Immigration judge withdraws from public defender leadership role amid staff backlash
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A candidate for Brooklyn Defender Services’ director of immigration services drew heavy union condemnation last month.Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach
By Noah Powelson
One of the city’s top public defender organizations recently faced backlash from its union after an announced candidate for director of their immigration practice sparked outrage.
On Nov. 24, the union representing attorneys and staff at Brooklyn Defender Services publicly condemned the organization for picking Immigration Judge Richard Bailey as the next director of their immigration practice. Union leaders at the local Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys chapter said Bailey’s alleged track record for denying asylum applications and deporting citizens was antithetical to BDS’ mission.
The attempt to hire Bailey only further soured the union’s relationship with BDS leadership, coming several months after the organization’s executive director allegedly attempted to disband the union.
The union said staff had received no word that BDS was searching for candidates for the immigration practice role outside the organization, and received little information about when the immigration judge would have started or his prospective job duties.
A few days after the union’s statement, Bailey withdrew his application for the position.
“The BDS Immigration Practice received word that IJ Richard Bailey withdrew his application of the director of the immigration practice position,” the union said in a statement. “We have also been assured that unionized staff of the immigration practice will be consulted in future hiring decisions for the position.”
A spokesperson for BDS confirmed Bailey had withdrawn his application, and that the search for the position was still ongoing.
Bailey previously worked at BDS before becoming an immigration judge, advising clients facing criminal charges about their immigration status while at the nonprofit.
“Richard Bailey withdrew his application for the Director of BDS’ Immigration Practice,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Bailey was a long-time employee of BDS and a former supervisor in BDS’ Padilla practice, advising clients with criminal court matters on the immigration consequences of their cases. Bailey resigned from BDS during the Biden administration to become an immigration judge in the hopes of increasing the number of defense attorneys on the bench.”
“As we move forward and reopen the leadership search, we will consult with staff members of BDS’ Immigration Practice, including Union members, in the immigration leadership search moving forward,” the spokesperson added.
BDS did not provide comment on the reason, if any, Bailey gave for withdrawing his application.
BDS said they were committed to finding a director that suited the needs of their immigration practice as fears of escalating federal immigration crackdowns loom over the city.
“BDS defends thousands of immigrant New Yorkers each year in deportation proceedings and provides legal assistance for immigration relief,” the spokesperson said. “We remain committed to hiring a leader with the experience needed to lead this essential practice in this uniquely challenging moment for the immigrant communities BDS serves.”
Bailey was appointed as a federal immigration judge in December 2022, presiding over cases in the Elizabeth Immigration Court in New Jersey.
According to the Transactional Records Clearinghouse, a data-gathering research nonprofit operating out of Syracuse University, Bailey decided 172 asylum claims from 2020 through the first 11 months of 2025. Of those, he granted asylum for 16, granted seven other types of relief, and denied relief to 149, meaning he denied asylum for 86.6 percent of his cases.
In the first 11 months of 2025, Bailey has denied asylum claims to over 90 percent of his cases.
Bailey shows a much higher denial rate for asylum claims compared to Immigration Court judges across the country, who denied 58.9 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Bailey also had a slightly higher denial rate among judges at the Elizabeth Immigration Court, who denied asylum 83.1 percent of the time.
It was Bailey's record on the bench that the union said would disrupt staff’s ability to build trust with their clients should he have been hired as director of the immigration practice.
In 2024, BDS said they advised over 3,700 clients on immigration relief and the consequences of their legal cases on their status, and represented over 1,600 people in deportation defense and affirmative immigration relief matters.
BDS, which absorbed Queens Defenders’ criminal practice after their controversial former leader Lori Zeno was arrested on federal fraud charges last June, has been embroiled in labor disputes this past year.
After BDS took over Queens Defenders’ contract with the city, picket demonstrations organized by the union broke out in protest of new work policies. Over the course of September, the BDS union protested company policies that ended work-from-home and required staff to use a third-party clock-in application on their devices.
Not long after, BDS’ longtime executive director Lisa Schreibersdorf faced allegations of attempting to decertify the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys chapter that has operated at BDS since 2022 through a union-busting scheme.
The accusations eventually escalated when nearly two dozen city councilmembers wrote a letter to BDS’ board of directors demanding answers on the situation. On Nov. 20, 21 city councilmembers – including Queens councilmembers Julie Won, Shekar Krishnan, Tiffany Cabán and Lynn Schulman – called on the board to investigate the allegations and report their findings to the Council.
“The misconduct allegations against Ms. Schreibersdorf are serious and impact our confidence in an organization on which our constituents rely for their most fundamental protections,” the letter reads.
