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The Trump administration is firing scores of immigration judges and bringing on dozens of others. These judges inside the executive branch are often immigrants' last chance to argue why they should stay in the U.S. NPR's Ximena Bustillo and Anusha Mathur have found a pattern in the backgrounds of 70 judges who have been fired. The largest share have experience representing immigrants.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: The story told is often the same. It started out as a dream job.
TANIA NEMER: It was something that, like, I was essentially, like, born to do.
BUSTILLO: Tania Nemer was selected to be an immigration judge in Cleveland.
NEMER: I feel like as the middle child, I was always kind of just put in that situation between siblings and parents and cousins. And I always just loved listening and asking questions and understanding their perspective. And then, if I had a basis to solve the problem, I loved to do that.
BUSTILLO: That's why she loved her job as an immigration judge. But that dream came to an end one day in February, while she was in the middle of a hearing.
NEMER: I had about, you know, 30 or 40 immigrants in my courtroom. I had DHS. I had court staff. I was on the bench, on the record. I had just finished explaining all to the group, like, their rights and responsibilities.
BUSTILLO: Then her supervisor took her aside and Nemer was informed that she was terminated, but not given a reason. She was escorted out of the building. Nemer was among the very first immigration judges to be terminated. Immigration judges are civil servants in the Justice Department, one of the agencies that has seen restructuring in the federal workforce. And since, that scene has played out in courtrooms across the country.
KYRA LILIEN: I think being a judge is sort of a goal, a career goal that a lot of immigration attorneys have.
BUSTILLO: That's Kyra Lilien. She was an immigration judge in Northern California, and she got her email in the middle of an asylum hearing.
LILIEN: The interpreter who was in the courtroom with me, he had been in many hearings with me, and he just started crying, and he said, I can't believe this is happening.
BUSTILLO: She was also never given a reason. Anam Petit was an immigration judge in Virginia also fired during a hearing.
ANAM PETIT: No one has told me why I was let go, you know? So this is all speculative. It has to be because no one has had that conversation with me.
BUSTILLO: NPR has independently identified 70 judges fired by the Trump administration. An analysis of their professional backgrounds show that those who have prior background in immigrant defense make up the largest share of those fired. Out of those onboarded in the last two years, those who have some experience working for the Department of Homeland Security make up the largest share of those still on the bench. Dozens have confirmed to NPR that they were not given a reason for their firings. Several judges have wondered if their own experience defending immigrants was a reason. Here's Lilien, the judge in California.
LILIEN: Anyone who ever represented a noncitizen at any point in their lives - whether they also worked for DHS, whether they worked for ICE - that seems to be the indelible stain that got them fired.
BUSTILLO: The Justice Department said it doesn't, quote, "target or prioritize" immigration judges for any personnel decisions based on judges' prior experience. There are outliers to the rule. NPR identified judges terminated that had no immigration defense experience and were instead DOJ and DHS veterans. Similarly, the administration did keep some judges who had defended immigrants. Still, the large number of firings has long raised questions among judges like Petit over how this benefits the Trump administration's goal of mass deportations.
PETIT: I know it's not agency needs because they're hiring other immigration judges.
BUSTILLO: Petit, the judge in Virginia, is referring to 11 new permanent judges. They have prior experience in immigration enforcement, the military and federal service. They don't seem to have prior immigration defense experience. In the announcement, DOJ said that the new judges are, quote, "joining an immigration judge corps that is committed to upholding the rule of law," and that integrity is being restored to the agency.
Dana Leigh Marks was an immigration judge for 35 years and retired in 2021. She says having the courts and enforcement under the same branch of government means the courts are never fully independent.
DANA LEIGH MARKS: What's happening now is that because the immigration courts are in an executive branch agency which does have - rightfully - policy considerations, it skews the role of the immigration court system.
BUSTILLO: Marks and other former judges ultimately say the reshaping of the immigration court workforce impacts the limited due process immigrants get. The rapid firings, they say, changes the perception of how fair these courts will be as the administration aims to increase the number of people going through the system.
Ximena Bustillo, NPR News, Washington.
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