NYT on Immigration Judge Training to Address Bias

Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times reports today on a training attended by Immigration Judges last August to address bias in decisionmaking.  According to the article, the mandatory training was attended by approximately 250 Immigration Judges, and there are plans to require the training for 28,000 employees (presumably USCIS and other immigration adjudicators) in the future. The article also discusses the systemic factors — high caseloads, few resources, fact-intensive cases based on credibility assessments — that make the immigration court setting particularly ripe for judges’ personal biases to influence decisionmaking.

From the article:  “The simplest and most effective way to combat bias, however, is to avoid rushing and take breaks, Ms. [Kelly] Tait [who led the training] said. But with more than 500,000 cases pending, immigration judges say that slowing down is not an option.

Instead, they will have to resign themselves to cutting corners to get through their work, according to Judge [Eliza] Klein [who has retired from the bench], as she had to do during her career.

“Over time, I think you just get used to those pressures,” she said. “So then the quality of justice erodes over time as well.””

-JKoh