Military lawyers recently tapped to serve as immigration judges issued more removal orders in November than other judges, according to an early analysis of outcomes as the Trump administration seeks more judges to advance its hardline enforcement priorities.
Out of more than 100 rulings issued last month by Judge Advocate General’s Corps lawyers brought in to oversee immigration court proceedings, roughly 78% were removal orders. That’s compared to approximately 63% issued by all other immigration judges during that time period, according to a review by California-based nonprofit Mobile Pathways shared exclusively with Bloomberg Law. The organization collects and analyzes data on asylum claims, removal proceedings, and other information from the country’s 73 immigration courts.
The analysis, based on federal government data, is the first indication of some of the effects of the Justice Department’s recruitment of military lawyers to adjudicate migrants’ status in the US. DOJ requested that the Pentagon detail up to 600 lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges for six-month stints, and last month launched a recruitment campaign advertising jobs for “deportation” judges.
The desire to bring in military lawyers comes as DOJ has, since the start of Donald Trump’s second term, fired dozens of immigration judges, who are DOJ employees and not housed within an independent court system.
DOJ announced in October the addition of 11 new immigration judges and 25 temporary ones, two months after the department dropped previous experience requirements for temporary judges to help address a backlog of immigration cases, which as of Nov. 30 sits at roughly 3.2 million cases, according to an analysis by Mobile Pathways.
All 25 of the newly installed temporary immigration judges, who started hearing cases in November, are military lawyers, and have been placed in immigration courts across California, Virginia, Texas, and other states. Out of the 11 newest permanent judges placed in immigration courts, five have backgrounds as JAG lawyers, according to an analysis by Mobile Pathways.
Early details of the November rulings from military lawyers-turned-judges showed that more than 12% of the closed cases resulted in voluntary departures, or migrants agreeing to leave on their own to avoid formal deportation. Comparatively, this was the outcome for roughly 16% of rulings from all other immigration judges that month.
Former military lawyers and legal scholars have criticized the use of military personnel for immigration proceedings, questioning DOJ’s ability to ensure they operate completely outside their military chain of command while serving as immigration judges and avoid potential violations of the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th century law aimed at keeping the military separate from civilian law enforcement.
An advisory opinion from DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel said detailing hundreds of military lawyers didn’t violate the Act, noting military lawyers would be serving as immigration judges on a full-time basis and that all judges will be supervised by civilian DOJ officials.
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editor responsible for this story: