The Justice Department has begun advertising openings for immigration judges following the dismissal of more than 100 sitting immigration judges from the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the DOJ agency overseeing immigration courts. According to PBS NewsHour, the department is now seeking to fill these positions with what critics have termed "deportation judges" as President Donald Trump presses forward with immigration enforcement priorities.
A current job posting lists remote openings across multiple locations with an application deadline of May 22. The position requires applicants to hold an LL.B., J.D., or LL.M. degree, maintain membership in a U.S. bar, and possess qualifying post-licensure litigation or adjudication experience. The job description states that immigration judges must handle removal cases, bond hearings, asylum claims, withholding of removal, Convention Against Torture protections, and related immigration matters. The posting specifies that judges must exercise "independent judgment" in final decisions—language now contested by former judges and immigration advocates who contend the mass dismissals convey a conflicting message.
The personnel overhaul began early in Trump's second term. The administration initially fired 20 immigration judges without explanation, according to the Associated Press, including judges not yet sworn in and assistant chief immigration judges. At that time, immigration courts were already handling more than 3.7 million pending cases, according to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
The removals have accelerated since January 2025. Reuters reported in March that the Justice Department had hired 42 new immigration judges, many with backgrounds in immigration enforcement and prosecution, to serve across 17 states. These appointments followed the removal, resignation, or retirement of more than 100 judges since the start of the year.
Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the hiring initiative in March, stating that the 42 new judges would help address the court backlog and that immigration judges under Trump would decide cases "based on the law not politics."
Former judges dispute this characterization. Jeremiah Johnson, who served as an immigration judge in San Francisco and was appointed during Trump's first term, was fired in November without explanation after eight years on the bench. Johnson told PBS NewsHour that judges faced mounting pressure as their caseloads expanded. He described being assigned three individual cases daily before detained cases were added to his docket, effectively doubling his workload to six cases. "The stakes couldn't be higher," Johnson said, noting that asylum seekers claiming they faced murder, rape, or harm if returned to their home countries were affected by these accelerated proceedings.
Bloomberg Law reported that the DOJ is also advancing a plan to assign up to 600 military lawyers to serve temporary stints as immigration judges. A DOJ spokesperson said EOIR intends to bring in new judge cohorts at least every quarter.
Immigration reform advocates have long argued that the immigration court system remains vulnerable to political pressure because immigration judges are DOJ employees and ultimately answer to the attorney general rather than functioning as an independent judiciary. Former DOJ officials and advocates have repeatedly called on Congress to relocate the courts outside the Justice Department.
