Washington – The Department of Justice shot multiple immigration judges on Friday, according to two sources familiar with the decision and a statement of one of the judges in LinkedIn. The measure threatens to throw sand in the gears of an immigration system already tense as the Trump administration moves to quickly remodel the federal workforce.
The exact number of judges affected by the shots is not clear. The terminations were promulgated by the interim director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review in the Department of Justice, which supervises the immigration courts.
A union that represents immigration judges has indicated that since the beginning of the Trump administration, more than two dozen immigration judges, managers and new hiring have been fired.
Five medium -level assistant headquarters immigration judges and 13 candidates to become new judges received termination notices on Friday, according to the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
“Now you have a president who campaigns for immigration and eliminates people in the country, on the one hand. And, on the other hand, the same judges who have to listen to these cases and make those decisions are actually shooting. So, it makes no sense. It is a head scourge, “said Matt Biggs, the president of the IFPTE.
Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the Administration has fired at least four senior managers in the Executive Office of Immigration Review, as well as a fifth senior manager, said the union.
Kerry Doyle, a recently appointed immigration judge, said on LinkedIn that she and others appointed by then President Joe Biden received an email on Friday telling them that they had been fired. Doyle previously served as deputy general advisor of the Department of National Security during the Biden Administration.
“This dismissal occurred despite the fact that the immigration court currently has 3.5 million pending cases in the neighborhood and the Department of Justice is asking Congress more money to hire more people in Eoir!” Doyle said in a statement on LinkedIn, referring to the Executive Office of Immigration Review.
Doyle claimed that the “dismissal was political”, noting that she and her colleagues who were fired had been hired during the Biden administration. NBC News cannot independently verify the claims, since the number of dismissed judges still is clear.
The Department of Justice and the National Security Department did not immediately respond to comments requests.
The decision to fire immigration judges is running the risk of adding to a case portfolio that reached record levels during each of the last three years, according to the Congress investigation service.
According to the CRS, the record levels of the execution meetings on the southwest border last year resulted in more than 1.8 million new cases, the CRS. The new cases increased the total accumulation of the immigration case to 3.6 million by the end of 2024, despite an effort of the Biden administration to hire more immigration judges and reduce processing times.
“There is bipartisan support in all areas to hire more immigration judges. I mean, there is a portfolio of almost 4 million cases as it is, so this administration, with these shots, have been very successful in increasing the request for orders, “Biggs said.
On the other hand, the Trump administration has focused its efforts on hiring staff to help in mass deportations, what Trump has promised will result in “millions and millions” of people to be eliminated from the country.
Trump’s “border tsar” Tom Homan, has recruited staff from several federal agencies, including drug control administration and the alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosive office, to help ICE make immigrant arrests.
“It is simply not ice. We had Dea, FBI, ATF, the US Marshals Service, the Department of Justice is all in, “Homan to NBC News told a mass deportation operation in Chicago in January.
The National Security Department has asked the internal tax service to lead companies that are believed to hire immigrants who work illegally in the country and investigate human trafficking, according to a memorandum of the Secretary of National Security Kristi Noem.
NBC News previously reported that the Administration is considering using funds from the Department of Defense to hire contractors that greatly expand the immigrant arrests and deportation scale. The new financing would be used to pay companies administered by civilians to expand and temporary detention personnel.
The shots are also found immediately after a series of endings in the Department of Justice, which marked a deviation from the typical billing between the administrations. During the previous administrations, the Department of Justice has asked the US lawyers. But this time, the Administration shot up to 12 US prosecutors immediately. The total number of lawyers from the affected United States was not clear immediately.
Last month, the Department of Justice also said goodbye to multiple career lawyers who had been involved in federal cases surrounding Trump’s alleged efforts to cancel the results of the 2020 presidential elections and the alleged mismanagement of classified documents. Trump declared himself innocent of all the positions, and the cases were removed after Trump was chosen for a second term.
Trump’s first weeks in office have been marked by the massive agitation of the Federal Labor Force, with the administration starting large -scale shots throughout the government. A federal judge gave the green light this week to Trump’s mass purchase plan, which allows the administration to persuade millions of people to renounce their positions, but are paid until September. The Personnel Management Office also advised the agency leaders this week that terminate the test employees who have been in their positions for a short period of time.
The Government Efficiency Department, headed by Elon Musk, has also directed Trump’s efforts to remodel the Federal Labor Force, pointing to the United States Agency for International Development and the Office of Financial Protection of the Consumer, among other departments .
