In a new recruitment push, US President Donald Trump‘s administration has begun hiring legal experts as immigration judges, now dubbed as “deportation judges”.
This push aims to address backlogs and expedite deportations as part of a broader campaign to enforce stricter immigration policies nationwide.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has publicly supported this initiative, emphasising the need to “restore integrity and honour to our US’ immigration court system.”
What will these judges do?
Deportation judges, like earlier immigration judges, will hear the cases of non-citizens who the federal government seeks to deport.
Most of the cases they’ll hear would be those of asylum seekers, just like earlier judges used to, USA Today reported.
The government’s recruitment ad said those hired will have the power to determine whether an “alien” gets to stay in the country and will have to ensure that only cases with meritorious claims are considered.
How much will the judges be paid?
Salaries ranging between $159,951 and $207,500 will be offered to the judges, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees the country’s immigration court system, also posted.
Separately, cash incentives will also be given to those in cities such as New York, Boston and San Francisco.
What’s behind the vacancies?
This year, the Trump administration had purged immigration judges whose judicial philosophies did not align with the administration’s priorities.
For instance, two judges in New York were laid off after one of them had the highest rate in the city for granting asylum, while the other had been an outspoken critic of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Guardian reported.
More terminations took place in San Francisco, Chicago and Boston, the same cities where judges will now receive incentives.
Some have also chosen to leave voluntarily since Trump took office. Because of this, and an already backlogged court system, the government started recruiting hundreds of military lawyers to fill the vacancies.
While the job advertisements put out by the DOJ use the phrase “deportation judge”, the government application portal still lists the official job title as “immigration judge” and it is unclear if it will be officially renamed.
