Dismantling the Immigration Courts
Guest blogger: David Simmons, law student, University of San Francisco
Overview:
The overall status for Immigration courts over the past year has had a growing concern, especially in the past few months. Given the totalitarian regime brought by the Trump administration, the unbearable consequences of dismantling the Legal Immigration System have been more malicious than ever before. What does that mean for the people who work so diligently to uphold the rights of the men, women, and children, who depend on the Legal Immigration system? What about the judges, lawyers, and other legal professionals within the system?
Discussion:
After the shooting that had occurred in Washington, DC, involving two members of the National Guard, the Trump Administration responded swiftly by halting asylum applications and visa issuances for nationals of Afghanistan. Worse, the Administration halted all asylum decisions, regardless of where they are applying from. The ramifications of this move by the Trump Administration have been vast: naturalization ceremonies are postponed, green card interviews are being cancelled, cases in which the applicants have already interviewed are being paused — and now Immigration Judges are being fired.
In San Francisco, California, the immigration judges have gone from twenty-one, to a mere seven. Since April the Department of Justice has fired more than half of the bench in San Francisco’s Immigration courts, with two more retiring by year's end. This has created a backlog for the cases here in San Francisco Immigration Courts to increase above 120,000. By the same token, Immigration judges are either to challenge the directives of the Department of Homeland Security or face termination. At the crux of all of the firings for the judges here in the San Francisco Immigration Courts is that their granting of asylum is over two times the rate of the national average. For example, the national average for granting asylum is 41% but Judge Louis A. Gordon had the highest rate—91.2% for asylum seekers in his court. Judge Gordon had recently been fired this past November, with other San Francisco Immigration Court Judges such as: Shuting Chen, Jeremiah Johnson, Amber George, and Patrick Savage. All of these firings occurred on the same day.
But the immigration judges who have been fired here in San Francisco are not alone, the Department of Justice continues to dismantle the Immigration legal system across the country. In the beginning of the year there were about 700 immigration Judges in the U.S., now this number has fallen below 600–with the month of December still yet to finish. A data analysis published by Syracuse University has estimated that nearly 3.7 million active cases are awaiting a resolution in immigration courts nationwide, with 1.9 having formal asylum applications. With these firings continuing at an alarming rate, the growing number of backlogged immigration cases will only continue to rise.
It is deeply troubling to see how easy the Trump Administration is firing any and everyone who seeks to remain affirmative to helping individuals who step into the courtroom doors for some form of immigration relief. It is beyond a mere coincidence that these immigration judges are being fired, as “Every judge who was fired is a real expert in immigration law. [They] [have] a very strong background in immigration law, and reputation for fairness and for affording people a day in court” (Olivia Cassin). However, the immigration judges who have been fired, have a possible chance for constitutional protections. In a recent case, a fired federal worker is now suing the federal government for wrongful termination. This case caught the attention of a recent immigration judge who had been terminated, Tania Nemer. Tania Nemer was one of the top rated immigration judges in Ohio, without receiving any reason why she was being dismissed in the middle of her probation period. Federal workers on probation status have fewer rights to contest their firing than other civil servants, but they are still protected by constitutional safeguards barring relation for their political speech; and by civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and national origin.
Tania Nemer’s experience is not an isolated event, and other judges may have a reason to follow suit. The continued dismantling of the Legal Immigration system will have grave consequences that will only increase if the Trump Administration does not stop. Given the close of his first year of his second term, with three more to go, I fear the worse is yet to come. But I have hope. I have hope that the immigration law experts, scholars, and advocates alike, will continue to stand and speak against the injustices brought by the current Administration.
See References:
https://www.newsweek.com/fired-immigration-judges-speak-out-trump-admin-changes-11204434
https://www.newsweek.com/map-states-highest-immigration-court-backlogs-11160550
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/01/g-s1-99279/fired-worker-sues-government
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