some good news: since Loretta reports that Barrios Castilla is still detained, the BIA decision could come within months instead of years.

This unfortunate case is just one among thousands. It exposes the glaring flaws of relying on a discretionary hearing system of black-robed bureaucrats to deport aliens.

As long as the federal government relies on a Treason Lobby-friendly litigation model, there will be nothing to save us from the misdirected bureaucratic “compassion” and the outright malice of the federal courts. 

And were it not for courageous women like Loretta and her daughter, the truth might never be known.