The acting head of the U.S. immigration court system, along with three other senior officials, was fired on Monday shortly after President Trump assumed office, according to three sources familiar with the situation.
This sweeping removal targeted the leadership of a crucial component of the nation’s immigration framework.
The sudden dismissals signaled the Trump administration’s intent to overhaul the immigration court system, which operates under the Justice Department, as part of a broader effort to intensify immigration enforcement—a hallmark of Mr. Trump’s agenda that he reignited immediately upon being sworn in for his second term.
Immigration judges play a vital role in the system, deciding whether to grant asylum to migrants with valid claims or to order deportations for those whose cases fail to meet legal standards.
Tom Jawetz, a senior lawyer in the Biden administration’s Homeland Security Department, said the move suggested that Mr. Trump might seek to install loyalists in key positions to weaken the influence of seasoned career officials, a strategy he employed 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.”
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The four officials included Mary Cheng, the acting director of the Executive Office of 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 of Immigration Review.
On Monday evening, Sirce E. Owen, an immigration court official, took over as acting director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review.
“I received an email from the justice management division after 3 p.m. that informed me that I had been removed,” Ms. Alder Reid said in an interview on Monday.
Ms. Alder Reid had been with the agency for more than 14 years. Ms. Cheng had been with the department since 2009.
In Mr. Trump’s first term, his administration sought to reshape the immigration court system by instituting quotas for judges and no longer allowing them to pause cases that they felt were not a priority. It also altered when immigration judges could grant asylum to migrants appearing in court.
“The firing of these senior immigration court officials will be a severe setback to the effective functioning of the courts which are already backlogged with millions of cases and need experienced court administrators to ensure cases move expeditiously through the judicial process,” said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which represents the nation’s immigration lawyers.
The court system has been under immense pressure for years. The immigration court backlog ballooned to more than three million cases at the end of 2024 fiscal year, according to the Congressional Research Service.
(New York Times)
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