Immigration officer forwards racially charged email to Muslim-American lawyer

"My hope is that this is some kind of mistake. Like as not his email got spammed," Smith said. "Otherwise, it sounds like it was poor judgment at a minimum and calls into question his impartiality."

"In immigration matters, regardless of your immigration status or nationality, everyone is entitled to their due-process rights. That means getting a fair hearing from the government," Zupanic said. "This guy is in a position of authority, and part of his job is to make sure that people do get a fair hearing and a fair process from the government. If he has a racial, ethnic or religious bias against the people he's making those decisions about, that in all seriousness calls into question his ability to do his job."

Those sentiments were echoed by Kim Abbot of the Montana Human Rights Network, of which Haque-Hausrath is president of the board of directors.