The Daily Caller: Obama’s DOJ Reprimanded The SPLC For Accusing An Immigration Reductionist Group Of Being Racist

IRLI In The News

May 9, 2017

By Alex Pfeiffer

The Obama-era Department of Justice reprimanded the liberal Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for accusing the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) of being racist during immigration court proceedings.

FAIR’s legal arm, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), released a letter Monday dated March 28, 2016 in which Jennifer J. Barnes, disciplinary counsel for the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, scolded an SPLC attorney along with those from partner groups.

The Bureau of Immigration Appeals (BIA) has for decades asked IRLI to submit briefs in immigration cases and the SPLC and allies filed a request in 2015 with the BIA demanding its relationship with FAIR and IRLI be terminated. Lawyers for the SPLC and other liberal groups said that FAIR “is a discredited, extremist anti-immigrant organization espousing white supremacist, eugenicist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Catholic views.”

The DOJ’s disciplinary counsel said in her letter that the decisions of the lawyers to “engage in derogatory name-calling exhibited a lack of professionalism.” Barnes added that it “overstepped the bounds of zealous advocacy.” … Read the full story by Alex Pfeiffer.

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