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LA Immigration Judge Tapped As Top USCIS Atty
Law360 (January 26, 2021, 10:44 PM EST) President Joe Biden has appointed Los Angeles-based U.S. Immigration Judge Ashley Tabaddor, who has more than 15 years of judicial experience, as the top attorney for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Judge Tabaddor, who has also served as the president of her union, the National Association of Immigration Judges, since 2017, will now be chief counsel for the USCIS, according to her LinkedIn profile. She said on her page that it was an honor and a privilege to be appointed by the Biden-Harris administration to the leadership team at DHS.
By Natalie Alms
Reps Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), chair of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, are asking nominee for Attorney General Merrick Garland to take all necessary actions to protect the ability of immigration judges to unionize.
A decision made by the Federal Labor Relations Authority in November 2020 made immigration judges ineligible for union representation, effectively invalidating the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ).
The Regional Director of the D.C. region of the FLRA s General Counsel Office is putting that FLRA ruling into place now, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Garland dated Jan. 22.
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email Lawmakers Urge Attorney General Nominee to Restore Immigration Judges Union
The National Association of Immigration Judges was decertified as a union by the Trump administration last year following a controversial decision by the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
The leadership of the House Oversight and Reform Committee last week urged President Biden’s nominee to be attorney general to “take all necessary actions” to ensure that a union representing immigration judges does not lose its certification following a controversial decision last year to bust the labor group.
By Marielena Castellanos
Immigration judges are pushing back against the Trump administration to keep independence in the courtroom as the Trump administration continues to crack down on illegal immigration.
An unusual step was taken last week when a formal grievance was filed against Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department by the union that represents immigration judges.
The move came after Sessions removed Philadelphia judge Steven Morley from an immigration case, and the Justice Department later removed more than 80 cases from Morley as well.
It started back in May of this year when Morley closed the case of Reynaldo Castro-Tum, an immigrant from Guatemala who came to the United States as an unaccompanied minor back in 2014 when he was 17-years-old, over concerns Castro-Tum had an unreliable mailing address after he didn’t show up for several immigration court appearances.
The US asylum system is broken How could it be reimagined? gazettextra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazettextra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.