NBC News and Catholic Labor Network Reporting Connects the Assault on the NAIJ Union and Judicial Independence for Immigration Judges
Last weekend, the NBC Nightly News aired a televised segment featuring National Association of Immigration Judges-Judicial Council 2 (NAIJ) President Amiena Khan and NAIJ Executive Vice President Dana Marks alongside retired Immigration Judges Charles Honeyman and Lisa Dornell.
The NBC segment and online article focuses on the continuing backlog of the immigration court docket, which is at 1.3 million cases and inappropriate politicization of the Immigration Court. That politicization during the Trump Administration involved the implementation of case completion quotas meant to pressure judges to adjudicate cases quickly and the filing of a petition at the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to misclassify Immigration Judges as management officials and decertify the NAIJ union.
That union busting effort - initiated during the Trump Administration and former Attorney General William Barr - continues under Attorney General Merrick Garland. Despite a request from Senate Judiciary Committee Members, a letter from the House of Representatives Labor Caucus, and a union-organizations-legal scholars sign-on letter, all of which request the Attorney General withdraw the Trump-era petition to decertify NAIJ before the union is decertified, the Department of Justice has yet to respond or indicate they are reviewing the issue. As reported by NBC,
"We are in the legal fight for our life to ensure that our decisional independence is valued and maintained," Judge Amiena Khan said, and "that we as judges are able to do our jobs."
Judge Marks was quoted by NBC on the potential impact of the quotas on due process : "If I have to move a case quickly through the docket, then that person doesn't have time to find an attorney to represent them," she said, because migrants aren't given court-appointed lawyers.
Separately, the Catholic Labor Network shared with its members Immigration Judges’ role in the immigration system and NAIJs efforts to defend due process rights and judicial independence during the Trump Administration. The Catholic Labor Network added:
“So it was probably no coincidence that AG Barr began arguing that the judges were “managers” and not entitled to union representation. The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) – which plays a similar role for federal employees to that played by the NLRB for private sector workers – accepted this argument but at the union’s request is reconsidering.”
The Catholic Labor Network is among the labor organizations and faith-based groups concerned with immigration issues that signed on to NAIJ’s sign-on letter asking Attorney General Garland to halt the decertification of NAIJ.
Currently, NAIJ has a pending motion to reconsider the FLRA decision that decertifies the union. This motion had provided Attorney General Garland and the DOJ time to review and withdraw the decertification petition. Thus far, DOJ has not indicated if they will take action.