Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the question should Thailand, should Thai Immigration specifically think about creating an Immigration Court?

So for those who are unaware, I do a lot of US Immigration. I also engage in a lot of comparative law and I end up engaging in comparative bureaucracies if you will when I look at Thai Immigration versus US Immigration, the way things work there. Thailand does have an appellate system albeit not an overly complex one that is associated with appealing for example findings of a rescission of a Visa but it is pretty truncated and it is pretty opaque too. We have dealt with it from time to time when you have to deal with the Commission that deals with matters pertaining to immigrants, especially those who have already been admitted and allow lawful presence in Thailand. At times though, that lawful presence can be canceled and yes there is due process; there is sort of an appeals process associated with it. Oftentimes it doesn't really do much in terms of changing outcome but it is possible to engage in sort of an appeal of a finding that one's status is going to be revoked. 

The issue though posed by this video or sort of the question posted is should Thai Law instead of something akin to the Immigration Courts? And I am comparing this to the US system; the United States has an Immigration Court system. Now to be clear, the operative rules which sort of undergird that Court are wholly different than the rules which govern standard Courts in the United States of America, most notably they are not what is called Article 3 Courts, they operate solely under the Executive Power. As a result they have far different powers, their powers are far more sweeping; they have a great deal more discretion when it comes to issues pertaining to foreigners. That said, there is an adjudication process. There is even a body of law, US immigration law that goes along with that. You have an appellate section, the Bureau of Immigration Appeals etc. that deals with things associated with deportation, things associated with inadmissibility, what we would call Blacklisting in Thailand where people can't get back in. There is a mechanism in many cases where one can request a waiver of a prior finding of inadmissibility in an American context. The question posed by this video is should Thailand have something similar? I definitely think it's something to look at. I was actually talking to a friend of mine who is also an American Immigration Attorney the other day and we were kind of having that conversation, "should Thailand have something like that?" I am not saying Thailand needs to copy the US or any other country for that matter but long story short, is we have seen a major change with respect to the consequences of having problems with Thai Immigration in roughly the past seven, 8 years most notably the creation of the Blacklist and also basically the Blacklisting of a number of people which has resulted in their inadmissibility to Thailand, their inability to be re-admitted to Thailand. And in some cases there is at least an argument to be made that some sort of appeal should be possible or at least some sort of process for obtaining a waiver to come back into Thailand after a prior Blacklisting. 

Now whether or not we will actually see this I don't know, but I don't think it is a terrible idea for Immigration Officials here in Thailand to maybe look at the possibility of something akin to an Immigration Court.