DOJ fired Virginia immigration judge weeks after he granted asylum in majority of November cases

AP reporting published December 19, 2025 revealed that the U.S. Department of Justice had fired Christopher Day, a U.S. Army Reserve lawyer who had been serving as a temporary immigration judge, from the bench at the Annandale, Virginia immigration court. Day began hearing cases there in late October 2025 and was fired around December 2, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges; no more specific date has been publicly documented. Neither Day nor the Justice Department would explain the reason for his removal -- a DOJ spokeswoman declined to discuss personnel matters, and Day did not respond to AP's request for comment.

Federal data analyzed by the nonprofit Mobile Pathways showed that of the 11 cases Day concluded in November 2025, he granted asylum or other relief allowing the migrant to remain in the United States in six of them -- a rate sharply out of step with the administration's mass-deportation goals. Day was one of roughly 30 military lawyers the Pentagon had by that point detailed to immigration courts under a program Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved in September 2025, ultimately authorizing up to 600 military lawyers to hear asylum cases as the administration sought to clear a backlog of 3.8 million pending cases. His dismissal came amid a broader wave in which the administration had by then fired almost 100 immigration judges viewed as insufficiently aligned with its deportation goals.