US Immigration Court, 100 Montgomery St, San Francisco. Image by Dreamyshade
Trump’s Department of Justice just fired its sixth Immigration judge from the U.S. immigration court in San Francisco. Most recently, it was Judge Chloe Dillon, who got an email one day with the subject line reading, “Notice of Termination”, with no explanation given.
But the DOJ has now removed the three immigration judges in San Francisco with the highest rates of granting deportation relief, and they are also firing the senior judges who train new hires.
Meanwhile, about 600 military lawyers have been authorized to work for the Justice Department as “temporary immigration judges”, with 150 of them potentially starting as soon as this week, nationally.
It would be safe to speculate that Trump is planning to replace judges who tend to grant asylum to immigrants, with military judges who…take different orders.
Immigration judges are the only ones who can revoke a green card or issue a final order of removal for people who have been in the country for more than two years and are in the process of being deported.
And Immigration judges, unlike many other federal courts, are part of DOJ, which is overseen by the executive branch, which gives the president the right to fire them at will.
San Francisco is not alone in this purge. Immigration courts in other progressive US cities have seen aggressive judge firings. Boston started the year with 18 immigration judges and now has 5. Chicago had 22 judges last year and now has 14.
It’s plain to see that Trump’s plan is to take over the justice systems in left-leaning cities, just as he took over the municipality and police force in Washington, DC. By replacing the local authority with military and federal loyalists. It is the slow, steady, incremental institution of authoritarianism.
Authoritarianism is a form of rule where a single leader or a small group holds power and suppresses political freedoms and civil liberties, prioritizing the political status quo over democracy and the rule of law.
Welcome to Trump’s America. San Francisco is not immune, and if you think Trump will stop with the immigration court, you may want to think again. Last week the President added San Francisco to his list of cities where he might send in the National Guard, which he had already done in Washington and Los Angeles.
