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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Inside the Trump administration’s unprecedented purge of immigration
judges
By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN
Updated:
7:00 AM EDT, Mon October 6, 2025
Source: CNN
Shira Levine was on her third case of the day. By the afternoon, she
had already presided over two immigration cases in a San Francisco
courtroom and was in the middle of another — this one, about an
asylum claim.
As she took notes on her computer, a notification popped up on her
screen. Levine had been terminated from her job as an immigration
judge.
“I see what it is. I ask for a quick break for the parties. I step
out and decide for myself that this is unprecedented,” she recalled
in an interview with CNN.
take years to resolve in immigration court and the one before Levine
was no exception. It was about to end abruptly — with no resolution.
“With my apologies, I’m going to end the case,” she recalled
saying when she re-entered the courtroom, then she read the termination
letter into the record.
“I explained through the interpreter that I was unfortunately not
going to be able to finish the case,” she said. “I packed up my
office and walked out the door.”
Levine was let go in September, when such dismissals were a near-daily
occurrence. Since Trump took office, 139 immigration judges have been
fired, taken an early-out offer, or been involuntarily transferred,
according to data provided by the National Association of Immigration
Judges. September had the highest number of terminations, with 24
people dismissed. According to the Justice Department, there are more
than 600 immigration judges located in 72 immigration courts
nationwide.
Immigration courts, unlike federal courts, fall under the executive
branch and are housed in the Justice Department, meaning that the
administration can wield immense influence over the system even as
judges try to maintain independence. The courts are crucial to
Trump’s sweeping as the forum where if immigrants can remain in the
United States or be deported.
“You cannot look at this in a vacuum”
In the early days of the second Trump administration, newly installed
leaders at the Justice Department senior leadership at the agency
overseeing the nation’s immigration courts from service, known as the
Executive Office for Immigration Review.
The removals, which targeted career public servants who together had
served in the agency for several years, illustrated the Trump
administration’s push to install officials who are aligned with his
policy vision.
In multiple cases of firings, the judges were not provided a reason for
the termination. At least 30 of them had grant rates of 30% or higher
— meaning they granted asylum claims — according to an analysis by
CNN of available records.
Fired judges have been located across multiple states, including
California, Connecticut, Maryland, Florida, New York and Washington.
CNN reached out to the Executive Office for Immigration Review for
comment.
Critics say the Trump administration is undermining its own priorities.
“The dismissal of more immigration judges is an illogical and costly
setback for the nation’s immigration courts,” said International
Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers President Matt Biggs
(NAIJ is an IFPTE affiliate) in a statement. “At a time when the
backlog has reached historic levels and the administration has made
immigration enforcement a central issue the removal of experienced
judges is hypocritical, undermines the law, wastes taxpayer dollars,
and further delays justice for citizens and immigrants alike.”
Ashley Tabaddor, who served as an immigration judge for 15 years as
well as president of the union four years during the first Trump
administration, described terminations in the past as “exceedingly
rare,” and usually based on performance.
“You cannot look at this in a vacuum. This is part and parcel of a
very, very grand scheme of creating a very frictionless deportation
machine,” Tabbador said.
Immigration courts have recently garnered national attention over the
presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who have been
some of those who come for their mandated hearing, and for instances of
shoving.
Even during the current government shutdown, DOJ deemed court personnel
essential, allowing courts to proceed as planned.
“EOIR currently has a backlog approaching four million cases which
would be greatly exacerbated during a shutdown absent excepted
activities,” .
The immigration court backlog exceeds 3.4 million cases, . The
termination of judges also means thousands of those cases are in limbo,
according to experts and former judges.
Challenging their removals
Levine’s termination notice, like those received by others, was sent
by the acting director of EOIR and was brief in nature.
“This notice serves to inform you that that pursuant to Article II of
the Constitution, the Attorney General has decided to remove you from
your position as an excepted service Immigration Judge with the United
States Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration
Review,” read the notice shared with CNN. It was effective
immediately.
No cause was provided and to her knowledge, no one alleged Levine had
done anything wrong, she said.
Prior to serving as an immigration judge, Levine was a law clerk on the
Ninth Circuit, served as an adjunct professor at an immigrant rights
clinic and worked as an attorney representing immigrants in San
Francisco and Los Angeles. She applied to become an immigration judge
in January 2021 and began hearing cases in October 2021, following
weeks of training that included sitting in on court hearings.
“I believe the Trump administration can’t stand people who play by
the rules,” she told CNN. “My concerns are for the rule of law in
this country. In terms of my own personal circumstances, I walked out
of that courtroom with great pride, knowing I had done my very best to
uphold rule of law and provide fair and full hearings.”
Levine is legally challenging her removal, as are others in the same
situation, like Chloe Dillon.
Prior to becoming an immigration judge, Dillon, who is also based in
San Francisco, had been a federal public defender and clerked for
immigration judges in Los Angeles. She started hearing cases in
November 2022 following rigorous training.
On August 22 this year, Dillon received an email from the acting EOIR
director saying she had been terminated.
“I had been finishing up a case which had taken more than one
scheduled hearing to do. We had done at least 3-hour testimony at prior
hearings and did another hour and a half of hearings. It was about 3
p.m. I closed the record, heard the evidence, heard closing statements,
and I was ready to render a decision. I was going to try to get it done
that day,” she said.
Dillon stepped out of her chambers to type up her notes of the hearing
and prepare the oral decision. But when she logged on to her computer,
an email awaited her with the subject line, “Notice of
termination.”
“I was going to do the verbal decision. Instead, myself and my
coworkers were packing up my office. I had absolutely no time to hand
off my 6,000 cases,” she said.
The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to finalizing paperwork and
preparing to leave. She could no longer render a decision to the
10-year-old case she had just been presiding over. The other cases she
had on her docket would be in limbo.
“The immigration courts are being dismantled. They are firing judges
at an extremely rapid pace,” Dillon said. “I think it’s fair to
say that every judge sitting on a bench thinks they may be or likely
will be fired.”
Enlisting military judges
In late August, the Justice Department for people to serve as temporary
immigration judges, paving the way for any attorney to fill the role.
Among those the administration has moved to enlist are military
lawyers.
The that the first group of Army lawyers tapped to serve as temporary
immigration judges would begin training Monday.
The Justice Department has hired attorneys from multiple backgrounds,
including the military, in the past — not all of whom have extensive
immigration experience — but all have received ample training. The
concern among former immigration judges is that placing people in
positions to make crucial decisions for immigrants without proper
training could undermine due process.
“For them, all they care about is efficiency. … They just want a
check-the-box exercise,” Tabaddor said.
A former senior military lawyer familiar with the situation told CNN
that dozens of JAGs from at least one service, the Army, are likely
going to have to be moved into immigration judge roles involuntarily
because not enough have volunteered to be transferred.
“Immigration law is complex,” this person said, and the JAGs will
need training. “Yes, I think every judge advocate in the JAG corps
could figure it out, because it’s got amazing people, but they all
have day jobs too.”
This person also noted that detailing the JAGs to immigration judge
roles could put them crosswise with the Trump administration if they
don’t rule how the White House and DHS want. “And then that puts
them on the radar, and is a way for the administration to get rid of
them,” the person said.
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