David Koelsch, a former immigration judge based in Maryland, resigned in 2025 amid a sweeping purge of immigration judges by the Trump administration. He had planned to retire in two years but left early, fearing he would be fired due to his higher-than-average asylum grant rate. 'Judges were being fired left and right. I knew my grant rate was higher than others. Maybe that would be a factor. So I thought, better to leave on my own terms,' he said.
Since January 2025, the Trump administration has fired more than 113 immigration judges, pushed out others through buyouts and reassignments, and replaced them with military lawyers and political appointees. The purge, supported by Elon Musk's 'department of government efficiency' (Doge), targets judges seen as obstacles to the administration's deportation agenda.
Jeremiah Johnson, a judge at the San Francisco immigration court, was fired mid-asylum hearing on 21 November 2025. Johnson, appointed in 2017, had a significantly higher asylum grant rate than the national average. He was in his colleague's chambers when the supervising judge informed him of his termination.
Many judges interviewed by The Guardian, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said the purge reflects a broader effort to exert political control over the courts and pressure judges to align with enforcement goals. Some warned that if such pressure becomes normalised, it could reshape how justice is administered beyond immigration.
Koelsch criticised both the Trump and Biden administrations for undermining judicial independence. He said the Biden administration's use of prosecutorial discretion to remove cases from immigration courts was 'a numbers game' designed to reduce the backlog. 'They didn't really care so much about the people. They just wanted good headlines,' he said.
