HOUSTON – The union representing immigration court judges across the country reports that 15 judge and judge candidates have been “fired,” including one from the Houston area.
Officials with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers report that two of the judges removed were already on the bench, and another 13 were nearing the end of their training and close to being assigned a court.
The IFPTE, which speaks on behalf of the National Assoc. of Immigration Judges, reports five senior managers at the Executive Office of Immigration Review and eight Asst. Chief Immigration Judges have also been let go.
IFPTE officials said the move is presumably part of President Donald Trump’s plans to pare down the size of government and eliminate waste.
However, officials with the US Dept. of Justice have not yet responded to KPRC 2’s request for comment on the reason for the firings or whether these positions will be filled by new employees, or left vacant.
Nonetheless, the firings are causing concern over what impact this will have on the more than 3 million cases backlogged in immigration court.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reports it can take an average of 599 days for a case to work its way through immigration court. TRAC data shows the backlog has been growing steadily, but doubled under President Joe Biden’s administration as a flood of new cases were filed due largely to historic numbers of apprehensions along the southwest border.
“Look up the definition of ‘hypocrisy,’ it’s ‘when someone says one thing but does another.’ The firing of immigration judges when we need more judges to enforce our immigration laws by this administration is a perfect example of hypocrisy,‘” IFPTE president Matt Biggs wrote in a statement. “This outrageous move to fire immigration judges will only make the backlog of cases worse. This is the opposite of the administration’s stated goals. President Trump said he wanted to hire more immigration judges, instead his underlings over the past month have fired 15 judges without cause and 12 managers who schedule deportation hearings. Each judge would have heard 500 to 700 cases this year. Some of the mid-level managers also hear cases, that’s 10,000 cases that now won’t be heard this year.”
Houston area immigration attorneys said they are also concerned about the potential impact on the backlog since they’ve yet to hear any plans as to how the current administration will tackle the issue.
“Given the extraordinary backlog in deportation/ removal cases, you would think the Trump administration and for that matter everyone would agree that it should be a high priority for Congress to provide significant more funding in order to double or triple the number of immigration judges and correspondingly the number of trial attorneys that would represent ICE and the Department of Justice in these proceedings. To cut or eliminate any existing immigration judges would therefore appear to make no sense whatsoever,” wrote immigration attorney Charles Foster in a statement to KPRC 2. “To the contrary, it’s critical that Congress pass in bipartisan fashion immigration legislation that would not only reform our asylum laws, but which would significantly increase funding not only for the Border Patrol and ICE, but equally important for immigration judges, trial attorneys and asylum officers. One without the other does little good. In order to have any meaningful impact on the existing five to six years or longer backlog of removal/ deportation cases, at a minimum funding that would at least double or triple the current number of immigration judges and trial attorneys and for that matter, asylum officers is needed.”
“The most ardent supporter of Trump’s policies should agree,” Foster continued. “Because otherwise, it will be difficult to impossible for the Trump administration to actually to be able to remove and deport any greater numbers than the numbers removed and deported under the prior Obama and Biden administrations.”
“DOJ fired multiple immigration judges and a few high-ranking managers at EOIR. This occurs notwithstanding the worst backlog in history of 3.7 million cases pending and hearings being scheduled past the year 2030,” immigration attorney Raed Gonzalez wrote in a statement to KPRC 2. “Most of the IJ’s fired where appointed by the Biden administration. Nevertheless, it appears we will be seeing more cuts like this one across the federal government in the name of eliminating waste. The only problem is that if we have less judges we will have more backlogs and slower deportations. While the administration can deport criminals without relief under immigration laws and those who have outstanding deportation orders, by law, before deporting all others, they are required to have a final order of deportation by an immigration court. This can take years. Cutting waste is one thing, eliminating judges’ positions is counterproductive this time around.”
EOIR reports approximately 700 immigration judges are operating in 71 immigration courts and three adjunct centers across the country.
