Justice Department Sent White Nationalist Blog Post to Immigration Court Employees: Report

A Justice Department email sent to all immigration court employees this week featured an article on a white nationalist website that used “racial and ethnically tinged slurs” against sitting judges, BuzzFeed News reports. In a Monday morning news briefing email, the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) linked to a VDare article that included anti-Semitic language towards judges. More specifically, the label “Kritarch” was used for the judges—reportedly referencing a time in ancient Israel when a system of judges ruled.

National Association of Immigration Judges union chief Ashley Tabaddor said the link to VDare made many judges angry. “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,” Tabaddor wrote in a letter to EOIR director James McHenry.

EOIR Assistant Press Secretary Kathryn Mattingly told The Daily Beast the morning news briefings were “compiled by a contractor and the blog post should not have been included. The Department of Justice condemns Anti-Semitism in the strongest terms.”