The Justice Department swore in 82 new immigration judges Wednesday in Washington, D.C., officials said Thursday, in what the department described as the largest such class in its history.
The group included 77 permanent judges and 5 temporary judges, according to CBS News. The additions come after the Trump administration fired more than 100 immigration judges over the past year, reducing the corps from more than 700 when President Trump took office to below 600 earlier this year. Officials said the new class would bring total numbers back closer to 700.
Most of the incoming judges had previously worked as lawyers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as federal prosecutors, or in military roles including judge advocates, according to bios provided by the department.
Immigration judges decide whether noncitizens the government seeks to deport should be removed from the country or allowed to stay. Despite their title, immigration judges are not part of the independent judicial branch. They are employees of the Justice Department, which runs dozens of immigration courts across the country as well as an appellate immigration court. While they are part of the executive branch, immigration judges are expected to remain neutral.
The Trump administration has publicly referred to the positions as "deportation judges" in official job listings, calling on applicants in one ad to "deliver justice" to "criminal illegal aliens."
Some judges fired under the Trump administration have said they believe they were removed for not pushing deportations hard enough, or because they had backgrounds helping or advocating for immigrants. The Justice Department has also issued directives and precedent-setting orders restricting when judges can grant asylum or other relief to those facing deportation, and limiting when they can release ICE detainees on bond.
Separately, according to NPR, congressional Republicans are racing to approve $72 billion in new funding for ICE and Customs and Border Patrol through the rest of Trump's term, using the budget reconciliation process to bypass Democratic opposition. The funding push has hit a snag over an unrelated item: Trump's request to include funding for a White House ballroom, which several Republican senators, including Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, said they would oppose.
