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Justice Department Sent White Nationalist Content To Immigration Court Employees

Department of Justice chief, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, delivered poignant remarks at a memorial for fallen officers at a vigil on the National Mall. Date: 14 May 2019 (Photo: Shane T. McCoy)
Department of Justice chief, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, delivered poignant remarks at a memorial for fallen officers at a vigil on the National Mall. Date: 14 May 2019 (Photo: Shane T. McCoy)

“Publication and dissemination of a white supremacist, anti-semitic website throughout the EOIR is antithetical to the goals and ideals of the Department of Justice.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sent an email to all immigration court employees that included an article from a white nationalist outlet this week, BuzzFeed News reported on Thursday. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the site, called VDare, as an “an anti-immigration hate website.”

The DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) sends morning news briefings every weekday with links to important immigration news. But according to a letter from an immigration judges union first obtained by BuzzFeed, the post in question “directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs.”

The VDare blog post was about an effort by the Justice Department to disband the National Association of Immigration Judges, a union representing immigration courts employees. The post also contains antisemitic slurs such as “kritarchs,” a term used to describe a system of rule by judges in ancient Israel, and “lugenpresse,” which means “lying press” in German. The phrase was used by Nazis to discredit Jews and opponents of Adolf Hitler, and has regained traction with far-right groups in recent years.

“VDare’s use of the term in a pejorative manner casts Jewish history in a negative light as an Anti-Semitic trope of Jews seeking power and control,” Ashley Tabaddor, the union president, wrote in a letter to the EOIR about the incident, according to BuzzFeed News. “Publication and dissemination of a white supremacist, anti-semitic website throughout the EOIR is antithetical to the goals and ideals of the Department of Justice.”

EOIR Assistant Press Secretary Kathryn Mattingly claimed the post was a mistake, telling BuzzFeed News “the daily EOIR morning news briefings are compiled by a contractor and the blog post should not have been included. The Department of Justice condemns Anti-Semitism in the strongest terms.”

The news comes shortly after President Trump’s widely criticized remarks accusing Jewish Democrats of disloyalty. “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” he said on Tuesday, before doubling down Wednesday:

“If you vote for a Democrat, you’re being disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel.”

“Publication and dissemination of a white supremacist, anti-semitic website throughout the EOIR is antithetical to the goals and ideals of the Department of Justice,” Tabbador wrote in the letter.

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Peter Castagno

Peter Castagno is a co-owner Citizen Truth.

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2 Comments

  1. Larry N Stout August 23, 2019

    Since when does William Barr = justice? Same goes for “justices” of the Supreme Court, and U.S. attorneys. It’s pure politics, nothing to do with “justice”.

    Reply
  2. labman57 August 23, 2019

    This screw-up takes “Freudian slip” to a whole new level.

    Reply

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