DOJ Immigration Judges Look to Break Away From Agency

A union that represents about 420 federal immigration judges is lobbying Congress to pass legislation making the judges independent from the Department of Justice.

“When we talk about judges and courts, people have certain assumptions,” Ashley Tabaddor, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said April 23. “They expect to have a judge who’s impartial and a court that’s independent. Immigration courts and judges are not like that.”

The judges instead answer to the head of the DOJ, Attorney General William Barr. That’s inappropriate for immigration judges who oversee “adversarial proceedings” similar to those overseen by judiciary branch judges, ...