Jeff Sessions Is Quietly Transforming the Nation’s Immigration Courts
Of the 140 judges hired since Donald Trump’s inauguration, more than half have past prosecutorial experience or some other government experience.
The pace of hiring has also stepped up: In fiscal year 2017, the Justice Department hired 64 immigration judges, compared to 81 in fiscal year 2018—bringing the total of immigration judges to 395, according to data released by EOIR. Sessions’s hiring spree is not unusual—and it’s also not unwarranted: His predecessors brought on new immigration judges, and the immigration court backlog also continues to creep up, with the latest figure at more than 760, 000 pending cases. Of the newly hired immigration judges, at least half had received conditional offers during the Obama
administration, said Kathryn Mattingly, assistant press secretary at EOIR, in an email.
It’s not just how many immigration judges are being brought on but where they’re being located.
EOIR has hired immigration judges for two adjudication centers—in Falls Church, Virginia, and Fort Worth, Texas—where cases from around the country will be heard through video teleconferencing.
Judges will be located at the centers, while attorneys and respondents will be in separate locations.
According to Rob Barnes, a regional public information officer for EOIR, immigration judges at these centers will be evaluated like others. It’s likely then that thousands of immigration cases will be heard with respondents never seeing a judge face to face.
Across the board, there appears to be a preference for people who come from an enforcement background, according to biographies of newly hired immigration judges posted by the Justice Department.
Of the 23 judges announced in August, more than half previously worked with the Department of Homeland Security,
and of those remaining, most came from a law enforcement background.In September, EOIR announced 46 new
immigration judges, two of which will serve in a supervisory role: 19 previously worked for ICE, 10 had served
at DOJ or as a former local prosecutor, and seven had a background in military (one of whom previously served in Guantánamo).
It’s not yet known how these judges will rule once they’re on the bench and whether their enforcement background will inform
their decisions. But experts, attorneys, and current and former immigration judges have warned about hiring too many people
from government before.
The hiring of immigration judges has always been a contentious issue: complaints have been lodged about there not being enough career diversity; it often takes months to hire judges (though the Justice Department recently pushed the time it took down from an average of 742 days to about 266 days); and political affiliations have previously been weighed in selecting judges. In 2008, the Inspector General issued a report on the hiring practices of DOJ in
selecting attorneys, immigration judges, and members of the Board of Immigration Appeals.
The report concluded that hiring based on political or ideological affiliation is in violation of department policy.
The fear, as expressed by some Democrats, legal experts and immigration advocates, is that Sessions is improperly seeking out conservatives in order to to influence the tilt of the nation’s immigration courts and hire a large cadre of immigration
judges who will likely far outlast his tenure.
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