The acting head of the U.S. immigration court system and three other top immigration court officials were fired on Monday soon after President Trump took office, according to three people familiar with the matter, in a purge of the top echelon of a critical part of the government’s immigration system.
The abrupt removals signaled that the Trump administration wants to remake the immigration court system, which is housed under the Justice Department, as part of a broader immigration crackdown that Mr. Trump began within minutes of being sworn in for his second term.
Immigration judges oversee an essential part of the system: granting asylum to migrants whose claims pass muster and ordering the deportation of those whose cases do not.
Tom Jawetz, a senior lawyer in the Homeland Security Department in the Biden administration, said the move suggested that Mr. Trump would try to insert loyalists who could undermine veteran career officials into key roles, as he did during his first term.
“Politicals during the first Trump administration ran roughshod over the career civil servants who have dedicated their lives to public service,” Mr. Jawetz said in an interview. “A Day 1 blood bath like this indicates that they don’t intend to change course now.”
The four officials included Mary Cheng, the acting director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review. The three others fired were Sheila McNulty, the chief immigration judge; Lauren Alder Reid, the head of policy for the agency; and Jill Anderson, the general counsel in the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Trump shuts down White House Spanish-language page and social media
