1-in-5 immigration judges have left their posts since President Donald Trump retook office in January, largely the result of firings by the executive branch.
This past week, the Trump administration fired eight immigration judges in New York, one of whom are suing for alleged discrimination.
Roughly 700 judges sat on the bench at the start of 2025, with 140 judges having been fired or resigned during the course of the year so far. This development, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) warned on Tuesday, would “only make cases proceed more slowly and the entire process less efficient.”
The Trump administration’s efforts to remake the bench this year have come at a time when the courts face 3.4 million pending cases, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research clearinghouse based in Syracuse, NY. The large majority of cases are for illegal immigrants who crossed the southern border prior to 2025.
The administration’s reduction of judges is meant to purge the bench of those who more frequently decide cases in favor of immigrants, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council in Washington.
“The Trump admin is systematically firing immigration judges across the country for no reason other [than] their above average grant rates,” Reichlin-Melnick wrote in a post on X Tuesday. “The goal is to transform an imperfect system which aimed for fairness into a rubber stamp mill, leaving only the ‘deportation judges’ they want.”
The Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review holds the immigration courts, which makes it part of the executive branch. Typically, courts are part of the judicial branch of government, which places them outside the reach of presidential administrations and allows them to operate independently.
The frequent terminations of judges by the Justice Department and the resignations of judges who have been frustrated by operating under this administration have spurred Democrats to consider taking legislative action.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, called this week for the courts to be moved out of the executive branch.
“If immigration judges are neutral and independent as due process requires, then they must be independent from the Executive Branch,” Goldman said in a post. “We must move immigration judges from Article II to Article I to provide a check on a lawless administration like this one.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced on Wednesday plans to put forward legislation “to restore proper guardrails over who can serve as a temporary immigration judge” amid the terminations and resignations.
But any guardrails that Democrats impose on the immigration courts could hurt a future Democratic administration that attempts to purge conservative immigration judges in the same way that the Trump administration has sought to push out progressive judges.
In 2022, two senior House and Senate Republicans investigated the Biden administration’s termination of immigration judges who had been hired during the first Trump administration.
The Trump administration plans to replace the judges it has parted ways with since January.
In addition to deploying up to 600 military judges to serve at the Justice Department and handle immigration cases in the meantime, the administration is also conducting a mass hiring effort.
The Department of Homeland Security, which houses immigration and border law enforcement agencies, has posted ads on social media recently imploring the public to apply for “deportation judges,” a play on words that suggests how new hires should be deciding cases.
Write the next chapter of America.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) December 1, 2025
If you're a legal professional, join the Department of Justice as a Deportation Judge to preside over cases and determine whether an alien must stay or leave our nation.
Make decisions with generational consequences. https://t.co/9Z1LOHSTds pic.twitter.com/uqZGJNBurn
Despite the dismissal of judges, the Republican-led Congress funded the hiring of additional judges in the One Big, Beautiful Bill passed at the start of summer.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DID NOT VET OR RUN LAKANWAL’S NAME THROUGH DATABASES: DHS
It means that the judges who were pushed out or resigned in 2025 will not only be replaced by judges of the Trump administration’s own choosing, but dozens more judges will also be hired.
The attorney general may appoint any attorney to act as an administrative judge within the EOIR.
