Offline with Jon Favreau Introducing: Runaway Country with Alex Wagner
9 snips
Oct 24, 2025 
Anam Raman Petit, a former immigration court judge, shares her harrowing experiences of courtroom chaos and the chilling impacts of recent policies on immigrants. She discusses the intense emotional toll of her firing and the growing backlog in immigration courts. Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor, highlights the politicization of the Justice Department and reflects on public indifference to injustices faced by noncitizens. Together, they provide a gripping examination of the erosion of due process and the future of the rule of law in America.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
System Overload Makes Due Process Impossible
- The administration is overwhelming immigration courts with cases and pushing dismissals to enable expedited removals.
- With only ~600 judges for millions of cases, the system cannot hold under current policy shifts.
Dismissals Funnel Migrants Into Detention
- Petit describes how judges are pressured to dismiss cases so migrants enter expedited removal with detention waiting.
- That pressure undermines neutral adjudication and intimidates respondents from attending hearings.
Judge Describes Firsthand Courtroom Detention
- Anam Raman Petit describes seeing a respondent detained when they arrived for their final hearing and the mother's sobbing confusion.
- That detention forced case transfers and added inefficiency to an already crushing backlog.