Trump Admin Fires Immigration Judges Biden Attempted To Appoint Last Minute
The Trump administration has dismissed 20 “midnight” immigration judges whom the Biden administration attempted to install in its final days, The Washington Times has learned.
According to a Justice Department source, 13 judges appointed in late December and early January were removed on Friday. Additionally, seven assistant chief immigration judges were also ousted, the outlet reported on Saturday.
The dismissals mirror a similar purge carried out by the Biden administration upon taking office in 2021 when it removed many last-minute Trump-appointed immigration judges.
Among those fired, according to a Justice Department source, was Kerry Doyle—a former critic of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) before being appointed as ICE’s principal legal adviser.
During her tenure at ICE, Doyle championed lenient policies toward illegal immigrants. The Biden administration later attempted to embed her into the regular civil service by converting her from a political appointee, the source said.
As of Friday night, Doyle’s name was still listed on the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review court roster. EOIR was once seen as politically neutral, but under Joe Biden’s administration, efforts were made to remove individuals perceived to be closely aligned with President Trump.
By 2023, the Biden administration had removed six of the ten senior executive positions at the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the Times reported.
Additionally, more than ten immigration judges appointed during the Trump era were either dismissed at the end of their probationary period or chose to resign rather than be fired, the outlet added.
The Trump Justice Department views its recent actions as following the same precedent set by the Biden administration.
“The Biden administration set a precedent by terminating numerous immigration judges during their term or trial periods for the first time in EOIR history. So, it’s not surprising that EOIR is following that precedent,” the senior department official said.
Immigration judges are not part of the traditional judicial system but are instead employees of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
The recently dismissed judges had not yet undergone training or presided over any cases.
These firings come just weeks after the Trump administration removed the leadership team appointed by President Biden at EOIR.
In January, the Trump administration ousted the acting director of EOIR, the chief immigration judge, the general counsel, and the head of policy, the Times noted further.
President Trump ran on an aggressive immigration enforcement platform that included “mass deportations,” which — according to recent polling — is still supported by a majority of Americans.
Customs and Border Protection data shows that border crossings have fallen a whopping 90 percent from the same period one year prior, with a mere 359 illegal migrants being processed each day, The New York Post reported.
“That puts the US on track to have the lowest monthly border crossings in at least 25 years. If the trend continues, the number of illegal migrants coming into the US could hit a level not seen since 1968, nearly 60 years ago,” the report said.
Center for Immigration Studies executive director Mark Krikorian told The Post that the border crossings are the lowest that the United States has seen “in almost a lifetime.”
“If you kind of break down the numbers, divide them by 365, we haven’t had numbers this low since the 1960s. So we’re talking 60-year lows if it’s sustained, obviously,” the executive director said.
The data showed that through February 11, only 3,953 illegal migrants had been encountered at the southern border, which, if those numbers continue, would bring the total in the month to around 10,000, a number that has never been achieved since the CBP began tracking this data in 1999.
Not coincidentally, the closest that number ever got to 10,000 was in April 2017, during the first Trump presidency, when monthly crossings were just over 11,000, the report said.
“That’s a very, very low number,” Pew Research Center associate director John Gramlich said.
At this same time last year, southern border crossing encounters averaged around 4,850 daily.
