Department of Defense (War) Moves to Order Military Lawyers to Be Immigration Judges

Kevin R. Johnson

30 Jun 2026

The Trump administration has been transforming the immigration courts. The transformation continues.

Celine Castronuovo for Bloomberg Law reports that "[t]he Defense Department is planning to begin involuntarily activating military lawyers to serve as immigration judges and to represent the government in cases involving detained migrant children, according to recent recruitment emails." Check out the story for details.

Read AILA's Response to the DHS Open Letter to Immigration Attorneys

Last month, James Percival, DHS's General Counsel, wrote an open letter to AILA purporting to blame immigration attorneys for the asylum backlog and characterizing asylum applications as "meritless." AILA's Executive Director Benjamin Johnson's thoughtful response is available here. In it, he writes:

More Deportation Judges

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced another class of judges: 22 permanent and 4 temporary. The names and biographies of the new judges are available here.

There’s been an uptick in ICE arrests in the Bay Area, immigration attorneys warn

As election day nears, ICE operations appear to be on the rise. Several attorneys report that several ICE arrests across the Bay Area "reflect increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement." "Bay Area `rapid response' hotlines monitoring immigration arrests have seen an uptick in reports since this weekend, said

Seattle U Students Support Immigration Detainees Through Legal Aid and Advocacy

Read here about the good work of Seattle University law school students for immigrants

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Read AILA's Response to the DHS Open Letter to Immigration Attorneys

More Deportation Judges

There’s been an uptick in ICE arrests in the Bay Area, immigration attorneys warn

Seattle U Students Support Immigration Detainees Through Legal Aid and Advocacy