Bush Loyalists Hand-Picked As EOIR Immigration Judges

By Juan Mann on August 8, 2005 at 1:00am
<!-- Start of Article --> [Also by Juan Mann: 09/20/04 - Fire Michael J. Creppy —DOJ's $11.5 Million Man! 03/09/04 - The EOIR's other directive -- White males need not apply 05/04/04 - The Enemy Within [II]: A Treason Lobby Pro Bono PR Office Inside EOIR!] The selection process for immigration judges at the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has gone from one non-competitive extreme to another over the past ten years – from "white males need not apply" to patronage appointments of Bush Administration loyalists. In the wake of an $11.5 million class action lawsuit settlement against the DOJ/EOIR for anti-white male discrimination in September, 2004, it seems that immigration judge positions are now being awarded without public job announcement by the DOJ's Office of Attorney Recruiting and Management.  Perhaps to avoid further charges of discrimination, the entire immigration judge selection process has gone behind closed doors under the federal government's "Schedule A" hiring process. The whole mess started because of the DOJ/EOIR's apparent multi-cultural zeal during the Clinton Administration years—hire anyone but white males.  But some of the bypassed candidates refused to follow the "diversity" script and sued. In September, 2004, the DOJ announced that, pending final approval by an administrative judge of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it would pay up to $11.5 million to settle a class action discrimination law suit filed by white males who were bypassed for immigration judge positions during 1994 and 1995. Although the DOJ paid $11.5 million of taxpayer dollars to make the discrimination lawsuit go away, it did not specifically admit liability for discrimination.  And the man in charge of the hiring at the time—Chief Immigration Judge Michael J. Creppy, a 1994 Clinton appointee—remains on the job today. But Creppy's hiring wings have apparently been clipped. Republican forces higher up in the food chain are now picking the immigration judge candidates. And, judging from the resumes of the new hires, the candidates chosen are short on down-in-the-trenches immigration experience—but long on Bush Administration/ Republican Party loyalty.  Let's meet three of the EOIR's newest immigration judges: According to his biography in an EOIR press release, "[p]rior to becoming an immigration judge, from 2001 to 2004, Judge Malphrus served as associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council" . . . and "[f]rom 1997 to 2001, Judge Malphrus served as staff on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and was chief counsel and staff director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice Oversight." But Malphrus also just happened to have popped up in the eye of the storm during the 2000 presidential election. "Three members of the window-pounding crowd that on Thanksgiving Eve helped persuade the Miami-Dade County canvassing board to abandon the recount are now members of the White House staff: Matt Schlapp, now a special assistant to the president; Garry Malphrus, deputy director of the president's Domestic Policy Council; and Joel Kaplan, also a special assistant to the President. "Schlapp and Malphrus, both of whom declined to talk to The Herald, were first identified in 2000 in The Washington Post as part of the Miami-Dade demonstration.  Kaplan described his role in a lecture at the Harvard University Institute of Politics, calling the demonstration the 'Brooks Brothers Protest,' a reference to the way the demonstrators were dressed."  ["Bush Recount Troops Land Plum D.C. Jobs," by Carol Rosenberg, July 14, 2002, Miami Herald [pay archive]. According to his biography from an EOIR press release, "[f]rom July 2003 to February 2005, Judge Nugent was an examining attorney for the Delta Title Corporation in New Orleans.  He was in private practice from December 2000 to July 2003 with the Law Offices of James A. Nugent and was a special partner with Deutsch, Kerrigan and Stiles, L.L. P., from June 1997 to December 2003, both in New Orleans." Here's the kicker.  Nugent also happens to be a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association, which lists him as Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party of Louisiana. Strangely enough, Brisack's appointment has yet to be heralded with a press release by the EOIR.  But he does have a biography on Yahoo Finance & Reuters and a profile on Forbes.com for his service on the Board of Directors of ATP Oil and Gas Corporation.  Brisack was also appointed to the Texas State Libraries and Archives Commission in March, 2000, by then-Governor George W. Bush.  Former Governor Bush twice named Brisack to his Honorary Inaugural Committee.  Brisack worked as an attorney and partner in the law firm Norquest and Brisack, LLP in McAllen, Texas.  He previously served as legal counsel, "Candidate Recruitment Committee Chair" and as elected chairman of the Hidalgo County (Texas) Republican Party. Well there you have it. The spoils system is in effect for Republican lawyers. A VDARE.com reader sent me these comments on the non-competitive EOIR hiring situation via e-mail: "I guess the [immigration judge] jobs are not important enough to EOIR to insist on hiring attorneys with experience in immigration law.  How disheartening it must be to ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Assistant Chief Counsels [the Department of Homeland Security attorneys serving as prosecutors in immigration court] to be in the position, after many years of experience in Immigration Court, to be forced to 'train' the new political appointees." Another VDARE.com reader e-mailed me these insightful comments on the specter of Bush Administration screening to make sure the candidates are amnesty-friendly: "Perhaps this is a move to get [immigration judges] who are loyal to the party line and who will implement 'compassionate conservatism' and 'family values don't stop at the Rio Grande.'  Who knows if they even have a plan?" There's another unanswered question here: Why would a Republican Party attorney or oil company executive want to make a career change and do EOIR Immigration Court hearings all day anyhow?  Being an EOIR immigration judge isn't exactly the most prestigious federal government job in the world though.  And sorry, folks, working as a black-robed attorney for the DOJ/EOIR—an executive branch agency—is definitely not a "federal judgeship." As always, it's probably the money.  EOIR immigration judge salaries were listed over the past few years as $109,587 to $142,500 per year. They'll probably find out what they've gotten into sooner or later.  Now that the EOIR immigration judges are being picked by stealth, we at VDARE.com are going to keep an eye out for the new hires.   So to all of our readers: Be on the lookout for stealth immigration judge appointments!  Be vigilant! E-mail Juan Mann to report any new politically-connected judge sightings in an EOIR immigration court near you. Juan Mann [send him email] is a lawyer and the proprietor of DeportAliens.com.