Immigration judges across the U.S. are attempting to reinstate their union and overturn a federal board's 2020 ruling to strip them of their bargaining rights, Axios reported.
The Federal Labor Relations Authority first affirmed that federal judges are allowed to form a union, the National Association of Immigration Judges, in 2000. The board overturned that decision in 2020 after concluding that immigration judges are management officials.
The NAIJ president at the time of the 2020 ruling, Judge Ashley Tabaddor, ripped the decision at the time as "nothing more than a desperate attempt by the DOJ to evade transparency and accountability, and undermine the decisional independence of the nation's 440 Immigration Judges."
She added: "We are trial court judges who make decisions on the basis of case specific facts and the nation's immigration laws. We do not set policies, and we don't manage staff."
The NAIJ appealed that decision in court, which ruled in 2022 that the judges are afforded collective bargaining rights.
According to the court, the FLRA "failed to offer a reasoned explanation for its decision that the statute does not require midterm bargaining."
The NAIJ was expected to bring its appeal before the FLRA on Tuesday.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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