Birdsong's Law Blog

Birdsong’s Refugee Law student, Christina Workman, has done outstanding work in analyzing the supposed reforms to the U.S. Immigration Court system since  2006.  Read it and you will learn a lot.

A REVIEW OF THE 2006 MEASURES OF IMPROVEMENT TO THE IMMIGRATION COURTS AND BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS

Christina Workman

Refugee Law Paper

I.  Introduction

            Because David Ngaruri Kenney protested the Kenyan government’s inhumane treatment of tea farmers, he suffered dehumanizing torture and near execution at the hands of the Kenyan government.[1]  He fled for his life and eventually applied for asylum in the United States.  But his application was denied.  The immigration judge found that although he had been tortured on previous occasions by governmental forces, Kenney’s two-month return to Kenya [to save his brother from impending torture] meant that he could not reasonably have a well founded fear of persecution if returned to Kenya.  The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed the immigration judge’s decision.[2]  Kenney’s application for asylum was then rejected by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.[3]  He was ordered deported back to Kenya.[4]

            Some critics of the United States immigration system, however, would argue that Kenney was not denied

Birdsong continues to scour the wire services and the internet for those whacky,weird criminal law stories. Here are a few more for you reading delight.

Portland, OR: This granny didn’t need a hatpin. An 88-year old woman in Portland fended off an intruder in her home by grabbing his crouch and squeezing with all of her might. The defensive move forced the man to run out of her house in agony. He was arrested a short while later.
One might say her actions “took real balls.”

Ohio: A 4-year old Ohio boy — angry that his baby sitter accidently stepped on his foot — grabbed his father’s shotgun from a closet and opened fire.  The sitter suffered only minor injuries and the child has not been charged with a crime.  Authorities are investigating whether the parents were negligent.

Negligence my foot!  This kid is on an early start to becoming a sociopath.  He needs to be in reform school.

Portland, ME: In Maine a Portland man was arrested after cops found him drunk and slumped over the wheel of a Zamboni

Birdsong is proud that his daughter Krystal was  such a very good writer during the short time she stayed with us here on earth.  Our family misses her so!  Nevertheless, in going through her effects after her passing we have come upon her journals where she wrote her poems and songs.  Krystal never shared these writings with her family, but now that I have found them Birdsong would like to share them with a wider world.  The following work is labeled as a dream.

Birdsong’s student Kurt Bressler has written an outstanding paper concerning violence against foreigners in Germany since the fall of the Berlin  wall.  Birdsong wishes to share it  with the wider world.  Read and learn.