The Trump administration has continued to exert more control over immigration courts, now easing rules for hiring temporary judges.
It could use some help, since it has fired or forced close to 100 immigration judges to resign, according to NBC News.
So far, the White House has not said why it made the firings.
But data showed immigration judges have clear differences in granting or denying asylum, creating inconsistencies from court to court.
Four judges are assigned to Connecticut’s only U.S. immigration court in Hartford.
Data from TRAC, The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, shows from 2019 through 2024, these judges deny asylum requests in the majority of cases.
Administrative Judge Todd Masters, Judge Angela Munson, Judge Daniel Morris and recently retired Judge Michael Straus denied asylum requests between 60 to 81% of the time – combined, a bit higher than the national average of 64%.
Former San Francisco immigration Judge Ila Deiss had a 6% asylum denial rate from 2019 to 2024, according to TRAC data.
The veteran judge was fired in May. Deiss gave an interview to our sister station, NBC Bay Area, shortly after that.
She shared concerns about who will pick up the estimated 6,000 cases on her docket that she explained take a long time to complete.
“These are families, and they’ve been here for years…I was on track to resolve 1,000 cases this year, and that’s hearing four hearings a day, day in and day out,” Deiss said.