DOJ Recruiting Bigoted ‘Deportation Judges’ - The Tuesday AM Quickie 4/28/26
If you need emergency potatoes like I did recently, I highly recommend this recipe. -Whitney
ON THE SHOW TODAY
4/28: Emma and Sam are in the studio today. Their guests are Luke Goldstein and Katya Schwenk, investigative journalists on to discuss the recent article they coauthored in The Lever: The New Democratic Machine — And The Billionaires Behind It.
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Today you’ll read about the racist misogynists filling open immigration judge roles, the extensive damage Iran is causing to US bases across the Middle East, and how the GOP is about to have an all-white Congressional membership.
THE BIG NEWS
DOJ Recruiting Bigoted ‘Deportation Judges’
The Department of Justice is filling open immigration judgeships with racist, homophobic misogynists, The Washington Post reported. They include a lawyer who loves ICE raids, a divorce lawyer who fights “exclusively for the rights of men,” and an attorney for Jan. 6 traitors who believes there are two types of women: “real” ones who are chaste and pure and those who are nothing but a “warm wet hole.” Per the Post:
Some of the recruits were not shy about sharing their thoughts about divisive issues online before their hiring. Nathan M. Hansen, a Minnesota lawyer, was appointed this month, more than a year after he lost a race for district judge. He had shared social media posts about the “Haitian invasion of Ohio” and promoted right-wing conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate, about a rumored child sex ring operating from a D.C. pizzeria, the Minnesota Reformer recently reported.
So far, the department has hired 140 “deportation judges” to “help write the next chapter of America.” That’s code for processing 3 million pending immigration cases and rejecting at least a third of them in service for Trump’s goal of deporting 1 million immigrants every year. The majority of the new judges have no immigration law experience, according to the Post’s analysis of hiring announcements, and less than a quarter had ever worked for immigration courts, ICE or the Department of Homeland Security.
If the promise of making their hatred material isn’t enough for these pricks, the US government is sweetening the job with “signing bonuses, the opportunity to work from home, and even the flexibility to keep their day jobs and moonlight as judges after hours. New hires can earn up to $207,500 a year and 25 percent signing bonuses in some Democratic-led states such as California.” The Justice Department also cut training from almost five weeks to three.