\n<\/p>\n
Inside a federal<\/span> immigration courtroom in New York City last month, a judge took an exceedingly unusual step: declining to state the name of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorney pressing to deport asylum seekers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not really doing names publicly,\u201d said Judge ShaSha Xu \u2014\u00a0after stating her own name and those of the immigrants and their lawyers. It was the first of two separate instances The Intercept identified in which judges chose to withhold the identities of the attorneys representing the Trump administration\u2019s deportation regime.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As ICE agents across the country wear masks to raid workplaces and detain immigrants, government attorneys need not cover their faces to shield their identities. Legal experts who spoke to The Intercept agreed the practice of concealing the lawyers\u2019 identities was both novel and concerning.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of someone in open court not being identified,\u201d said Elissa Steglich, a law professor and co-director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin. \u201cPart of the court\u2019s ethical obligation is transparency, including clear identification of the parties. Not identifying an attorney for the government means if there are unethical or professional concerns regarding [the Department of Homeland Security], the individual cannot be held accountable. And it makes the judge appear partial to the government.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPart of the court\u2019s ethical obligation is transparency, including clear identification of the parties.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The concealment shocked two lawyers who were representing immigrants in Xu\u2019s courtroom. Attorney Jeffrey Okun, who was representing a client via video call, characterized the move as \u201cbizarre.\u201d Attorney Hugo Gonzalez Venegas called Xu\u2019s behavior \u201ca terrible lack of transparency on the part of officers of the court.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Immigration courts, which are run by the Executive Office for Immigration Review \u2014 part of the executive branch, not the judiciary \u2014 are far less transparent than most courts. Their prosecutors work for ICE and DHS; they have no obligation to provide defense lawyers; and their judges are appointed \u2014\u00a0and fired \u2014\u00a0by the president.\u00a0<\/p>\n On a Tuesday morning in late June, Xu was running through several brief, preliminary hearings known as \u201cmaster calendars.\u201d Nationwide, these proceedings always start out the same way. An immigrant will appear with their attorney \u2014\u00a0if they have the good fortune to retain one \u2014\u00a0often on Webex. A judge presides at a big desk in an actual courtroom, in this case\u00a0in lower Manhattan. An ICE lawyer represents the government in its attempts to deport the immigrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n As each case commences, the judge recites their own name, followed by the immigrant\u2019s name, the name of the immigrant\u2019s attorney (if they have one), and finally, the name of the ICE lawyer. It\u2019s an on-the-record census that enables due process.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Xu omitted the ICE lawyer\u2019s name, Okun asked her to identify who was arguing to deport his client. She refused.<\/p>\n Xu attributed the change to \u201cprivacy\u201d because \u201cthings lately have changed.\u201d Xu told Okun that he could use Webex\u2019s direct messaging function to send the ICE lawyer his email, and the ICE lawyer would probably respond with her own name and address. Okun accepted the arrangement.<\/p>\n When the next case commenced minutes later, Xu again refused to state the ICE lawyer\u2019s name, and Gonzalez Venegas, also on Webex, argued that the legal record would be incomplete without it. Xu again said that the two attorneys could message each other confidentially.<\/p>\n The government\u2019s mystery attorney, who was prosecuting both Okun\u2019s and Gonzalez-Venegas\u2019s clients, wore glasses and a navy blue suit; her hair was pulled back primly from her face. She spoke quietly, with a tinge of vocal fry. Her name, according to Gonzalez Venegas, was Cosette Shachnow.<\/p>\n Shachnow, 33, began working for ICE in 2021, shortly after she graduated from law school, according to public records and her LinkedIn account. The latter lists \u201cCivil Rights and Social Action\u201d among her \u201cfavored causes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n