U.S. Justice Department sends out email with content from antisemitic blog
According to the Washington Post, the post included in the memo singled out immigration judges by name, published their pictures and referred to them with an anti-Semitic slur.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFGavel lying in front of a judge(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
A morning briefing sent out by the US Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review included content by a platform that often employs antisemitic and anti-immigration rhetoric, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. The EOIR morning briefings are sent out most days of the week to all the employees, including several hundred immigration judges. The memos feature sections such as “Legal News,” “Enforcement News” and “Police and Legislative News,” offering summaries and links to articles that are considered relevant for those who work in the sector. The briefing sent out on Monday included an article from Vdare.com. According to The Washington Post, the Vdare post singled out immigration judges by name, published their pictures and referred to them with an anti-Semitic slur. “The post features links and content that directly attacks sitting Immigration Judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs and the label ‘Kritarch,’” National Association of Immigration Judges President Ashley Tabaddor wrote in a letter sent to EOIR Director James McHenry. Tobaddor pointed out that the term, which refers to a system of rule by judges in ancient Israel is “deeply offensive and antisemitic,” when used with a negative tone. “VDare’s use of the term in a pejorative manner casts Jewish history in a negative light as an Anti-Semitic trope of Jews seeking power and control,” she further said. Going through VDare’s articles, several posts appear to speak about Jews and other minority groups in problematic terms. For example, a post titled “Say It, GOP!—Or Just Give It Up: Open Borders Is Treason! The Left Is anti-white!” stated that “conservative beliefs can only be defended if they are said by a black person, a Jewish person, a Hispanic person, etc. Many non-whites within the Conservative Movement have used this to their economic advantage and have lucrative careers preaching to white audiences at conservative gatherings.” “The Department of Justice condemns antisemitism in the strongest terms,” the EOIR’s assistant press secretary Kathryn Mattingly told the Post, adding that the article should not have been included and that the briefings are compiled by a contractor. The contractor, TechMIS, describes itself as a “service-disabled veteran-owned small business currently operating around the world.” “Media monitoring” is one of the services listed on their website. “Our news products serve over 300,000 U.S. government employees daily,” the website adds. In addition to the EOIR, they state that their clients include the US Cyber Command, the US Special Operations Command, US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US Department of Labor (DOL), US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the United States Marine Corps. The EOIR’s briefings often include stories from right-wing websites the Daily Caller and Breitbart News, The Washington Post noted.
