This sponsored column is by Law Office of James Montana PLLC. All questions about it should be directed to James Montana, Esq., Janice Chen, Esq., and Taryn Druge, Esq., practicing attorneys at The Law Office of James Montana PLLC, an immigration-focused law firm located in Falls Church, Virginia. The legal information given here is general in nature. If you want legal advice, contact us for an appointment.
On March 22, 2025, the Trump administration released a memorandum entitled Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court (sic). This memorandum accuses immigration lawyers and law firms of malpractice and misconduct. For example, it asserts that:
- “The immigration bar, and powerful Big Law pro bono practices, frequently coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims.”
- Immigration attorneys violate the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by filing cases “for improper purposes” including “to harass, cause unnecessary delay, or needlessly increase the cost of litigation.”
- Immigration attorneys engage in “frivolous, unreasonable, or vexatious litigation against the United States or in matters before executive departments and agencies of the United States.”
Given the breadth of this widespread (alleged) fraud and malpractice, the memorandum directs the Attorney General to prioritize enforcement of regulations governing attorney conduct and discipline, including referring attorneys for bar sanction, revoking security clearances, and terminating federal contracts with offending law firms.
We applaud this focus on enforcement of ethics rules. We have never filed a frivolous motion or a case unsupported by law, and we never will. We take our responsibilities as officers of the Court seriously, as all lawyers should.
In that spirit, we would like to bring to the attention of the White House and the Attorney General a few recent actions by the Department of Justice which deserve careful investigation and review.
- In January 2023, Donald Trump and his attorney, Alina Habba, were jointly subject to $937,989.39 in court-ordered sanctions. Federal District Court Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks found that Donald Trump had filed a “completely frivolous” lawsuit, “brought in bad faith for an improper purpose.” Judge Middlebrooks further found that Donald Trump’s lead attorney in the case, Alina Habba, had used “an abusive litigation tactic which amounts to obstruction of justice” — namely, filing a 193-page Amended Complaint with 819 paragraphs in it, which contained 14 counts, named 31 defendants, 10 of whom of which were John Does, and 10 ABC Corporations identified as fictitious and unknown entities. Judge Middlebrooks found that the claims were foreclosed by existing precedent and “no reasonable lawyer would have filed it.” Alina Habba has been nominated by the Trump administration to be the interim United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey — the top federal prosecutor in a very important district. We think that this nomination is not in the spirit of the March 22, 2025 memorandum discouraging vexatious litigation and unethical court filings, and we urge the White House to reconsider her appointment.
- In March 2025, Judge Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia entered a Temporary Restraining Order which ordered the administration to not deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador. The administration deported the them anyway. The Justice Department, acting through its attorneys, has failed to explain why it violated the District Court Boasberg’s Temporary Restraining Order. Violating judicial orders, it seems to us, falls squarely within the ambit of the Presidential Memorandum, which urges that lawyers pay special attention to the rules of professional conduct “in cases that implicate national security, [and] homeland security.”
As always, we are grateful for your questions and comments, and will do our best to respond.
