New York City – George Pappas, Jennifer Peeton and Carla Aspinoza were all Federal immigration judge This month was removed by email. The three ruled the thousands of immigration cases in Chicago and Boston.
“It was arbitrary, unfair,” Pappas told CBS News about his firing. “And this is an attack on the rule of law. It is an attack on judges.”
Pappas served as an immigration judge in Boston until this week, overseeing more than 2,000 cases on the bench during his two years. Peeton led the immigration court of Chicago for about nine years, listening to thousands of cases until it was suddenly fired in the weekend of July 4.
Peyton oversaw espinoza, who was appointed in 2023 and decided more than 1,000 cases in the last financial year, doubled the average for the immigration judges.
Peeton told CBS News that it did not find any reason for firing. Immigration Judges are subject to the authority of the Executive Office of the Department of Justice for the immigration review.
“My email was three sentences,” said Peeton. “I had no reason. I had no explanation.”
“We were in fear as a judge, we were worried,” said Espinoza. “This makes it very difficult to be impartial. We were not moving before that pressure, but it feels like pressure.”
Both Pappa and Peeton revealed that they were told how they should rule on immigration matters.
“He told me: Give grants to the movements to dismiss,” Pappas said. “This is when the ice (us immigration and customs enforcement) was walking in the courtyard. Because if we dismissed the case, the person replied, then left the court unsafe for immediate apprehension and accelerated the removal.”
CBS News has reported on several cases where ICE agents detained immigrants as they exited their court hearing.
“Once they leave the court room, not more often, they would handle handcuffs and go by ice authorities,” Piton said.
According to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, Federal Immigration Court Now face a backlog Close to four million cases, with about 600 judges to hear those cases.
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Union that represents the judges of the immigration court reports that since the Trump administration took over, more than 100 immigration judges have either been fired, have been transferred, or have taken proposals for retirement.
According to the union, the immigration judges are considered employees of the Department of Justice, and therefore the judicial branch does not have life appointments like federal judges.
In a truth social Post In April, President Trump argued that, “We cannot test all, because to do so, without exaggeration, 200 years.”
It is my opinion that this administration can give a hoot about the backlog, “Pappas said.
In rescue Its immigration crackThe White House has repeatedly argued that unspecified immigrants are illegally in America. And in May, Trump Administration Started an attempt Government officials and lawyers at the time told CBS News to stop the immigration court cases of some migrants to rapidly track their exile process. Aspinoza said the court system exists to follow the law, and an attempt to bypass it could prove to be a slippery slope.
“This is why they are in proceedings in court,” Aspinoza said about the immigrants. “The law that we are applying, and they may have to go, and they may not be … today it is to them, it is immigrants. What about tomorrow? Who is going to deny the process ahead.”
“If you are attacking many judges that postpone cases, there is not a law of law. It should be worried to everyone, not only immigrants, but American citizens.”
On arrival by CBS News, the Department of Justice did not comment on the allegations of the union that several immigration judges were fired without any reason.
And in response to the claims of former judges that firing immigration is a targeted attack on courts, the justice department said, “Conversely, the Trump administration is strictly implementing our country’s immigration laws.”
And about the allegations of the judges who spoke to CBS News that they were pressurized to rule in a certain manner, the Department of Justice said, “Although the Biden administration pressurized the pressure immigration judges to rule in a certain manner, including the dynamics to dismiss, the Trump administration has reinstated the rule of law and ensuring that the judicial law is reinforcing the law.”
Camillo Montoya-Galvez contributed to this report.
