EOIR Restricts Immigration Judge Speech
🟠 Erosion of Democratic Norms ·
2017
Summary
In 2017, the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, issued a policy requiring all immigration judges to obtain supervisory pre-approval before speaking publicly, even in their personal capacity. Immigration judges are federal employees housed within the executive branch, unlike Article III federal judges, and had previously addressed law schools, bar associations, and community groups as a matter of routine, needing only to clarify that views were their own. The 2017 policy changed this by requiring advance clearance for all speaking engagements and categorically barring Deputy Chief and Assistant Chief Immigration Judges from personal-capacity speaking altogether. The National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), representing over 460 judges, objected that the policy silenced the professionals best positioned to explain how immigration courts function to the public and to practitioners. Donald Trump and the DOJ maintained the policy was a reasonable measure to prevent judges from appearing to speak on behalf of the agency.
Key Figures
Institutions Involved
Sources
- Revised Justice Department Policy Still Silences Immigration Judges
- Knight Institute - Margolin v. National Association of Immigration Judges