Donald Trump reckless shrinking of the federal workforce is having a negative impact on his immigration policy and ultimately immigrants.
More than 100 employees at the Executive Office of Immigration Review have either been terminated or opted into the government’s deferred resignation program, creating a new roadblock in the Trump administration’s goal to execute massive deportations, according to ABC News.
There are currently around 735 immigration judges in the country’s 71 immigration courts, The courts are already in a crisis with a backlog of 3.7 million cases and the numbers keep growing under the current ongoing mass deportation policy. In Los Angeles alone, one of the busiest immigration courts in the nation, there are over 90 immigration judges managing an overwhelming caseload. The cuts only exacerbate an already unmanageable situation in a city with one of the largest immigrant populations in the U.S.
The Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce by offering buyouts, and flat our firing has led to the departure of 43 immigration judges, as well as 85 essential administrative staff. This comes at a time when immigration cases in Los Angeles and across the country are at record highs, with immigrants waiting years for their cases to be heard.
Matt Biggs, the president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, told ABC News that the Trump administration’s efforts to dismiss the immigration judges his union represents was “highly hypocritical.”
“How do you deport people without immigration judges?” Biggs said. “It’s highly hypocritical. It runs contrary to what he campaigned on. He’s making it more difficult to deport people from this country. It makes no sense at all.”
Adding to the problem, replacing immigration judges is a slow and difficult process. It typically takes at least two years to hire and train new judges, meaning that any firings today will have long-term effects on the court system. This delay will leave thousands of immigrants in limbo, many of whom are stuck in detention centers awaiting a hearing.
Compounding the crisis, the Trump administration has also overseen a significant loss of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel. Under Trump, more than 500 ICE employees either resigned or were dismissed, crippling enforcement operations. Without adequate staffing, ICE’s ability to process and deport undocumented individuals is further weakened, leading to overcrowded detention centers and extended wait times for immigrants seeking legal relief.
Cutting roughly six percent of the U.S. stock of judges certainly won’t prevent the Trump administration’s efforts to enact massive deportations; it will likely just make them even more slow and painful for those subjected to detainment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which on Thursday officially revived the policy of detaining migrant families with children. The practice had been banned under President Joe Biden.
Los Angeles, where thousands of immigrants are detained while awaiting court proceedings, will feel the brunt of these delays. Many detainees who might have otherwise been released or had their cases resolved quickly will now languish in facilities for months or even years, separated from their families, employers, and communities.
As Los Angeles and other major immigrant hubs continue to struggle with backlogged cases and overcrowded detention centers, the Trump administration’s mass firings are proving to be a self-inflicted wound—one that only worsens an already chaotic immigration system.
Mass Dismissal of Immigration Judges Raises Concerns for California Latinos
