Nearly 100 immigration court staff retiring, resigning amid swelling backlog

• The nation's immigration court system is how immigrants can make their case to stay in the U.S.

The big picture: The Department of Justice said in a memo last month it is moving to consider all immigration judges at-will employees without any federal employee protections.

• That's putting immigration judges and the Trump administration on a collision course likely to slow down the record pace of cases immigration courts heard as President Biden left office.

Zoom in: About 85 immigration court professionals are resigning or retiring, the International Federation of Professional Engineers (IFPTE),  the union representing the country's roughly 700 immigration judges, says.

• This follows the firing of 29 judges and senior staff by the Trump administration. The union said no cause was given for the firing of judges.
• The past week, one additional probationary immigration judge has been fired, the union said.

The White House didn't directly address the reduction in immigration court staff to Axios but said President Trump will "use every lever of executive and legislative power" to fulfill his promises.

• "President Trump received a historic mandate from the American people to secure our border, mass deport illegal immigrants, and put American citizens first, White House Spokesman Kush Desai tells Axios.
• A DOJ spokesperson tells Axios the backlog of "cases was only increasing prior to this administration, which is now in position to hire more judges to work towards reducing this backlog."

State of play: The union estimates that the loss of judges and members of judge teams will add 24,000 cases to the courts' backlog in 2025.

• Immigration courts were on pace to rule on 852,000 deportation cases from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025, according to an analysis of case data by the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
• If that pace had continued, immigration judges would have ruled on more deportation cases in 2025 than in any previous year.
• The current backlog of 3.7 million cases in immigration courts means detained immigrants have to wait months, even years, for a hearing.

What they're saying: "Donald Trump ran for office promising to boost deportations, but as president his administration's policies are actually decreasing the number of immigration judges," IFPTE President Matt Biggs says.

• The administration is making the backlog worse and is being hypocritical in asking Congress for more resources for deportations, he added.

Context: The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) during the first Trump administration stripped the immigration judges of their bargaining and union power in 2020 after the administration called judges "managers" who weren't eligible for union representation.

• The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents 90,000 public-, private- and federal-sector workers in the U.S. and Canada, is trying to get the immigration judges' union back.

Between the lines: Almost all immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally and arrested have a right to due process in the country's civil immigration court system.

• There, an immigration judge hears the case, sometimes in less than 30 minutes, and issues a ruling.

Yes, but: One of the executive orders signed by Trump seeks to deny some asylum seekers hearings as required by current law.

• The Trump administration also issued a new rule that dramatically expands expedited removal of immigrants who can't prove they've been in the U.S. for at least two years without full court hearings.
• The ACLU and two of its chapters are suing to halt that rule, which seeks to expand "fast-track" deportations.