80 Unions, Organizations, and Legal Scholars Urge the Attorney General to Stop the Cynical Attempt Begun by the Trump Administration to Silence Immigration Judges and Decertify their Union
This week, the National Association of Immigration Judges-Judicial Council 2 led a sign-on letter urging U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to halt the Trump-era effort to deny Immigration Judges their union rights. The letter was sent to the Attorney General on Monday and was signed by 26 labor organizations, including the AFL-CIO, 22 immigrant justice and civil rights organizations, and 32 law professors and legal scholars.
IFPTE PRESS RELEASE
JUNE 10, 2021
Will Attorney General Merrick Garland Put an End to Union-Busting at the Dept. of Justice?
Legal scholars and 80 unions and organizations urge the Attorney General to stop the cynical attempt begun by the Trump administration to silence immigration judges and decertify their union.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON– U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland can halt an effort started by the Trump administration to deny immigration judges their union rights, but will he? Eighty organizations, including the AFL-CIO and 25 labor unions, 22 immigrant justice and civil rights organizations, as well as 32 law professors and legal scholars have signed a letter asking the attorney general to widthdraw a petition seeking decertification of the judge’s union, the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), an affiliate of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. NAIJ has been the recognized union representative for all non-supervisory U.S. immigration judges since 1979.
“The Trump Administration may be out of office but their politically motivated attack on the nation’s immigration judges goes on,” said IFPTE President Paul Shearon. “We call on the DOJ leadership to withdraw the previous administration’s union-busting petition now before the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA).”
In August 2019, the Executive Office of Immigration Review, a branch of the DOJ that conducts immigration court proceedings, filed a petition with the FLRA seeking to classify immigration judges represented by NAIJ as “management officials,” thereby excluding all non- supervisory immigration judges from eligibility for union rights under federal labor law. The FLRA D.C. regional director denied that petition in July of 2020. However, on November 2, 2020, Election Day, the Trump-appointed majority on the FLRA board reversed the regional director’s decision. The board directed the regional director to remove all immigration judges from the NAIJ bargaining unit. Thus far, no one has been excluded due to a pending motion for reconsideration before the FLRA.
“Make no mistake, this is not about who is a manager. These judges don’t even have the authority to order pencils. This injustice is a carry-over. This is about the Trump administration’s political interference in the immigration system and outright hostility to union representation for federal employees being still in play,” said Matt Biggs, IFPTE’s Secretary Treasurer/Legislative Director. “Under Attorney General Barr, the department went to extraordinary lengths to silence immigration judges and remove their long- established union rights.”
Congress also has Asked the DOJ to Reverse Course
The House Labor Caucus has sent a letter to Attorney General Garland reminding him that federal agencies should "move forward in alignment with President Biden’s values and directives in support of the right of employees to organize and join a union," and that the DOJ should “rescind this anti-union petition before the FLRA.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin and Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety Chairman Alex Padilla were joined by seven other Judiciary Committee Senators requesting Attorney General Garland share the DOJ’s plan to “alter or undo EOIR’s petition to the FLRA and the subsequent effective decertification of the NAIJ.”
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Download this press release here [PDF].
Read the NAIJ sign-on letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland here [PDF].
Read IFPTE’s statement on the House Labor Caucus letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland