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Judge Einhorn Writes on Partisanship and Immigration Judges for the Daily Journal

Judge Bruce Einhorn, a retired federal immigration judge who now serves as a professor of asylum and refugee law at Pepperdine, wrote an op-ed titled "Injustice at Justice" published in the Daily Journal on August 1.

The article, which appears on page 6 of the paper, discusses how a report issued on July 28 by the Justice Department's Offices of Inspector General and Professional Responsibility found that the Bush administration violated the department's policies and federal law in politicizing the appointment of U.S. immigration judges.

Writes Judge Einhorn, "The application of nepotism and partisan factors in the immigration judges appointment process over the past seven years and especially since 2004 has been anything but subtle or hard to discern. The report states that three major figures at the Justice Department - Kyle Sampson, Jan Williams and Monica Goodling - "improperly took political and ideological affiliations into account when they were involved in hiring immigration judges."

Judge Einhorn goes on to discuss his own experience as a U.S. immigration judge in Los Angeles from 1990 through 2007, and the changes the came under George W. Bush. "I experienced and observed the widespread demoralization of the immigration judge corps, in Los Angeles and elsewhere, as partisanship replaced professionalism in the selection of immigration judges," writes Judge Einhorn. "The rise of partisanship in appointing judges made many immigration judges uneasy about whether their conduct on the job would be measured through an ideological prism."

Subscribers can read the article online here. Nonsubscribers may email Emily DiFrisco for a copy.

Click here to read a recent Q&A with Judge Einhorn.