Story perspectives

Judge Overhaul, Asylum Drop, Court Blocks Trump Directive

4/28/2026

Summary

Story summary

Justice Department dismissed >100 immigration judges and appointed >140 new judges, many lacking immigration law experience.
Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) Director Daren K. Margolin said the hires aim to cut a backlog of >3 million cases.
Asylum approvals dropped below 5 % in Feb 2025 from 48 % in Feb 2024, per Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) data.
D.C. Circuit blocked President Donald Trump's asylum-suspension directive for southern-border migrants.

History

Historical Context

President Bill Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act in 1996, effective April 1 1997, which merged exclusion and deportation, expanded mandatory detention, and mandated at least 1,000 new border-patrol agents each year through 2001. That expansion swelled immigration-court workloads; today the Justice Department’s removal of 100 judges and hiring of 140 novices mirrors the 1990s surge as courts grapple with the same backlog.

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Story summary

Justice Department dismissed >100 immigration judges and appointed >140 new judges, many lacking immigration law experience.
Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) Director Daren K. Margolin said the hires aim to cut a backlog of >3 million cases.
Asylum approvals dropped below 5 % in Feb 2025 from 48 % in Feb 2024, per Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) data.
D.C. Circuit blocked President Donald Trump's asylum-suspension directive for southern-border migrants.

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