To “help further address its caseload and expand the pool of potential candidates” to be Temporary Immigration Judges (TIJs), the Department of Justice (DOJ) is “amending the applicable TIJ regulation to remove regulatory constraints that go beyond the regulatory constraints on permanent IJ hiring.”
Specifically, DOJ is amending the TIJ provisions “to permit the Director, with the approval of the Attorney General, to designate or select any attorney to serve as a TIJ for a renewable term not to exceed six months, subject to all statutory and regulatory limits on temporary service.” Similarly, DOJ said it “no longer believes the restriction of TIJs to current [DOJ] employees with a threshold level of immigration law experience serves [the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR)] interests. Immigration law experience is not always a strong predictor of success as an IJ, and EOIR has hired individuals from other Federal agencies and Department components without prior immigration experience who have become successful and exemplary IJs,” DOJ explained. Further, the agency said, “there is no clear reason to prohibit individuals at other Federal agencies with stellar credentials—e.g., Supreme Court clerkships or significant experience in high-salience, complex litigation” who are “otherwise well-qualified” from serving as TIJs “solely because they lack a certain level of immigration experience or are not currently serving in the Department, neither of which is even a prerequisite to serve as a permanent IJ.”
In selecting TIJs, DOJ said it “will continue to look for the most qualified individuals overall with primary weight given to an applicant’s education and employment history. Further factors may carry additional weight, such as prior judicial or quasi-judicial service of any kind, service in State or Federal government, including trial or litigation experience, and immigration law experience.” The Director and Attorney General will “retain discretion to consider any other factors deemed relevant and to make selections.”
According to reports, the Trump administration is considering reassigning some military judges to become TIJs.
