Justice Department changed hiring to promote restrictive immigration judges

[Demovictory9]

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-tns-bc-immigration-judges-20191031-story.html

WASHINGTON The Department of Justice has quietly changed hiring procedures to permanently place immigration judges repeatedly accused of bias to a powerful appellate board, adding to growing worries about the politicization of the immigration court system.

Documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests suggest that an already opaque hiring procedure was tweaked for the six newest hires to the 21-member Board of Immigration Appeals. All six board members, added in August, were immigration judges with some of the highest asylum denial rates. Some also had the highest number of decisions in 2017 that the same appellate body sent back to them for reconsideration. All six members were immediately appointed to the board without a yearslong probationary period.

"They're high-level deniers who've done some pretty outrageous things (in the courtroom) that would make you believe they're anti-immigrant," said Jeffrey Chase, a former immigration judge and past senior legal adviser at the board. "It's a terrifying prospect. ... They have power over thousands of lives."

Among the hiring documents are four recommendation memos to the Attorney General's office from James McHenry, director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the nation's immigration court system.

The memos, dated July 18, recommend immigration judges William A. Cassidy, V. Stuart Couch, Earle B. Wilson, and Keith E. Hunsucker to positions on the appellate board. McHenry's memos note new hiring procedures had been established on March 8, to vet "multiple candidates" expressing interest in the open board positions.

A footnote in the memos states that applicants who are immigration judges would be hired through a special procedure: Instead of going through the typical two-year probationary period, they would be appointed to the board on a permanent basis, immediately. This was because a position on the appellate board "requires the same or similar skills" as that of an immigration judge, according to the memo.

------

McHenry, appointed in 2018 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, concludes his recommendation memos by noting that the judge's "current federal service was vetted and no negative information that would preclude his appointment" was reported. He does not mention any past or pending grievances, although public complaints have been filed against at least three of the judges.

These documents, obtained through FOIA via Muckrock, a nonprofit, collaborative that pushes for government transparency, reflect "the secrecy with which these rules are changing," said Matthew Hoppock, a Kansas City-based immigration attorney. "It's very hard to remove or discipline a judge that's permanent than when it's probationary, so this has long term implications."

[dchill]

1. K&R.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. Barr's Dirt Service at work

We need to restore the Department of Justice.

[msongs]

3. as in germany the nazi take over of the government bureaucracy succeeded gradually nt

[real Cannabis calm]

4. recommended to publicize