The Trump administration is moving to further accelerate its deportation agenda by significantly expanding the nation’s immigration court system, according to a report from The Daily Wire.
In its latest effort, the Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has hired 82 immigration judges — the largest single-year class in agency history. The additions bring the total number of immigration judges in the United States to nearly 700.
“The Trump administration is committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps that is dedicated to restoring the rule [of] law in our nation’s immigration system,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
“Today, we are onboarding the largest immigration judge class in agency history,” Blanche added. “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.”
The incoming class consists of 77 permanent judges and five temporary appointments.
The hiring effort follows broader personnel changes within the immigration court system after President Donald Trump returned to office and launched an aggressive deportation initiative. According to The Daily Wire, administration officials also carried out a wave of dismissals involving immigration judges who had approved asylum claims at relatively high rates.
The New York Times reported that more than 100 immigration judges have been removed since then, including judges who granted asylum in roughly 46% of cases.
The Justice Department says immigration judges have completed more than one million cases since Trump’s second inauguration, reducing the pending caseload by over 447,000 cases. Current pending cases reportedly stand at approximately 3.53 million, down from roughly four million.
The department described the reduction as the steepest decline in immigration court backlog history.
The hiring surge is also part of a broader effort by the administration to reduce immigration court delays that officials argue were worsened by increased border crossings during the Biden administration.
According to The Daily Wire, Sirce Owen, then-acting director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), issued guidance in April 2025 encouraging judges to more quickly dismiss certain asylum claims without hearings when legally appropriate.
A separate June 2025 memo reportedly warned immigration judges against displaying favoritism or bias.
“Judges who would prefer to be policy advocates favoring either aliens or DHS should consider transitioning to alternate career paths,” Owen wrote.
Meanwhile, White House border czar Tom Homan recently defended the administration’s immigration record during an interview with the Washington Examiner, claiming approximately 800,000 individuals have been removed from the country under the administration.
“Total of 800,000 [have been removed] out of the country,” Homan said. “If you take 60% of that, criminals, hundreds of thousands of public safety threats, have been removed from this country. Name another president who’s done that.”
Homan acknowledged deportation numbers had recently slowed but said the administration intends to increase removals again.
“There’s a lot of argument within the world that, ‘Are we keeping our promise?’” Homan said. “Numbers are slightly down, but there’s a plan. Get them back up and even higher.”
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