The Trump Administration Is Gagging America's Immigration Judges

[mahatmakanejeeves]

AlmostAllBetterNowHat Retweeted

The Trump administration is gagging immigration judges in violation of the First Amendment, and lots of people besides the judges are being harmed as a result.

I wrote about how the Justice Department is muzzling these public servants for
@TheAtlantic
.

Link to tweet

IDEAS

The Trump Administration Is Gagging America’s Immigration Judges
The change comes at a time when the perspective of immigration judges would be particularly valuable to the public.

10:24 AM ET
Cristian Farias
Writer in residence at the Knight First Amendment Institute

For more than two years, immigration judges have been subject to a policy that more or less prevents them from performing an essential part of their civic duties: speaking publicly about their work.

Since September 2017, immigration judges and all other employees at the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review have been required to adhere to an onerous pre-approval process whenever they desire or are invited to speak publicly on any issue, immigration-related or not. I learned of the policy through a Freedom of Information Act request my colleagues made to the department, as part of an investigation I’ve been conducting on the intersection of free speech and U.S. border enforcement.

{snip}

It is not uncommon for government agencies to set rules on employee conduct and outside activities. But the perspective of immigration judges is particularly valuable to the public, especially one grappling with complicated questions about America’s immigration laws. In his 2019 year-end report on the federal judiciary, Chief Justice John Roberts commended American judges who, “without fanfare or acclaim,” take time to reach out to their communities in all sorts of public-education initiatives. As Ashley Tabaddor, the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, told Congress in 2018, immigration judges “help the community better understand our immigration courts and their function in the community, helping to demystify the system and bring transparency about our operations to the public.”

{snip}

[2naSalit]

1. I think it's time for

all public servants who are true Americans to defy the orders of the fascists.

[duforsure]

2. We're in Russia or NK now

Where Kim and Putin have strict control over what people can say. Trump is attacking the truth because it exposes his lies, and undermines his propaganda. Trump is against free speech, unless it's coming from him. This is backfiring on him very badly now.

[Aristus]

3. He makes ME gag, too...