President Donald Trump instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to punish immigration lawyers and law firms that are gaming courthouse rules and migration laws.
In a memo to Bondi and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, Trump explained “lawyers and law firms that engage in actions that violate” the nation’s laws “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,” the memo adds.
The memo continues to cite how Democrat “super-lawyer” Marc Elias “was deeply involved in” creating a fake dossier, as being an example of how “grossly unethical misconduct” is “far too common.”
Recent examples of grossly unethical misconduct are far too common. For instance, in 2016, Marc Elias, founder and chair of Elias Law Group LLP, was deeply involved in the creation of a false “dossier” by a foreign national designed to provide a fraudulent basis for Federal law enforcement to investigate a Presidential candidate in order to alter the outcome of the Presidential election. Elias also intentionally sought to conceal the role of his client — failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — in the dossier.
The memo also notes the immigration system is filled with “rampant fraud and meritless claims,” and accuses “the immigration bar, and powerful Big Law pro bono practices” of coaching “clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims.”
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. For instance, 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 enacted to protect our national security and deceive the immigration authorities and courts into granting them undeserved relief. 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 — to say nothing of the undeniable, tragic consequences of the resulting mass illegal immigration, whether in terms of heinous crimes against innocent victims like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, or Rachel Morin, or the enormous drain on taxpayer resources intended for Americans.
Bondi is directed 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,” the memo adds.
“I further direct the Attorney General to take all appropriate action to refer for disciplinary action any attorney whose conduct in Federal court or before any component of the Federal Government appears to violate professional conduct rules, including rules governing meritorious claims and contentions, and particularly in cases that implicate national security, homeland security, public safety, or election integrity,” the memo continues.
In response to the memo, several people described it as “absurd to suggest” that immigration lawyers and law firms were coaching illegal aliens to lie or conceal parts of their past on asylum claims.
“Trump just encouraged DOJ to seek discipline for attorneys who appear to violate professional conduct rules ‘particularly in cases that implicate … election integrity,’” Kyle Cheney, a senior legal affairs reporter with Politico wrote in a post on X.
Cheney added that this is “sort of why many of his attorneys were punished over the last four years.”
“It is beyond absurd to suggest that Big Law lawyers are fraudulently coaching clients to lie while they take pro bono asylum cases,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council wrote in a post on X. “Just a fantasy land, cuckoo-brained bit of libel.”
Migrant Insider reported that the memo “could lead to scrutiny of attorneys in immigration court, more frequent disciplinary actions, and potential legal or financial consequences for firms that represent migrants.”
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