San Francisco immigration court shuts down after purge of judges

Summary

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — There are no immigrants waiting for rulings anymore at San Francisco’s main immigration court, no lawyers making arguments.The court, which had 21 judges when President Donald Trump was sworn in last year, had only two left when it closed May 1. The rest had been fired, retired or resigned amid a White House purge of federal immigration judges.The closing is one more reflection of the turmoil that has upended the immigration court system as the administration looks for ways to churn through its massive backlog of 3.8 million asylum cases and deport as many people as possible. Asylum denial rates have soared as the administration has fired almost 100 judges seen as too liberal, and approved using hundreds of military lawyers to replace them. Immigrants have been arrested when they arrive at courthouses or government offices for scheduled appearances. But amid the nationwide upheaval, San Francisco is the first major city to be left without a primary immigration court, leaving chaos and dysfunction in a region long known for its friendliness to asylum seekers. The two remaining judges will work from another federal building in the city but will be part of an immigration court across the bay. That reputation, court insiders say, might have led to its downfall.“It was a vibrant legal scene and so I think if you were looking to target a court you would have to look at what San Francisco stands for,” said Jeremiah Johnson, an immigration judge in the city until he was fired in November. He is now executive vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. Most of the court’s 117,000 immigration cases have been moved to a courthouse in Concord, a city about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away that opened two years ago to help with San Francisco’s backlog of cases. But turmoil has also reached that city. A courthouse that had 11 judges at the start of 2025 is down to five after a series of firings. It had a caseload of 60,000 cases even before...