Sessions’s First Round Of US Immigration Judge Appointments, Same Old, Same Old — Mostly Former Prosecutors!

Continuing the tradition of the last five Attorneys General, Jeff Sessions appointed seven new U.S. Immigration Judges, six of them former DHS prosecutors.

When EOIR was founded in 1983, the first Chief Immigration Judge, the late William R. Robie, made a concerted effort to balance judicial appointments among government attorneys, the private immigration bar, and others with judicial backgrounds (e.g., state judicial officers, JAG Corps, ALJs from state and local governments). This conscious attempt to develop a diverse judiciary with a broad range of relevant backgrounds and experiences continued in one form or another under Administrations of both parties up through the Clinton Administration and Attorney General Janet Reno.

It was abandoned, however, during the Bush Administration, which famously engaged in politicized hiring of Immmigration Judges during the era of the notorious Monica Goodling.

Perhaps ironically, the Obama Administration showed particular contempt for private sector applicants, running a convoluted “Rube Goldberg type” judicial hiring process that resulted in nearly 90% of judicial appointments from government backgrounds, mostly DHS prosecutors. Given Attorney General Sessions’s views on immigration enforcement, it is virtually impossible to imagine him “reaching out” to recruit those with experience representing immigrants for the literally hundreds of appointments to the U.S. Immigration Courts that he is likely to make over his tenure.

Thus, those with private sector backgrounds are likely to go from “endangered species” to “extinct” within the immigration judiciary by the end of the Trump Administration. A sad development for the individual judges, who are deprived of the opportunity to work with colleagues who could share differing perspectives, as well as for due process  and the American justice system as a whole.

Here is the EOIR press release on the new appointments.  Congratulations and good luck to all! Remember the EOIR Vision: guaranteeing fairness and due process for all.

https://www.justice.gov/eoir/pr/executive-office-immigration-review-swears-seven-immigration-judges

PWS

05-10-17

 

 

Related posts:

  1. GONZO’S WORLD: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A DIVERSE “NATION OF IMMIGRANTS” ANOINTS A COMMITTED XENOPHOBE AS ITS CHIEF LAW OFFICER? – Gonzo Is Deconstructing Our System Of Justice, One Day At A Time!
  2. DUE PROCESS DENIED! — NIJC REPORT FINDS THAT DHS DETENTION IN OBSCURE LOCATIONS DEPRIVES MIGRANTS OF MEANINGFUL ACCESS TO COUNSEL! — This Is What Happens When We Enable The “American Gulag!”
  3. HON. JEFFREY CHASE: Speaking Out Against The “Notable Minority” Of U.S. Immigration Judges Who Demonstrated Bias Against Women & Asylum Seekers – “Think about that: some federally appointed immigration judges cheered the fact that women who had been violently raped and beaten in their country can no longer find refuge here, and will be sent back to face more violence, and possibly death. Will there be any consequences for their actions? Were the many outstanding immigration judges who have been proud to grant such cases in the past, who were saddened and sickened by this decision, able to openly jeer or weep or curse this decision? Or would that have been viewed as dangerous?”
  4. HON. JEFFREY S. CHASE: The History Of A Flawed Judiciary; The Intentional Tilting Of Asylum Law Against Asylum Seekers; The Farce Of Justice In The Immigration Courts; The Need For An Independent Article I Court!