The Justice Department announced on Thursday the onboarding of over 80 new immigration judges, the largest addition in agency history.
The Executive Office of Immigration added 77 full-time judges and 5 temporary ones, according to a DOJ news release.
“The Trump administration is committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps that is dedicated to restoring the rule to the law in our nation’s immigration system,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
“Today, we are onboarding the largest immigration judge class in agency history. This could only happen thanks to President Trump’s decisive leadership and commitment to securing our borders. I also applaud EOIR’s leadership team for helping facilitate these hiring efforts and recruiting highly qualified and talented personnel in record time,” he added.
EOIR has hired 153 permanent immigration judges since the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1.
The DOJ noted, “Reducing the immigration court backlog remains one of the highest priorities for the agency. Since January 20, 2025, EOIR has completed more than 1.08 million cases and has reduced its pending caseload in immigration courts by more than 447,000 cases, bringing the pending caseload down from approximately 4 million to under 3.53 million, the sharpest decrease in caseload in EOIR’s history.”
Hellbound and Down 