Tipsheet

Immigration Courts Are Bleeding Judges, Leaving Millions of Cases in Limbo

Jeff Charles
Jeff Charles  |  February 25, 2026 12:00 PM

The nation’s immigration courts have lost about a quarter of their judges over the past year, which leaves millions of immigrants’ cases in flux as the Trump administration works to reconsider who should sit on the bench.

An NPR investigation revealed that the Executive Office for Immigration Review saw the number of immigration judges drop from about 700 to just over 550 over the past year.

Amiena Khan was supposed to have the day off that December. But, in a supervisory role at an immigration court, "you never really are on leave," she said. So Khan was working — mostly on performance evaluations for the 36 immigration judges and dozens of staff members she oversaw at the court in Manhattan's 26 Federal Plaza.

At 11:29 a.m., while in the middle of a meeting, Khan received the email she had been dreading for months: she had been fired. As her phone began blowing up, she learned that six of the judges she supervised had been terminated as well.

"As I tried to reassure them, I was trying to explain, 'But I've been terminated too,'" said Khan, who had been an assistant chief immigration judge at the court. "It was chilling and — in how the terminations were effectuated — it was disrespectful. It was utter disregard of dedicated public servants."

While Khan's firing was upsetting, she said it wasn't altogether shocking. The Trump administration fired nearly 100 judges in 2025. The dismissals were part of a larger push by the Trump administration to reshape America's immigration courts.

The number of judges in the nation's immigration courts shrunk by about a quarter in the last year due to firings and resignations — even when accounting for new hires. Twelve immigration courts have lost over half of their judges. Many courts are down to skeleton crews to handle thousands of cases; two courts have no judges at all.

San Francisco, one of the nation’s busiest immigration courts, lost 16 judges in 2025. Now, it has only four judges and one supervisor who are tasked with handling about 120,000 pending cases. The Trump administration has fired over 100 judges since President Donald Trump took office last year.

Even further, the administration has eliminated over 400 support staff positions. This comes as the system is struggling to handle a backlog of about 3.2 million cases.

This drop is not only because of the firings. Pressure has motivated many judges to resign or retire. NPR’s analysis showed that judges with immigrant defense or civil rights backgrounds made up the bulk of those who were fired, suggesting that the administration wants more hawkish judges on the bench adjudicating these cases.

The administration is working to replace the judges. The Justice Department recently hired 33 new immigration judges, including 27 temporary appointments after relaxing qualification rules and recruiting from the military, according to Reuters.

The Pentagon authorized up to 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges after the DOJ removed requirements that temporary judges have prior immigration law experience.

If the Justice Department is unable to replace the judges, the immigration court system will become even more backlogged. Advocates warn that replacing experienced immigration judges increases the risk of legal errors, wrongful deportations, and inconsistent rulings. But if the trend continues, there will be many more cases in limbo as immigrants wait to have their cases decided.