SCOOP: Email sent from the DOJ to all immigration court employees this week included a link to a post on a white nationalist website that “directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs."
buzzfeednews.com/article/hameda…
According to the National Association of Immigration Judges, the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) sent court employees a link to a blog post from VDare in its morning news briefing earlier this week that included anti-semetic attacks on judges.
The briefings are sent to court employees every day and include links to various immigration news items. BuzzFeed News confirmed the link to a blog post was sent to immigration court employees. The post detailed a recent move by the DOJ to decertify the immigration judge’s union.
“The post features links and content that directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs and the label ‘Kritarch.’ The reference to Kritarch in a negative tone is deeply offensive and Anti-Semitic,” wrote Tabaddor in a letter to the EOIR head.
Tabaddor said the term Kritarchy is a reference to ancient Israel during a time of rule by a system of judges.
“VDare’s use of the term in a pejorative manner casts Jewish history in a negative light as an Anti-Semitic trope of Jews seeking power and control,” she wrote.
The judges are asking for an immediate apology from EOIR/DOJ, the post to be taken down, and that steps to be taken to protect the judges cited in the post.
DOJ declined to comment when I asked them about this.
A former senior DOJ official said that the email in question is "generated by a third-party vendor that utilizes keyword searches to produce news clippings for staff. It is not reviewed or approved by staff before it is transmitted."
NEW: DOJ spokesman just emailed to say that “the daily EOIR morning news briefings are compiled by a contractor and the blog post should not have been included.”
I will also note that the Vdare post in question features the term "lugenpresse" -- a term frequently used in Nazi Germany -- when describing an NYT story about the DOJ trying to decertify the union.
UPDATE: EOIR Assistant Press Secretary Kathryn Mattingly emailed this comment: "The daily EOIR morning news briefings are compiled by a contractor and the blog post should not have been included. The Department of Justice condemns Anti-Semitism in the strongest terms.”
We have updated our story to include the letter sent to the head of the immigration court today. buzzfeednews.com/article/hameda…
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