U.S. Department of Justice

Executive Office for Immigration Review

Office of the Director

5107 Leesburg Pike, Suite 2400

Falls Church, Virginia 22041

Fax: (703) 605-0365

______________________________________________________________________________

May 14, 1998

IMMIGRATION JUDGE TAKES OATH OF OFFICE

IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND -- Lawrence O. Burman will be sworn in today as an Immigration Judge during an investiture ceremony at 2:00 p.m., at the Immigration Court, U.S. Appraisers Building, 103 S. Gay Street, Baltimore, Maryland. Chief Immigration Judge Michael J. Creppy, from the Executive Office for Immigration Review in Falls Church, Virginia, will administer the oath of office.

Judge Burman joins the ranks of some 200 Immigration Judges located in more than 40 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 260,000 such proceedings. They are also authorized to administer oaths of citizenship to candidates for naturalization.

Judge Burman was appointed Immigration Judge in April 1998 and is assigned to the Immigration Court in Los Angeles, California. He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1971, and his J.D. from the University of Maryland in 1978. From 1991 to 1998, Judge Burman worked as Assistant District Counsel for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in Baltimore, Maryland. He served as an Assistant General Counsel at INS Headquarters in Washington, D.C., from 1990 to 1991. Judge Burman worked as a General Attorney for INS in Baltimore from 1988 to 1990. From 1978 to 1988, he worked as an attorney in private practice in Baltimore. Judge Burman was in the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1975, and in the Maryland National Guard from 1975 to 1993. He is a member of the Maryland Bar.

-EOIR-