Immigration judges fired by Trump administration say they will fight back

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CHICAGO -- Federal immigration judges fired by the Trump administration are filing appeals, pursuing legal action and speaking out in an unusually public campaign to fight back.

More than 50 immigration judges -- from senior leaders to new appointees -- were fired since Republican Donald Trump assumed the presidency for the second time. Normally bound by courtroom decorum, many are now unrestrained in describing terminations they consider unlawful and why they believe they were targeted.

Their suspected reasons include gender discrimination, decisions on immigration cases played up by the Trump administration and a courthouse tour with the Senate's No. 2 Democrat.

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"I cared about my job and was really good at it," Jennifer Peyton, a former supervising judge told The Associated Press this past week. "That letter that I received, the three sentences, explained no reason why I was fired."

Peyton, who received the notice while on a July Fourth family vacation, was appointed judge in 2016. She considered it her dream job. She later was named assistant chief immigration judge in Chicago, helping to train, mentor and oversee judges. She was a visible presence in the busy downtown court, greeting outside observers.

She cited top-notch performance reviews and said she faced no disciplinary action. She said she'll appeal through the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent government agency that Trump also targeted.

Peyton's theories about why she was fired include appearing on a "bureaucrat watchdog list" of people accused by a right-wing organization of working against the Trump agenda. She also questions a courthouse tour she gave to Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois in June.

Durbin blasted Peyton's termination as an "abuse of power," saying he's visited before as part of his duties as a publicly elected official.

The nation's immigration courts -- with a backlog of about 3.5 million cases -- became a key focus of Trump's hard-line immigration enforcement efforts.

The firings came on top of resignations, early retirements and transfers, adding up to 106 judges gone since January, according to the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents judges. There are currently about 600 immigration judges.

Several of those fired, including Peyton, recently did a slew of interviews on local Chicago television stations and with national outlets, saying they now have a platform for their colleagues who remain on the bench.

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"The ones that are left are feeling threatened and very uncertain about their future," said Matt Biggs, the union's president.

Carla Espinoza, a Chicago immigration judge since 2023, was fired as she was delivering a verdict this month. Her notice said she'd be dismissed at the end of her two-year probationary period with the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

"I am personally committed to my career. We're not political appointees," she told AP. "I'm entitled to a reason."

She believes the firings disproportionately affected women and ethnic minorities, including people with Hispanic-sounding surnames like hers. She plans to take legal action before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which also shifted focus under Trump.

"There's a very strong pattern of discriminatory factors," she said.

Espinoza thinks another reason could be her decision to release a Mexican immigrant falsely accused of threatening to assassinate Trump. Ramón Morales Reyes was accused of a writing a threatening letter by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. But the claims quickly fell apart as Wisconsin authorities determined that Morales Reyes was framed by a man who previously attacked him.

Espinoza said she felt pressure with public scrutiny, media coverage and Noem's statements about Morales Reyes, which weren't corrected or removed from social media.

"It's hard to silence the noise and just do your job fairly when there's so much distraction," she said. "I think I did. And I stand by my decision as having been a fair one to release an individual who I believe was twice victimized."

The Executive Office for Immigration Review, part of the Justice Department that oversees the immigration courts, declined to comment on the firings through an agency spokesperson.

Peyton said she isn't sure that working as an immigration judge is still her dream job.

"It's important that everyone in our country knows what's happening in our immigration courts," she said. "The Department of Justice that I joined in 2016 is not the same one now."

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