ICYMI- DOJ Pulls Immigration Judge from Case (Castro-Tum) After Judge Requests Briefing

In case you missed it, above is a letter signed by several retired Immigration Judges  and former members of the Board of Immigration Appeals in response to the Department of Justice’s act of pulling a sitting Immigration Judge from a case after the judge requesting briefing on the parties on the question of whether the noncitizen received sufficient notice.   In this case, the noncitizen was Reynaldo Castro-Tum, whose case was certified by AG Sessions earlier this year and was used by the Attorney General to drastically reduce IJs’ ability to administratively close immigration court cases.  After the judge sought briefing, DOJ sent an Assistant Chief Immigration Judge from another city to Philadelphia for the sole purpose of presiding over the one case; that IJ subsequently ordered the noncitizen removed in absentia.  More coverage of the story is available on the Hill. 

The attorney for the noncitizen, Matt Archambeault (@mattarchambeau1), stated on Twitter:”The message is clear to immigration judges, get in line or get out of the way. Imagine if a governor had a state court judge removed bc they didn’t like the way they were handling a case and put in someone they knew who would do it the way they wanted. That’s what happened.”

-JKoh