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Matthew Hoppock

@hoppock.bsky.social
2.1K followers 222 following 641 posts

FOIA and Immigration Law and dumb jokes.

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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Because the article that Marc submitted as evidence used anonymous sourcing? Please. In a decision where the BIA basically says "you can't prove it"? Come on. I’m not qualified to carry Marc’s briefcase. But I can read a statute, check a quotation, and distinguish asylum from CAT.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
P. 154, n.9: The Board cites “8 C.F.R. § 1208.13(b)(i)(B).” That citation is missing “(1).” It's actually 1208.13(b)(1)(B). It also quotes “can avoid future persecution,” where the provision says “could.” Wrong citation, inaccurate quotation. Dogshit job of changing the rules.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I can't believe the typos in this abomination of a decision. 154: Meet the “United States High Commissioner for Refugees.” The actual organization is the UNITED NATIONS High Commissioner for Refugees. An asylum precedent misnames the UN refugee agency while invoking its authority.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
153: More dumb typos. Who wrote this? “asylum as matter of discretion” and “members states.” Missing “a”; extra “s.” These are the people announcing that entire categories of applicants should lose without a merits hearing. Basically just publishing a rough draft.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
151: More stupid typos. It quotes persecution as “something considerably more that discrimination or harassment.” “That” should be “than.” This is inside quotation marks. Apparently even the quotations escaped proofreading.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A third odd thing - the new James McHenry bio is weirdly short in comparison to what was there until 9/11 (which said he was afk, serving on detail. Compare the Wayback Machine screenshot as of July to now.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Another oddity. As of 9/7, there was no Chief Administrative Law Judge - it was listed as vacant. Here's the wayback machine screenshot for that day. But after I posted those FOIA Docs, they updated the page to say Carol Bell had been appointed as CALJ back in June. www.justice.gov/eoir/meet-ad...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This little sub-agency has always been shrouded in mystery. But as of July (as noted in the footnote in the Zarco Industries decision), McHenry was gone and Vayo was performing the duties of CAHO (unlawfully, in my opinion). I shared the FOIA results in the thread above, which were truly weird.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Then, on 9/29, OCAHO published a decision with a signature line for McHenry. I guess that means he's back? What does that mean for Acting CAHO Elizabeth Vayo? I'm not finding her BIO on the EOIR website any longer. www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The case isn't just about her firing; it's also a FOIA lawsuiit over refusal to turn over the investigative record as she tried to defend herself. She claims that just this year, they turned over many thousands of new documents, including the email she's describing here:
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Was hoping to read this Amnesty report about Free Speech in Saudi Arabia, but the link directs you to google.com. A little passive aggressive, but yes I can google it I guess.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Important caveat: EOIR didn’t discover the hallucinations or independently prosecute the underlying misconduct. The Ninth Circuit suspended Sethi for six months in June. EOIR and DHS disciplinary counsel then sought reciprocal discipline before the BIA. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
EOIR has issued its first attorney discipline decision involving AI hallucinations. Today the BIA suspended immigration attorney Mike Singh Sethi for 6 months after the 9th Circuit disciplined him over hallucinated cases and fake quotations in an immigration brief. www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
How car-dependent is this area of Kansas City? It has a "Walk Score" of 7/100. A "Bike Score" of 10/100/ Amd a "Transit Score" of 20/100. They're gonna cram all this deportation infrastructure into a building that we literally can't get to. www.commercialsearch.com/commercial-p...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It is hard to fully explain how car-dependent this area of Kansas City is. There's this building's parking lot and nothing else anywhere near. So 14 courtrooms for hundreds of noncitizens a day with court, and absolutely no place to park. Is what it appears like.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The prosecutor's floor includes a section devoted to a new CISA office (a subagency of DHS that does coordinates information sharing) and a large "Future Classified Space" that includes a SCIF. Roughly 600 occupants on this floor. Look at the orange floorplan. It is genuinely enormous.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
14 courtrooms is not a typo. The plans contemplate enormous throughput. 12,001 square feet just to courtrooms, an occupant load of 590 people. The entire EOIR floor has an occupant load of 884.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
KC's court has three courtrooms right now and a modest caseload. The new Immigration Court alone will occupy essentially the entire second floor, 57,000 square feet. The plans show 14 immigration courtrooms. It's so big it spans two pages. KC currently operates on a completely different scale.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Hey. Something enormous is being built in Kansas City out of public view. The government is building a massive new multi-agency immigration complex: a new Immigration Court, a huge ICE/OPLA office, a new USCIS “Kansas City Mission Center,” and CISA space, all in the same building. I got the plans.🧵
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Anyway, lots of other typos in this announcement. This one looks like a visible internal Word-comment marker left in the published PDF. Lots of missing commas etc. The "I" in FCI Fort Worth isn't "Institute." The "U.S. Air Force Reserve" isn't plural. Et Cetera. This was published in a big hurry.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Other news from today's announcement: Tracy Short is back!! But this seems a bit like a demotion. He was the Chief Immigration Judge during Trump I, now he's a deputy. Creator of the "off docket" initiative where they'd just de-calendar cases set for trial to somehow help with the backlog...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
New IJ announcement just dropped. Current/former ICE OPLA 11 Criminal prosecutor/AUSA 15 Military/JAG service 13 At least one of those three 31 of 35 Direct immigration experience 12 No immigration experience 23 of 35 Also, it's OPLA not OLPA www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I wanted to revisit this as I've had more time to look at the FOIA. One thing that stands out to me that I didn't appreciate yesterday: OCAHO has so many vacancies that it has really only Vayo in any functional management role. Since she appears to have been improperly appointed, it's a real mess.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Here's a side-by-side comparison of all three FOIAs. I don't know why the DOJ's numbers are off. But I do believe thte 92 number for this year is roughly correct.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The caveat: I have two other versions of these historical numbers from previous FOIAs, and they don't match.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
One more FOIA thing for today. DOJ has confirmed that they had filed 92 denaturalization cases this year by mid-July. That's the highest year ever, by far. That number looks to be pretty close to accurate, but I do have one caveat about the rest of the years... www.muckrock.com/foi/united-s...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
10/ And the memo contains a remarkable history. It says Vayo was actually selected as Deputy CAHO back in January 2023. It says OCAHO and DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel recommended that the AG formally appoint her because she would be exercising inferior-officer powers when substituting for the CAHO
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
9/ The FOIA production shows what happened next. On 1/23/25, EOIR Acting Director Sirce Owen sent McHenry, who was now in the role of Acting Attorney General, an urgent action memo asking him to appoint Vayo as DEPUTY CAHO. Not CAHO. Not Acting CAHO. Deputy CAHO. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/w2h13...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Last month, OCAHO published this decision called Zarco Hotels that has a footnote about McHenry. I wanted to see what I could find out about it. And today I got the FOIA results back. They're genuinely weird. www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
1/ OCAHO is a tiny DOJ adjudicatory agency. Among other things, its ALJs hear employer-sanctions cases under 8 USC 1324a and document-fraud cases under 1324c. The regulations put OCAHO under a Chief Administrative Hearing Officer, the CAHO.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
The guidance about recording bond hearings is likewise substantially redacted, leaving only the statement that certain hearings must be recorded under federal court authority.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Another big issue with these slides is specifically what they redacted: most of the info on due process. The bond materials ask when and to what extent an IJ should allow testimony rather than rely on statements or attorney proffers. The operative guidance is redacted under Exemption 5.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I also noticed from the agenda that the "Exam" for this group didn't test on most of what they were taught. The exam was on Monday, May 11. The training on case management, motions, master-calendar hearings, individual hearings, and oral decisions is all after.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Not to bury the lede, but there's also some pretty explicit bias in these slides. One slide says DV and gang claims involving nongovernmental actors generally don't qualify for asylum and that few such claims should meet the credible-fear standard. It also recites a "complete helplessness" standard
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
There's also an outdated slide on domestic violence and asylum. The agenda placed seven major policy memoranda into one 60-minute session, including PM 25-34. That's clearly not enough time to absorb seven detailed and lengthy policy memos. But PM 25-34 was already outdated by May 2026.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Another slide that's missing critical nuance is the in absentia removal order slide. Before ordering removal, the IJ must determine that DHS established both: removability by clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence; and sufficient notice of the hearing and the consequences of nonappearance.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This next one is real frustrating given their current position on bond eligibility: the materials conflate "applicant for admission" with "arriving alien." Those are not synonyms.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Same is true for a slide telling IJs that they had authority to impose monetary sanctions for misconduct. The statute contains an authorization contingent on regulations. But no implementing mechanism existed.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Another false slide discusses expedited removal and describes a policy as being active when it was at that time enjoined. In May 2026 this was 100% false.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
There's more. The returning-LPR slide is flatly wrong. It says: “If an LPR is abroad ‘for a continuous period in excess of 180 days,’ he will not be admitted as a returning LPR.” That is totally false.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This one omits CAT (convention against torture relief) as well. Individuals in asylum-only and withholding-only proceedings (i.e. people who pass a reasonable fear screening) are absolutely eligible for CAT relief.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Another bad slide that I mentioned this morning: this absolutely misstates what people in "asylum-only" proceedings are eligible for. It omits CAT. and the asylum-only statement omits statutory withholding.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
First, as I pointed out in my thread this morning, several times the slides get the "burden of proof" wrong. Most clearly, they state the wrong burden of proof for what an arriving alien must prove to justify admission. There are at least 3 problems with this slide.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
(by the way, it's possible that I missed quite a lot. It's 564 pages of powerpoint slides. You might find other stuff in here that's accurate). www.dropbox.com/preview/Publ...
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
The internal materials also confirm that OCIJ provides decision banks, oral-decision addenda, scripts, and worksheets. Yes, templates can help. But combined with abbreviated training and pressure for speed, they also create a serious risk of boilerplate adjudication.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
New IJs are told at their training that they generally serve a two-year trial period, have limited appeal rights if removed, and may be terminated for performance or conduct. The fact sheet omits that employment context, even though it matters to decisional independence.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
One slide said asylum-only applicants are entitled only to asylum, and withholding-only applicants only to withholding. A later deck correctly includes withholding and/or CAT deferral in both. The training contradicts itself about the court’s jurisdiction which, it turns out, is pretty important.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
The fact sheet touts weekly legal updates and an “up-to-date” law library. Yet a core training slide told judges that an arriving alien’s standard was “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The INA says “clearly and beyond doubt.”
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Another thing that stands out. The fact sheet calls the instruction “detailed.” But the agenda placed seven policy memoranda into one 60-minute session, about eight minutes per memo, before accounting for questions or discussion.
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Matthew Hoppock @hoppock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
First "three weeks"? Not really. It was 12 weekdays, May 4–19. The final day was transportation, investiture rehearsal, and the ceremony, not classroom instruction. It was three calendar weeks, not three full weeks of “formal, intensive classroom training.”
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