(Congressional Agenda) – According to a new report from Fox News, a group of 12 Republicans in the House of Representatives are now pushing the Department of Justice for details concerning the ousting of an unknown number of immigration judges from the Trump-era, believing that theses removals could have a “nefarious” purpose behind them.
“Your department is unfairly terminating Trump-appointed immigration judges amid a historic border crisis and rapidly growing immigration case backlog,” the 12 Republicans, who are being led by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., wrote in a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
A report that was published by Fox News Digital last month revealed that there have been multiple judges who were appointed during the latter days of the Trump administration, whose two-year probationary periods have now expired, are being booted from their positions, with many of these judges speaking with Fox and stating they believe this is because they are not on board with the current administration’s view on immigration.
“There are 590 sitting immigration judges, and the DOJ said decisions related to career civil service employees, who include immigration judges, are based solely on performance, and the administration they were hired by plays no role in decision-making,” Fox News reported.
“But the ouster of the judges has raised concern from the immigration judges’ union, and now the Republican lawmakers. The lawmakers said that ‘it appears to us that your department’s motives are nefarious,'” the report said.
“One judge, Matthew O’Brien, told Fox that appointees have been removed because of their backgrounds as Trump appointees or links to conservatives causes, and also due to an opaque complaints’ system that allowed aggrieved immigration lawyers to rack up complaints against judges they dislike,” Fox News went on to say in the report.
“Some aggrieved attorney who doesn’t like the decision that they got in the case that might not have had any merit to begin with can file a complaint complaining about the judge and then nothing happens except harassment of the judge,” O’Brien, who previously worked under the hawkish Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), went on to state. “So it requires the judges to write a response … and then it goes into a black hole, and nobody tells anyone anything except the complaining attorneys. So they don’t give the judges a written decision on it. They don’t talk to the judges and tell them what happened.”
The GOP lawmakers point out that the current immigration crisis unfolding at the border, combined with the court backlog, as reasons for raising concerns about the firings.
“[O’Brien’s] termination comes at a time when the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which operates under your department, is experiencing difficulty hiring and retaining federal immigration judges,” they stated in the letter. “It also comes at a time when the nation’s immigration court backlog is growing faster than ever, with more than 1.5 million cases pending.”
A few of the Republicans featured on the letter are, Reps Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., Brian Babin, R-Texas, Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Kat Cammack, R-Fla., Mary Miller, R-Ill., Randy Weber, R-Texas, Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Jody Hice, R-Texas.
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