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Justice Department Includes White Nationalist Blog In Newsletter For Immigration Judges

U.S. Department of Justice

Members of the federal immigration judges union are demanding the U.S. Justice Department provide judges with enhanced security and an apology after a white nationalist blog post was included in their weekly news briefing.  

The blog comes from Vdare, an online media group classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white supremacist-nationalist group, known for producing anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant rhetoric online.

The Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review sent the link and summary of the blog critical of the National Immigration Judges Association.

Amiena Kahn is a New York immigration judge and the union’s Executive Vice President.  She, like others, was disturbed that post came from a federal agency.

“I think that it was antithetical to so many views that many individuals perceived this as being in an environment that was hostile and politically motivated,” Kahn said.

She was one of the judges criticized in the Vdare post.

“The tenor was very anti-judge and anti-immigrant and what I found quite surprising and unsettling was the use of our photographs,” Kahn said.

Kahn said the union will speak with its members in Texas on Wednesday to determine whether to demand additional security for federal immigration judges here.

The Justice Department in a letter said the post should not have been included in their daily news briefing and that the agency condemns anti-Semitism and hate speech. 

Ryan Poppe can be reached at RPoppe@TPR.org and on Twitter at @RyanPoppe1.

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Ryan started his radio career in 2002 working for Austin’s News Radio KLBJ-AM as a show producer for the station's organic gardening shows. This slowly evolved into a role as the morning show producer and later as the group’s executive producer.