Fired immigration judges sound alarm on Trump administration purge

Emmett Soper, an immigration judge with almost 20 years of service in the Department of Justice, was in his office working on a written decision when he received email notice of immediate termination from the Trump administration without further explanation.

Ted Doolittle had just received an outstanding performance evaluation when he opened an email from the administration stating that his continuation was no longer in the best interest of the country.

Anam R. Petit was in the middle of hearings when notified of her termination.

All three judges, along with Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, sounded the alarm that the administration’s sudden, illegal firing of 82 immigration judges since Jan. 20 has resulted in an overburdened system and violations of due process, in a discussion at the National Press Club on Nov. 13.

“The unlawful firings of immigration judges leads to a chaotic situation because people at the court don't know if this judge or that judge is going to be fired. It's a surprise not just to the judge but to everybody who works at the court. And what that means is that the people at the court who are responsible for scheduling these cases, are all of a sudden just presented with let's say 500 cases that don't have a judge and have to be rescheduled,” Soper said.

Soper added that for the non-citizen whose judge has just been fired, “it throws everything into chaos,” resulting in a delay to justice and inadequate resolution of the case. “It's not fair to the people who are at the court. It's not fair to the judges who inherit these cases, and most importantly it's not fair to the people who have cases pending in front of the immigration courts who depend on the immigration courts being a functioning system,” he said.

Club President Mike Balsamo who moderated the event stated that in July, Congress approved an increase in the number of immigration judges to 800 in order to alleviate a staggering backlog of more than 3.4 million cases. However, the total number of sitting judges has since dropped to roughly 600.

Biggs said the approved increase to 800 judges was grossly insufficient. “Each immigration judge on average handles about 500 to 700 cases a year. We have a 3.4 million case backlog… We need to have a couple thousand immigration judges and whether this administration likes it or not, immigrants in this country are entitled to due process and by firing these judges you're denying due process,” said Biggs.

The panelists balked at the Trump administration’s attempt to fill the void by assigning Judge Advocate General (JAG) attorneys to preside over immigration proceedings, not only because they lack training but the judges serve in only six month rotations.

“It's not something you pick up in a matter of weeks or even months. When I started as a judge, I was told by other judges that it would take me roughly two to three years as a judge to become fully comfortable on the bench to decide cases. And honestly that proved accurate,” Soper said.

Petit added, “If they're only doing these in six month stints, at a minimum, that's when you start feeling comfortable as an immigration judge to operate with efficiency and fairness.”

The panelists said the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) detention of individuals in courthouses is further exacerbating the situation by traumatizing court personnel and dissuading people from appearing for hearings.

“[ICE] on a regular basis would detain people who were showing up for their master calendar hearings. These were people who had done nothing wrong, who usually did not have criminal records, and who were just trying to follow the rules. All they were doing was showing up to court like they had been told they had to do,” said Soper.

Doolittle recalled one instance in which ICE tased a person seven times in the lobby right outside of the courtroom door. The cries of agony were so disturbing that many on the court staff suffered mental repercussions.

Petit said she has seen a significant increase in failures to appear during the Trump administration. “People are afraid to come to court because they're seeing people get detained in the hallways,” Petit said, adding individuals testifying are often distracted by people screaming and crying in the courthouse hallway.

Petit believes that the best way to alleviate the current crisis is for immigration courts to become an independent judiciary. Immigration courts currently exist within the Department of Justice and therefore do not function with judicial independence. “It's a structural defect that has existed for a long time. The system has always had flaws. But then when a certain administration comes around, they're able to exploit the structural flaws,” Petit said.

Petit questioned, “how can a system where the stakes are so high, where there are life and death consequences for many of these cases, be at the whim of political impulses?”

Biggs said that the only way to solve the crisis facing immigration courts is through congressional oversight. “Due process is at stake, not just for the immigrants but for all of us,” he said, adding that Republicans in particular “need to step up and take on this administration, provide oversight, and get this immigration court fixed – because this administration is destroying immigration courts.”