Dakota Beacon

On December 30, 2025, ABC News reported more than 100 immigration judges were fired nationwide during 2025 - something that may affect the immigration backlog in the near term.

Jeremiah Johnson served as an immigration judge for eight years. On Nov. 21 he was one of five judges let go on the same day.

"Immigration judges are employees of the Department of Justice. We are appointed by the attorney general. Part of the law indicates that, as an immigration judge, we should use our independent decision making, authority and discretion as independent immigration judges. So, we are protected. We should be protected from firing, from termination," said Johnson.

What?! No accountability required? If only the immigration judges’ decision making were truly independent! Read on.

In a statement, the Department of Justice replied in part: "After four years of the Biden Administration forcing Immigration Courts to implement a de facto amnesty for hundreds of thousands of aliens, this Department of Justice is restoring integrity to our immigration system." The Attorney General heads the immigration court system. Now, let the chips fall where they may.

Our immigration backlog did not just “happen”. It grew during the tenure of judges like Jeremiah Johnson who supported the de facto amnesty mentioned above. When confronted with political intrusion, he and others could have done the honorable thing and resigned his position in protest of Biden abuse of immigration law! Johnson knew very well what was taking place and he treated the issue as business as usual.

Now, consider the broader picture. Use of the “justice system” to thwart Donald Trump throughout both of his administrations became routine and acceptable. An attempt to ruin him personally and professionally via legal hassling was the goal. A conviction would be icing on the cake. This process forms what can be called “lawfare”.

“Lawfare” has origins going back to the 1950s. However, it stayed relatively unknown until 1999 when two Chinese Communist military officers used the term in their book titled “Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America”. (A good read. Try it, you’ll like it.)

America’s more recent and renowned use of lawfare would be the battle in 2005 to remove Tom Delay (R Texas) from his position as Speaker of the House. The vendetta against Tom Delay was led by one Ronnie Earle, the DA in Austin, Texas who had a strong dislike for Delay. (Then it was known as TDDS. Today we call it TDS.) Ultimately the case was overturned on appeal, but the battle was won and the damage done. Delay was removed from office. Lawfare, when used successfully, removes the target from the political scene.

What to do with a politicized immigration legal system? Trump weeded out dead wood and the slow walkers from among the immigration judge corps. Where there is a will there is a way.

An immigration court backlog has been brewing for years. It reached 3.5 to 4 million cases by mid-2025 creating multi-year delays for hearings. In recent years, (before Trump’s time) a concept was proposed to use Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers (military lawyers) as immigration judges to help reduce massive backlogs in immigration courts. So, the Pentagon approved sending up to 600 JAG officers to serve as temporary immigration judges nationwide with assignments lasting for six-month renewable terms. The first wave of about 150 began in September 2025.

This policy aimed to speed up deportations and reduce court backlogs. A recent EOIR (Executive Office for Immigration Review) reported completing over 722,000 cases in FY2025, reducing the pending caseload by 447,000 cases -- the sharpest decrease in its history. The EOIR credits the surge in temporary JAG judges as a key factor in this improvement. But it is only a temporary fix, not a structural solution. Of course, the backlog is still high, and this approach has sparked controversy over judicial independence -- as if immigration judges were pure as the wind driven snow.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).