Posted on 02/13/2019 7:55:01 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Immigration judges are reportedly leaving their roles or anticipating their departures citing sweeping changes to the court under Trump administration policies, BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday.
Judges told the outlet that they and their colleagues are departing their posts due to concerns about their jobs becoming politicized, as well as the increasing backlog driven in part by the administration's policies ending immigration judges' ability to indefinitely suspend certain cases and new restrictions on when asylum can be granted.
BuzzFeed reported that the case backlog for immigration judges has reached more than 800,000 under the Trump administration, while wait times have reached hundreds of days.
“It has become so emotionally brutal and exhausting that many people I know are leaving or talking about finding an exit strategy,” one judge told the news outlet. “Morale has never, ever been lower.”
Judge Rebecca Jamil said the Trump administration's previous "zero tolerance" policy of prosecuting those found crossing into the U.S. illegally motivated her decision to step down from the bench. The policy drew national backlash for resulting in the separation of thousands of migrant children from their families.
“I’d seen the faces of these families,” Jamil told BuzzFeed. “They weren’t abstractions to me.”
“I felt that I couldn’t be ‘Rebecca Jamil, representative of the attorney general’ while these things were going on,” she added.
Another judge, Laura Ramirez, said the changes made under the Trump administration pushed her to choose to retire as early as she could. Ramirez told BuzzFeed that the administration's case quota policies and what she perceived as a politicization of her job contributed to her decision.
“The job has become exceedingly more difficult as the court has veered even farther away from being administered as a court rather than a law enforcement bureaucracy,” said Ashley Tabaddor, an immigration judge who heads a union that represents roughly 350 immigration judges.
There are about 400 immigration judges in the U.S.
Tabaddor said the union noticed a higher level of retirements and resignations than in the past.
John Richardson, who worked as an immigration judge in Phoenix, stepped down on Sep. 30, 2018, according to the outlet.
"The timing of my retirement was a direct result of the draconian policies of the Administration, the relegation of [judges] to the status of 'action officers' who deport as many people as possible as soon as possible with only token due process, and blaming [judges] for the immigration crisis caused by decades of neglect and under funding of the Immigration Courts,” he said in a statement to BuzzFeed News.
Richardson retired the day before the Trump administration instituted its quota on the number of cases judges need to complete.
More buzzfeed BS.
Trying to think of the downside. I’m not finding one.
One thing this country is not short on is lawyers. I’m sure we can find better ones in a matter of days.
Good! Don’t let the door hit ya......
How is it Presidents policy? The congress makes the laws.
All I can say is “good!”
Buzz Feed...Oh well.
If they are quitting they are libs=our gain.
2018 Immigration Judge Pay Rates Effective January 7, 2018
IJ Level / Base Pay Rates
IJ-1 / $114,940
IJ-2 / $131,360
IJ-3 / $147,780
IJ-4 / $151,064
Hire retired Platoon Sergeants. Put a Combat Arms Sergeant Major in charge. Tell them there’s a 4 day pass when the backlog is cleared.
The mess will fixed in a month.
Political ideologues posing as judges are quitting the bench because they fear the job is getting politicized?
Did I get that right?
I hope someone has a list of judges who support re-establishing sound immigration policy.
Can’t they just give us two weeks training? All I need is a “REJECTED” stamp.
"...judges leaving the bench..."
These aren’t judges. They’re a fifth column working within the system to flood America with more Democrat voters.
wimpy judges. glad to see them go.
Woohoo! A win for law and order! May they continue to self deport.
Almost every last currently-sitting immigration judge not appointed by Trump was appointed by an open-borders traitor.
Good riddance, may they take ALL the rest of them with them.
lightweights
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