US administration ousts 8 NY immigration judges amid migrant crackdown
The job cuts, which were done on Monday, followed an earlier round of firings at New York immigration courts. They are part of a broader disruption across the US, which is taking place as President Trump moves to accelerate deportations.
THE US administration has fired as many as eight immigration judges in New York City, The New York Times reported quoting two people with knowledge of the matter.
Amiena A Khan, the assistant chief immigration judge at 26 Federal Plaza, is among the eight judges who have been fired. Khan supervises other judges at the court.
The job cuts, which were done on Monday, followed an earlier round of firings at New York immigration courts. They are part of a broader disruption across the US, which is taking place as President Trump moves to accelerate deportations.
As per the NYT report, all eight judges were dismissed from the immigration court’s offices at 26 Federal Plaza, which houses the headquarters in New York City for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and has become the seat of migrant-related arrests in the city.
The development was confirmed to the newspaper by an official at the National Association of Immigration Judges, which is a union that represents immigration judges, as well as a Justice Department official.
100 immigration judges fired this year
Monday's immigration judge firings took the tally of such job cuts to nearly 100 this year. Before this, about 90 of them across the US lost their jobs, including six in New York itself.
According to federal officials, the US has about 600 immigration judges. Union officials said that as many as 36 of the fired immigration judges had already been replaced in the US, with two of them being in New York.
The 26 Federal Plaza, which has 34 immigration judges, faced a significant loss after Monday's firings.
“The court has been basically eviscerated… It feels like a Monday afternoon massacre,” Olivia Cassin, who lost her job as an immigration judge at another New York court in November, was quoted as saying by the NYT. Cassin told the newspaper that she had had the job for more than a decade.
Trump amps up immigration policy tightening
Donald Trump has intensified his threat against immigrants after two National Guard members were shot near the White House by a person who was later identified by the authorities as an Afghan national.
Last week, the Trump administration announced a flurry of policies aimed at making it harder for some foreigners to enter or stay in the country.
The administration said it was pausing asylum decisions, reexamining green card applications for people from countries "of concern” and halting visas for Afghans who assisted the US war effort.
