Thread by @ReichlinMelnick

I'm, sorry, WHAT?

@DOJ_EOIR just appointed an immigration judge who spent the last four years as the Director of Research at @FAIRImmigration—an anti-immigrant organization which has repeatedly called for deporting every single undocumented immigrant and blocking the border.

https://twitter.com/DavidKubat1/status/1284283149082599424

One of the other immigration judges appointed in this batch was the ICE trial attorney here who told a judge that a man hadn't submitted any paperwork proving he was a US citizen, when in reality he hadn't looked through the case file to check. wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/you-say-y…

Matthew O'Brien is one of the people responsible for the latest version of FAIR's absurd "Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration" so-called study, which @AlexNowrasteh has debunked thoroughly for shoddy data and biased methodology.

Now an immigration judge!
cato.org/blog/fairs-fis…

Here's new immigration judge Matthew O'Brien, arguing that "illegal alien children" separated at the border and held in ORR shelters were being treated perfectly fine, like at "an elite boarding school," so our concerns were all silly. h/t @DavidKubat1
fairus.org/issue/border-s…

Just a month ago, Matthew O'Brien wrote a piece for FAIR arguing in favor of the new anti-asylum regulations, which are opposed by @Imm_Judges_NAIJ, calling them "certain to meet with criticism from the open borders lobby."

He's an immigration judge now!

immigrationreform.com/2020/06/11/asy…

Here are some articles that new immigration judge Matthew O'Brien has written in 2020 alone.

- The COVID-19 Immigration Moratorium: Reasonable Not Racist
- Quarantine: Good for Americans, Good for Detained Aliens
- Illegals Don’t Fear Courthouse Arrests – But They Should

- Mass Incarceration Remains a Myth, Mass Migration Is Still a Problem
- Asylum Officers Work for the American People, Not Foreign Nationals
- ICE Isn’t the Problem, Criminals Are
- Hollywood’s Latest Illegal Alien Fantasy

Again, this man has just been appointed as an immigration judge.

Adding this other thread here, as O’Brien’s appointment from FAIR wasn’t the only controversial new judge announced by @DOJ_EOIR. There’s also this guy, litigation director at an anti-Muslim law firm.

https://twitter.com/reichlinmelnick/status/1284497871207792640?s=21

https://twitter.com/reichlinmelnick/status/1284497871207792640

Here's a breakdown of the full 46 by most recent job:

- 16 ICE trial attorneys
- 8 assorted state/federal government attorney jobs
- 8 state/local judges
- 4 AUSAs
- 3 state DAs offices
- 2 JAGs
- 2 private attorneys
- 1 AO
- FAIR guy
- Thomas More guy

https://twitter.com/LLynch1/status/1284249790423998465

Notably, out of 46 new immigration judges, not a single one of them came directly from a nonprofit that works with immigrants. Hard to know if any applied, though.

One of the private attorneys does have a history working for a nonprofit dedicated to fighting youth poverty.

With a h/t to @HMAesq, here's an "article" from the Thomas More Law Center in 2018, following the Center's lawsuit to halt refugee resettlement in Tennessee.

The litigation director responsible for filing the lawsuit is now an Assistant Chief Immigration Judge in El Paso.