Despite Backlog, Trump Administration Fires Immigration Judges
Despite a backlog of some 3.7 million cases and years-long wait for a day in court, the Trump Administration continues to fire immigration judges, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The Times cites a widely cited Syracuse University database for the backlog number and notes that the union representing immigration judges says that Trump’s ” …Â Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the immigration court system, fired at least two dozen more immigration judges and supervising judges in February, including five from California courts.”
The report also quotes Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the union representing the nationâs 700 immigration judges, saying that the firings “make no sense” and ” … when you do the simple math, each judge does 500 to 700 cases a year. Most of them are deportation cases. So what heâs effectively done is heâs increased the already huge backlog that the immigration courts face.â
Part of the challenge for judges is that they are not actual federal court judges. The do not have judicial independence and are Department of Justice employees who can be overruled by the U.S. Attorney General. Immigration cases are classified as civil matters, thus those detained or facing deportation do not have the right to attorney or other safeguards of criminal matters.

 Photo credit:Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press, as reported by the Los Angeles Times on 4/23/25.