The Trump administration has fired more than two dozen immigration judges, court managers, and judicial candidates in an unprecedented shake-up at the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), according to the union representing immigration judges.
The terminations, carried out by the acting director of EOIR, come at a time when the U.S. immigration court system faces a record-breaking 3.6 million pending cases. Experts warn that the move will further slow case processing and strain an already overwhelmed system.
“You have a president now who campaigned on immigration and removing people from the country on the one hand. And on the other hand, he’s actually firing the very judges that have to hear these cases and make those decisions. So, it makes no sense. It’s a head-scratcher,” said Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), which represents immigration judges.
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The terminations reportedly impacted five assistant chief immigration judges and 13 judicial candidates. Among them was Kerry Doyle, a recently appointed immigration judge and former deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration. Doyle took to LinkedIn to express her outrage.
“This firing occurred despite the fact that the Immigration Court currently has in the neighborhood of 3.5 MILLION pending cases and DOJ is asking Congress for more money to hire more people at EOIR!” Doyle wrote. She alleged that the firings were politically motivated, as many of the terminated judges were hired during the Biden administration.
Neither the Department of Justice nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to requests for comment.
The firings come as the Trump administration shifts its immigration strategy, focusing on mass deportations rather than judicial processing. Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, has recruited agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the U.S. Marshals Service to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in arresting undocumented immigrants.
“It’s not just ICE. We had DEA, FBI, ATF, U.S. Marshals, DOJ—all in,” Homan said after a January mass deportation operation in Chicago.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is cracking down on businesses suspected of employing undocumented immigrants. According to a memo from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the IRS has been directed to investigate companies accused of hiring undocumented workers and probe potential human trafficking networks.
The administration is also considering using Defense Department funding to contract private companies to expand and staff detention facilities for undocumented immigrants, according to previous reporting by NBC News.
The immigration judge layoffs are part of a broader federal purge orchestrated by Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk. The administration has enacted mass firings across agencies, including the Department of Justice, where 12 U.S. attorneys were abruptly dismissed. Career DOJ officials involved in federal cases related to Trump’s 2020 election interference and classified documents investigations were also among those fired.
Trump’s aggressive restructuring of the federal workforce has been met with legal challenges. Over 60 lawsuits have been filed against the administration, with accusations of executive overreach and politically driven dismissals. Earlier this week, a federal judge approved Trump’s mass buyout plan, allowing the administration to offer millions of federal employees a resignation package with pay through September.
Critics warn that these actions will have long-term consequences for the U.S. immigration system.
“There’s bipartisan support across the board to actually hire more immigration judges,” Biggs said. “I mean, there’s a backlog of almost 4 million cases as it is, so this administration, with these firings, they’ve been very successful in increasing the backlog.”
As the Trump administration accelerates its mass deportation strategy, immigration advocates fear that the elimination of judges and due process will push the system toward crisis.
