Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation to limit who can serve as temporary immigration judges, responding to the Trump administration’s broader effort to reshape the immigration courts and complaints about a wave of recent firings. The bill follows the dismissal of at least 14 experienced judges in recent weeks and more than 90 terminations this year, according to data compiled by the immigration judges’ union and NPR, amid concern that due process is being eroded in a system already facing a massive case backlog.
On Wednesday, Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Juan Vargas, both California Democrats, introduced a bill aimed at tightening rules for appointing temporary immigration judges, according to NPR. The proposal would allow the attorney general to select temporary judges only from people with experience serving on appellate panels, as administrative judges in other federal agencies, or with at least 10 years of experience in immigration law. The measure is designed to sharply limit the Trump administration’s plan to bring in large numbers of military lawyers, or JAGs, as temporary judges — a move that critics say would sideline traditional experience requirements.
The bill comes amid a recent wave of layoffs in the immigration courts. The National Association of Immigration Judges told NPR that the Trump administration has terminated at least 14 immigration judges over the past two weeks. NPR’s tracking, based on court records and interviews, indicates that more than 90 judges have been fired so far this year, and that at least 140 judges in total have been dismissed, resigned or taken early retirement since February. Many of those affected, according to union officials and advocates cited by NPR, had backgrounds in immigrant defense and years of service, including some in supervisory roles.
Recent firings have hit courts in San Francisco, New York and Boston, NPR reports, with at least seven judges let go from a single New York courthouse. Among those dismissed was Jeremiah Johnson, who had served as an immigration judge in San Francisco since 2017. He told NPR that he received a brief email notifying him that his appointment would not be renewed shortly before Thanksgiving. "I was doing my job. I was there hearing cases, moving things along," Johnson said in an interview. "I was fired for doing my job. And frankly, I think this administration doesn't want judges following the law."
In a statement to NPR, Schiff criticized the administration’s approach. "The Trump administration's willingness to fire experienced judges and hire inexperienced or temporary 'deportation judges,' especially in places like California, has fundamentally impacted the landscape of our justice system," he said, adding that the strategy risks "grave injury to families, fairness, and due process."
The administration says the changes are needed to address a crushing backlog of cases in the immigration courts, which fall under the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). NPR reports that the administration recently hired 36 new immigration judges, including 25 on temporary appointments, and opened a recruitment drive for what internal documents describe as "deportation" judges in heavily backlogged courts in New York, California and Massachusetts. Each terminated judge leaves behind thousands of pending cases, pushing some individual hearing dates as far out as 2030, according to NPR’s review of court dockets.
The Democrats’ bill does not yet have any Republican co-sponsors and is expected to face long odds in the GOP-controlled Congress, NPR notes. EOIR officials have said their evaluations of judges are based on conduct, impartiality and performance, and they deny that the agency is favoring judges who are more likely to order deportations. Some of the fired judges have filed lawsuits alleging discrimination, including claims of bias based on nationality or gender, cases that remain pending in federal court.