A San Francisco immigration judge suddenly broke down in tears after she was fired in the middle of an asylum hearing. The judge, Shuting Chen, is 41 years old and had been handling a case for three siblings from Venezuela who had escaped persecution and had been waiting for years to have their story heard. In the middle of the hearing, an email popped up on her screen with the subject line “notice of termination.” That was how she found out she had been dismissed.
Chen said she couldn’t help crying in front of everyone in the courtroom. She explained that she always tried to stay composed, even though the work is emotionally heavy, but learning she was fired without warning overwhelmed her.
She told the lawyers, the interpreter, and the asylum-seekers what had just happened and informed them she could not continue the hearing. For the siblings who were hoping for a chance to finally make their case, this likely means years more of waiting.
Chen, who came to the United States from China in the 1990s, said that as an immigrant herself, she took her job very seriously. Losing her position felt not only like losing a job but watching the immigration court system fall apart.
She is only one of many judges who have been removed since Donald Trump returned to the White House. According to reports, at least 90 immigration judges across the country have been fired, many of whom previously worked defending immigrants.
Four other judges were dismissed the same week as Chen, with no explanation. This comes at a time when immigration courts nationwide are overwhelmed, with a record 3.4 million cases waiting to be heard. In San Francisco alone, the Department of Justice recently removed about a third of the judges, even though the city has long been considered one of the most immigrant-friendly places for people seeking safety.
Immigration enforcement in California has also been more aggressive, with nearly 5,500 people deported from the state in the first seven months of the year. Chen said she worries that the government is trying to dismantle the San Francisco immigration court little by little. At the start of the year, the court had 21 judges. Now only nine are left.
Attorneys who work in the court say they suspect judges are being targeted because San Francisco is seen as liberal, and officials may believe judges in the city are more likely to be sympathetic to immigrants.
None of the fired judges have been replaced yet, but the government is advertising new positions under the title “deportation judge,” emphasizing the role as a way to shape the country’s future. Chen hopes that whoever is hired will see themselves as fair judges, not just people expected to remove immigrants more quickly.
The Department of Homeland Security has also been promoting these jobs online, using language urging applicants to “bring the hammer down” on so-called criminal immigrants. Another judge who was fired the same day as Chen said he felt the government was interfering with judges’ independence and hinting that they should handle cases in a specific way faster, with fewer protections for immigrants.
Chen said that although the firing was painful, she wasn’t completely surprised. The workload had been becoming unbearable. Judges were being assigned hundreds of extra cases, and the pace was impossible to keep up with. Now, with so few judges left, about 25,000 cases will fall on the remaining staff, which she described as inhumane.
Other people working in the immigration system say the situation feels drastically different from previous years. Many of them were shocked at how Chen was treated. One attorney who witnessed the firing said she felt embarrassed as an American because it made her question whether the country still follows the rule of law. She said she has seen officials try to push cases through quickly and even attempt to deport people to countries they have never lived in.
Immigrant advocates believe the firings are deliberate. They worry the government is removing experienced judges to replace them with military attorneys or others who may be more willing to order deportations, even if they have little experience with immigration law. Judges who were let go say the administration seems to be applying subtle pressure on them to decide cases in a certain direction, to move faster, and to give people less chance to defend themselves.
Another former judge in the Bay Area said she was also terminated in the middle of a hearing last month, even though she had a strong track record. She said it made no sense to remove judges who know the system well if the goal is truly efficiency.
Chen believes the recent actions amount to an attack on the immigration court system itself. The Justice Department insists it is simply enforcing immigration laws it claims were not properly followed in the previous administration. A spokesperson said the agency is trying to restore integrity to the immigration system and is encouraging new legal professionals to join in protecting national security and public safety.
Neither Judge Chen nor the Justice Department responded to requests for further comment.
