Slowing Deportations

According to an  AP investigation, the Trump administration has fired 17 immigration court judges across ten states—without cause. These experienced judges were abruptly dismissed when immigration courts are already overwhelmed with backlogs and budgetary strain. These firings will delay deportations.

The firings appear to have little to do with performance and everything to do with political loyalty.

In one case, Immigration Judge Matthew O’Brien was reportedly dismissed shortly after meeting with Senator Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to discuss his concerns about the immigration court system. While no explicit reason was given for his termination, the timing has raised alarm bells among court observers and the judge’s union, which views the dismissal as politically motivated.

Others were terminated despite impeccable records.

The result? A chilling message to remaining judges: you’re expected to rule in line with the administration’s political agenda—or you’ll be disposed of.

Let’s be clear about what this is: a strategic effort to hollow out the integrity of a judicial system that already struggles to uphold due process for migrants. And it’s happening at the worst possible time—amid record case backlogs, rising detention numbers, and massive human stakes.

Immigration judges aren’t traditional Article III judges. They report to the Department of Justice, meaning they already lack structural independence. But firing sitting judges mid-case, without cause, weaponizes that vulnerability. It turns immigration courtrooms into little more than extensions of ICE enforcement strategy.

And it doesn’t just hurt the judges. It hurts the people waiting for them. Families fighting to stay together, asylum seekers fleeing violence, and detained immigrants stuck in limbo while their hearings are delayed again and again. What happens when those cases are funneled to inexperienced or politically vetted judges? Fewer fair hearings. More rushed deportations. More lives destroyed by administrative fiat.

There is a name for this kind of governance: authoritarianism. It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens like this—one agency at a time, one judge at a time, until entire systems of accountability are quietly dismantled.