Immigration Law

Immigration Judges Chosen For Political Views?

By Robert Kraft

The Washington Post has a column today decrying the news that under the Bush Administration appointees to various departments were made on the basis of politics and not on merit. Shockingly, this seems to have included immigration judges. This is extremely disappointing and of course illegal. Here are excerpts from the column:

Now, an equally graphic report by the same two offices concludes that in 2003, the apolitical process for selecting immigration judges and prosecutors was stood on its head. A chief aide to Attorney General Ashcroft (and later to Attorney General Gonzales) "outlined a new process for hiring [immigration judges] that listed the White House as the sole source for generating candidates."

Thus, immigration judges -- who, by law, are to be chosen without regard to their political pedigree -- were no longer picked by the nonpolitical office that is supposed to find and train the men and women who mete out justice to tens of thousands of immigrants. In the interview files for these candidates were such comments as "Cons[ervative] on 'god, guns + gays' " -- but not much about whether they understood immigration law or had the capacity for fairness.

Full post as published by Immigration Law Answers Blog on July 30, 2008 (boomark / email).