Trump’s Deportation Purge: Immigration Judges Fired for Granting Asylum

Since January 2025, the Trump administration has aggressively purged immigration judges who stand in the way of its harsh deportation policies. More than 113 judges have been fired or pushed out through buyouts and reassignments, replaced by military lawyers and political appointees eager to toe the enforcement line. This is not just a crackdown on immigration judges — it is a chilling move to politicize the courts and dismantle judicial independence.

David Koelsch, a former immigration judge in Baltimore, witnessed the growing authoritarianism firsthand. After nearly eight years on the bench, Koelsch resigned amid the administration’s push to remove judges who grant asylum at higher rates. “Judges were being fired left and right,” he said. “I knew my grant rate was higher than others. Maybe that would be a factor. So I thought, better to leave on my own terms.”

Koelsch’s experience is emblematic of a broader pattern. Judges like Jeremiah Johnson in San Francisco, who consistently granted asylum more often than their peers, were abruptly fired without warning. Johnson received a termination letter one afternoon and was immediately locked out of the system. The San Francisco immigration court itself was shuttered, leaving a backlog of 120,000 cases and forcing litigants to travel farther for hearings.

The purge is part of a wider effort by the Trump administration to exert political control over immigration courts, pressuring judges to align with its zero-tolerance deportation goals. This threatens to undermine the rule of law and due process for immigrants seeking refuge. Former judges warn that normalizing such political interference could set a dangerous precedent, eroding judicial independence across the American justice system.

Koelsch also criticized the Biden administration’s approach, calling its case removals “a numbers game” that prioritizes optics over people’s lives. But under Trump, the stakes are far graver. The militarized tactics Koelsch witnessed in Minneapolis — federal agents in tactical gear teargassing civilians — reflect the administration’s broader disregard for civil rights and due process.

This purge of immigration judges is a warning sign of the Trump administration’s authoritarian ambitions. The courts, once a check on executive overreach, are being weaponized to enforce a brutal deportation agenda with little regard for justice or humanity. If this trend continues, the consequences will ripple far beyond immigration courts, threatening the very fabric of American democracy.