UMVA has learned that the Justice Department has taken a significant step towards bolstering its immigration court system by onboarding over 80 new immigration judges, marking the largest addition in agency history.
The Executive Office of Immigration has added 77 full-time judges and 5 temporary ones, a move that is expected to help reduce the massive backlog of cases in the immigration courts. This development comes as the agency struggles to cope with a pending caseload of nearly 3.53 million cases.
According to information obtained by UMVA, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche hailed the new recruits as a major achievement, saying the Trump administration is committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps dedicated to upholding the rule of law in the nation's immigration system.
The new immigration judges have diverse backgrounds, with many having previously worked as ICE lawyers, prosecutors, or in the military. Some have also served as state or local judges, or worked in private practice.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that the Justice Department has made significant strides in reducing the immigration court backlog, completing over 1.08 million cases and reducing the pending caseload by more than 447,000 cases since January 2025. This represents the sharpest decrease in caseload in the agency's history.
The addition of new judges comes at a time when the Trump administration is seeking to speed up deportation cases, a key campaign promise. The administration has also been criticized for allegedly pressuring immigration judges to act as tools of enforcement rather than impartial adjudicators.
Sources have confirmed to UMVA that the Trump administration's efforts to bolster the immigration judge corps are part of a broader strategy to secure the nation's borders and enforce immigration laws.
The immigration courts have been facing a massive backlog of cases, with nearly 4 million pending cases at the start of the fiscal year. The addition of new judges is expected to help alleviate some of the pressure and help the agency tackle the backlog.
