Donald Trump’s Immigration Judges Boost Deportation Numbers

There are 465 immigration judges, some of whom stay on the bench for decades. But Trump’s pro-American policies are frustrating judges who were appointed by former President Barack Obama, prompting some to leave and open new slots for Trump-appointed judges. In 2019, 45 judges quit, compared to 24 judges who retired in 2018.

“For 24 years, [Judge Lisa Dornell] sat on the bench in Baltimore’s immigration court, hearing hundreds of cases of immigrants trying to stay in the United States,” CNN reported on December 27. “It was a privilege to be able to preside over so many different cases and be able to grant relief to people who needed relief,” Dornell told CNN in an interview about the rising number of retiring judges. The article added:

[Ilyce] Shugall recalled the challenges she had faced in trying to move forward with cases in a way she thought was appropriate. “I felt like as more and more policies were coming down, it was making it harder and harder to effectively hear cases in the way that I felt was appropriate and in compliance with the statute regulations and Constitution,” Shugall said.

According to TRAC Reports Inc, “Judge Dornell is recorded as deciding 921 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted 456 … and denied 464.”

The new judges are picked by Trump’s attorney general and cannot be blocked by hostile Democrats. So their gradual arrival is likely to have a dramatic effect as the number of pro-migrant judges decline.

The judges have very different track records, in part because immigration law is complex, the migrants’ pleas are often heartrending, and the judges have their human preferences. For example, Florida-based Judge Denise Slavin was appointed by President Bill Clinton, and she approved 284 pleas and denied only 26, according to a 2011 analysis by TRAC Reports Inc. In contrast, Judge Kevin Chapman was appointed by President George W. Bush and granted only 32 pleas while denying 192, according to TRAC.

The reductions in 2017, 2018, and 2019 have been modest. In 2018, migrants won 33 percent of the decisions but only 29 percent in 2019, according to an analysis by the immigration law firm of Amoachi & Johnson.

The changes have even impacted the most pro-migration areas, such as New York. Gothamist.com reported December 27:

But the shift here is dramatic. Just four years ago, the research group TRAC found New York judges denied just 16 percent of asylum seekers. That figure has been rising since Trump took office. But the average denial rate for a New York judge shot up to 46 percent in fiscal year 2019, according to the latest data, from 32 percent in the previous year.