"More than 100 immigration judges nationwide have been fired since 2025 by the U.S. Department of Justice, including many in San Francisco. One of them, former San Francisco Immigration Judge Jeremiah Johnson, traveled to Guatemala to retrace his last case on the bench. It has been six months since Johnson was fired. Up to this point, the Department of Justice has not given him a clear reason for his dismissal, a move that prompted him to look beyond the courtroom for understanding."
"Johnson started his journey in Tapachula, Mexico, more than 3,000 miles from his former bench, at what he described as a gateway where asylum-seekers try to enter Mexico. "The migrant caravan is on its way north to Mexico City," said Johnson as he documented the caravan. MORE: Fired Bay Area immigration judge sues DOJ, alleging discrimination over gender, age, political views The journey marked the beginning of Johnson's effort to witness firsthand the conditions faced by migrants fleeing violence and poverty in Central America."
""Many deported Cubans were there in the city, and then many Haitians," Johnson said. Johnson said his mission was to travel south to Guatemala to trace his final case as an immigration judge. "The last words I said on the bench were, you've been granted asylum in the United States. That decision is final. Welcome to the United States," he said."
"Johnson said he was fired by the Department of Justice about 30 minutes after granting asylum to an Indigenous family from Guatemala, a moment he said propelled him to seek answers. "If I could explore it through the path of this one person, this one family, to go to that village, and that's when I went there," Johnson said."
More than 100 immigration judges nationwide were fired since 2025 by the U.S. Department of Justice, including judges in San Francisco. Former San Francisco Immigration Judge Jeremiah Johnson traveled to Guatemala to retrace his last case after being fired about six months earlier without a clear explanation from the Department of Justice. The Executive Office for Immigration Review declined to comment on the firings. Johnson began his journey in Tapachula, Mexico, describing it as a gateway where asylum-seekers try to enter Mexico. He documented a migrant caravan moving north and said he saw deported Cubans and Haitians. He traveled south to trace an Indigenous family’s asylum decision, which he said he granted shortly before being fired.
Read at ABC7 San Francisco
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