By The American Tribune | Created at 2026-09-10 10:19:23 | Updated at 2026-09-10 11:32:45
1 hour ago
President Donald Trump’s administration removed at least 130 immigration judges between January 2025 and June 2026, according to a July analysis of the overhaul. The analysis found that the sweeping personnel changes disproportionately affected judges with higher asylum-approval rates, immigration-defense backgrounds, and appointments dating to the Biden administration. The administration simultaneously launched an aggressive replacement effort as it moved to accelerate case decisions and clear a massive immigration backlog.
Immigration judges are not Article III federal judges with lifetime appointments. They work for the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which means they operate inside the executive branch and remain subject to the attorney general’s authority. The judges determine whether foreign nationals may remain in the United States or should be ordered removed, while the Board of Immigration Appeals reviews contested decisions.
The new figures come from a July 17th, 2026, analysis written by United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Meg Satterthwaite and legal fellow Sang-Min Kim. Their data covered personnel changes between January 2025 and June 2026 and identified at least 108 trial-level judges, 13 assistant chief immigration judges, and nine appellate immigration judges who were terminated. At least another 43 judges and three assistant chief judges reportedly accepted the administration’s deferred-resignation offer.
The analysis, published by Just Security, found that judges with records more favorable to asylum applicants were disproportionately likely to be removed. Among 78 terminated judges for whom public asylum data were available, 68% had grant rates above both the national average and the average for their individual courts, with 83% exceeding at least one of those two benchmarks.
Judges with experience in immigrant defense, humanitarian advocacy, or legal-aid work were also removed at higher rates, according to the report. Biden-era appointees and probationary judges nearing the end of their probation periods were hit particularly hard. Of the 53 judges hired in April and July 2023, 26 were terminated, including 16 who had backgrounds in immigrant defense, legal aid, or pro bono advocacy.
The removals began immediately after Trump returned to office, when four senior career officials at EOIR were dismissed on Inauguration Day. Another 32 immigration judges were reportedly terminated in February 2025, followed by eight in April, 22 in July, 26 in September, and 12 in December. Additional terminations continued during the first half of 2026, bringing the report’s total to at least 130.
The Trump administration has moved quickly to refill the courts as part of its immigration-enforcement agenda. The Justice Department announced that 77 permanent immigration judges and five temporary judges were sworn in on May 20th, forming the largest incoming class in EOIR history. The department said it had hired 153 permanent immigration judges during fiscal year 2026, also an agency record.
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“Today, we are onboarding the largest immigration judge class in agency history,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “This could only happen thanks to President Trump’s decisive leadership and commitment to securing our borders.” The new class increased the immigration judge corps to nearly 700; many of the permanent judges had backgrounds in criminal prosecution or immigration enforcement, while the five temporary judges came from the military.
EOIR has also warned judges that personal policy preferences or disagreements with government policy cannot influence their rulings. A June 2025 policy memorandum declared, “Bias against DHS is just as corrosive to the integrity of EOIR as bias against aliens,” and said judges who would prefer to be policy advocates favoring either side “should consider transitioning to alternate career paths.” In its May 21st announcement, EOIR said it had completed more than 1.08 million cases since January 20th, 2025, and reduced its pending caseload by more than 447,000, cutting the backlog from approximately 4 million cases to fewer than 3.53 million.
