DOJ office flags rise in doxing of immigration judges
Sovereignty and security converge at the border where policy failures demand accountability.
You’d think a federal watchdog flagging threats to immigration judges would be a moment for sober concern. Instead, the report reads like a warning about the new normal: anyone who steps up to enforce border law becomes a **walking target for the mob**. The Justice Department’s internal watchdog says “bad actors” are spreading sensitive personal details about these judges, and the threat is growing.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
A federal watchdog agency warned Tuesday that immigration judges increasingly face doxing attacks under President Donald Trump. Bad actors are spreading “sensitive” material about judges in ways that could intimidate them as officials struggle to address the growing problem, according to a Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General report.
The investigation adds the […]
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
You’d think a federal watchdog flagging threats to immigration judges would be a moment for sober concern. Instead, the report reads like a warning about the new normal: anyone who steps up to enforce border law becomes a walking target for the mob. The Justice Department’s internal watchdog says “bad actors” are spreading sensitive personal details about these judges, and the threat is growing. Weren’t these the same people who spent years telling us to “trust the process” and “respect the courts”? It seems that respect only applies when judges rule their way.
No one is arguing that a federal judge’s home address should be a public free-for-all. That’s dangerous, and it’s stupid. But look at what’s really happening here. These aren’t random threats from anonymous internet trolls in a basement. The coverage makes clear that the doxing is political — tied to the judges’ role in enforcing the law on the southern border. For years, the left has treated immigration enforcement as an act of cruelty rather than governance. Now the rhetoric has curdled into action. When you spend years calling these judges cogs in a “deportation machine,” you don’t get to act surprised when someone decides to act on it.
The report is careful to say officials are “struggling” to fix the problem. That’s Washington-speak for “we’re behind the curve.” The administration is right to take this seriously, but the broader lesson is uncomfortable: one side of the political spectrum has decided that the rule of law is a suggestion. The judges doing their job under President Trump’s directives are just following the statutes Congress wrote. The spitballs aren’t harmless — they’re a direct assault on the system’s ability to function.
We’re not going to wring our hands on behalf of an unaccountable bureaucracy. But we will say this: a republic stops working when officers of the court are terrorized for doing their oath-sworn duty. The left can call these judges names all day long; that’s their right. But when doxing becomes a tactic, the intimidation is the point. And it’s a problem that won’t be solved by memos alone.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.