President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation is expected to ramp up in 2026 as newly hired military lawyers-turned-immigration judges hit the bench and begin expeditiously reviewing a massive backlog of cases.

Speeding up the court process for immigration matters will, in turn, lead to faster decisions and more deportations, according to former immigration judge Andrew Arthur. At the same time, the Trump administration’s new pick to oversee the immigration court system has moved to simplify the appeals process, reducing the options illegal immigrants have to appeal their deportation orders and shortening their time in the system.