The U.S. Department of Justice has fired 20 immigration judges, which could potentially exacerbate the existing backlog of cases, according to a union official.
“The firings include 13 judges in training and five assistant chief immigration judges,” Matthew Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, representing federal workers, told the Associated Press. Biggs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
At the end of Fiscal 2024, U.S. immigration courts had a 3.6 million backlog of cases, a record high, according to a 2024 report from the Congressional Research Service.
The U.S. Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review has not made an official statement on the firings. The office, which oversees the immigration courts, could not be immediately reached for comment.
“I was, via email, terminated by the Acting Director of EOIR as an immigration judge yesterday, February 14, 2025,” Kerry E. Doyle, one of the immigration judges dismissed, wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
Five immigration judges in Texas were fired, according to the Texas Tribune. The U.S. has 734 immigration judges in more than 70 courts, with 13 courts in Texas.
Many people in removal proceedings apply for asylum, which can be lengthy and complex, contributing to the backlog, Foster said.
“The dockets are so backlogged that it’s routine when you have a case set for trial 5, 6, 7 years out,” said Charles C. Foster, chairman of Foster LLP, an immigration law firm with offices in Houston, Austin and Dallas. “Even with the number of judges we have, it could take forever to work your way through the docket.”
Foster said that whether it takes five, six, seven or 10 years, the individuals waiting for asylum will be here and fully integrated into the community.
“What we need is 200 percent increases or 300 percent increases or more in the number of immigration judges and trial attorneys,” Foster said. “You cannot increase one without the other.”
A Congressional Research Service report in 2023 recommended hiring at least 300 new immigration judges to tackle the backlog and stated that the backlog of cases wouldn’t even be cleared in ten years.
“I’m afraid there’s been a significant seismic shift in the adjudicators from must be balanced ‘ to let’s see how we can deny all of these cases,” Foster said.
On Jan. 22, President Donald Trump issued an executive order temporarily suspending asylum seekers’ applications at the Southern Texas and Mexico border and admitting refugees to the U.S. Foster said section 212 (f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act appears to give the president the right to exclude groups of people from entering the U.S. The real question is whether that overrules other sections of the Act, Foster said.
In the last five fiscal years, the Executive Officer for Immigration Review hired 437 new immigration judges nationwide. The number of immigration judges on staff has nearly tripled in the last decade. The officie has been expanding the number of courtrooms, and hiring more judges to deal with the backlog of cases.