How Trump Purged Immigration Judges to Speed Up Deportations

The Trump administration has systematically pressured the nation’s immigration judges, threatening them with disciplinary action if they do not deport more people and firing those seen as insufficiently supportive of the president’s aggressive enforcement agenda, a New York Times investigation has found.

The overhaul of the immigration courts has been far less visible than the militarized deportation raids that President Trump scaled back after public protest. But the effort has helped reshape a hugely consequential, if little-known, corner of the government that the administration is harnessing to advance its mass-deportation policies.

Although they wear robes and are required by law to exercise “independent judgment,” immigration judges are not part of the judicial branch. Instead they work for the Justice Department, under Mr. Trump’s ultimate command, and can be fired. One of their main duties is deciding whether undocumented immigrants [illegal alien invaders] should be deported or granted a form of legal status like asylum and be allowed to remain in the country...

The administration has instructed judges to stop granting bond to immigrants [illegal alien invaders] who crossed the border illegally, a change from decades of practice...