Washington – George Pappas, Jennifer Peyton and Carla Espinoza were everything Federal immigration judges licensed this month by email. The three ruled on thousands of immigration cases in Chicago and Boston.
“It was arbitrary, unfair,” Pappas told CBS News of his dismissal. “And it is an attack on the rule of law. It is an attack on the judges.”
Pappas was an immigration judge in Boston until this week, supervising more than 2,000 cases during his two years on the bench. Peyton managed the Chicago Immigration Court for almost nine years, hearing thousands of cases until it is suddenly drawn during the weekend of July 4.
Peyton supervised Espinoza, which was appointed in 2023 and decided more than 1,000 cases during the last financial year, double the average of immigration judges.
Peyton told CBS News that she had received no reason for her to shoot. Immigration judges are under the authorization of the Executive Office of the Ministry of Justice for the Immigration Examination.
“My email was three sentences,” said Peyton. “I had no cause. I had no explanation.”
“As judges, we were in fear, we were concerned,” added Espinoza. “It makes it very difficult to be impartial. We did not succumb to this pressure, but it looks like pressure.”
Pappas and Peyton revealed that they had been told how they should reign over immigration cases.
“They said to me: grant the requests to reject,” said Pappas. “It was at this moment that Ice (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) wandered in the courthouses. Because if we rejected the case, this person who responded leaves the court vulnerable to immediate apprehension and an accelerated withdrawal.”
CBS News reported on the many cases where ice agents have arrested immigrants by leaving their hearings.
“Once they have left the courtroom, most often, they are handcuffed and led by ice officers,” added Peyton.
According to the Executive Office of the Immigration Review, federal immigration courses Now facing a backlog Almost four million cases, with around 600 judges left to hear these cases.
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the union which represents the judges of the immigration courts, reports that since the Trump administration took office, more than 100 immigration judges were dismissed, transferred or took retirement offers.
According to the union, the judges of immigration are considered to be employees of the Ministry of Justice and therefore have no nominations for life such as federal judges in the judiciary.
In a social truth job In April, President Trump argued that “we cannot make up for everyone, because it would take, without exaggeration, 200 years”.
I think this administration could give a horn on the backwards, “said Pappas.
In defense His repression of immigrationThe White House has repeatedly argued that undocumented immigrants are illegally in the United States. And in May, the Trump administration started an effort To interrupt the cases of immigration court of certain migrants in order to acid their expulsion process, government representatives and lawyers at CBS News said at the time. Espinoza counts that the justice system exists to ensure that the law is respected and the tents to bypass it could prove to be a slippery slope.
“This is why they are in procedure in court,” said Espinoza about immigrants. “There is the law we apply, and they may have to go, and they might not … Today, they are immigrants. And tomorrow? Who will be refused afterwards.”
“If you attack the judges themselves who judge the cases, there will be no rule of law. This should concern everyone, not just immigrants, but American citizens.”
When reached by CBS News, the Ministry of Justice made no comments on the union’s allegations that several immigration judges had been dismissed without reason.
And in response to the allegations of former judges according to which dismissals are a targeted attack on the immigration courts, the Ministry of Justice said: “On the contrary, the Trump administration vigorously applies the immigration laws of our country.”
And with regard to the allegations of the judges who spoke to CBS News that they were forced to govern in a certain way, the Ministry of Justice said: “Although the Biden administration has put pressure on immigration judges to govern in some way, in particular to grant requests to rejection, the Trump administration has restored the rule of law and ensures that the judges respect the law.”
contributed to this report.