By Simon CrerarShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberThe Trump administration has fired eight immigration judges in New York City, sharply cutting staff at one of the country’s busiest immigration courts as President Donald Trump vows to speed up deportations, The New York Times reported late Monday.
The judges, including an assistant chief immigration judge who supervised colleagues at the court inside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, were told their jobs were over as part of a nationwide shake-up of the immigration bench, the paper said, citing union and Justice Department officials.
The New York firings are part of a broader wave: Roughly 90 immigration judges have been dismissed across the United States this year, with only 36 replaced, according to the Times. That represents a sizable churn in a system that handles hundreds of thousands of deportation and asylum cases per year and already faces a record case backlog of more than 3.7 million matters nationwide.
...Why It Matters
Immigration judges decide whether people can stay in the U.S. or must be removed. Cutting dozens of experienced adjudicators while the Trump administration is rolling out a mass deportation agenda risks deepening an already severe backlog and raises fresh questions about due process in immigration courts.
Trump’s plan for large-scale removals is running headlong into a bottleneck of nearly 4 million pending cases, prompting Stephen Yale-Loehr, immigration attorney who teaches at Cornell Law School, to previously tell Newsweek, “you just cannot deport people without a hearing.”
Union officials and former judges previously told Newsweek that earlier rounds of firings and forced departures inside the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)—the Justice Department agency that runs the courts—have added years to wait times in asylum cases, with some hearings now pushed into 2028.
The latest dismissals in New York cut into the roster at 26 Federal Plaza, which employs just over 30 immigration judges, shrinking the bench at a courthouse that has become central to Trump’s enforcement push in the city.
What To Know
According to the Times, all eight judges worked out of 26 Federal Plaza, the downtown Manhattan complex housing the city’s main immigration court and local headquarters for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Among those dismissed was Amiena A. Khan, assistant chief immigration judge at the courthouse, who oversaw other judges there, the paper said.
The National Association of Immigration Judges confirmed the firings, while a Justice Department official also acknowledged the dismissals on condition of anonymity. EOIR declined to answer detailed questions about why the judges were let go, including whether performance, ideology or caseload decisions played a role.Before Monday’s discharges, the administration had already fired about 90 immigration judges nationwide this year, including six in New York City, with only a fraction of those positions filled. Nationwide, EOIR oversees around 600 to 700 immigration judges, each typically handling hundreds of cases yearly, according to figures previously cited by union officials.
The shake-up comes as Trump has escalated his rhetoric on immigration after two National Guard members were shot near the White House—one fatally—and authorities identified the suspect as an Afghan national. In recent posts on Truth Social, the president vowed to halt migration from “all Third World Countries” so that, he wrote, the U.S. system can “fully recover,” positioning tougher enforcement and faster removals as central to his second-term agenda.
The New York court where the judges were dismissed has also been at the center of a series of high-profile clashes between ICE and migrants, their families and local officials.
In September, a federal ICE agent in New York City was relieved of duty after viral video surfaced showing him pushing a woman to the ground outside an immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, prompting investigations.
What People Are Saying
Olivia Cassin, former New York judge: “The court has been basically eviscerated. It feels like a Monday afternoon massacre.”
A former federal immigration judge laid off earlier this year—who requested anonymity due to legal appeals—told Newsweek she believes the firings of immigration judges have added years of delays to asylum cases: “I already had a backlog where I was filled for 2027. So my hearing dates are probably going to go back to 2028, and then you have to take all those cases and add them to the other judges. You're looking at years of delay of cases because you're removing judges from the courtroom.”
What Happens Next
The immediate consequence of losing eight judges at a single courthouse is likely to be more delays for people waiting years for their day in court, even as Trump and his allies insist they are attempting to speed up deportations.
Immigration attorneys previously told Newsweek that earlier rounds of firings have already added years to asylum timelines, and that recruiting and training new judges can take at least a year.
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