[See also by Juan Mann: The EOIR's other directive — White males need not apply]
The Department of Justice has just announced that, pending final approval by an administrative judge of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it will pay up to $11.5 million to settle a class action discrimination law suit filed by white males who were bypassed for jobs as immigration judges in the DOJ's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) during 1994 and 1995.
About $7.5 million will go to the plaintiffs and about $4 million in contingency fees and expenses for their attorneys, Washington D.C.'s Kator, Parks & Weiser.
Notice of the settlement was posted on the EOIR's web site [PDF] – "Resolution of Class Action Discrimination Complaint at EEOC—amended September 15, 2004."
The agreement does not obligate the DOJ to appoint any of the denied applicants to immigration judge positions in the future. Money will be distributed according to a complex formula. Kator, Parks' web site posts the full text of the settlement agreement, details of the distribution formula for monetary awards, and a list of frequently-asked questions about the litigation. The law firm will host an information session for members of the class action on October 5, 2004 at 10:00 a.m. at the Grand Hyatt Washington, 1000 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. They "strongly encourage" class members to participate.
The information now made public about the settlement sheds some light on what happened in the litigation, which went on for more than nine years.
But, although the DOJ agreed to pay $11.5 million of taxpayer dollars to make the discrimination lawsuit go away, it did not give an inch on the issue of liability. As the settlement agreement states: "The Agency expressly denies any wrongdoing or liability whatsoever. This Settlement Agreement represents the compromise of disputed claims."
DOJ won't admit that anyone did anything wrong at the EOIR, including the man in charge of all the immigration judge hiring – Chief Immigration Judge Michael J. Creppy.
Still, before giving away millions, I'll bet the DOJ got a pretty good idea of what went on in the EOIR immigration judge hiring process during 1994 and 1995 . . . after what the plaintiff's lawyers describe as "extensive liability-related discovery and preparation, which included deposing 35 witnesses."
With $11.5 million changing hands, as the old saying goes – where's there's smoke, there's fire.
Of course, if the settlement goes into effect, all of the information found out during the discovery phase of the litigation will never see the light of day. [VDARE.com note: unless it's leaked, of course.]
But now that the $11.5 million amount has been announced, what I wrote in March, 2004 holds more than ever true.
". . . [I]t's high time for all the EOIR bureaucrats responsible for this travesty to be fired!
"It's also time for the Attorney General to investigate Creppy's own conduct surrounding the entire employment discrimination claim . . . and to clean house at the EOIR starting at the top. As a holdover from the Clinton Administration, Creppy's time at the EOIR has come and gone long ago."
The bottom line: the Bush Administration should get to the bottom of this disgrace—and fire the $11.5 million-dollar-man responsible for it.
What is the White House waiting for?
Juan Mann [send him email] is a lawyer and the proprietor of DeportAliens.com.
