After The Silence in Book Five: Working Through the Maze 2018

(Picking up from the entry that was eaten as the site went down)

With Prosebox down, that is… difficult. I don’t want to be a whiny bitch about it because I pay nothing for this service. I have access to this platform out of the kindness and generosity of others and I will at no point complain that such generosity was interrupted due to issues that, were this a pay-site, may have been avoided.

That being said… what a time to be down.

Monday was rough. If what I was working on still exists in the servers, perhaps you know this. If not, I will simply say that I was working on almost ZERO sleep… which means I am distracted, in severe pain, and was already feeling sick. SO a terrible combination of factors all things considered. Between meetings, pain, and working on Transition items… I earned a grand total of 2 billable hours.

Before leaving work on Monday, I got another grand example of why this firm was a good place to bail on. Or is that bale on? Tee hee. ANY WAY… one of the first cases I ever worked on in this firm was an illegal alien that was captured at the border (yes, he is Chinese and yes, it was the Mexican border). He was given a “Calendar Date” for hearing (set for 3 years after his capture because however you feel about our immigration system… it is fucked up with timing. Some things happen in 12 hours, the exact same thing could happen in 12 years… it depends on country of origin and circumstances surrounding.) So… this guy has 3 years before his calendar hearing. As he is an illegal immigrant he does get counsel. Legal Immigrants do not. Even if you’re a child. Seriously. So, the Texas Courts say he has to come back to Texas for hearing in 3 years but since he is living in Nebraska, he can have a Nebraska attorney. Well, then he asks our firm’s help. So we work with the Nebraska Attorney to get the case shifted over to us. But when we contact the Texas Court, they tell us that his attorney has been shifted to somebody in California. They never told the client, the previous attorney, and have never “even heard” of us. I called this “new attorney” and got a house filled with Spanish Speakers who, with difficulty on both sides, let me know that no abogados aqui. Shit. I gave the case to Chinese Boss with all of that information (back in July) and she said she would take care of it. That was 7 months ago. She gave me the case back this week and asked me to start the whole process over again. As she had not done any work on it in the seven months! So… you say you’ll take care of it… but taking care of it is ignoring it… until you can get me to do it again? Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Then Tuesday Morning, I get directly emailed by a judge in Iowa City. This judge likes me more than she likes my senior partners because when she yells at them, nothing changes. When she yells at me, I go out of my way to make sure that her concerns are taken care of. The difference? White Boss and Chinese Boss see her as “a judge, an authority figure who has it out for our clients.” Whereas, thanks to my experience in Pretrial Release, I see “a judge, a person who is busy and wants things easier for them and will take out her dislike of an attorney on their clients.” SO… since our perspectives are so different, I’m not exactly shocked that this judge e-mailed me directly to let me know that one of my filings was really blurry, but she would go ahead and sign the order anyway. I responded with an apology and a suggestion of how I could fix it. She waived it off and said that it would be taken care of but (emphasis added by me) “since we are supposed to retain originals by law, she wanted to let me know about the scanner issue.” Because… we most certainly don’t have the original. Never have. I created a document that was scanned and e-mailed to Chinese Client who signed it and then (because he is an idiot) took photos of the document with his phone and WeChatted them to Chinese Boss who e-mailed them to me. I printed out this version to notarize and sent to State to sign. She printed, signed, scanned and sent to me for me to file with the judge. So the “original” is a copy signed by me and nobody else. And this is how my bosses have been doing things the whole time because otherwise… they wouldn’t be able to serve the ENTIRE state without leaving Des Moines. So… if by law we need to be keeping these things? They are going to be in trouble. If they are going to be in trouble for spreading themselves so thin; I don’t want any part of that.

It was not aided by my Tuesday being rough. So, since I got zero quality sleep Sunday to Monday; I opted for the Alternate Bed Monday to Tuesday. Yeah, Wife gets upset when I don’t sleep in the same room as her but… if she is going to get irritated due to my snoring? If she won’t get any sleep and keeps waking me up to stop snoring so I don’t get any sleep? Well… maybe separate beds for now is the way to go. And I got sleep. And I woke up still exhausted with a sore throat and pains in my chest and shoulders. SO I did not want to leave the bed and go into work. And I considered for a good long while just calling in. Because today is an Ames Day anyway, they aren’t going to know where I am working from at all! True story. I could be in my home making these phone calls and writing these E-Mails… they aren’t going to know. But… I am an honest guy. I got up, drove to Ames and worked. For all the unbillable good it did me. And in my physical pain, tiredness, and frustration… I just turned on David Bowie and embraced the idea that I could return to a life with music. Because even when I was working as a prosecutor… I could have some music playing. At this law firm? The law firm that we rent space from has their own rules… the attorneys don’t have to be in the office unless they want to be, but the secretary has to be in the office every day from 8 to 5. However, she is allowed to watch Netflix in her office all day if she wants. Whereas my firm requires everyone to be in the office at all times and no music or anything else. Except for the bosses. Sometimes Chinese Boss will catch up on Chinese TV and Movies she missed because she’s in the states. But at least she is quality enough to mostly only do that on her lunch break.

I’m still working on that Illegal Immigrant Texas Court Issue. It is… insane. Partially because Immigration is so broken; partially because this firm is so broken. Immigration is broken because they have given an attorney to a client; but will not aid that client in discovering who that attorney is. IF the client themselves called into the Immigration Court, they might tell him who his attorney is… but he doesn’t speak English and the only other available Language Help option is Spanish. So not great for a Mandarin speaker. The firm could call on Speaker Phone with the client present and act as interpreters… but again… would the courts accept that and would this firm even do that. So what we have here is (1) a Chinese Individual who wanted to flee China so (2) he illegally crossed the border from Mexico into the United States where he got caught. (3) He is allowed to live in the country and NOT in custody from Early 2016 to Late 2019. (4) He moves to Nebraska after getting out of Detention and gets an attorney in NE. (5) In 2016, he hires The Firm to take his case. Our firm works with the NE attorney to get the case transferred to Nebraska Immigration Court from Texas and to get the Lawyers of Record changed to be us. They try this for 6 months before I’m even hired. It doesn’t work. Nothing works. You’d think Texas would be happy to transfer the case and free themselves up a bit; but no. They don’t transfer the case. They do accept the Withdrawal of the previous attorney but do NOT accept The Firm’s motion to appear. Instead, they assign a different attorney and do not inform the client. The client cannot find or speak with new attorney and new attorney has made no attempt to contact client or file anything in immigration court. When people see Fox News talk about how “Illegal Immigrants are a threat to American Life”… I wish more people knew just how fucked up our immigration system is. Seriously. I am SUPER against illegal immigration because I don’t think that you should be able to break the rules and receive any kind of preference over someone who followed the rules. That is a big deal to me. HUGE deal to me. But, simultaneously, I have unique insight into how rabidly messed up our immigration system currently is. If you ever want a taste, just cruise around USCIS.gov for a few hours.

Of course… it is even MORE insane because the name of the attorney we were able to find doesn’t DO immigration cases. So…. We’re nowhere. But I’ve already got my apathy and defenses up because if Chinese Boss wants to come at me on this; I’m ready. You’ve had this case since before I started and now, a YEAR after I’ve started here, we’re still not listed as Attorney of Record. This… this doesn’t demonstrate a failure on my part. This demonstrates a fundamental failure on the entire law firm. So… as worried as I might be for my career and financial future… I’m getting all sorts of lovely neon signals that I should not be working at this firm and that leaving was a wise decision.

TWO THINGS ON CHINESE CULTURE:

So… The Law Firm started making HUGE pushes to Iowa City, despite it being considered by every other Des Moines lawyer as too far away. These pushes started in 2016. I just did some research. Chinese National student killed his girlfriend in 2014 and the 2016 trial was MAJOR news in Iowa and China. Yeah. This firm wants to expand to the areas where Chinese Nationals are doing the most damage. Not helping (asylum, business formation, etc) but are selecting areas where Chinese Nationals do the most violence. SECOND THING: Mirai Nagasu, a California Native born of Japanese Immigrants, said “Coming from an Asian background, my parents don’t say things like ‘I’m proud of you… But I received a text message from my papa daddy and it said ‘I’m proud of you.’ And I was like, screen shot, that has never happened before.” And my Asian Journalist friends are saying “This is pretty much THE MOST Asian American thing ever to happen at the Olympics.”

PB is still down so I’ll still write and flood the site as I expect many of you will as well.
Got another Illegal Alien from China case. If you look at the statistics… all current Illegal and Legal Immigration documentation statistics tell us that the “incursion” is from Asia. So, Trump and his supporters screaming about Mexicans and Muslims coming to this country? If only they actually gave a damn about the topic instead of using the topic as a way to hate Brown People and Muslims. Because the Asians that come here illegally? They find the Asian Community (usually of California, Chicago, New York, or… like Iowa… wherever it exists). After finding the Asian Community, they become protected. They deal almost exclusively with other Asians who speak the language. Now… is it likely that these Illegal Immigrants are taking your job? Not likely in these places. You weren’t going to be hired there anyway. Does the illegal immigrant problem underline something far more dangerous? You bet your ass. Imagine if everyone in the United States was here via Legal Status. Not immigrated but at least had a valid visa to be here. The country would be more civilized. Because people without legal status are exploited and victimized in unique and awful ways.
Two examples
(1) I want to hire someone for my restaurant/factory/shop. I could hire the American Citizen who would demand benefits, fair pay, and have rights. OR I could hire the Illegal Immigrant from Laos. He doesn’t look Mexican, so he isn’t as likely to be picked up by ICE. And he’ll work for $3 an hour without benefits. If he ever doesn’t do what I say, I can threaten to call ICE and the complaint goes away. Yeah… I’m going to hire the dude from Laos that I can mistreat and pay less.

(2) I am the local lead gang-banger in my particular barrio. I want to make sure I’m shaking people down, committing acts of violence, and establishing myself as a power to be feared. But I don’t want to go to jail. Easiest way of doing that? Target the neighborhoods where Illegal Immigrants reside. Do some robberies, sexually assault the younger attractive girls, really treat the area like my own personal Wasteland Zone. Because, and this happens A LOT, if they call the cops… they’ll be deported. So nobody is going to call the police to stop me and I can treat this entire neighborhood like my own personal criminal playground.

Now, that doesn’t mean I think everyone here illegally should just magically get a Visa issued to them. MANY of the interviews I read specifically state, “Yes. I knew entering the United States in this way was illegal.” Essentially, you have people that know this is illegal and do so anyway. This is not a type of behavior we want to encourage in the United States. Maybe I’m alone in thinking that. But we don’t want to reward people who say “I broke the law knowingly” in favor of people who said “I followed the law, broken as it is, and have been waiting for ten years!”

HOURS LATER

Here’s a shock that should surprise nobody. One of the very first Chinese Clients I ever worked for at this firm WaaaY back in April 2016? The one who continues to drive despite habitual offender status, suspended license, and everyone from the judge to his probation officer to all 3 of his attorneys have said STOP DRIVING! Yeah… he got arrested again. So… just in the one year I have worked for the Chinese… I have handled this kid in 9 cases, and he just picked up no less than 2 more this week!

Prosebox remains down. What has surprised me from that the most is that my productivity for the week has actually gone down. Apparently, the reading and writing I do on this site somehow helps my productivity. Good to know.

WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM

Last updated February 16, 2018