Despite a Growing Case Backlog, Trump Fires 6th San Francisco Immigration Judge | KQED

"Marks said it appears that the DOJ is going after judges with backgrounds in immigrant advocacy rights, private practice or public interest law, while those who rose through the ranks as prosecutors for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division of the Department of Homeland Security have kept their appointments. She called the pattern "distressing." Before being appointed to the court in May 2023, Brasil worked as a private practice immigration attorney, litigating pro bono cases throughout her career."

"Levine spent more than five years as an immigration attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza and the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area in the East Bay. Dillon served as an attorney advisor at Los Angeles' immigration court and another fired judge, Jami Vigil, previously worked as a court-appointed counsel for immigrant families for eight years. When Marks was appointed in 1987, the federal court system was undergoing a transformation, she said."

"Before the 1980s, many immigration judges were career Department of Homeland Security prosecutors who were "rewarded for their productivity" with a court appointment. But, "when I was recruited, and when others followed me, there was an effort to balance the court so that there were both immigration prosecutors and immigration defenders," she told KQED. Marks was the 68th person to be appointed as an immigration judge in the country."

"Now, there are more than 600, many of whom previously defended immigrants in the courts they now oversee. "That's much more appropriate with regard to reflecting public attitudes towards immigration and towards the knowledge base and sophistication and professionalism that the court was trying to achieve," Marks said. In August, the DOJ lowered the prerequisites to qualify for temporary judge positions, removing the requirement that candidates have prior immigration experience."

The Department of Justice appears to target immigration judges who previously worked in immigrant advocacy, private practice, or public-interest law while judges with DHS/ICE prosecutorial backgrounds remain. Several recently removed judges have histories of pro bono representation, public-interest immigration work, or court-appointed counsel roles for immigrant families. Historically, the immigration bench shifted in the 1980s to include more defenders alongside prosecutors to balance perspectives and expertise. The immigration court now numbers over 600 judges, many with defender backgrounds. Recent DOJ policy changes lowered qualifications for temporary judge postings, eliminating the prior-immigration-experience requirement.

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