Trump Administration Fires More Immigration Court Judges: Union
The Trump Administration fired 17 immigration court judges working in ten states, according to the union that represents them. Critics say it will delay clearing the backlog of immigration cases, which totals about 3.5 million.
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) says 15 judges were fired “without cause” on Friday, July 11, and another two were let go on Monday, July 14. The judges were serving in California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
The news comes after Congress included about $3 billion for the Department of Justice (DOJ) for immigration related activities in the recently passed Big Beautiful Bill, including the hiring of more judges.
“It’s outrageous and against the public interest that at the same time Congress has authorized 800 immigration judges, we are firing large numbers of immigration judges without cause,” said the union’s President Matt Biggs. “This is nonsensical. The answer is to stop firing and start hiring.”
The union points out that about 100 judges have either been fired or left voluntarily since President Trump took office. That leaves about 600 immigration court judges currently on the bench, dealing with a backlog of some 3.5 million immigration cases.
However, hiring and training new judges can take more than a year.
Many of the judges who were let go were just finishing up their two-year probationary period.
"I wanted to ride it until the very end," said one of the fired judges, who spoke to NPR under the condition of anonymity since they are still employed by the department for a few more days. "I wanted to keep adjudicating, reviewing these cases. I figured as long as I am here, I can do some good."
Immigration judges are the only ones who can revoke someone's green card or issue a final order of removal for people who have been in the country for more than two years and are in the process of being deported.