Most of the nation’s 734 immigration judges are seeking to reinstate their union ahead of an expected spike in immigration cases from President-elect Trump’s planned mass deportations.
The judges’ appeal, scheduled to go before the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) on Tuesday, seeks to restore their right to bargain for contracts and have a union — a right stripped from them during Trump’s first term.
Immigration judges are expecting a huge surge in new cases — adding to an already historic backlog of 3.7 million cases — once Trump launches his promised mass deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants.
The U.S. Immigration system’s backlog will take an estimated four years to resolve at the current pace — which could balloon to 16 years under Trump’s deportation plan.
Of the 3.7 million pending cases, 1.6 million involve asylum seekers awaiting formal hearings or case decisions.
The Trump-controlled FLRA stripped the NAIJ of its bargaining and union power in 2020 after calling judges “managers” who weren’t eligible for union representation.
The NAIJ challenged the decision in federal court, and won a ruling that said immigration judges were entitled to union representation.
“They need a voice as workers, as immigration judges,” said Matthew Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents 90,000 public-, private- and federal-sector workers in the U.S. and Canada.
Biggs says the immigration judges want fair representation and are worried about being overwhelmed even more with a jump in new cases.
The union says judges typically spend only about 30 minutes on each case because of the pressure to tackle the backlog.
Mass deportations? The courts could face delays and may take until 2040 at the current pace
Write a Reply or Comment
You should Sign In or Sign Up account to post comment.