Amid 3.7M Case Backlog, Trump Fires Immigration Judges

The Trump administration fired a slew of immigration judges as part of the sweeping moves to cut thousands of government workers. The Friday terminations affected five assistant chief immigration judges, as well as the entire December class of new judges who have yet to be sworn in. The Associated Press reported that it affected 20 judges in total across the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the courts and oversees 700 judges. The firings come as the immigration courts have a 3.7 million case backlog, and President Trump looks to fulfill his promise of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. It’s unclear if the judges will be replaced, but the president’s team is looking to cut through the pileup, a major hurdle in the administration’s immigration agenda.

Both Republicans and Democrats support more judges and support staff, and there was an effort during the first Trump administration to pressure judges to speed up the process. Kerry Doyle, one of the judges who was dismissed on Friday, announced her firing in a Linkedin post. “This firing occurred despite the fact that the Immigration Court currently has in the neighborhood of 3.5 MILLION pending cases and DOJ is asking Congress for more money to hire more people at EOIR! (Hint: don’t fire the people you already have!),” said Doyle, who previously served in senior roles in the Biden administration. The latest cuts follow the termination of four top agency officials on Trump’s first day in office: chief immigration judge, Sheila McNulty; the acting director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review, Mary Cheng; the office’s general counsel, Jill Anderson; and its head of policy, Lauren Alder Reid. They were fired without warning.