EIGHT New York City Immigration Judges FIRED By Trump Administration

The Trump administration fired eight immigration judges in New York City, multiple outlets report.

According to The New York Times, an official at the National Association of Immigration Judges, the union representing immigration judges, confirmed the firings.

An anonymous Justice Department official also confirmed the firings, the outlet said.

BREAKING NYT:

The Trump admin just fired eight immigration judges in New York City.

All the judges were dismissed from the immigration offices at 26 Federal Plaza — a building that houses the NYC headquarters of ICE and has become the epicenter of migrant arrests in the city.…

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 2, 2025

More from The New York Times:

The eight judges included Amiena A. Khan, the assistant chief immigration judge at 26 Federal Plaza, who supervises other judges there.

Before Monday, about 90 immigration judges had been fired this year across the United States, including six in New York City. There are about 600 immigration judges nationwide, according to federal officials. Union officials said that 36 of the fired judges had been replaced nationwide, including two in New York.

Monday’s firings represented a significant downsizing of staff at 26 Federal Plaza, which employs 34 immigration justices. It is one of three federal immigration courts in the city.

“The court has been basically eviscerated,” said Olivia Cassin, who was fired from her job as an immigration judge at another New York City courthouse in November. Ms. Cassin said that she had the job for more than a decade. “It feels like a Monday afternoon massacre.”

A spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a division of the Justice Department that oversees immigration judges, declined to answer questions about the dismissals, including their cause.

It’s believed the Trump administration is firing immigration judges considered too lenient.

BREAKING: Trump just axed nearly a dozen immigration judges in Manhattan in one swoop.

Sources tell the NYT they were FIRED for being too lenient on asylum and deportation matters, and/or too slow in processing cases.

The Times reports the purge has begun. pic.twitter.com/aAb1Tl3Tjn

— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) December 2, 2025

“All of the judges are now sitting speculating about whether they’re next, and the impact that that may have in their ability to remain impartial and do their jobs fairly,” one fired immigration judge told The New York Times.

The New York Post shared further:

About 200 immigration judges have resigned or been let go as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s effort to trim inefficiencies and spending by encouraging federal employees to leave their jobs. Roughly 100 of those were fired, the NAIJ official said.

The judges were terminated despite a backlog of 3.4 million immigration cases in the federal system, according to Syracuse University’s TRAC Reports.

The War Department said in September it planned to send 600 military lawyers to serve temporarily as immigration judges — but so far only 25 have gone through the required training and have begun hearing cases, the NAIJ official said.

Just 11 new permanent judges have been installed, despite Congress creating 800 federal immigration judiciary jobs as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

ABC News provided additional coverage: