Dear community partners,

We are elated to share the news with you that as of April 13, 2021, Immigration Judge Nicholas Ford has left the bench in San Francisco and will no longer be hearing cases. Though the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) “closed” our November 2020 complaint against him last month, with no transparency regarding whether any disciplinary action was taken, it is clear that the public pressure for Ford to be removed from the bench had an impact. While we find it unjust that Immigration Judge Ford may collect a pension after his short time on the bench, during which he abused countless immigrants, it mirrors the larger racist policing system in the U.S. in which police officers who brutalize and kill people are merely placed on paid administrative leave. 

Yet, we still believe that this is a decisive victory for the immigration justice movement and demonstrates the power of community when we unite to hold judges accountable for abusing immigrants. We want to thank you for participating in this campaign to hold Immigration Judge Ford accountable for his actions and hope his departure provides some solace to the survivors of torture in Chicago and so many others whose lives were negatively impacted by his decisions, some of which led to permanent family separation and/or possible death abroad. We also hope the media will highlight this political moment as a warning to all immigration judges and the legal system that the community is watching.

The struggle to hold immigration judges and courts accountable is far from over. Every day, judges decide the fates of immigrants in deportation proceedings with little to no due process or access to counsel. That is why we will continue our Immigration Court Observation Program (“ICOP”) to track the behavior and decisions of judges in immigration courts and demand accountability of the court system as a whole.

This will be the ongoing work of the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area (“NLG-SFBA”) Immigration Committee. It is incumbent upon us to collectively move towards ending deportations and abolishing the immigration court system, so we can make room for life-affirming resources that welcome and support immigrant communities.

If you are interested in joining this work being done by our immigration committee, please reach out to our immigration program coordinator, migrantjustice@nlgsf.org 

!Adelante! 

National Lawyers Guild SF-Bay Area Immigration Committee