Immigration Judge Gordon Was A Supermensch

Immigration Judge Gordon Was A Supermensch

Last week, retired Immigration Judge Nathan “Nate” Gordon passed away.  At his funeral, dozens of immigration attorneys, judges and others shared their stories of this wonderful man.
Judge Gordon changed many people’s lives in a very positive way.
I have a lot of stories about Judge Gordon.
Let me share one of them with you.
Judge Gordon – Background
Judge Gordon was born on Christmas Day in 1926 in New Jersey to Jewish immigrant parents from Eastern Europe.  He served in the US Army during World War II and graduated from New York Law School some years later.
He was employed by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as an Attorney from 1962 to 1977. After that, he became an Immigration Judge, first in Newark, New Jersey, then in Los Angeles.
I first met Judge Gordon in the mid-1980s, after I had left the INS and entered private practice. The tremendous amount of compassion that he had for immigrants was truly impressive.  It trumped all legal standards. If he believed that a person deserved to stay in the US, Judge Gordon would find a way to make it happen.














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