Under the Trump administration, the Bay Area’s two immigration courts are rejecting asylum claims at double the rate as under the previous administration, as federal officials fire immigration judges, push to clear case backlogs and vow deeper vetting of asylum seekers.
From President Donald Trump’s first full month returning to office in February through August, federal immigration judges in San Francisco and Concord denied 54% of the 4,019 asylum cases they decided, according to the latest data from University of Syracuse’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research center that collects and analyzes immigration court data.
During the previous seven months, when Joe Biden was president, the courts rejected 26% of 3,355 cases.
Immigration experts attribute the sharp rise to new restrictions on asylum eligibility imposed by the Trump administration as part of its sweeping immigration crackdown. They also cite administration pressure on courts to process more asylum cases to reduce a massive backlog, even as federal officials summarily fired dozens of immigration judges nationwide.
The changes have created “a sense of hopelessness” among applicants, said Milli Atkinson, director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program at the San Francisco Bar Association. “But more than that, there’s a sense of fear.”
Asylum provides refuge and a pathway to permanent residency to those fleeing persecution in their home countries because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in particular social groups. As justification for Trump’s immigration crackdown, administration officials accused Biden of risking public safety by allowing a flood of migrants to abuse the U.S. asylum system.
Now, the administration says it wants to pause the asylum process. In response to the deadly shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., by an Afghan man who had been granted asylum, federal officials have pledged to thoroughly vet all asylum applications. However, immigration advocates say asylum seekers are already subject to rigorous background checks.
“We are going to go through every single person that has a pending asylum claim (or) has an asylum claim here in this country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told NBC News on Nov 30.
Still, it’s unclear what that could mean for area immigration courts, where people ask for asylum as a defense against deportation. On Tuesday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released a memo suspending a separate process for those seeking asylum without a pending deportation case. In that process, migrants can appeal to an immigration judge if their applications are denied.
In San Francisco, immigration court has continued operating as normal, according to Atkinson. The U.S. Justice Department, which oversees immigration courts, did not answer questions about how proceedings could be impacted.
In recent months, however, the Trump administration has fired about 90 immigration judges nationwide, seemingly without cause, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges. In the Bay Area, at least 11 judges have been dismissed in San Francisco and three in Concord. San Francisco now has just nine judges, while Concord has seven.
Jeremiah Johnson was one of five San Francisco immigration judges fired on the same day in November. Johnson, who was appointed as a judge during the first Trump administration, said that before being dismissed, he had been working weekends and logging long hours on the bench to handle an increased caseload foisted upon him by court management.
Despite what he described as “soft pressure” to resolve cases, he said his priority remained ensuring that asylum seekers received a full and fair hearing.
“No reason was provided to any of the judges who have been fired,” Johnson said. “I suspect it was because we were doing our job.”
Former immigration judge Jeremiah Johnson looks on from his home in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. Johnson was among several immigration judges removed by the Trump Administration last month. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
To replace the fired judges across the country, the Department of Justice has begun posting ads for new “deportation judges.”
“This Department of Justice is restoring integrity to our immigration system and encourages talented legal professionals to join in our mission to protect national security and public safety,” the department said in a statement.
Asylum claims soared after Biden took office as migrants fled violence and economic devastation in Central and South America. Even as his administration added asylum restrictions last summer, the surge led to a backlog of more than 1.1 million asylum court cases at the end of last year.
In an effort to reduce the backlog, the Trump administration issued a directive earlier this year instructing judges to reject incomplete asylum applications without a full hearing. Advocates cite that directive, along with stricter standards for justifying domestic violence and gang-related claims, among other changes to which immigration judges must adhere, making it more difficult to secure asylum under the current administration.
But even as the denial rate has spiked in the Bay Area, it remains lower than in most other parts of the country. In August, 80% of claim decisions nationwide resulted in a denial, up from 59% the same month last year.
The total number of denials nationwide is up as well, reaching more than 9,000 a month earlier this year, higher than at any point during all previous administrations dating back to at least President George W. Bush, according to the Syracuse data. In the Bay Area, monthly denials in San Francisco have also increased but remain below a third of the peak of 478 during Trump’s initial term. The Concord court, which opened only last year, saw denials roughly triple to 144 in August, the most recent figures available.
Atkinson, the immigration attorney, said one reason for the differences is that asylum seekers in the Bay Area are more likely to have an attorney representing them in court. But as immigration authorities detain people with pending cases, she said migrants are increasingly giving up their claims.
She gave an example of a mother who decided to forgo asylum instead of being separated from her young children.
“A lot of people are giving up out of desperation,” she said.