A former immigration judge spoke out on Sunday about how the Trump administration has stacked the deck against immigration officials.
Former immigration judge Carmen Maria Rey Caldas, who was one of hundreds of judges fired by the Trump administration in 2025, discussed how the administration has tried to hamstring immigration proceedings on a new episode of the “Legal AF” podcast with host Ray Brescia. She revealed that the administration has switched who they rely on to conduct immigration hearings from administrative hearing officers like Caldas, who interpret the law, to military judges, who face significant consequences if they are perceived as disobeying an order.
“I’ve worked with multiple military judges over the years, and I have uniformly found them to be incredibly ethical and capable,” Caldas said. “I’m not concerned about them not having the capacity to. I am very afraid that these are six-month appointments. They’re subject to military rule, not civil rule.”
“So, they’re subject to military tribunals if they disobey an order,” she continued. “If you disobey an order as an immigration judge, you get fired or you quit. If you disobey an order as a military judge, you get court-martialled, processed for a challenge, and charged with insubordination. It’s a very different set of punitive measures.”
Trump has made immigration a central part of his second administration. Caldas said the administration is operating under the assumption that it has already created a “solution” for immigration, which is to deport as many people as possible, even when the law is not on the administration’s side.
Immigration courts typically employ around 700 judges, which is not enough to manage the overwhelming caseload, Caldas said. However, the current regime is relying more heavily on military officers as they continue to dismiss independent judges.
“So, suddenly you have someone who’s supposed to be an independent factfinder but is subject to military justice,” Caldas said. “We don’t know what that looks like. It was never done before for a reason.”
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