Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department, in close coordination with the Department of Education, announced today the continued and growing success of a process instituted in November 2022 for handling cases in which individuals seek to discharge their federal student loans in bankruptcy. Data and information tracking the effectiveness of the process over the last year and a half demonstrate that it is achieving its goal of providing a more transparent, equitable, and streamlined mechanism for borrowers to request a discharge of their student loans in consumer bankruptcy cases. The process has translated into increasing numbers of eligible federal student loan borrowers seeking and obtaining debt relief under the Bankruptcy Code.  

The Departments finalized new guidance in November 2022 that outlined a fairer, more accessible process to ensure consistent treatment of the discharge of federal student loans, reduce the burden on borrowers of pursuing such proceedings, and facilitate identifying cases where discharge is appropriate. At the time, both Departments committed to an ongoing assessment of the guidance’s effectiveness. As part of that commitment, the Justice Department surveyed all 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices after the first year of implementation, and it recently repeated its survey to obtain updated information about use of the guidance.

The information that the Departments have collected from these surveys indicates that the new process continues to be a success, and that an increasing number of borrowers are seeking and receiving discharges of their federal student loan debts. In particular, since the process was announced a year and a half ago, the data collected by the departments reveals that:   

• As anticipated, case filings have steadily increased as consumers have learned of the new process. A total of 588 new cases were filed from October 2023 to March alone, which is a 36% increase from the prior six-month period. And a total of 1,220 cases were filed from November 2022 through March, a significant increase from recent years. The departments expect this trend to continue.
• The vast majority of borrowers seeking discharge continue to benefit from the guidance. In cases decided by the courts from November 2022 through March, 98% have provided debt relief through full or partial discharge. And the overall number of court judgments providing full or partial discharge have continued to increase, with the number of such judgments over the last six months exceeding the number of judgments for the preceding 12 months.
• Borrowers continue to embrace the new process set forth in the guidance in large numbers. In filed cases, 96% of all borrowers are voluntarily using the streamlined process, which includes a standard attestation form that allows borrowers more easily to identify and provide relevant information in support of their discharge request.
• Multiple bankruptcy courts have adopted procedures recognizing the utility of the new process, aimed at further streamlining the procedures debtors must follow to obtain discharges.

“We are now able to evaluate the success of the student loan bankruptcy discharge guidance with a robust record of empirical information,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “The results are clear: this guidance has helped make the promise of a fresh start in bankruptcy a meaningful option for individuals weighed down by student loan debt.”

“Our clear, fair, and practical standards are helping struggling borrowers find relief that was previously out of reach,” said U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal. “This data should puncture the myth that struggling borrowers cannot discharge their student loan debt through bankruptcy. We will continue to work with our partners at the Department of Justice to make it simpler and easier for borrowers to get much-needed relief in the way it was intended.”

In addition to the internal data surveys, the Justice Department has taken other measures to support and evaluate the new guidance. The Justice Department has been consulting closely with the Department of Education on the process. Since the implementation of the guidance, a dedicated group of experts within the Justice Department’s Civil Division also has collected input on the new process from consumer law groups, including the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys. Finally, the Civil Division has conducted trainings for Justice Department attorneys as well as members of the public, including training events supported by regional bar associations and the courts. The Department of Education also participated in training events hosted by regional bar associations, the American Bankruptcy Institute and U.S. Trustee Program, as well as at the annual meeting of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees, which included private attorneys as well as Chapter 13 trustees.

The Departments will continue to monitor the impact of the guidance to ensure that it is appropriately implemented and meets the goals it was designed to achieve.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A federal grand jury returned an indictment yesterday charging a former Las Vegas city councilwoman and current Nye County, Nevada, justice of the peace for her alleged scheme to defraud donors to a charity to memorialize police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

According to the indictment, Michele Fiore, 53, of Pahrump, Nevada, a then-Las Vegas city councilwoman, solicited donations to build a statue honoring Las Vegas police officers who were killed in the line of duty. Fiore allegedly promised donors that “100% of the contributions” would be used towards the creation of this statue. As alleged, Fiore did not use any of the tens of thousands of dollars in charitable donations for the statue of the fallen officer and instead converted the money to her personal use. The donations were used to pay her political fundraising bills and rent and were transferred to family members, including to pay for her daughter’s wedding. 

Fiore is charged with four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and Special Agent in Charge Spencer L. Evans of the FBI Las Vegas Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Las Vegas Field Office is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Dahoud Askar and Alexander Gottfried of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

As part of its ongoing efforts to increase and improve access to the immigration court system, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is creating a new leadership position within EOIR’s Office of the Director focused on improving access to the immigration system and finding innovative ways to increase representation rates for noncitizens in immigration court. This new role will serve as EOIR’s public facing point of contact for government and public stakeholders with business before, or interest in, EOIR.

The new leadership role will also work to amplify interagency immigration access initiatives by proactively communicating information about available immigration services across government agencies as well as work with other government agencies to determine how best to increase access to the immigration court system as a whole. They will also serve as a central coordinator for feedback on access and representation concerns in the immigration court system and lead efforts to design responsive programming to address legal access concerns.

EOIR also continues to expand on its ongoing access initiatives, including:

• Respondent Access Portal:
  • In July, EOIR announced the launch of the Respondent Access Portal, a secure online platform that allows unrepresented noncitizens with proceedings before EOIR to view case information and scheduled hearings, download their electronic case record, and file documents directly with the immigration court. The portal provides unprecedented ease of access to immigration court proceedings for unrepresented noncitizens, improving transparency and helping noncitizens better navigate the immigration court system.

• Attorney of the Day Program:
  • In this program, licensed attorneys provide unpresented noncitizens in immigration court with general information about immigration court proceedings and relief options and attend preliminary hearings. Attorneys of the Day may be volunteers, legal service providers, or law school clinicians assisted by student practitioners. Attorneys of the Day may also explain immigration court forms and how to seek pro bono legal resources.
  • By the end of FY24, EOIR will expand the Attorney of the Day Program to three additional courts, Hyattsville, New York-Varick Street, and Atlanta-Peachtree. Attorney of the Day is currently available in San Francisco, New Orleans, and Chicago.

• Law School Working Group:
  • EOIR’s Law School Working Group facilitates law school clinic representation in immigration court. The Working Group activities include holding merits hearings during academic semesters, and increasing student engagement at immigration court hearings, including as Friends of the Court and through limited representation.

• • Over the next few months, the Law School Working Group will meet with law school representatives in DC and surrounding areas, Philadelphia, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, in order to expand these efforts.

• Model Hearing Program:
  • EOIR’s Model Hearing Program provides current and future immigration law practitioners with substantive and practical information about practices and procedures in immigration court.

• • The Model Hearing Program encompasses a wide range of resources and events, including live Model Hearing Program events at immigration courts, recorded model hearings and substantive law seminars available on demand, and information about the immigration court system available through the Immigration Court Online Resource website.
  • Through the Model Hearing Program, EOIR has provided approximately 3,000 individuals with substantive training on immigration law as well as live practical training on representing noncitizens in immigration court.
  • EOIR plans to hold another live Model Hearing Program session in September.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Good afternoon and thank you for that kind introduction. It’s a privilege to be here today at the 115th NAACP National Convention.

This convention’s theme – “All In” – reminds us of the members of our movement who risked their lives and their freedom to advance the cause of justice. Thurgood Marshall narrowly escaped lynching. Dr. King was assassinated. John Lewis was beaten within an inch of his life. Medgar Evers was murdered. Countless others were killed, beaten and imprisoned.

While I hope no one in this room is ever asked to bear such risks, we should remember the sacrifices of those who came before us as we measure what “All In” means in today’s fight for justice, and what we must do to honor their legacy.

Indeed, this year has offered us many opportunities to reflect on the legacy of the civil rights movement in America. On July 2, we marked the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That Act – which is the bedrock of so much of our work at the Civil Rights Division – was in no small part a product of efforts by the NAACP.

These anniversaries remind us of the progress we have made over the past 60 years, and the NAACP’s tremendous contributions to fairness and justice. But at the Civil Rights Division, we also view these anniversaries as a call to continued action; a call to redouble our efforts and reaffirm our commitment to finishing the march toward equality that our ancestors began.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Act, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act and other federal laws give us an array of tools to fight discrimination and safeguard constitutional rights. We use these tools to confront the injustices and inequities that flow from discrimination wherever we find them.

One area that remains a critical priority for the U.S. Department of Justice is ensuring that law enforcement officials carry out their jobs lawfully and without bias. Our fight to ensure constitutional policing remains as urgent as ever. We have prosecuted officers who abuse their power, including those tied to the tragic deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis; Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee; Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky; and six former officers who tortured and viciously abused two Black men in Rankin County, Mississippi. This group called themselves “The Goon Squad” and they carried out one of the most heinous acts of brutality that we have seen this century. The lead defendant was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

We have investigated law enforcement agencies engaged in a “pattern or practice” of conduct that violates the Constitution and other laws, including in Minneapolis, Louisville, Memphis, New York City, Louisiana and Lexington, Mississippi. 

Just last month, we announced our findings that the City of Phoenix and its police department have engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct, including discriminating against Black, Hispanic and Native American people when enforcing the law and using excessive force, including deadly force.

Wherever we have found violations, we’ve invited city leaders, community members and other stakeholders, like the NAACP, to work with us in charting a path to reform.

Another core mission of the division is protecting the right to vote. But we cannot ignore the voter suppression laws spreading like poison ivy across our country.

Discriminatory and burdensome restrictions on access to the ballot are undermining the rights of Black voters and, unfortunately, the Supreme Court has constricted our tools to counter this discrimination. But that’s not stopping us. We have filed lawsuits in Texas, Georgia and Arizona, and more issued over 30 statements of interest across the country, because every eligible American deserves a voice in our democracy.

We are also working to confront the unfortunate rise in hate crimes that we are seeing across the country. We have charged more than 120 defendants with hate crimes in over 110 cases since January 2021. These include the men who tragically killed Ahmaud Arbery just because he was Black, the defendant responsible for the murder of 10 Black people at the Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and the defendant responsible for the tragic murder of a Black trans woman named Dime Doe in South Carolina. We do this work because racially motivated, white supremacist, anti LGBTQI+, xenophobic, Islamophobic or antisemitic acts of hatred and violence have no place in our democracy. Period.

At the Justice Department, we know that every student deserves to learn in diverse classrooms that welcome and empower them. We are working to end the school-to-prison pipeline and pushing to stop the disproportionate discipline and incarceration imposed on Black students. And we have secured many victories in recent years to combat discrimination and harassment in our nation’s schools affecting racial minorities, female and LGBTQI+ students and students with disabilities.

Finally, we are ramping up the fight for environmental justice. We know that climate change disproportionately affects communities of color. For example, according to 2021 EPA findings, Black Americans are 34% more likely to live in areas with unacceptably high projected increases in childhood asthma diagnoses. We have launched multiple investigations to ensure that no person’s ability to live a healthy life is dictated by their race or their ZIP code. Last May, for example, we secured a groundbreaking settlement to ensure that residents in Lowndes County, Alabama, have access to safe and effective septic and wastewater management systems. Whether we are talking about lead-laced water, illegal dumping or exposure to raw sewage, we cannot tolerate injustices like these in our communities.

And we are working to ensure that the gateway to opportunity and the ability to amass generational wealth is open to all. We fight to end modern-day redlining. Our Combating Redlining Initiative, launched along with Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021, has brought $122 million in relief to communities where banks and financial institutions have failed to provide equal access to loans, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, and Tulsa. We are also working to address appraisal discrimination. Assessors too often undervalue Black-owned homes as compared with similar white-owned homes.

Too many of our jails and prisons woefully mistreat incarcerated people, and we strive to end this. For example, in an investigation we found that Parchman Farm in Mississippi failed to provide adequate mental health treatment, failed to take sufficient suicide-prevention measures, subjected people to prolonged solitary confinement in egregious conditions and failed to protect incarcerated people from violence at the hand of other incarcerated people. For this and for two other Mississippi prisons, we identified remedial measures to implement reforms. People do not surrender their rights at the jailhouse door.

When the approximately 600,000 people released per year have finished paying their debt to society, they face barriers to re-entry. Barriers to basic human needs such as housing and jobs. We’re working to lift these barriers.

All of this is just a small sample of our work.

Though our efforts to protect civil rights are many, we recognize that an “All In” fight for equality requires just that – all of us. Never has that been truer than it is right now. As one of the great founders of the NAACP W.E.B. Du Bois once noted:

“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work and tomorrow comes the harvest . . .”

I promise you that the Justice Department, the people’s Justice Department, will continue to stand alongside you and all those who work and fight for equal justice. We will not give up. We will not wait for “some more convenient season.” We are all in now and we will remain all in until we can all reap the harvest. Thank you.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Rodrigo Paez-Quintero, a Mexican national, has been extradited from Mexico to the United States to face charges related to drug trafficking. Paez-Quintero’s surrender to U.S authorities after an extradition proceeding in Mexico demonstrates the ongoing cooperation between the United States and Mexico to combat the influx of dangerous drugs, including fentanyl, into the United States.

Paez-Quintero made his initial court appearance today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in Tucson.

“Our fight against international drug traffickers who spread poison into our communities requires all hands on deck,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “This extradition is yet another example of our partnership with Mexican law enforcement to dismantle deadly cartels and bring drug kingpins to justice.”

“This indictment alleges coordinated conduct to traffic fentanyl and other illicit drugs into Phoenix,” said U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino for District of Arizona. “Many thanks to our federal, foreign and sovereign tribal partners for their teamwork and dedication.”

Paez-Quintero is charged in an indictment unsealed today with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl and multiple counts of possession with intent to distribute heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl. Each count carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a maximum fine of $10 million. In the year prior to March 2019, the indictment alleges Paez-Quintero’s involvement in at least nine drug trafficking events from the Lukeville Port of Entry, through Ajo and up to Phoenix. According to numerous open sources, Paez-Quintero is the nephew of jailed Mexican drug kingpin Rafael Caro-Quintero.

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Tucson, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Sells, and the FBI Tucson Field Office investigated this case, with substantial assistance from the Tohono O’odham Nation Police Department. The U.S. Marshals Service assisted with the extradition efforts. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Mexico to secure the arrest and extradition of Paez-Quintero.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona is prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.