Once A Symbol of Fairness, Due Process, & Best Practices, Now Gone “Belly Up”
Creative Commons 2.0
Reprinted with permission:
Statement from 7 terminated Assistant Chief Immigration Judges (ACIJs):
*Please note – pronouns are nonbinary below only to maintain anonymity.
The terminated ACIJs are 5 females and 2 males, all age 41 or older. 2 are military veterans. 2 are racial minorities. Together, the 7 terminated ACIJs have over 105 years of public service that ended abruptly with an email sent Friday afternoon, Valentine’s Day.
1. Facts related to termination:
– Friday afternoon we all received by e-mail a PDF letter terminating us with no notice and no cause for the termination.
2. Summary of our experience: Combined, the 7 ACIJs led 18 immigration courts, and supervised approximately 135 immigration judges and 418 support staff. One was working on opening a new immigration court with 4 judges. Their termination leaves roughly 25% of the nation’s immigration courts without leadership or additional judges to preside while the immigration case backlog grows to over 3.6 million cases.
– At least one ACIJ was sent the termination email during the middle of a merits hearing (asylum case) over which they were presiding.
– 4 of the ACIJs were backups for each other’s courts, so at least 4 courts are without any clear leadership.
Collectively, we are devastated at the loss of our ability to continue in our jobs serving the public and serving EOIR’s mission to “adjudicate immigration cases by fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly interpreting and administering the Nation’s immigration laws.”
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Rather than a “model of due process and fundamental fairness,” under this Administration EOIR is becoming a “parody of justice.” Obviously, getting rid of high-performing, experienced judges who were also in leadership positions, particularly in the face of a backlog approaching 4 million cases, has nothing to do with “efficiency” and everything to do with weaponization of the Immigration Courts against individuals seeking to vindicate their legal rights under our laws and our Constitution!
Thanks to this group for your service, and Due Process Forever!
PWS
03-04-25