US immigration judges told to slash time given to people awaiting visas or green cards before being deported

Exclusive: Mandatory training for judges also urged them to threaten attorneys who accept too many cases…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/04/immigration-judges-limit-time-deportations

 

Fired judges more likely to have a past in immigrant defense : NPR

During the summer months, immigration judges had already had to contend with an outsized enforcement presence in normally empty courtroom hallways. ICE attorneys — who argue on behalf of a government that an immigrant should be deported — started more regularly filing "motions to dismiss" cases. When a judge granted such a motion, migrants would be detained before leaving the building. 

Levine said such motions should be granted if there is a change in the individual migrant's case, not a change in immigration policy. 

"I was not told it was because of my decision to deny the motion to dismiss that I was fired," Levine said. "But I handed down a decision that contravened what they apparently wanted the judges to do."…

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/g-s1-96437/trump-immigration-judges-fired

 

Pentagon sending up to 600 military lawyers to serve as immigration judges

Immigration courts are also already dealing with a huge backlog of roughly 3.5m cases that has ballooned in recent years. 

However, numerous immigration judges have been fired or left voluntarily after taking deferred resignations offered by the administration, according to their union. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) said in July that at least 17 immigration judges had been fired "without cause" in courts across the country. 

That has left about 600 immigration judges, union figures show, meaning the Pentagon move will double their ranks...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/02/hegseth-trump-immigration-pentagon-lawyers

 

Immigration judges fired in July after Congress sent money to hire more : NPR

"It's outrageous and against the public interest that at a time when the Congress has authorized 800 immigration judges, we are firing large numbers of immigration judges without cause," said Matt Biggs, president of the IFPTE union. "This is hypocritical — you can't enforce immigration laws when you fire the enforcers."…

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/14/nx-s1-5467343/immigration-judges-doj-trump-enforcement