The next big phase of President Trump’s mass deportations is set to begin as “deportation judges” turn to 3.6 million backlogged cases.
Why it matters: Speeding up immigration court rulings could allow ICE to carry out more deportations, as most cases end in final removal orders.
Trump spent much of 2025 purging the beleaguered immigration courts. 55 immigration judges were fired, and another 80 retired.
He then went to MAGA central casting to appoint America’s new top immigration judge, retired Marine Corps Col. Daren Margolin.
Zoom in: Margolin retired from being an immigration judge in early 2024 because of his disgust with the Biden administration’s handling of the surge at the southern border.
“Personally, I felt like a co-conspirator in treason,” Margolin told Axios in an exclusive interview.
But now he’s back, officially taking leadership of the Executive Office of Immigration Review, the immigration court system housed within the Justice Department, in October.
The big picture: The backlog in immigration cases fell by 341,006 between Trump’s inauguration and Jan. 30, 2026, according to data shared with Axios.
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Beyond clearing the backlog, Margolin is also pushing to limit the appeals process on removal orders, increasing the number of people who are eligible for swift deportations.
State of play: About 1,700 regular applications have been received after a media campaign asking people to apply to be “deportation judges” across social media.
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The post Inside Trump’s Purge of U.S. Immigration Courts appeared first on American Renaissance.
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