The Justice Department Is Gearing Up For A Big Fight With Immigration Judges’ Union
9th August 2019
I’ll bet you didn’t know that there was such a thing has an Immigration Judges Union.
The Trump administration asked a federal panel to revoke the exclusive right of a public sector union to represent immigration judges in collective bargaining Friday.
The union, the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), has been at odds with the administration over substantive policy directives and the independence of the immigration courts.
I’m not comfortable with the idea of judges in a union, especially one with some sort of exclusive right.
Unions are for people with no market power because what they do can be done by any literate numerate person. I don’t see judges being in that demographic.
Federal law defines management officials as “any individual employed by an agency in a position the duties and responsibilities of which require or authorize the individual to formulate, determine, or influence the policies of the agency.” The Department of Justice told the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) that immigration judges qualify as management officials and therefore cannot be members of a bargaining unit.
Seems pretty cut and dried to me.
The NAIJ has publicly objected to the government’s efforts to speed deportations and otherwise streamline the immigration system.
Now that sounds like a union.