Wanted: Temporary Immigration Judges, No Experience Necessary, Lots of Power to Harm People by Mistake

The U.S. Department of Justice is fighting a backlog of immigration cases by rolling back restrictions on who can be hired as temporary immigration judges and filling some of the positions with military lawyers.

Under a final rule published in the Federal Register, any attorney can serve as a temporary immigration judge, report Law360, NBC Newsand Government Executive.

Prior to the new rule, temporary immigration judges had to be former immigration judges, administrative law judges from other agencies or DOJ attorneys with 10 years of experience in immigration law.

Immigration courts overseen by the DOJ’s Executive Office of Immigration Review decide whether noncitizens accused of violating immigration laws should be removed or granted protection from removal. The backlog in the courts was about 4.1 million cases in January 2025, according to the published final rule. More than 100 immigration judges have been fired or voluntarily resigned over the last nine months, NPR reports. [MORE]