Professor Laila Hass and fellow law practitioners declare: "Let immigration judges speak"

Laila L. Hlass, professor and Director of Experiential Learning at Tulane Law School, has co-authored a Slate article entitled, Let Immigration Judges Speak. This opinion piece argues that immigration judges, asylum officers, and ICE attorneys have been silenced by the Trump administration. These civil servants are now required to obtain clearance from high-level supervisors before speaking publicly with members of the press and academic institutions. Reflecting on the severity of these restrictions, former immigration judge Jeffrey Chase states that “the administration does not consider them qualified to speak on behalf of the agency or its policies.” Hlass and her co-writers—Elora Mukherjee, Carrie L. Rosenbaum, and Maureen Sweeney —assert that these individuals are in fact the “most qualified” to speak on the nation’s most pressing immigration issues. They further contend that the act of quieting these voices is a detriment to our democracy by virtue of the fact that it impinges on the edification of future lawyers and stifles public discourse.

Click here to view the full article.