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Another 15 immigration judges were fired Friday, according to the
judges’ union, with multiple sources saying one of the judges was
assigned to San Diego.

“It’s pretty alarming,” said Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, which represents
immigration judges.

Biggs said several rounds of firings and buyouts since President Donald
Trump took office in January have brought the number of immigration
judges nationwide down from about 700 to roughly 600, with a backlog of
about 3.7 million cases.

“It’s contrary to what President Trump ran on,” Biggs said, adding that he believed, “they want to get rid of as many as possible and replace
them with political loyalists who are loyal to President Trump and will
deport as many people as possible.”

Immigration judges are civil servants under the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), not political
appointees. They generally serve a two-year probationary period and are
then evaluated to potentially be converted into a permanent position.

On July 3, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, both Democrats
from Massachusetts, sent a letter to the Trump administration about an
EOIR decision in April to not convert half of a class of probationary immigration judges, noting a roughly 94% conversion rate in recent years.

“We are deeply concerned that this decision may have been made for politically motivated reasons,” the senators wrote, adding, “these steps appear to be an attempt to replace longstanding immigration judges and nonpartisan officials with political loyalists.”

The EOIR declined to comment on the latest round of firings. Multiple
sources said one of the judges fired Friday was from the San Diego
Immigration Court.

The name of one of the judges who was nearing the end of his two-year probationary period was removed from the court’s website as of Monday – though it was on the site last week. He did not respond to a request for comment.

“He was a great judge,” said immigration attorney Jordan Schweller. “He was such a nice guy. And I'm not talking about his record with asylum or
grants or anything like that. He was just a really good human being.”

There are two immigration courts in San Diego County: one at the federal building downtown and another at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. The
latest departure brings the number of judges at San Diego Immigration
Court down to eight, including the assistant chief immigration judge,
with three others at Otay Mesa.

At least one other judge at San Diego Immigration Court was let go in
recent months. Her attorney declined to comment.

The case backlog at San Diego Immigration Court has fallen, from 5,221
pending cases last fiscal year to 4,321 in 2025, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, known as TRAC,
but the average amount of time to close a case has risen: 447 days now,
versus 358 in 2024, up from 269 in 2023.

The Otay Mesa Detention Center has a backlog of 902 pending cases, down
from 1,028 in fiscal year 2024, according to TRAC. The number of days
waited is now 101, up from 43.

“The detention facilities are just overwhelmed right now,” Schweller
said. “The less judges, the longer people are in detention. More judges
means more cases being handled.”

Biggs said each immigration judge handles between 500 and 700 cases a year.

“If it's this administration's goal to deport as many people as
possible, you need judges for that, right?” Schweller said. “So how does that make sense? I cannot figure it out for the life of me, it's so counterproductive.”

“I think the only way this makes sense is if you have stock in private detention, like CoreCivic or GEO,” he added.

They were not getting the job done. Order them gone, sign your name -
done.

NEXT!

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/trump-administration-fires-more-immigration-judges-union-says/3868210/

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