| The Trump administration fired nearly 100 judges in 2025 as part of a larger push to reshape U.S. immigration courts. These firings, as well as resignations, shrunk the number of judges in the nation’s immigration courts by about a quarter in the last year, even when accounting for new hires. The Justice Department Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) lost more than 400 legal assistants, attorney advisers and legal administrative specialists, according to data NPR obtained and verified. While the administration defends its personnel decisions as a necessary correction to "lenient" asylum rulings, the drain has crushed staff morale, bloated backlogs and left the due process system floundering.
➡️ The staff left behind say that the current justice system is fundamentally different from what it was a year ago. One visible change is in the work environment. People in bureaucratic roles witnessed immigration and customs officers violently arresting people in the court hallways. Some judges also say they feel pressure to align case decisions with the administration's priorities.
➡️ Although the majority of courts across the U.S. have lost judges, the impact hasn’t been spread evenly. The Trump administration onboarded 17 new permanent judges, but assigned only one to a court that lost the majority of its judges.
➡️ Smaller courts have felt the biggest impact of personnel shrinkage. Fourteen are now operating with two or fewer permanent judges. | 
