Reply #2: Immigration judges' GOP ties trump experience, records show [View All]

[struggle4progress]

By Amy Goldstein and Dan Eggen
The Washington Post

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 ....

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, according to Justice Department, immigration-court and other records ...

Justice officials also gave immigration judgeships to a New Jersey election-law specialist who represented GOP candidates, a former treasurer of the Louisiana Republican Party, a White House domestic-policy adviser and a conservative crusader against pornography.

These appointments, all made by the attorney general, have begun to reshape a system of courts in which judges, ruling alone, exercise broad powers. Each year the judges deport nearly a quarter-million immigrants, who have limited rights to appeal and no right to an attorney. The judges do not serve fixed terms ...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003742914_judges11.html