Discussion
RE: https://esq.social/@SuffolkLITLab/116965151432978647
The government citing fake cases in immigration cases is especially troubling, because, unlike in high-stakes civil litigation, immigration defendants are often not represented by lawyers. So they might well have no one on their side in a position to notice the government’s error/fraud.
@mattblaze I would expect a half-way competent judge to detect the fraud.
@dga12 Are you seriously making the argument that it's OK for the government to make up facts in court filings because the judge should notice?
@dga12 In particular, judges rely heavily on the government's "regularity" in cases - they assume that basic information is accurate, that questions to the lawyers will be answered honestly, etc. (Whether this is a good idea in 2026 is obviously a good question). So while a judge should always scrutinize the legal reasoning of a government filing, they tend to give the benefit of the doubt to facts, cases cited, etc.
@dga12 The usual safeguards against the government trying to pull a fast one are that it's VERY bad to get caught, and the other side's lawyers get to read all the government's filings and point out anything that's wrong. But in immigration cases, there may not BE any lawyers on the other side.
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