IFPTE Applauds Introduction of Legislation to Create Independent Immigration Court

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, DC – The executive officers of The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) remarked on the introduction of the Real Courts, Rule of Law Act of 2022, sponsored by House Judiciary Committee's Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee Chair Zoe Lofgren and Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Chair Hank Johnson. The legislation proposes to create an independent Article 1 immigration court, which is a long-held legislative priority for the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ)-IFPTE Judicial Council 2.

IFPTE President Matthew Biggs:

IFPTE welcomes the introduction of legislation to create an independent immigration court. Our members and our leadership at NAIJ-IFPTE Judicial Council 2 have worked tirelessly for so long to build broad support for legislation that provides an Article 1 immigration court that is free of the inappropriate political interference we have seen over successive presidential administrations. At its most extreme, we've witnessed politically driven policies and law enforcement priorities that resulted in retaliatory union busting attacks on NAIJ and the imposition of case-completion quotas that are linked to immigration judges’ performance evaluations. We thank Congresswoman Lofgren for sponsoring this legislation and for her engagement with our union to make sure the immigration court functions without political interference and inappropriate political pressure on immigration judges.

IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson:

NAIJ's advocacy for creating an independent Article 1 immigration court is, at its core, a commitment to professionalism and to ensuring fairness and due process for all who appear in the immigration court. Time and again, our members have worked under constantly changing and politicized policy directives -- including a recent effort to strip immigration judges of their collective bargaining rights. For these reasons and more, our union supports our members' efforts to find a remedy to the flawed structure of immigration court through the creation of an independent court outside of the DOJ. While this is the first step for this bill and there is more work to be done, IFPTE applauds the introduction of this landmark bill.

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