At A Glance: Some of the 37 immigration judges selected since 2004

[maddezmom]

Glen Bower, originally nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Tax Court, was never confirmed for that job because lawmakers noted his amended tax returns showed he had taken inappropriate deductions for entertainment, gifts and meals for three consecutive years. A former Republican Illinois state legislator, Bower was the revenue director to then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who was later convicted on racketeering and fraud charges.

Francis Cramer, another failed Tax Court nominee and a former campaign treasurer for Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. Cramer's bid for the Tax Court foundered after the American Bar Association's taxation section wrote a rare letter to the Senate Finance Committee, saying: "We are unable to conclude that he is qualified to serve." Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft approved him as an immigration judge in March 2004. The Government Accountability Office, a legislative watchdog, criticized the appointment.

Garry Malphrus, former associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and, before that, a Republican aide on two Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittees. During the Florida recount after the 2000 presidential election that brought President Bush to office, Malphrus took part in the "Brooks Brothers riot" -- when GOP staffers from Washington chanted "stop the fraud" at Miami's polling headquarters.

Other appointed Republican loyalists include lawyer Dorothy Harbeck, who represented New Jersey's last GOP candidate for governor; Mark Metcalf, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the state Senate and Congress from Kentucky who went on to several positions at the Justice Department unrelated to immigration; and Chris Brisack, a former Texas county GOP chairman who had been named by Bush, the governor at the time, to the state's Library and Archives Commission.

more:http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1237675.html

Analysis finds politics played role in selection of immigration judges
Politics played role in selecting immigration jurists, analysis finds
11:08 PM CDT on Sunday, June 10, 2007
From Wire Reports

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration increasingly emphasized partisan political ties over expertise in recent years in selecting the judges who decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, despite laws that preclude such considerations, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

At least one-third of the immigration judges appointed by the Justice Department since 2004 have had Republican connections or have been administration insiders, and half lacked experience in immigration law, Justice Department, immigration court and other records show.

These appointments, all made by the attorney general, have begun to reshape a system of courts in which judges, ruling alone, exercise broad powers – deporting each year nearly a quarter-million immigrants.

Department officials say they changed their hiring practices in April but defend their selections.

more:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/061107dnnatautism.368c663.html