An immigration judge in California has just filed a bombshell federal lawsuit against the Department of Justice, claiming she was fired for being a registered Democrat, a woman over 40, fluent in Spanish, and connected to immigrant-rights groups. This isn't just a routine termination—it's a stark accusation of political and demographic targeting inside the federal judiciary.
Kyra Lilien joined the San Francisco Immigration Court in 2023 before transferring to the Concord court in 2024. Last July, she received brutal news: her two-year probationary period would not be converted into a permanent appointment—despite stellar performance reviews.
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 every performance standard, earning the highest possible ratings on her probationary reports for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
Her record underscores her fairness: she denied only 34% of asylum claims that came before her. Yet she alleges the termination violated her civil rights and her First Amendment freedoms—a direct challenge to what she calls a purge of judges who don't fit a certain mold.
Lilien’s attorney, Kevin Owen, put it bluntly: “She didn’t fit their mold. And what they did to her was impermissible and unlawful.” The lawsuit alleges that nearly all immigration judges fired or not retained around the same time were female, pointing to internal memos issued by a top official in early 2025.
Those memos railed against “extremist leftist organizations” advocating for illegal aliens and criticized Biden-era hiring practices that promoted DEI initiatives and “illegal immigration.” The language drips with ideological targeting, and Lilien’s background made her a prime target.
Before becoming a judge, she ran the immigration program for Jewish Family and Community Services—helping Afghan refugees resettle in the U.S.—and served as immigration program director for Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland. These were not controversial roles; they were humanitarian lifelines.
The complaint names nearly 30 other immigration judges nationwide who were similarly fired or denied permanent status, including 14 from the Concord and San Francisco courts alone. Lilien is just one of at least 107 immigration judges terminated since January 2025 under the Trump administration, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges.
She is the first in the Bay Area to sue over her lost job, but she’s not alone. Three other immigration judges—in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Cleveland—have filed similar lawsuits. Owen says at least four more judges are ready to take legal action soon.
The Trump administration has moved aggressively to reshape the immigration courts, purging dozens of judges hired under the previous president as part of a broader effort to clear backlogs and shift enforcement priorities. But for Lilien and her legal team, this isn’t about policy—it’s about justice.
