Government dismisses 17 immigration judges despite a saturation of cases in the courts
Another round of immigration judges began receiving emails on Friday informing them they will be fired, without justification.
At least 17 immigration judges have been fired in recent days by the administration of President Donald Trump, after receiving emails last Friday informing them that they would be laid off.
Despite the backlog of cases in the courts with more than 3.5 million immigrant files awaiting resolution, these layoffs join the growing list of immigration court staff cut by President Trump amid his efforts to speed up deportations of immigrants without legal status.
At least 15 immigration judges received an email last Friday notifying them that they would be laid off, effective July 22. Two other judges in Chicago and Houston also learned they had lost their jobs, according to information cited by National Public Radio (NPR).
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), the union that represents immigration judges, also confirmed the layoffs.
The layoffs in immigration courts affected judges in Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, New York, and California.
Like the other 50 judges fired in the last six months, according to the union, the judges who received the most recent notices did not receive any justification for their dismissal. They were at the end of their two-year probationary period with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) under the Department of Justice.
Those dismissed are judges who had been recently appointed in an effort by the Administration of former President Joe Biden (2021-2025) to deal with the backlog of cases that have reached 3,462,367 cases, according to the latest count by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
After Donald Trump's arrival at the White House, the Department of Justice, which has jurisdiction over immigration courts, has chosen to dismiss dozens of immigration judges, without citing a cause.
With the recent layoffs, at least 65 judges have been forced to leave their jobs. Others have accepted voluntary retirement offers as part of the White House's strategy to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
The layoffs came after Congress passed a budget law that allocated more than $3 billion to the Justice Department for immigration-related activities, including the hiring of more immigration judges.