A former US immigration judge has warned that theUS justice systemis being bent to political will after the Donald Trump administration removed more than 100 immigration judges across the country since January 2025 and replaced many of them with military lawyers and political appointees. Speaking from Maryland, ex-judge David Koelsch and several other current and former judges say the shake-up amounts to a 'purge' that threatens the independence of the courts and the basic idea of neutral justice in America.

The alarm from inside the immigration courts follows a two-year drive by Trump's second administration to accelerate deportations and tighten control over legal decision-making. The policy, backed by Elon Musk's 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE), has targeted judges viewed as too sympathetic to asylum-seekers, offered buyouts to others and shut down one of the largest immigration courts in the country. Those who remain describe a climate of fear in which granting bond or asylum can put a judge's job at risk.

Koelsch, 59, had already resigned when he travelled to Minneapolis on the day federal agents shot dead Alex Pretti. He says he simply walked to Nicollet Avenue 'to stand and bear witness.' What he found instead felt like a different country. Dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers in masks and tactical gear, rifles slung at the ready, had sealed off the street as civilians shouted from the pavements.

When tear gas drifted through the crowd, his chest tightened and he dropped to his knees before stumbling away to catch his breath. The physical reaction unnerved him; the symbolism troubled him more. Koelsch had once taken the same oath as those officers, first as a supervisory asylum officer at the Department of Homeland Security, then for nearly eight years as an immigration judge in Baltimore.

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'I was proud to do my part in protecting the country,' he said. 'But then to see these officers out in the streets, basically harassing civilians, I just felt kind of sad... I didn't think they were living up to [the oath].'

Four months earlier, Koelsch had walked away from the bench, years earlier than planned, as colleagues were dismissed 'left and right.' Since January 2025, more than 113 immigration judges have been fired, pushed out through buyouts or moved aside, and their posts filled with military lawyers and political picks, according to figures cited by the judges.

Koelsch insists the corrosion of independence did not start withTrump, criticising the Biden administration's use of prosecutorial discretion to clear court backlogs as 'a numbers game' for 'good headlines.' But he says the current administration has turned pressure into outright control.

The shift has been stark in San Francisco. On 21 November 2025, Jeremiah Johnson, 52, thought he was finishing an ordinary day on the bench. Appointed in 2017 by Trump's first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, Johnson had granted asylum at rates well above the national average, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

That afternoon he approved asylum for a family of four, then returned to his office. Minutes later he discovered by email that he, and two colleagues named Chen and Savage, had been fired. His access to the court system was cut almost instantly.

Source: International Business Times UK