IFPTE Applauds Chairs Maloney and Connolly for Standing Up for Immigration Judges' Collective Bargaining Rights

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney and Government Operations Subcommittee Chair Gerry Connolly penned a letter to Attorney General-designate Merrick Garland urging him to, “take all necessary actions to ensure that immigration judges can continue to be represented by their union.”

IFPTE president Paul Shearon applauded the effort, saying, “IFPTE thanks Representatives Maloney and Connolly for fighting to reverse the Trump Administration’s union busting attacks by urging the Attorney General-designate to take all necessary steps to ensure that the National Association of Immigration Judges union maintain their collective bargaining rights. IFPTE will continue working to reverse the great damage done by the Trump DOJ to these workers and will not soon forget the support given to us by Congresswoman Maloney and Congressman Connolly.”

In November 2020, the Federal Labor Relations Authority issued an order for the immigration judges represented by the National Association of Immigration Judges, IFPTE Judicial Council 2 (NAIJ), to be erroneously classified as “management officials.” That order directs the FLRA D.C. Regional Director to exclude all non-supervisory immigration judges from the NAIJ bargaining unit. Thus far, the Regional Director has not issued the order to exclude the immigration judges from the NAIJ unit and NAIJ is currently the certified union representative as the Biden Administration gets under way.

That FLRA decision, in which the Trump-appointed FLRA members formed the majority, is countered by FLRA Member Ernest DuBester dissenting opinion, which calls the decision to decertify “the antithesis of reasoned decision making” and concluded that “it is abundantly clear that the majority’s sole objective is to divest the [Immigration Judges] of their statutory rights.”

Read Chairwoman Maloney and Chairman Connolly’s letter to Attorney General-designate Merrick Garland here.