Kyra Lilien had been in the San Francisco Immigration Court since 2023, before transferring to the Concord Immigration Court in 2024.
Last July, Lilien was notified that her two-year probationary period would not be converted to a permanent appointment.
The 14-page lawsuit, filed this week, names the DOJ and Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche as defendants.
Lilien claims she met or exceeded all performance standards and received the highest possible ratings in her probationary reports for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
According to TRAC Immigration data, she denied just 34% of asylum claims brought before her.
Despite this, she alleges her removal violated her civil and First Amendment rights.
Lilien’s attorney, Kevin Owen of Gilbert Employment Law in Maryland, told local stationKTVUthat Lilien “didn’t fit their mold” and that the actions taken against her were “impermissible and unlawful.”
“She didn’t fit their mold,” Owen said. “And what they did to her was impermissible and unlawful.”
The suit claims that immigration judges who were terminated or not retained around the same time were overwhelmingly female and points to internal memos issued by then-acting EOIR Director Sirce Owen in early 2025.
Those memos criticized “extremist leftist organizations” involved in illegal alien advocacy and Biden-era hiring practices that promoted illegal immigration and DEI hires.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
