Democrats in Washington want to impose legal requirements on whom the Trump administration can bring in as temporary immigration judges, after the White House terminated at least a dozen tenured judges.
A bill introduced on Wednesday by California's Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Juan Vargas would authorize the attorney general to appoint temporary immigration judges that have served on appellate panels, are administrative judges in other agencies, or have 10 years of immigration law experience.
Such limits would preclude much of the administration's effort to authorize up to 600 military lawyers to be temporary immigration judges; as part of that move, the White House scrapped the requirement that temporary immigration judges should have immigration law experience.
The legislation was introduced after the administration fired at least 14 immigration judges in the last two weeks, according to the union that represents them, with many of those having been terminated after years of experience on the bench. Those layoffs add to more than 90 other terminations so far this year, according to a count kept by NPR and the union that represents immigration judges.
The firings come as the administration seeks to reshape who serves on courts and makes decisions about which immigrants are allowed to stay in the U.S.
There are no Republican cosponsors on the measure, meaning it's unlikely to pass in a GOP-controlled Congress. But the legislation adds to the scrutiny that Democrats have brought to the administration's approach to immigration courts and their personnel.
Former immigration judges and lawyers say that bringing on people without experience is a potential benefit for permanent judges seeking a long career as an immigration judge. But it can present a steep learning curve and potential violations of due process if a judge's stint is only months-long, as would be the case with military lawyers, or JAGs, they say.
"The Trump administration's willingness to fire experienced and impartial immigration judges and hire inexperienced or temporary 'deportation judges,' especially in places like California, has fundamentally impacted the landscape of our justice system," Schiff told NPR in a statement.
"Given the administration's unlawful terminations of qualified judges, and their plan to leverage the power of temporary positions to speed up their mass deportation agenda, the risks of grave injury to families, fairness, and due process have expanded," he said.
The Trump administration authorized the use of military lawyers as temporary judges in an effort to streamline the millions-long backlog of immigration cases in the courts.
That backlog has only gotten worse as immigration courts, which are housed within the Justice Department, have seen efforts to restructure their workforce.
NPR has tracked at least 140 immigration judges who have been fired, quit or took an early retirement offer from the administration. At least 90 of them, including those who were supervisors, have received termination notices from the administration. Of the judges fired between February and October this year, most had experience in immigration defense, an NPR investigation found.
Latest round of layoffs
The latest round of firings hit courts in San Francisco, New York and Boston, with at least seven judges fired in just one of New York's courts earlier this week. Many of the firings, like for other civil servants in the federal workforce, focused on employees still inside their two-year probationary period.
But this recent string of layoffs included at least 13 experienced judges who had been with the agency for years, NPR has identified.
Jeremiah Johnson was among those recently terminated. He had been a judge in San Francisco since 2017 but received a short email just before Thanksgiving, notifying him his time with the agency was over.
He said he got no indication his performance was amiss. In the weeks leading up to his termination, new lawyers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been shadowing hearings in his courtroom, a sign he believed showed his courtroom conduct was a good learning space. He had also just received an additional set of cases for people held at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, adding to his responsibilities.
"I was doing my job. I was there hearing cases, moving things along. I was also trying to uplift the morale of my colleagues and coworkers and team," Johnson said. Despite working at the agency for seven years, he got the same email as dozens of others. A few sentences explaining that the attorney general has decided his time was over, with no other explanation.
"I was fired for doing my job. And frankly, I think this administration doesn't want judges following the law," Johnson said.
The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the agency that houses immigration courts, has disputed that it seeks to prioritize judges who would be more likely to decide immigrants should be deported; it says judges have legal, ethical and professional obligations to be impartial to either side.
The agency has said it evaluates all immigration judges regardless of background on factors including conduct, impartiality, adherence to the law, productivity and performance, and professionalism.
Some judges have sued the administration over their terminations, arguing that they may have been terminated on various protected grounds such as nationality or gender.
"Most recently, yesterday, I was sued by an immigration judge who we fired," said Attorney General Pam Bondi during a Tuesday cabinet meeting. "One of the reasons she said she was a woman. Last I checked, I was a woman as well."
Push for "deportation" judges
Meanwhile, the administration has recently added 36 judges, including 25 temporary ones, and launched a campaign to hire "deportation" judges. The agency did not respond to questions over how many applications it has received in the first few weeks of the hiring campaign. The campaign was launched prior to the recent firings of 15 judges.
The hiring campaign offers a pay recruitment incentive for those who work in one of eight courts across New York, California and Massachusetts, where firings and resignations have depleted the workforce.
"Define America for generations" and "restore integrity and honor to our Nation's Immigration Court system" are among the selling points for the position, in addition to remote and full-time teleworking benefits. Most immigrants are required to appear in person at their immigration hearings, and most courts, administrative and judicial, have returned to in-person work since the pandemic.
Each judge who is terminated or resigns leaves behind thousands of cases, with those scheduled for this year now rescheduled to as far out as 2030. Immigration advocates have warned the layoffs contribute to the backlog.
"Reducing the immigration court backlog is one of the highest priorities for the Executive Office for Immigration Review," said Kathryn Mattingly, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which houses immigration courts. "EOIR is committed to making further advancements to its operational efficiency, thereby helping to ensure timely justice for both parties involved and the public it serves."
—NPR's Anusha Mathur contributed to this report.
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