A360
Key Takeaways✦ Atlas AI
01
113+ immigration judges removed since Jan 2025.
02
Judges replaced by military lawyers, political appointees.
03
Action aims to align judicial decisions with deportation.
Atlas AI
The Trump administration has pushed out more than 113 immigration judges since January 2025 through firings, buyouts and reassignments, and has replaced some of them with military lawyers and political appointees, according to accounts from former judges.
Former and current immigration judges told sources the moves appear aimed at aligning court decisions with the administration’s deportation agenda. Several said the changes have raised concerns about judicial independence inside the immigration courts.
Some judges who lesources or were removed had higher-than-average asylum grant rates. David Koelsch, a former immigration judge in Baltimore, said he resigned four months before he had planned to retire asourceser feeling increasing pressure and fearing he could be targeted because his grant rate was higher than others.
Jeremiah Johnson, an immigration judge in San Francisco appointed in 2017, was terminated in November 2025 asourceser granting asylum in a significant share of his cases, exceeding the national average, the repoSources said.
sources reported speaking with a dozen judges who had been fired or accepted buyouts, as well as others still on the bench. Some current judges and several former judges requested anonymity, citing fear of retaliation.
Judges interviewed warned the reshaping of immigration courts could signal a broader effort to exert political control over the judiciary beyond immigration, potentially influencing how justice is administered more widely in the United States.
