ICE lawyers seeking anonymity in Immigration Courts

[hay rick]

Article from The Intercept here: https://theintercept.com/2025/07/15/ice-lawyers-hiding-names-court/

Inside a federal immigration courtroom in New York City last month, a judge took an exceedingly unusual step: declining to state the name of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorney pressing to deport asylum seekers.
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Immigration courts, which are run by the Executive Office for Immigration Review- part of the executive branch, not the judiciary- are far less transparent than most courts. Their prosecutors work for ICE and DHS; they have no obligation to provide defense lawyers; and their judges are appointed — and fired — by the president.

On a Tuesday morning in late June, [Judge ShaSha Xu]... was running through several brief, preliminary hearings known as “master calendars.” Nationwide, these proceedings always start out the same way. An immigrant will appear with their attorney — if they have the good fortune to retain one — often on Webex. A judge presides at a big desk in an actual courtroom, in this case in lower Manhattan. An ICE lawyer represents the government in its attempts to deport the immigrant.

As each case commences, the judge recites their own name, followed by the immigrant’s name, the name of the immigrant’s attorney (if they have one), and finally, the name of the ICE lawyer. It’s an on-the-record census that enables due process.
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Xu attributed the change to “privacy” because “things lately have changed.” Xu told Okun that he could use Webex’s direct messaging function to send the ICE lawyer his email, and the ICE lawyer would probably respond with her own name and address. Okun accepted the arrangement.

Immigrants ,who often have been detained by unidentified masked men but are fortunate enough to get a smidgen of virtual due process via Webex, face cases brought by attorneys remaining anonymous to hide their shame in front of judges tolerated by the Trump administration as long as they meet high deportation-friendly goals.