The Trump administration fired 18 immigration judges on Friday, despite a pledge from the president to hire more judges to address the growing backlog of 3.7 million cases, a union official said.
In addition to the 18 fired on Friday, the Trump administration had fired two immigration judges earlier in the week, Matthew Biggs, the president of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, said on Saturday. The union represents the judges and other federal workers. The administration did not give the judges a reason for why they were fired.
There are more than 700 immigration judges, each of whom handles between 500 and 700 cases a year, Mr. Biggs said. Most of the cases are related to deportation, which is one of the top issues Mr. Trump is focused on.
“It’s inexplicable,” Mr. Biggs said in an interview on Saturday. “It’s contrary to what the president campaigned on, and it makes no sense at all.”
Immigration judges are part of the administrative court system and housed in the Justice Department. They make decisions about asylum claims and decide who should be removed from the country. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Immigration courts have been facing a growing backlog, which has contributed to the number of undocumented immigrants in the country. Because cases take so long to wind through the system, many of those waiting start putting down roots in their communities.
One of the immigration judges who were dismissed, Kerry E. Doyle, announced her firing on LinkedIn. She was among the incoming class of new judges and had not yet announced her new position on social media, she said.
“Unfortunately, I was unable to avoid the political pink slip,” Ms. Doyle wrote on LinkedIn. She served as the principal legal adviser at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “This firing occurred despite the fact that among my peers in my court, I had the longest and most extensive experience in immigration law,” she wrote.
Ms. Doyle wrote a memo during the Biden administration, instructing lawyers at ICE to review cases and try to clear those considered low priority.
The Trump administration has been carrying out mass firings across the government. During Mr. Trump’s first administration, immigration judges were told to speed their decision-making, raising concerns about whether the immigrants received due process. In most cases, immigrants can appeal a judge’s decision.
Soon after Mr. Trump took office again last month, he fired the acting head of the U.S. immigration court system and three other top officials. The additional firings this week have left many judges wondering what Mr. Trump’s plans are for the court system.
“It begs the question: Is this administration going to try to unilaterally do away with that process?” Mr. Biggs said.
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