Immigration Reporter
BuzzFeed News
https://apple.news/AAsWdQ8tyR365PO0Me_6IZg
Hamed Aleaziz reports for BuzzFeed News:
The Justice Department Sent Immigration Judges A White Nationalist Blog Post With Anti-Semitic Attacks
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Attorney General William Barr
An email sent from the Justice Department to all immigration court employees this week included a link to an article posted on a white nationalist website that “ directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs,” according to a letter sent by an immigration judges union and obtained by BuzzFeed News.
According to the National Association of Immigration Judges, the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) sent court employees a link to a blog post from VDare, a white nationalist website, in its morning news briefing earlier this week that included anti-Semitic attacks on judges.
The briefings are sent to court employees every weekday and include links to various immigration news items. BuzzFeed News confirmed the link to a blog post was sent to immigration court employees Monday. The post detailed a recent move by the Justice Department to decertify the immigration judges union.
A letter Thursday from union chief Ashley Tabaddor to James McHenry, the director of the Justice Department’s EOIR, said the link to the VDare post angered many judges.
“The post features links and content that directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs and the label ‘Kritarch.’ The reference to Kritarch in a negative tone is deeply offensive and Anti-Semitic,” wrote Tabaddor. The VDare post includes pictures of judges with the term “kritarch” preceding their names.
Tabaddor said the term kritarchy is a reference to ancient Israel during a time of rule by a system of judges.
“VDare’s use of the term in a pejorative manner casts Jewish history in a negative light as an Anti-Semitic trope of Jews seeking power and control,” she wrote.
Tabaddor called on McHenry to take immediate action over the distribution of white nationalist content.
“Publication and dissemination of a white supremacist, anti-semitic website throughout the EOIR is antithetical to the goals and ideals of the Department of Justice,” she wrote. The court, Tabaddor wrote, should immediately withdraw the email and issue an apology to all immigration judges, including those mentioned in the post.
“Separately, EOIR should take all appropriate safety and security measures for all judges given the tone and tenor of this posting,” she wrote.
After publication of this article, a DOJ spokesperson told BuzzFeed News the email briefing was compiled by a contractor and should not have included a link to the VDare post.
“The daily EOIR morning news briefings are compiled by a contractor and the blog post should not have been included,” the spokesperson said.
EOIR Assistant Press Secretary Kathryn Mattingly told BuzzFeed News that “the daily EOIR morning news briefings are compiled by a contractor and the blog post should not have been included. The Department of Justice condemns Anti-Semitism in the strongest terms.”
A former senior DOJ official said that the email in question was “generated by a third-party vendor that utilizes keyword searches to produce news clippings for staff. It is not reviewed or approved by staff before it is transmitted.”
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So, it’s “mere coincidence” that the two Judges leading the NAIJ’s resistance are specifically targeted with slurs within a few days of the DOJ’s filing of a petition to “decertify” the NAIJ? Not credible!
Coincidence that a White Nationalist racist Administration biased against asylum seekers distributes White Nationalist hate propaganda directed at Immigration Judges who stand up for Due Process? Unlikely!
No, starting with Trump & Sessions, this Administration has had a long-term love affair with White Supremacist hate groups. It’s no coincidence that acts of violence by White Nationalist domestic terrorists have increased under Trump. While the DOJ and DHS are busy reviving up baseless fear and loathing of foreigners, the real threats to our national security by White Nationalist domestic terrorists, and frankly by the Trump Administration itself, are left unaddressed and not so subtly encouraged.
There are lots of scummy characters involved in the latest assault on Due Process, fundamental fairness, and simple human decency by Trump’s DOJ.
But there is another major enabler at fault here: the unconstitutional and unethical placement of “judges” within a law enforcement agency has been painfully obvious for years. Yet, life tenured Federal Judges have looked the other way as clearly substandard adjudications have emanated from the Immigration Courts under the last three Administrations. Kind of a “who cares” attitude where rights of foreign nationals are involved.
Now, however, as in the Bush II Administration, U.S. citizen judges are being targeted for harassment and career derailment because of their views.
Trump and his henchmen have already made it clear that they will target anyone who fails to roll over for their White Nationalist agenda, judge or not. Myopic Federal Judges who fail to hold the Administration accountable for abuses and to put an end to the “EOIR travesty” might well find themselves on the receiving end of the Administration’s racist hate campaign at some point. Who will stand up for the rights of those unwilling to stand up for others?
PWS
08-22-19
PWS