Post Suggests Immigration Judges Are Bunch of GOP Hacks

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The Washington Post (“Immigration Judges Often Picked Based On GOP Ties,” June 11) is trying to create another crisis for the Bush administration. Reporters Amy Goldstein and Dan Eggen charge that immigration judge appointees are unqualifed. Here's their lede:

The Bush administration increasingly emphasized partisan political ties over expertise in recent years in selecting the judges who decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, despite laws that preclude such considerations, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

At least one-third of the immigration judges appointed by the Justice Department since 2004 have had Republican connections or have been administration insiders, and half lacked experience in immigration law, Justice Department, immigration court and other records show.

But as Jan LaRue writes on the Culture and Media Institute's Website, the resume of immigration judge Bruce Taylor blows the Post's thesis. In LaRue’s piece, “Washington Post Ignores Qualifications to Paint Picture of Judicial Cronyism," she notes that Taylor has 30-plus years’ legal experience, including two stints at the Justice Department, and has argued before the Supreme Court.

If he’s a hack, we could use more hacks.