Immigration Court

# Immigration Court

Let’s Meet the New Temporary Immigration Judges

Perhaps you’ve heard about the Trump Administration’s plan to appoint 600 Temporary Immigration Judges to help address the 3.5-million case backlog in Immigration Court. As far as we know, all the new judges will be U.S. military lawyers from the Judge Advocate General’s corps. 

To facilitate these appointments, EOIR–the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the office that oversees our country’s Immigration Courts–has substantially relaxed the requirements to serve as an Immigration Judge (IJ), and now, IJs do not need any experience with the immigration law to become a judge. The new appointments come on the heels of mass terminations at EOIR, which saw about 120 of the nation’s 700 IJs terminated or “voluntarily” retired.

What to expect from the new judges? Will they be Trump’s willing executioners, denying cases as fast as they can docket them? Or will they be more fair, enforcing the law regardless of their political bosses’ preference? EOIR recently announced the first class of Temporary Immigration Judges (TIJs) and here, we’ll look at their backgrounds to see what this might portend for their judgeships.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Office# Immigration Court

Trump-Proofing Your Asylum Application (Part 1)

Since the advent of the Trump Administration, it has been getting more and more difficult to win asylum. Decision-makers in court and at the Asylum Office are more suspicious of fraud, have higher expectations for evidence, and are looking for sneaky ways to deny applications. They are also less forgiving of inconsistencies and innocent mistakes. Add to that an overall environment where non-citizens are under threat, and the asylum process has become much more fraught. How then can you best prepare an asylum application during these challenging times? 

Here and in part 2, we’ll examine some common problems faced by asylum seekers and how they can be overcome.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# BIA# Immigration# Immigration Court

Freedom Isn’t Free – It’s Very Expensive

By now, you’ve probably heard that USCIS and EOIR (the Executive Office for Immigration Review – the office that oversees our nation’s Immigration Courts) have dramatically increased fees for many applications.

It seems to me that one purpose of these new fees is to make it unaffordable for non-citizens to obtain status in the United States. Another purpose is to make it more difficult for non-profits to assist indigent people seeking protection in our country. 

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By Jason Dzubow
# BIA# Immigration# Immigration Court

Do You Have a Pulse? Congratulations! You’re Qualified to be an Immigration Judge!

A new final rule from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the office that oversees our nation’s Immigration Court system, has substantially relaxed the requirements for serving as a Temporary Immigration Judge. Under this rule, people with little or no immigration experience can decide whether asylum seekers and other non-citizens are entitled to remain in the United States or must be deported. 

Adding insult to injury, the rule also changes the language in the Code of Federal Regulations, and so now, instead of the term “noncitizens,” the CFR will refer to “aliens.” 

Here, we’ll discuss these changes, and how they might impact “aliens” in Immigration Court. 

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By Jason Dzubow
# Immigration Court

More Court Chaos: The DHS Push to Re-Open Closed Cases

In my office, we’ve recently been receiving motions from DHS (the prosecutor in Immigration Court) asking to reopen administratively closed cases and place them on the court’s active docket. Some of these cases were closed more than 15 years ago, and they belong to lawyers who have long ago left my office. How we will even find some of these clients to let them know, I am not sure.

As it turns out, we are not alone. Although there has been no official announcement from DHS, it seems that the agency wants to re-calendar all closed cases, which represents almost 400,000 non-citizens. Added to the current Immigration Court backlog, which stands at about 3.5 million, this new push to re-calendar cases will further overwhelm an already overloaded system. 

Here, we will discuss what is happening, what to do if you currently have an administratively closed case, and how this new development might affect the Immigration Courts more generally.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Credible Fear# Detention# Immigration Court

Arrested in Immigration Court

Recently, there have been numerous reports about ICE appearing in Immigration Courts across the United States and detaining people at their hearings. It’s another way the Trump Administration is terrorizing non-citizens and trying to intimidate them into giving up their due process rights.

Here, we will look at what is happening, who is at risk, and what you can do to try to protect yourself.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Immigration Court

Immigration Court Data: More Asylum Decisions, More Asylum Denials

The latest data from our nation’s Immigration Courts reveals that judges are deciding more asylum cases than ever–and that denial rates are increasing.

The most recent numbers are from March 2025, and show that Immigration Judges adjudicated 10,933 asylum applications, which is the most cases ever decided in a single month. Of those, 76% were denied–another record.

Here, we’ll examine the data and see if we can learn more about what’s going on.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Immigration Court

Immigration Court to Asylum Seekers: “Explain Yourself or Die!”

A new Memo from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR, the office that oversees our nation’s Immigration Courts) allows Immigration Judges to “pretermit” (deny) asylum cases without a hearing if the applicant has failed to state a claim for protection. What does this mean? And how can asylum seekers in court protect themselves from having their applications pretermitted?

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By Jason Dzubow