DOJ shut down San Francisco immigration court ahead of schedule after firing most judges, leaving 100,000 cases in limbo

The Justice Department closed San Francisco's main immigration courthouse at 100 Montgomery Street on May 1, 2026, eight months earlier than the year-end date originally announced in January. The closure followed the termination or departure of at least 20 of the court's judges; ABC7 reported that at least 20 of the court's 22 immigration judges had been fired before the closure date. A judge who had been dismissed told reporters he believed he was fired "for doing my job." The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the DOJ component that oversees immigration courts, said it had "determined it would be more cost effective to relocate its court operations at 100 Montgomery Street to the nearby Concord Immigration Court."

More than 100,000 pending cases were transferred to the Concord Immigration Court, about an hour east of San Francisco across the Bay. An additional 17,000 cases remained at a smaller DOJ location at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco, which retained two operating courtrooms. Advocates at the Concord court said hearings on reassigned cases would not begin until at least December 2026. The San Francisco court had denied asylum in roughly 30 percent of cases in fiscal year 2025, about half the national denial rate, making it one of the courts most likely to grant asylum in the United States. Law professor Bill Hing said the administration wanted to "get rid of immigration judges that were fair when it came to asylum cases" and that the court's closure was intended to end the progressive asylum decisions it had historically produced.