The Trump administration this week onboarded more than 80 new federal immigration judges, in its latest push to expedite deportation cases and further its government-wide crackdown on illegal immigration, Justice Department officials said Thursday.The Justice Department, which oversees the U.S. immigration court system, swore in 77 permanent immigration judges and 5 temporary immigration judges, a group that officials described as the largest class of immigration judges in the department’s history.The additions come after the ouster of dozens of immigration judges across the country by the Trump administration over the past year. When President Trump took office, the Justice Department had more than 700 immigration judges. By earlier this year, that number had dipped below 600. Justice Department officials said the new class would bring the immigration judge corps back closer to 700 members.Immigration judges decide whether noncitizens the government is seeking to deport should be removed from the U.S. or allowed to stay. Despite their title, immigration judges are not part of the independent judicial branch and are instead employees of the Justice Department, which runs dozens of immigration courts across the U.S., as well as an appellate immigration court. While they’re part of the executive branch, immigration judges are expected to be neutral, and not show bias towards noncitizens or the Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers seeking their deportation. Still, the Trump administration has publicly referred to them as “deportation judges” in official job listings, calling on potential applicants in one ad to “deliver justice” to “criminal illegal aliens.”As part of its mass deportation campaign, Mr. Trump’s administration has sought to overhaul the country’s immigration courts, since, in many cases, immigrants have to be issued removal orders before being deported.That overhaul has included a purge of more than 100 immigration judges, including many appointed under the Biden administration. Some of the judges ousted under the Trump administration have said they believe they were fired over not sufficiently pushing deportations or having backgrounds helping or advocating for immigrants.
Over the past year, the Justice Department has also issued directives and precedent-setting orders sharply restricting when immigration judges can grant asylum or other forms of relief to those facing deportation, and when they can release those in ICE detention on bond.The new class of immigration judges was sworn in on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Justice Department officials said.Most of the immigration judges joining the Justice Department’s ranks this week had previously worked as ICE lawyers, prosecutors or in the military, as officers, judge advocates or other roles, according to bios provided by the department. Some worked as state or local judges, or as lawyers in private practice.Justice Department officials said the administration has hired 153 permanent immigration judges in fiscal year 2026, which began in October 2025.
In a statement Thursday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Trump administration is “committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps that is dedicated to restoring the rule to the law in our nation’s immigration system.””This could only happen thanks to President Trump’s decisive leadership and commitment to securing our borders,” Blanche said.Greg Chen, senior director for government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, accused the Trump administration of seeking to “compel” immigration judges to “act as tools of enforcement, not impartial adjudicators.”Chen said the “deportation judge” job listings show immigration courts “are not fair or independent in the way we expect them to be but are completely controlled by a President who has stripped them of power and is using them to execute his mass deportation campaign.”Over the past years, the number of immigration court cases has ballooned, fueled by a surge in asylum requests by those crossing the southern border illegally. The backlog of millions of cases has crippled the government’s ability to decide many cases in a timely manner, leading to years-long waits for decisions.On Thursday, Justice Department officials said they had reduced the backlog of pending immigration court cases from 4 million to around 3.5 million since January 2025.
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