Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the deployment of up to 600 military lawyers to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to serve as temporary immigration judges, according to an August 27 memo obtained by the Associated Press (AP).
The plan calls for sending groups of 150 attorneys, both military and civilian, with the first round expected to be identified by next week and deployed “as soon as practicable,” according to the memo.
Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed the move to Newsweek.
“At the request of the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense is identifying qualified Judge Advocates and civilian attorneys for details to serve as Temporary Immigration Judges,” Parnell said in a statement. “These DOD attorneys will augment existing resources to help further combat a backlog of cases by presiding over immigration hearings.”
Why It Matters
The DOJ oversees the immigration court system, where judges determine whether immigrants are eligible to remain in the United States or not. The system has been facing a backlog for some time, reaching an all-time high in July as some judges left and recruitment slowed under the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump, left, listens as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on August 26, 2025.
President Donald Trump, left, listens as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on August 26, 2025.
Associated Press
What To Know
There are about 600 immigration judges across the country, within the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), down from a high of over 700 in the last few months of the Biden administration.
The current White House fired multiple immigration judges, some allegedly without obvious cause, despite the president’s focus on immigration law and enforcement.
According to the memo seen by the AP, the deployment of Defense Department judges to the EOIR will initially last no more than 179 days.
It was not immediately clear what impact the judge could have on the DOJ’s backlog of cases, which stood at 3.7 million when figures were last published in June.
Last week, the EOIR issued a memo granting itself the authority to appoint any government attorney as a temporary immigration judge, stating that this would allow it to select judges from a “larger pool of well-qualified candidates.”
The change in policy marks a shift from the current expectation that immigration judges have a decade of experience behind them before taking to the bench.
What People Are Saying
Charles Kuck, founding partner at Kuck Baxter immigration law firm in Atlanta, told Newsweek: “Just what the Immigration Court needs—more lawyers with no experience in a wildly complicated field with defendants’ lives on the line on each decision. This is not a joke. It’s a travesty.
“Without a doubt, the immigration court system is broken. But this is not the way to fix it. Politicizing judges is the worst possible outcome for the immigrants in deportation proceedings.”
Lisa Koop, national director of legal services at the National Immigrant Justice Center, told Newsweek: “While immigration court backlogs and dysfunction are not unique to this administration, the immigration judge ‘shortage’ is a problem of the Trump administration’s own making, a result of the firing of dozens of qualified judges since January.
“Asking military attorneys with limited or no immigration experience to decipher the U.S. immigration code and administer justice is misguided; it is clearly intended to lead to speedy deportations in lieu of due process and just outcomes. In reality, this move will lead to years of tangled litigation and mishandled immigration cases. The victims will be immigrants seeking their fair day in court who are being set up to always lose, regardless of their clear eligibility for protections created by Congress and recognized by every single administration except this one.”
Sean Parnell, in his statement to Newsweek: “The Department remains committed to continuing our support for our interagency partners, bringing the skill and dedication of America’s service members and civil servants to deliver justice, restore order, and protect the American people. Beyond this, we don’t have any additional details to provide at this time.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, on X: “The Trump admin plans to double the number of immigration judges, ordering hundreds of military lawyers to serve as immigration judges, despite flimsy legal authority to do so. Notably, immigration law is infamously complex, and judges normally require months of training.”
What Happens Next
A White House official told the AP that the administration is working on a variety of options to tackle the backlog of immigration cases.
This story includes reporting by the AP.
Update 9/2/25, 4:49 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.