The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is both stunned and outraged to learn that the Justice Department sent an email to immigration court employees, including judges, which contained white supremacist and anti-Semitic content.
“Judges are critical to the preservation of our democracy and such attacks on them cannot be tolerated. To say, ‘it was a mistake’ is insufficient,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of LDF.
Lisa Cylar Barrett, LDF Director of Policy, states, “We call on the House Judiciary Committee and Justice Department Inspector General Horowitz to conduct a full and thorough investigation of this incident which should include inquiries into whether similar messages have been shared with immigration judges and/or other DOJ employees. A fair and just legal system requires that judges are neutral and free from intimidation. We must take all steps necessary to ensure that hate filled propaganda such as that shared by the Department of Justice yesterday is not permitted to infect our courts and the legal process.”