Suit shines spotlight on immigration judgeshipsBy Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 06/24/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT
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Guadalupe Gonzalez is the chief counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso, a lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in immigration law and a stellar record. In 2002, she made the next logical career move, applying to become an immigration judge. "I love El Paso. It is my home. I was born and raised here, and it's important for me personally to contribute in a role that is both vitally important to our country and of particular importance to the El Paso community," she said.
But the job went to a Anglo male candidate with no reported immigration experience. In 2004, when two other judgeships opened, they went to two other Anglo males, both of them Gonzalez's subordinates with markedly less expertise in immigration law than Gonzalez.
Gonzalez, 56, sued the U.S. attorney general for discrimination on the basis of gender and national origin, and the suit is pending in a court in Washington, D.C. In her filings, Gonzalez claimed that since 2001, only two Hispanics were appointed nationwide for 40 immigration judgeships. The four immigration judges in El Paso are all Anglo men.
The case has attracted national attention amid a scandal over the apparent politicization of attorney general positions and judgeships.
And...
The government tried to have Gonzalez's case dismissed on the grounds that since Gonzalez did not actually apply for the positions she did not know were open, it was not possible for her to have been discriminated against in the selection process.
But a Washington, D.C., judge denied that motion last year, saying that the agency could no more discriminate in its direct appointments than in more competitive settings. Gonzalez, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan wrote, "had identified a particular policy that has a discriminatory effect on a particular group -- (the attorney general's) direct appointment authority."
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Link:
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_6215604Go Guadalupe!!! Gonzalez v. Gonzales.
Ya gotta wonder if the judges of this country are as disgusted with this shit as the rest of us. Time will tell.
:shrug: