IFPTE Applauds Chairman Durbin, Chairman Padilla, and Senate Judiciary Democrats for Calling on DOJ to Stop the Previous Administration's Effort to Decertify NAIJ
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC - Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Richard Durbin (IL) and Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Alex Padilla (CA) led a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him to "reverse the prior Administration’s attacks on the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), IFPTE Judicial Council II and the independence of immigration judges more broadly." The Chairs were joined by Senators Patrick Leahy (VT), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Mazie Hirono (HI), and Cory Booker (NJ) in signing the May 24th correspondence.
IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer/Legislative Director Matt Biggs expressed the union’s appreciation for the Senators, saying:
Chairman Richard Durbin, Chairman Alex Padilla and the Senate Judiciary Democrats have shown true leadership by standing up for immigration judges' union rights by urging Attorney General Garland to halt the previous Administration's assault on the NAIJ. The effort to misclassify nonsupervisory immigration judges as managers and deny them their union rights is entirely part and parcel to the Trump Administration's attack on federal employees' union rights and was meant to further former Attorney General Barr's agenda to erode due process, judicial independence, and fairness in the Immigration Court. As IFPTE continues to work to reverse the Trump DOJ's effort to decertify NAIJ, we applaud all of these Senators for providing responsible oversight at DOJ and for asking Attorney General Garland what steps he will take to ensure that these DOJ employees maintain their union rights.
The letter calls for Attorney General Garland to provide the Senators with a response to their question on what actions the Department of Justice (DOJ) will take at Executive Office of Immigration Review’s (EOIR) to "alter or undo" the take immediate action on this by withdrawing the petition at the FLRA. The letter also asks for an update on EOIR reexamination of the restrictive "speaking engagement policy" that severely constrained NAIJ-represented immigration judges' first amendment rights.
On August 13, 2019, EOIR filed a petition at the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to reclassify immigration judges, as "management officials." The FLRA DC Regional Office ruled in NAIJ's favor on July 31, 2020. However, on November 2, 2020, the FLRA issued an order for the immigration judges represented by NAIJ to be erroneously classified as “management officials.” That order directs the FLRA D.C. Regional Director to exclude all non-supervisory immigration judges from the NAIJ bargaining unit. Thus far, the FLRA Regional Director has not issued the order to exclude the immigration judges from the NAIJ unit and NAIJ is currently the certified union representative.
Current FLRA Chair and then-Member Ernest DuBester sided with NAIJ in his strong dissent, calling the majority decision the "antithesis of reasoned decision-making" and concluding, “it is abundantly clear that the majority's sole objective is to divest the [immigration judges] of their statutory rights.” NAIJ-represented immigration judges have had those statutory union rights since 1979.
NAIJ-IFPTE Judicial Council 2 represents upwards of 500 immigration judges at the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), a component of the Department of Justice (DOJ). Full text of the letter and Senate Judiciary Democrats’ press statement can be found here.
###