Trump cuts immigration judges amid growing case backlog

President Donald Trump fired 20 immigration judges adding to what is already a massive backlog in immigration cases. Immigration courts are already dealing with a backlog of about 4 million cases.

As part of its efforts to reduce the size of the government workforce, the Trump Administration has been firing federal employees on probationary status, meaning they had recently been hired for their positions.

Immigration judges are on probationary status for their first two years, according to the judges’ union, except for military veterans who have probationary status for only a year.

Stephen Montoya, Partner of Montoya, Lucero and Pastor, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss.

“It’s really inconsistent with Trump’s policies of trying to expedite the removal of people here illegally immigration-wise,” Montoya said.

He said the removal of these immigration judges will slow the process and cause “thousands of more delays.” The backlog of immigration cases comes from these dismissals.

“In fairness to the Trump administration, the Biden administration, the minute it came into power, terminated seven immigration law judges recently appointed by Trump in his term that he thought were not for filling President Biden’s policy, so both sides do it,” Montoya said.

According to him, immigration judges are supposed to be unbiased however they work under the Attorney General and take the risk of being fired if they do not practice the current president’s party’s values.

“I think the concept of a neutral administrative law judge that we’ve had since the passage of the Administrative Procedure Act back in the 30s is really going to take a downturn,” Montoya said.

This issue sways between both parties Republican and Democrat, according to Montoya.