Erich Wagner, Government Executive, Sept. 1, 2021 "Officials at a union representing the nation’s corps of immigration judges said Wednesday that they are baffled by the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s recent legal actions, in which the office...
Letter, June 7, 2021 - Department of Justice Should Support the National Association of Immigration Judges and Withdraw the Petition to Decertify its Union "We, the undersigned unions, organizations, immigration law professors and scholars, and other immigration...
Marcia Brown, American Prospect, Mar. 12, 2021 "The Trump administration’s manipulation of the immigration system went deeper than aggressive border policies and cruel detention practices. It also relentlessly pushed to rig the immigration court system to...
Jeffrey S. Chase, Nov. 6, 2020 "Our attention is understandably focused elsewhere right now. However, it must be mentioned that on the eve of Election Day, a panel decision of the Federal Labor Relations Authority decertified the National Association of...
Jeffrey S. Chase, Aug. 22, 2019 The following article first appeared on the online legal news service Law360. Thanks to editor Lisa Gomberg for inviting me to contribute my views on this topic. "On Aug. 9, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a petition...
Ernie Smith, Associations Now, July 15, 2019 "Amid a growing crisis, legal associations have called on Congress to pass laws that would remove immigration courts from Justice Department control, emphasizing the inherent conflict of interest. Four major...
NAIJ, May 13, 2019 "National Assn. of Immigration Judges Say DOJ’s “Myths v. Facts” Filled with Errors and Misinformation DOJ Document Demonstrates the Need for an Independent Immigration Court Say Judges This month the Department of Justice’s (DOJ)...
"The problems plaguing the Immigration Court system have been documented for years. ln 1983, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) was created to provide independence and insulation for the immigration courts from the enforcement functions of...
The union's Jan. 25, 2022 press release is here . An interview with NAIJ President Mimi Tsankov is here .
Erika Williams, CNS, Jan. 25, 2022 "A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit heard arguments Tuesday over a Trump-era rule that immigration judges say continues to violate their freedom to speak out about government policies on their own time. Immigration...
Erich Wagner, GovExec, Jan. 24, 2022 "The Republican majority on the Federal Labor Relations Authority last week issued an “unprecedented” decision to move forward with busting a union of immigration judges, despite the fact that both the union and management...
Two-Year Union-Busting Battle Ends as DOJ Reverses Course and Agrees to Recognize NAIJ, the Judges’ Union NAIJ, Dec. 7, 2021 "In a major reversal, the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which administers the U.S. immigration...
Alexandra Villarreal and Joanna Walters, The Guardian, Dec. 7, 2021 "US immigration judges are embroiled in a tense dispute with Joe Biden over their battle to restore union rights taken away from them under the Trump administration. The head of the federal...
EOIR v. NAIJ "For the reasons discussed below, I find that IJs are not management officials within the meaning of section 7103(a)(l l) of the Statute, and EOIR's petition is dismissed."
As many of you know, DOJ is attempting to decertify the Immigration Judges' union, on the theory that IJs are management. This argument failed twenty years ago, but DOJ is at it again. The case is currently pending before the Federal Labor Relations Authority...