![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/GettyImages-1184761873-scaled-e1589837331433.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
COLIN KALMBACHER
\nLAW & CRIME<\/p>\n
Attorney General\u00a0William Barr<\/strong>\u00a0appointed<\/a>\u00a0several dozen new immigration judges on Friday. One of the newly-commissioned judges most recently served as the research director for a group which the Southern Poverty Law Center\u00a0describes<\/a>\u00a0as a \u201chate group\u201d for having had ties to \u201cwhite supremacy\u201d and even to a \u201ceugenicist organization.\u201d<\/p>\n The judge,\u00a0Matthew J. O\u2019Brien<\/strong>, was officially named to his new position in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) in June \u2014 but was just formally inducted into the largest ever corps of immigration judges along with 45 others.<\/p>\n O\u2019Brien\u2019s biography notes a decade-plus-long stint in federal service. He previously worked under both presidents\u00a0George W. Bush<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Barack Obama<\/strong>\u00a0in largely immigration-focused roles before moving into the non-profit sector in 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom 2016 to 2020, he served as the director of research at the Federation for American Immigration Reform,\u201d the\u00a0brief blurb<\/a>\u00a0about O\u2019Brien\u2019s past work notes. The group, known in immigration law circles by its acronym, FAIR, has a history of connections to hard-line immigration policies.<\/p>\n FAIR, its\u00a0legislative activities<\/a>, and its leadership (past<\/a>\u00a0and present) have\u00a0been extensively\u00a0discussed<\/a>\u00a0by the\u00a0SPLC<\/a>, which has\u00a0its own set of critic<\/a>s, and also by news organizations\u00a0Vice<\/a>, the\u00a0Washington Post<\/a>, the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>, and\u00a0Voice of America<\/a>.<\/p>\n O\u2019Brien, the new judge, once\u00a0quibbled over<\/a>\u00a0Rep.\u00a0Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/strong>\u00a0 (D-N.Y.)\u2019s use of the phrase \u201cconcentration camps\u201d to describe the conditions immigrants have been subjected to on the southern border since the Obama administration:<\/p>\n \u201cI think the point that Representative Ocasio-Cortez is missing is that a concentration camp typically refers to a detention facility where a totalitarian regime\u2019s political enemies are kept and the purpose is to nullify them as political enemies,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cInternment camp is a general term that in international law and in typical usage refers to a place where people are held temporarily in a conflict because they are either from an enemy power, from a non-allied power, and there is some sort of national security concern or other internal security concern associated with them. Whereas, an immigration detention facility is where people are held pursuant to a democratically passed law because they have no authorization to be in the country and they are temporarily held there while the government is evaluating their claim to any kind of immigration relief and those facilities are regulated.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In his work for FAIR,<\/a>\u00a0O\u2019Brien (joined by two other authors) described immigration as a \u201cproblem\u201d and said immigrants rights advocates perform \u201cmathematical gymnastics to produce illegal alien population estimates that they see as \u2018tolerable\u2019 to the bulk of American society.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Brien also wrote a lengthy defense<\/a>\u00a0of the Trump administration\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d and family separation policies in the summer of 2018 \u2014 which argued that there were \u201cno cages\u201d used in the process of executing the controversial Trump immigration directive. \u201cThe conditions are anything but harsh,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n (Human Rights Watch\u00a0testified<\/a>\u00a0before a Congressional committee that children were, indeed, being held in cages at the border.)<\/p>\n O\u2019Brien, the recently robed judge, in June 2018 penned this conclusion to the Trump White House\u2019s general immigration agenda:<\/p>\n When the citizens of the United States elected\u00a0Donald Trump<\/strong>, they sent a clear message to Washington that they no longer want criminals and illegal aliens running America\u2019s borders. President Trump paid attention. And, thus far, his immigration policies have been firmly focused on improving national security and public safety. Slowly but surely, we are regaining control of our borders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to FAIR\u2019s website as of the date of this writing, the group describes its\u00a0beliefs<\/a>\u00a0as follows:<\/p>\n Immigration policies can determine what kind of America future generations will inherit \u2013 livable or overcrowded, successful or overburdened. While we see our obligations to help the less fortunate around the world, we also know that irresponsible border policies can undermine our own nation\u2019s ability to be a successful change agent for the human race.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The group\u00a0says its current objectives<\/a>\u00a0are \u201cto reduce overall immigration to a more normal level,\u201d e.g., \u201cfrom well over one million at present to a very generous 300,000 a year over a sustained period.\u201d\u00a0 Doing so, the group says, \u201cwill allow America to manage growth, address environmental concerns, and maintain a high quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n The group also currently\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0\u201c[i]mmigration, within proper limits, can be positive. Adhering to the rule of law is central to successful assimilation and citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n