How Trump has turned the legal system ‘on its head’ to meet deportation goals

Cuban asylum seeker EC and others saw hard-won victories vanish as new rules upended immigration courts

The Cuban asylum seeker referred to in court papers as EC could not believe his luck, and neither could his lawyers.

They had come to immigration court in Miami in late spring expecting only incremental progress in a case that had been grinding away for more than three years. Yet here was the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lawyer telling the judge the government was dropping its deportation demands. It seemed EC had won, eligible at last for a green card and permanent residency in the United States.