Twenty-six Immigration Court judges who are
paid as government employees also spend a lot of their working hours at the Department of Justice, taking care of business
for their federal employee union.
Their union
the National Association of Immigration Judges wants the government to make
their courts independent of the Justice Department.
Justice
Department officials don't like that idea, with one government lawyer
reportedly saying it would take significant resources
to recreate a court system that is outside of the department.
Even so, the
$165,000-a-year judges are on the federal payroll under the government's "official time" program, which enables them
to do work for their union while hearing cases in the heavily backlogged
system. Continue reading at
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2552729