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DOJ fired eight immigration judges at Manhattan's 26 Federal Plaza, including assistant chief judge

On December 1, 2025, the Trump administration abruptly fired eight immigration judges working at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, including Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Amiena Khan, per two Justice Department officials cited by the New York Times. The court, a focal point of ICE courthouse arrests for months, was left severely understaffed as part of a nationwide purge that had already removed nearly 90 immigration judges over the prior year.

Part of: Trump Administration Attacks on Judicial Independence

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
New York, New York

Abuses documented

Actors

On December 1, 2025, the Trump administration fired eight immigration judges working at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, one of the busiest immigration courts in the country and a focal point of ICE courthouse arrests for months. Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Amiena Khan, who supervised 36 immigration judges and dozens of staff at the court, was fired along with six of the judges she oversaw. Khan later told NPR she received the termination email at 11:29 a.m. while in the middle of a meeting, then had to inform the judges she supervised that they too had been let go while her own phone was still ringing with the news. "It was chilling and -- in how the terminations were effectuated -- it was disrespectful," Khan said. "It was utter disregard of dedicated public servants." A previously fired judge, Olivia Cassin, told the New York Times the court had been "basically eviscerated."

The firings were part of a nationwide purge that removed nearly 100 immigration judges over the course of 2025, shrinking the total number of sitting immigration judges by about a quarter in a single year even after accounting for new hires; twelve immigration courts lost more than half their judges, and two were left with none. The Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review also lost more than 400 legal assistants, attorney advisers, and legal administrative specialists over the same period.

Attorneys representing immigrants in front of the 26 Federal Plaza court said the firings compounded an existing chilling effect. "I think a lot of judges are scared of being retaliated against or losing their jobs, because you've seen in recent cases where there are immigration judges that have high approval ratings have gotten fired," attorney Nneka Jackson said, adding that judges she dealt with were "just automatically siding with DHS" regardless of the strength of the arguments made against removal. The Trump administration has defended the personnel purge as correcting what it calls a "de facto amnesty" installed under the prior administration's more lenient adjudication of asylum and other claims.

Updates

2025-12-08 — Rep. Meng demanded DOJ answers on the firings [3]

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), ranking member of the House Appropriations CJS subcommittee, sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding an explanation for the firings, including each judge's termination cause, performance ratings, and probationary status, and citing the immigration court system's backlog of nearly 4 million cases.

Why we recorded this

Immigration judges are executive-branch employees, not Article III judges, but their capacity to rule on the law and the facts in front of them -- rather than rule the way the administration wants -- is what makes a deportation hearing due process rather than a formality. On December 1, 2025, the Justice Department fired eight of the judges hearing cases at Manhattan's largest immigration court in a single day, including the court's own supervising judge, as part of a purge that had already removed nearly 90 immigration judges nationwide. Attorneys practicing before the court said the firings taught the judges who remained that ruling against the government risked their jobs -- exactly the kind of outcome-based pressure judicial independence exists to prevent.

Sources

  1. U.S. has a quarter fewer immigration judges than it did a year ago. Here's why — NPR primary accessed August 11, 2026
  2. Eight immigration judges at 26 Federal Plaza fired by Trump admin: report — amNewYork secondary accessed August 11, 2026
  3. Meng Demands Answers from AG Bondi on the Abrupt Firing of Eight Immigration Judges at 26 Federal Plaza — Office of Rep. Grace Meng primary accessed August 11, 2026

See also