The Trump administration brought more than 80 new federal immigration judges onto the bench this week, a major expansion of the court system that sits at the center of its deportation drive. Justice Department officials said 77 permanent immigration judges and five temporary immigration judges were sworn in Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
Officials called the class the largest in the department’s history, and said it would push the immigration judge corps back closer to 700 members. When President Trump took office, the Justice Department had more than 700 immigration judges, but that number had fallen below 600 by earlier this year.
The hires are the latest step in a sweeping effort to reshape the country’s immigration courts. The administration has purged more than 100 immigration judges over the past year, while the Justice Department has issued directives and precedent-setting orders that sharply limit when judges can grant asylum or other relief to people facing deportation. It has also narrowed when judges can release people in ICE detention on bond.
Most of the new judges came from within the government’s enforcement machinery. Justice Department officials said many previously worked as ICE lawyers, prosecutors or in the military, while others had served as state or local judges or as lawyers in private practice.
The move underscores how closely the administration is tying the courts to its broader immigration agenda. Immigration judges are Justice Department employees, not members of the independent judicial branch, and they decide whether noncitizens the government is trying to deport should be removed from the U.S. or allowed to stay. Because removal orders are often needed before deportation can happen, the administration has treated the courts as a central part of its mass deportation campaign.
Officials said the government has hired 153 permanent immigration judges in fiscal year 2026, which began in October 2025. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the administration is committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps dedicated to restoring the rule to the law in the nation’s immigration system, and said the changes could only happen because of President Trump’s decisive leadership and commitment to securing the borders.
The faster pace of hiring may help the administration move cases more quickly, but it also makes plain what kind of court it wants to build. The question now is not whether the bench will grow; it is whether the judges being added will preserve any real room for relief inside a system already being tightened around deportation.
