U.S. Department of Justice
Executive Office for Immigration Review

Office of the Director
5107 Leesburg Pike, Suite 2400
Falls Church, Virginia 22041

NEWS RELEASE Contact: Office of Public Affairs

(703)305-0289, Fax: (703) 605-0365

Internet: www.usdoj.gov/eoir

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April 12, 1999

THREE IMMIGRATION JUDGES TAKE OATH OF OFFICE

IN NEW YORK CITY

(NEW YORK, NY) -- Larry Dean, Theresa Holmes-Simmons, and Edward Kandler will be sworn in today as an Immigration Judges during an investiture ceremony at 2:00 p.m., in the Ceremonial Courtroom, United States Court of International Trade, One Federal Plaza, New York, New York. Chief Immigration Judge Michael J. Creppy, from the Executive Office for Immigration Review in Falls Church, Virginia, will administer the oath of office.

Judges Dean, Holmes-Simmons, and Kandler join the ranks of some 200 Immigration Judges located in 52 Immigration Courts throughout the Nation. They are responsible for conducting formal administrative proceedings to determine whether foreign-born individuals who are charged with violations of Federal immigration law should be removed from the United States or may be granted relief from removal. Immigration Judges decide each case independently and their decisions are final unless appealed or certified to the Board of Immigration Appeals. In the past year, Immigration Judges completed more than 265,000 such proceedings. They are also authorized to administer oaths of citizenship to candidates for naturalization.

Judge Dean was appointed Immigration Judge in January 1999. He received his B.S. in 1970 from the University of Southern Mississippi, and his J.D. in 1973 from Tulane University School of Law. Judge Dean served in the U.S. Army from 1973 to 1998 as an Attorney and Circuit Judge at Fort Polk, Louisiana; Fort Carson, Colorado; The Judge Advocate General's School in Charlottesville, Virginia; Korea; Japan; Fort Lee, Virginia; and Fort Benning, Georgia. He is a member of the Mississippi and Louisiana Bars.

Judge Holmes-Simmons was appointed Immigration Judge in November 1998. She received her B.A. in 1985 from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and her J.D. in 1988 from Rutgers University School of Law. Judge Holmes-Simmons served as an Assistant District Counsel for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in New York from 1996 to 1998. She worked as a Special Prosecutor and Assistant Attorney General, New York State Attorney General's Office in New York, from 1994 to 1996. Judge Holmes-Simmons served as an Assistant District Attorney with the

New York County District Attorney's Office from 1988 to 1994. She is a member of both the New York and New Jersey Bars.

Judge Kandler was appointed Immigration Judge in October 1998. He received his B.A. in 1971 from California State University at San Francisco; his M.A. in 1974 from California State University at Hayward; and his J.D. in 1981 from the University of California at Davis. Judge Kandler served as an Assistant U.S. Trustee for the Western District of Washington from 1988 to 1998. He worked as an Attorney for the law firm of Chinello, Chinello, Shelton & Auchard in Fresno, California, in 1988. From 1983 to 1988, Judge Kandler served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of California. He was also with the San Francisco law firm of Breon, Galgani, Godino from 1981 to 1983. Judge Kandler is a member of the California Bar.

-EOIR-