The Gonzales-ization of immigration judges.
The Gonzales-ization of immigration judges.
Yesterday, we noted that the Justice Department has expanded its internal investigation of partisan hiring practices after Monica Goodling admitted she had “considered party affiliation in screening applicants to become immigration judges.” More evidence trickles out in today’s papers. From the Los Angeles Times:
Gonzales’ appointment last year of an immigration judge in Arizona, Bruce A. Taylor, was one that turned heads. Taylor is considered an expert — not in immigration law but in prosecuting adult-obscenity cases. Such cases are important to social conservatives, who form an important base of support for the Republican Party.
And from the Washington Post:
One judge appointed in 2005, Garry D. Malphrus, was associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council from 2001 to 2004, records show. Another, appointed last year, Mark H. Metcalf, is a former Justice and Defense department lawyer who unsuccessfully ran as a GOP congressional candidate in Kentucky.
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empty wheel at the next hurrah also has some info that links the immigration service to subpoenas of voter rolls and speculates, rightly i believe, that it would be very useful to have republican party operatives as immigration judges, particularly if you wanted to use the immigration service to trump up “voter fraud” charges…
And, yes, I DO take it personally
May 26th, 2007 at 12:56 pmAnd Gonzales used to be such a good name, too. Till some one trashed it.
May 26th, 2007 at 12:58 pmtsk tsk tsk.
Now it means: El vendido sin verquenza.
Something we should be careful not to mix in this country and that is politics and law; politics and justice….
May 26th, 2007 at 1:02 pmThat is a recipe for injustice and corruption..when judges are appointed based on their political loyalties to one side above the other, regardless of their qualifications and integrity.
Another thing not caught on to by the politicians or the media is when Goodling admitted to “caging” during elections. My understanding is that the government would send out mailings to groups of people to what they knew to be old addresses in envelopes marked DO NOT FORWARD, then when the post office sent them back marked undeliverable the republicans would use those envelopes to have people stricken from voting rolls and have their absentee ballots disqualified!!!!!
CAGING!!!! Get to know it. That is the VOTER FRAUD that the republicans were engaged in while accusing the democrats.
That was the one thing. The other was the deliberate witness tampering done by the Attorney General with Miss Goodling!!!!
More crime and more crime and more crime.
May 26th, 2007 at 1:11 pmNo end to the corruption in the Bush and Gonzales Justice Department.
May 26th, 2007 at 1:22 pmVoter rolls are public information. In most jurisdictions there’s strict limitation on commercial use of this data, but probably no restrictions on government use.
This is Karl’s loophole.
May 26th, 2007 at 1:30 pmIts not just a Gonzo-game. Take a walk back in time to an earlier Bushie appointment with legal oversight of immigration matters, named Julie Myers. A young, marginally-experienced ‘whatever’ who is noteworthy only for her family and marital ties. This article was originally in WaPo, but I found a copy on Truthdig. Follow the link to the whole story.
Washington Post: President Bush yesterday made a raft of controversial recess appointments, including Julie L. Myers to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau at the Department of Homeland Security, in a maneuver circumventing the need for approval by the Senate.
Myers, a niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard B. Myers and the wife of the chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, had been criticized by Republicans and Democrats who charged that she lacked experience in immigration matters……
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/010606_bush_cronies/
May 26th, 2007 at 1:31 pmI’m wondering why nobody has connected this behavior to what happened in Iraq. Remember the Coalition Provisional Authority? That was also staffed by fresh-faced College Republicans who had absolutely no experience in the fields they were put in charge of. All that mattered was that they were unswervingly loyal to Beloved Leader. Look at how well *that* turned out.
May 26th, 2007 at 2:06 pmRadhika – you can’t have it both ways. That article you referenced is over a year and a half old. Since then, under Julie Myer’s Watch, ICE has enforced immigrations laws to unprecedented levels. Get your facts straight before lobbing wreckless bombs…..ICE has arrested, detained and deported more aliens in 2006, with projections for 2007 to exceed 2006. While many people questioned her appointment in 2005, were it not for the hard line enforcement under her watch, there would be no talk of immigration reform.
May 26th, 2007 at 2:13 pmI’m sure Janet Reno & Co never considered the politics of anyone they hired in 1993 after they fired every single USA after the election of Bill Clinton… Well, I’m sure that I’d never read about it on a Clintonista propaganda outlet like Think Progress, anyways.
May 26th, 2007 at 3:14 pmTo BALANCED TRUTH: I do have my facts, and the Bush administration loves to play it both ways. Our institutions are carefully staffed by cronies and flunkies – generally ignorant, inexperience and ALWAYS on POINT, per Rove.
The controversial ICE raids (at least as viewed here in Southern California where I live) are true agitprop bonanza for the rightwing base (e.g, Minutemen, some Latino businesses and politicians) and a deterrent for progressives that tend to view immigration as part of the need for unions, anti-globalism, financial policies to build up the middle class etc.
Most people I know – left, right, middle – does not believe either the Administration or Congress has crafted a co-herent immigration policy. However, it is rare you will see much of a dent being put in the pockets of big-dollar corporate interests who benefit from a pool of low wage, no benefit workers – and illegal immigrants are a big part of that pool. I think the ICE raids are basically ploys to appease the low-income Republican base.
May 26th, 2007 at 3:48 pm