On Monday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA) sent a letter to the Executive Office for Immigration Review Director David Neal for information on the Justice Department’s reported gag order that forbids immigration judges from speaking with Congress or the news media about the Biden Administration’s unprecedented immigration crisis.
The reported gag order on immigration judges appears to violate federal law that guarantees the right of all federal employees to speak freely with Congress without interference from their employer. It is striking that the Biden Administration seeks to stifle the free speech of immigration judges at a time when the House of Representatives is conducting robust oversight of the border crisis and how the nation’s immigration courts are being used to carry out President Biden’s open-borders policies.
Excerpts of the letter to Director Neal:
“As a result of the open southwest border, federal immigration courts had a backlog of more than three million cases in November 2023, with more than one million new cases within a single year. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice, along with the Department of Homeland Security, has empowered immigration judges to allow illegal aliens to stay in the United States indefinitely. In fact, from the beginning of the Biden Administration through September 2023, immigration judges dismissed, terminated, or administratively closed half a million cases, with 286,236 case dismissals, 120,671 case terminations, and at least 71,465 administrative closures during that time. These actions ensure that illegal aliens remain in the United States indefinitely.
“Against this backdrop of unprecedented illegal immigration and immigration court backlog, the Justice Department reportedly ordered certain current immigration judges ‘to get supervisor approval to speak publicly to anyone outside the Justice Department,’ which has silenced critics of the ‘heavily backlogged immigration courts.’ The directive reportedly came from the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) Chief Immigration Judge Sheila McNulty on February 15, 2024, and ‘prohibits speaking to Congress, news media[,] and professional forums without approval.’
“It is particularly striking that the Biden Administration seeks to stifle the free speech of immigration judges at a time when Congress, and this Committee in particular, is conducting robust oversight of the border crisis and how the nation’s immigration courts are being used to carry out President Biden’s open-borders policies. As just one example, since November 2023, the Committee has requested transcribed interviews with EOIR officials, including with Chief Immigration Judge McNulty. Despite numerous follow-ups by the Committee, the Department has scheduled just one of the requested transcribed interviews. The Department’s continued delay in scheduling the requested transcribed interviews prevents the Committee from fulfilling its constitutional oversight obligations. The Committee requires these interviews to advance its oversight of federal immigration law and to inform potential legislative reforms.
“The Department’s reported gag order on immigration judges appears to violate a provision in the annual federal appropriations law that guarantees the right of all federal employees to speak freely with Congress without interference from his or her employer. A federal employee who ‘prohibits or prevents’ another employee from communicating with Congress may have his or her salary withheld. This provision is not an idle threat.”
Read the full letter to Director Neal here.
Someone help me. Isn’t the DOJ an Executive Branch function separate from the Judicial Branch? How is this not a violation of “Separation of Powers”?