Immigration judge who was recently promoted by Trump administration 'once threatened a two-year-old Guatemalan boy with a dog attack because he wouldn't be quiet in court'

• e-mail

An immigration judge recently promoted by the Trump administration was previously accused of threatening a migrant boy with a dog attack, it has been revealed.

Last month, Judge V. Stuart Couch was appointed by Attorney General William Bar to the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Justice Department's highest administrative appellate body for immigration issues.

Couch was first appointed by the Obama administration in 2010 to the Charlotte Immigration Court in North Carolina.

According to a judicial misconduct complaint reported by Mother Jones, Couch was presiding in the Charlotte courtroom in April 2016 when he shouted in rage at a two-year-old Guatemalan boy who would not keep quiet. 

Last month, Judge V. Stuart Couch (left and right) was appointed by to the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Justice Department's highest administrative appellate body

'I have a very big dog in my office, and if you don't be quiet, he will come out and bite you!' Couch allegedly yelled, as an interpreter translated his remarks into Spanish. 

'Want me to go get the dog? If you don't stop talking, I will bring the dog out. Do you want him to bite you?' Couch allegedly continued to yell at the boy throughout the hearing.

Couch's remarks were relayed in an affidavit written by Kathryn Coiner-Collier, an immigrant rights advocate who was present in court that day.

In her affidavit, Coiner-Collier states that Couch turned off the courtroom's recording device as he issued the threat. 

The boy's mother and a court interpreter present that day both declined to confirm or deny Coiner-Collier's account on the record when reached by Mother Jones. 

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com on Tuesday.

Coiner-Collier says that Couch asked her to remove the boy from court, and then apologized when she returned. 

'I owe you an apology,' she says Couch said, adding that he said he knew it wasn't her job to watch over children. 

Coiner-Collier paraphrased Couch's next remark as: 'Usually when I threaten children with scary animals, it works. Not with this kid.' 

Couch, a former Marine, previously served as a military prosecutor and became celebrated on the left for his refusal to prosecute a Guantanamo Bay detainee

Kenneth Schorr, who was Coiner-Collier's boss at the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, urged her to write the affidavit, and submitted the complaint to the Justice Department two weeks after the hearing.

Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Deepali Nadkarni, Couch's superior, responded in a letter to Schorr: 'Judge Couch acknowledged he did not handle the situation properly and assured me it will not occur again.'

After the April 2016 incident, the boy's mother had her case assigned to a new judge. The new judge denied them asylum. 

The mother appealed, and the case is pending before the appeals board that Couch is now a member of. 

Couch, a former Marine, previously served as a military prosecutor and became well-known for his refusal to prosecute a Guantanamo Bay detainee because he had been tortured in custody.

Couch was lauded by the left for an appearance on Democracy Now! in 2013 in which he described conditions at Guantanamo and evidence of coerced interrogations.

As an administrative immigration judge, however, he became known for his tough scrutiny of asylum claims.

Between 2013 and 2018, the average immigration judge in the country approved about 45% of asylum claims. Stuart Couch approved 7.9%.