The Trump administration has purged more than 100 immigration judges and hired more than 140 in their place, but many have no relevant legal experience in the field, according to a report.
In a bid to carry out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, as set out by President Donald Trump when he returned to office, the Justice Department replaced many immigration judges hired under the Biden administration with a more “malleable workforce,” a former appointee told The Washington Post.
There are approximately 700 immigration judges handling over 3 million cases across the country—and they work for Trump’s Justice Department, and are not part of the judicial branch. They are responsible for deciding whether undocumented migrants should be granted asylum and be allowed to remain in the country, or whether they should be deported.
Many immigration judges quit or retired when Trump returned to the White House, in addition to the more than 100 the Justice Department fired, according to the Post.
The new hires include an attorney who has represented three Jan. 6 rioters and a Minnesota-based attorney who asked what could be done to support the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers amid the crackdown in Minneapolis, where two American citizens were killed by federal agents.
Kerry Doyle told the outlet that she was hired under Biden to serve as an immigration judge but was then fired last year before she heard any cases. “They’re trying to create a malleable workforce that will do what they want without question,” Doyle, a former ICE official, told the outlet. “That’s what I think the goal is.”
Two-thirds of the new hires, who will be paid between $159,951 to $207,500 per year, have no relevant legal immigration experience listed in their biographies, according to the Post’s analysis of announcements by the Justice Department. Only 24 percent of them had worked for ICE, the immigration courts, or for the Department of Homeland Security.
The National Association of Immigration Judges told the outlet that the usual training for new appointees has been cut from five weeks to three.
The Independent has contacted the Justice Department for comment.
Under the second Trump administration, the immigration courts have been overhauled, largely overseen by deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller.
The Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals has reportedly ushered in new orders for judges to dismiss cases on the request of the federal government so that defendants can be arrested. Judges have also been advised to grant asylum “more sparingly,” according to the newspaper.
Eyebrows have been raised at some of the appointments, which the Justice Department has been recruiting for in social media posts.
Melissa Isaak, an Army veteran, was named a temporary immigration judge in Atlanta, Georgia, this month. Isaak defended three Jan. 6 rioters accused of storming the Capitol after Trump lost the 2020 election, but she later withdrew from two of the cases, according to the Post. Isaak also falsely claimed that statistics show more men are victims of domestic abuse than women.
Another recruit appointed this month was Minnesota-based lawyer Nathan M. Hansen, who reportedly shared social media posts about the “Haitian invasion of Ohio,” as peddled by Trump and Vice President JD Vance during the 2024 presidential campaign. Hansen has promoted other conspiracy theories, including “Pizzagate,” which baselessly alleged Democrats were running a child sex trafficking ring out of a Washington, D.C. pizzeria, according to the newspaper.
In a recent news release, the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review agency touted the new appointees.
“EOIR remains committed to reducing the immigration court backlog and unwinding the policies of the Biden Administration that included a de facto open border and amnesty,” said the agency’s director, Daren K. Margolin. “These new highly qualified immigration judges have sworn to decide the cases before them based on the law — that is, the laws passed by the United States Congress.”
