The Trump administration fired 20 immigration judges recently, and the move has raised some eyebrows, especially since there was no explanation given. Matthew Biggs, president of the union that represents federal workers, said that on Friday, 13 judges who hadn’t even been sworn in yet, along with five assistant chief immigration judges, were dismissed without warning. Two more judges were let go under similar circumstances earlier in the week.
It’s unclear whether these positions will be filled. The U.S. Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts and their roughly 700 judges, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Immigration courts are already facing a huge backlog, with more than 3.7 million cases pending. It can take years to resolve asylum cases, and there’s bipartisan support for hiring more judges and support staff. However, the Trump administration had previously pressured judges to speed up their decisions.
This is just the latest in a series of personnel changes. The Trump administration also replaced five top court officials, including Mary Cheng, the acting director of the agency. Sirce Owen, the new leader, has made several changes, many of which have reversed policies put in place under the Biden administration.
In another move that caught attention, the Justice Department stopped providing funding to nonprofit organizations that help people facing deportation but later restored the funding after a federal lawsuit was filed.
The firings seem to be in line with two key Trump priorities: mass deportations and reducing the size of the federal government. In fact, just days ago, agencies were told to lay off most probationary employees, who are workers without civil service protection and typically have less than a year on the job.
Biggs wasn’t sure if the firings were meant to make a statement on immigration policy but described them as part of a broader campaign to shrink the federal workforce.
