A grey gavel with barbed wire wrapped around the handle in front of a cloudy red background.

Though there’s a massive backlog of immigration cases that need rulings, the Trump administration has been firing immigration judges. Ximena Bustillo, NPR’s immigration and DHS reporter, has spotted a trend – many of the judges let go have previous experience in immigration defense. At the same time, the Trump administration has allocated $3 billion to beef up ICE as an agency and hire “deportation judges.”