Posts in Immigration
Anti-Union Majority on Federal Labor Board Throws a Wrench in the Gears of Justice -- FLRA Ruling is Contrary to the Position of Imm. Judges, DOJ, and the Biden Administration

In a cynical attempt to bust the union that has represented and given voice to the nation’s immigration judges for nearly half a century, two anti-union board members of the three-member Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) have voted to strip collective bargaining rights from judges and their union.

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EPI Report on Massive Wage Theft from H-1B Workers and Preferential Hiring Highlights the Urgent Need for Oversight, Enforcement, and Reform of H-1B Visa Program

The EPI report, “New Evidence of Widespread Wage Theft in the H-1B Visa Program,” analyses an internal document from India-based IT staffing firm HCL Technologies and reveals an offshore-outsourcing model that abuses the H-1B program to hire foreign guestworkers at wages below what U.S. workers are paid. The HCL document shows H-1B workers at the firm were underpaid at least $95 million in just one year.

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IFPTE Urges House Passage of Infrastructure Bills That Will Make Historic Investments in American Jobs and Communities

IFPTE urged Representatives to vote yes on the Build Back Better Act and the Senate-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, “complementary bills that meet the needs of working people, support good-paying union jobs, strengthen our economy’s competitiveness and resiliency, and address immediate and future challenges that climate change presents.”

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NBC News and Catholic Labor Network Reporting Connects the Assault on the NAIJ Union and Judicial Independence for Immigration Judges

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. Separately, the Catholic Labor Network shared with its members Immigration Judges’ role in the immigration system, NAIJs efforts to defend due process rights, and the Trump Administration’s union busting against NAIJ.

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IFPTE Applauds Labor Caucus Letter Requesting Attorney General Garland Withdraw DOJ’s the Petition to Decertify the NAIJ Union

The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers’ (IFPTE) campaign to halt the Trump-era effort to decertify the National Association of Immigration Judges-IFPTE Judicial Council 2 (NAIJ) received a helpful boost today with the House Labor Caucus’ letter to Attorney General Garland requesting the Department of Justice withdraw the petition to decertify NAIJ.

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IFPTE Applauds Chairman Durbin, Chairman Padilla, and Senate Judiciary Democrats for Calling on DOJ to Stop the Previous Administration's Effort to Decertify NAIJ

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.”

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Ruling to Remove Union Rights from Immigration Judges is "Unjust"

On Election Day, the Trump Administration's Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) issued a stunning decision that all members of the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ/IFPTE Judicial Council 2) would lose their collective bargaining rights because they are supposedly managers. In what was described by FLRA member Ernie DuBester, who dissented from the misguided ruling, called the ruling of his two FLRA colleagues, "the antithesis of reasoned decision-making."

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SOLIDARITY ALERT: NAIJ Statement Ahead of Possible Furloughs of USCIS Federal Employees

In a statement decrying the possible furloughs at the US Customs and Immigration Service, NAIJ noted that “preventing [USCIS] from pursuing its mission by furloughs of its workforce is short-sighted and misguided. It harms U.S. citizens who seek to be united with family members, harms U.S. businesses--large and small--in need of workers to fill jobs Americans do not choose to fill, and harms those seeking refuge from persecution abroad.”

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NAIJ Explains the Truth Behind the Immigration Courts and DOJs Attempt to Decertify the Union

“Imagine going to a court where you’ve been charged by a prosecutor, and when you come to court you find out that the judge is hired by the prosecutor and can be fired by the prosecutor and then ultimately the prosecutor can come in and overrule the judge if he is not satisfied by the process,” said Ashley Tabaddor, president of the NAIJ, at a March press conference.

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