An anti-semitic post was sent to immigration judges from the Justice Department on August 22.
What We Know:
- The post was from VDARE, a website that is arguably known to be anti-immigration and written by white nationalists. This post was sent to all 440 immigration judges across the country last week.
- VDARE is owned by Peter Brimelow. He denies the title of white nationalist although he says that the writers “aim to defend the interests of American whites.” Contradicting his claims, he has spoken at National Policy Institute and American Renaissance conferences, both of which were held by white nationalist groups.
- The Justice Department’s daily briefing to all immigration court employees Monday contained a link to an article on a white nationalist site that “directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs,” according to a letter sent.
- The post that was distributed, originally by VDARE, included racial slurs and anti-semitic references. Many of those who received the VDARE links found the attachments to be offensive.
- For the past several months, The National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) has been fighting to separate from the Justice Department. Although NAIJ does support VDARE’s freedom of speech, they also recognize that “the publication and dissemination of a white supremacist, Anti-Semitic website … is antithetical to the goals and ideals of the Department of Justice,” union president Ashley Tabbador wrote to James McHenry, the director of the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
- “Attorney General William Barr said combating anti-Semitism was ‘an important priority’ for the Justice Department and condemned what he called an ‘intolerable’ rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes.”
Although Mattingly stated that the posts were done by a contractor and has asked for an apology to be issued, we hope that in the future we can be more sensitive with our words and actions.
