The Justice Department announced on Thursday the onboarding of over 80 new immigration judges, the largest addition in agency history.
The Executive Office of Immigration added 77 full-time judges and 5 temporary ones, according to a DOJ news release.
“The Trump administration is committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps that is dedicated to restoring the rule to the law in our nation’s immigration system,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
“Today, we are onboarding the largest immigration judge class in agency history. This could only happen thanks to President Trump’s decisive leadership and commitment to securing our borders. I also applaud EOIR’s leadership team for helping facilitate these hiring efforts and recruiting highly qualified and talented personnel in record time,” he added.
.@DOJ_EOIR Announces 77 Immigration Judges and 5 Temporary Immigration Judges: LARGEST CLASS IN AGENCY’S HISTORY
“The Trump administration is committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps that is dedicated to restoring the rule to the law in our nation’s immigration… pic.twitter.com/JRSIMZuNiF
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) May 21, 2026
EOIR has hired 153 permanent immigration judges since the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1.
The DOJ noted, “Reducing the immigration court backlog remains one of the highest priorities for the agency. Since January 20, 2025, EOIR has completed more than 1.08 million cases and has reduced its pending caseload in immigration courts by more than 447,000 cases, bringing the pending caseload down from approximately 4 million to under 3.53 million, the sharpest decrease in caseload in EOIR’s history.”
CBS News reported that, in addition to hiring new immigration judges, the Trump administration also fired more than 100 of them, many of whom were hired during the Biden administration.
“Some of the judges ousted under the Trump administration have said they believe they were fired over not sufficiently pushing deportations or having backgrounds helping or advocating for immigrants,” CBS said.
“Most of the immigration judges joining the Justice Department’s ranks this week had previously worked as ICE lawyers, prosecutors or in the military, as officers, judge advocates or other roles, according to bios provided by the department. Some worked as state or local judges, or as lawyers in private practice,” the news outlet added.
Greg Chen, senior director for government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told CBS he believes the Trump administration is seeking to “compel” immigration judges to “act as tools of enforcement, not impartial adjudicators.”
Trump administration onboards 82 new immigration judges in bid to speed up deportation caseshttps://t.co/NLusYpOyfc
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 21, 2026
Trump ran on border security and immigration law enforcement during his 2024 campaign.
In January, on the first anniversary of his inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security reported that “nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 675,000 deportations.”
Further, “In President Trump’s first year, USBP recorded 95 percent fewer encounters per day along the southwest border than during the Biden administration.”
During the last two years of Biden’s open border “policy,” there were 4.6M Southwest Land Border Encounters. Over the last 12 MONTHS under Trump, there were only 119,600, compared with an average of almost 200,000 per MONTH under Biden.
From a Wide Open Biden Border to a Closed… pic.twitter.com/wwbe02Wcug
— Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) May 11, 2026
During Trump’s first year of his second term, the daily average for border encounters was 251, compared with 5,110 under President Joe Biden.
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