WASHINGTON- More than a quarter of federal immigration judges in California have been fired, retired or resigned since the start of the Trump administration.
The reduction follows a trend in immigration courts across the country and constitutes, critics say, an attack on the rule of law that will lead to even more delays in an overburdened court system.
The reduction in immigration judges came as the government stepped up efforts to deport immigrants living in the United States illegally. Trump administration officials have described the immigration court process, in which proceedings can take years amid a backlog of millions of cases, as an impediment to their goals.
Nationwide, there were 735 immigration judges last fiscal year, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the arm of the Justice Department that houses immigration courts. At least 97 have been fired since President Trump took office and about the same number have resigned or retired, according to the union that represents immigration judges.
California has lost at least 35 immigration judges since January, according to Mobile Pathways, a Berkeley-based organization that analyzes immigration court data. That's down from 132. The steepest drop came at the San Francisco Immigration Court, which lost more than half its bench.
“A noncitizen could win their case, they could lose it, but the key question is: did they receive a hearing?” said Emmett Soper, who worked at the Department of Justice before becoming an immigration judge in Virginia in 2017. “Until this administration, I had always been confident that I was working in a system that, despite its flaws, was fundamentally fair.”
Our government institutions are losing their legitimacy.
— Amber George, former judge of the San Francisco Immigration Court
The administration intends to fill some judge positions, and in new job postings for immigration judges in Los Angeles, San Francisco and elsewhere is looking for candidates who want to be “deportation judges” and “restore the integrity and honor of our nation's Immigration Court system.”
The immigration judges union called the job offers “insulting.”
Trump wrote in Truth Social in April that he was elected to “drive criminals out of our country, but the courts don't seem to want him to do that.”
“We cannot judge everyone, because doing so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years,” he added.
The National Association. The Department of Immigration Judges said it expects a wave of additional retirements later this month.
“My biggest concern is for the people whose lives are left in limbo. What can they count on when the terrain literally changes every moment they are here?” said Amber George, who was fired last month from the San Francisco Immigration Court. “Our government institutions are losing their legitimacy.”
Because immigration courts operate under the Department of Justice, their priorities typically change from one presidential administration to the next, but the extreme changes underway have renewed long-standing calls for immigration courts to become independent of the executive branch.
The Trump administration recently added 36 judges; 25 of them are military lawyers holding temporary positions.
This summer, the Pentagon authorized up to 600 military lawyers to work for the Justice Department. That came after the department changed the requirements for temporary immigration judges, eliminating the need to have experience in immigration law.
The Justice Department did not respond to specific questions but said judges must be impartial and the agency is obligated to take action against those who demonstrate systemic bias.
Former judges say that because the layoffs have come without warning, remaining court staff have often rushed to catch up on reassigned cases.
The ousted judges described a pattern: Sometimes in the afternoon, while presiding over a hearing, they receive a brief email informing them that they are being fired under Article II of the Constitution. Their names are quickly removed from the Justice Department website.
Jeremiah Johnson is one of five judges recently fired from the San Francisco Immigration Court.
Johnson said he is concerned that the Trump administration is bypassing immigration courts by making conditions so unbearable that immigrants decide to drop their cases.
The number of detained immigrants has risen to record levels since January, with more than 65,000 in custody. Immigrants and lawyers say conditions are inhumane, alleging medical negligence, punitive solitary confinement and obstructed access to legal aid. Immigrant applications for voluntary departure, which avoids formal deportation, have increased in recent months.
Many of those arrests have occurred in court, causing immigrants to avoid their legal claims for fear of being detained and forcing judges to order their deportation in absentia.
“Those are ways to get people to leave the United States without seeing a judge, without the due process that Congress has provided,” Johnson said. “It is a dismantling of the judicial system.”
A sign posted outside the San Francisco Immigration Court in October protests law enforcement actions by immigration agents. The court has lost more than half of its immigration judges.
(Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
San Francisco Immigration Court judges have historically had higher asylum approval rates than the national average. Johnson said grant rates depend on a variety of circumstances, including whether a person is detained or has legal representation, their country of origin and whether they are an adult or child.
In November, military judges working in immigration courts heard 286 cases and issued rulings in 110, according to Mobile Pathways. Military judges issued deportation orders in 78% of cases, more often than other immigration judges that month, who ordered deportations in 63% of cases.
“They are probably following instructions, and the military is very good at following instructions, and it is clear what the instructions are given by this administration,” said Mobile Pathways co-founder Bartlomiej Skorupa. He cautioned that 110 cases is a small sample and that trends will become clearer in the coming months.
Former immigration judges and their advocates say appointing people with no immigration experience and little training creates a steep learning curve and the potential for due process violations.
“There are multiple concerns here: that they are temporary, which could expose them to greater pressure to decide cases in a certain way; and they also lack experience in immigration law, which is an extremely complex area of practice,” said Ingrid Eagly, a professor of immigration law at UCLA.
Immigration courts have a backlog of more than 3 million cases. Anam Petit, who worked as an immigration judge in Virginia until September, said the administration's emphasis on quickly completing cases must be balanced with the constitutional right to a fair hearing.
“There are not enough judges to hear these cases, and this administration [is] taking responsibility for dismissing many experienced and trained judges who can hear those cases and mitigate that delay,” he said.
Companion bills introduced this month in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) would prevent the appointment of military lawyers as temporary immigration judges and impose a two-year service limit.
“The Trump administration's willingness to fire experienced immigration judges and hire temporary or inexperienced 'deportation judges,' especially in places like California, has fundamentally impacted the landscape of our justice system,” Schiff said in a statement announcing the bill.
The bills have little chance in the Republican-controlled Congress, but they illustrate how significantly Democrats, especially in California, oppose the administration's changes to the immigration courts.
Former immigration judge Tania Nemer, a dual citizen of Lebanon and the United States, sued the Justice Department and the prosecutor. Gen. Pam Bondi this month, alleging she was illegally fired in February because of her gender, ethnicity and political affiliation. In 2023, Nemer ran for judicial office in Ohio as a Democrat.
Lawyer. Gen. Pam Bondi, seen here at the White House in October, dismissed complaints from a former immigration judge who alleged she was fired without cause.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
Bondi addressed the demand at a cabinet meeting.
“Most recently, yesterday, I was sued by an immigration judge who we fired,” she said on December 2. “One of the reasons he said he was a woman. Last time I checked, I was a woman too.”
Other former judges have challenged their firings through the Federal Merit Systems Protection Board.
Johnson, from San Francisco, is one of them. He lodged his appeal this month, claiming he had been given no reason for dismissal.
“My goal is to be reinstated,” he said. “My colleagues on the court, our court was vibrant. It was a good place to work, despite all the pressures.”
