Administration officials told Reuters the number of judges who would be reassigned to the 12 cities and the timeline is still being worked out. The plan is in line with a promise made frequently by President Trump that he would deport more illegal immigrants involved in crime.
The judges will be temporarily reassigned to Baltimore; Los Angeles; Miami; New Orleans; New York; San Francisco; Bloomington, Minn.; El Paso, Texas; Harlingen, Texas; Imperial, Calif.; Omaha, Neb. and Phoenix, Ariz., according to a DOJ spokesman. The cities were chosen because the have a high proportion of illegal immigrants with criminal charges, according to The Hill.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approached the DOJ to ask for a reshuffling of the immigration judges, which Reuters says is an unusual move, especially so because the DOJ is responsible for the administration of immigration courts. A DHS spokesperson declined to comment on any plan that has not yet been finalized.
Under Trump’s executive order, signed in January, according to the International Business Times, illegal immigrants with pending criminal charges were put in the crosshairs and regarded as priorities for rapid deportation out of the country.
The 12 cities cited by the DOJ have more than half of the 18,013 pending immigration cases that involve undocumented immigrants facing or convicted of criminal charges, according to data provided by the DOJ’s Executive Office of Immigration Review. Additionally, the DOJ is sending immigration judges to detention centers close to the U.S.-Mexico border. Those judges are expected to begin their reassignments on Monday.
