The corps of permanent U.S. immigration judges has shrunk by roughly a quarter over the past year, driven by firings during 2025 and additional resignations and retirements, according to NPR’s review of agency staffing data and interviews with court personnel. The losses have left some courts with few or no judges and added strain to a system facing a near-4 million case backlog.
The number of permanent immigration judges in the United States has fallen sharply over the past year, a decline that current and former court employees say has worsened staffing shortages and raised concerns about the ability of immigration courts to provide timely, fair hearings.
According to data obtained and verified by NPR, on Feb. 4, 2025 — the day before the first immigration judge firing of President Donald Trump’s second term — the immigration judge corps included 726 permanent judges: 683 immigration judges and 43 assistant chief immigration judges, spread across 75 courts. As of Feb. 23, 2026, NPR reported that the number stood at 520 permanent immigration judges and 33 assistant chief immigration judges, even after accounting for recent hires.
NPR reported that the administration fired nearly 100 immigration judges in 2025, based on an independent tally it kept, and that dozens more judges retired or resigned, with several citing discomfort with new adjudication policies. NPR also reported that 202 judges who were working in early 2025 were no longer in place by early 2026.
The staffing losses have extended beyond judges. NPR reported that EOIR — the Justice Department office that runs the immigration courts — lost more than 400 legal assistants, attorney advisers and legal administrative specialists. NPR’s analysis found that about 75% of attorney advisers and 54% of court supervisors had left, forcing remaining supervisors to manage multiple courts.
NPR reported that 12 immigration courts lost more than half of their judges and that two courts had no judges at all.
Former assistant chief immigration judge Amiena Khan, who NPR said was fired in December 2025 while overseeing judges at New York’s Federal Plaza immigration court, told NPR that the terminations were “chilling” and “disrespectful,” describing what she viewed as a disregard for career public servants. Arwen Swink, a former immigration judge NPR said was fired from San Francisco in December 2025, told NPR the dismissals sent a message to judges to apply the law as the administration interprets it — which, she argued, undermines confidence in immigration proceedings.
The Trump administration has defended its personnel decisions. In a statement to NPR, a Justice Department spokesperson said the department was “restoring integrity to our immigration system by following the law, timely completing cases, and hiring the most talented legal professionals,” and argued that immigration judges under the Biden administration had been too lenient in granting asylum or other forms of relief.
NPR reported that EOIR has said staff reductions have not affected productivity, even as the immigration court system faces a nearly 4 million case backlog.
In San Francisco, NPR reported that EOIR announced it would close the immigration court at 100 Montgomery St. at the end of the year, moving cases to the Concord Immigration Court. NPR cited Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) data showing San Francisco’s caseload at about 120,000 cases and Concord’s at about 60,000 cases. EOIR spokesperson Kathryn Mattingly told NPR the move would be “more cost-effective.”
Separately, local reporting in San Francisco has described courthouse disruptions tied to immigration enforcement operations, including arrests around immigration court proceedings.
NPR also reported that some judges who left said they no longer felt they had judicial independence. Ana Partida, a judge who retired from the Otay Mesa court in San Diego in October 2025, told NPR that she left earlier than planned because she no longer felt independent “to make decisions under the law as I interpreted it.”
