Together with the Biden administration, Sheila McNulty has issued an unprecedented gag order to the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), silencing their ability to speak without management's permission. This blatant attempt to stifle dissent comes as the immigration system faces chaos from the administration's failed border policies.

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“NAIJ, which has spoken out on behalf of its members for more than half a century first as an association and later as a union, has national affiliations with both the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) and the AFL-CIO. Matt Biggs, IFPTE’s president called the move by a DOJ manager, Sheila McNulty, “an outrageous act of censure and an attack on freedom of the press and transparency.” The national union leader went on to say that the decision to muzzle judges at this time is “an embarrassment to the pro-labor Biden administration, to Attorney General Garland and to Vice President Harris, who have called for empowering federal workers and their unions.”

“In her gag order to New York-based Judge Mimi Tsankov, who serves as NAIJ’s president and Samuel Cole an immigration judge in Chicago who is NAIJ’s executive vice president, McNulty, the “Chief Immigration Judge” couldn’t even use the word “union” to refer to NAIJ, calling it a “group.” The gag order requires NAIJ’s leaders to seek Justice Department approval “to participate in writing engagements (e.g., articles; blogs) and speaking engagements (e.g., speeches; panel discussions; interviews).” In addition to the gag order issued on February 15, the union leaders met with McNulty regarding her directive at the end of February.

“In her order, McNulty used as a rationale for her action a 2020 decision by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to strip the union of collective bargaining rights. However, the Biden administration and the DOJ made it clear when they took office in 2021 that they didn’t support the effort to limit the rights of judges’ union and they removed the complaint filed by Attorney General Barr’s DOJ.”

NAIJ has repeatedly sounded the alarm on the size of the backlog, the need for translators, raised courtroom security concerns and other issues related to immigration adjudication. It has been a strong advocate for judicial independence and questioned why the immigration courts are attached to the Department of Justice, rather than being placed in an independent agency. The National Press Club recently invited both Tsankov and Cole to speak at a news conference on “the pressures of the migrant crisis on the federal immigration court system.”

“We believe that this order and un-American, anti-union act of censorship by McNulty will lead to Congressional hearings,” said Biggs. “Until this matter is resolved, the judges’ national union, IFPTE, will act as the voice for the immigration judges. McNulty may try, but the nation’s immigration judges won’t be silenced.”

(Source)

This move by Sheila McNulty is very revealing – she and the Biden Administration want to silence immigration judges from speaking out about the problems caused by the disastrous Biden border agenda that immigration judges are seeing firsthand in their courtrooms.

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