The Trump administration fired three Massachusetts immigration judges on Friday, including one that terminated deportation proceedings against then-Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was detained last year by federal immigration authorities for pro-Palestinian advocacy.
Roopal Patel, a Boston immigration court judge, and Nina Froes, a Chelmsford immigration court judge, both received notice near the end of their standard-two year probationary periods when they were fired on Friday, they both told GBH News on Sunday.
Patel was in the middle of an asylum hearing on a brief break.
"I received an email stating that they weren't going to convert my position, and it was my last day," she said in a Sunday interview. "It's the language they use to describe taking someone from a probationary status to a more permanent status, so they weren't going to convert me off of probation into a permanent status."
She said she expected to eventually be let go, given that the Trump administration has been steadily firing judges hired under Biden, but it was "surprising" to get while she was on the bench.
Froes was in the middle of cross-examination in a case when the email popped up. She had to suspend the hearing, and the court would have to reschedule the case. She clocked the interpreter out. After returning from brushing her teeth in the bathroom, an office manager was waiting in her office to escort her out.
Another judge in Massachusetts was also fired, along with judges in New York and California immigration courts.
Both Patel and Froes were appointed under the Biden administration, and were employees of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which falls under the Department of Justice. Both entities didn't return return requests for comments about the terminations.
Both Chelmsford and Boston's immigration courts have been hit by firings since the beginning of the second Trump administration, with one calling the decision-making "political" last year.
In both of Patel and Froes' high profile cases, students were detained and marked for deportation due to their involvement in pro-Palestinian advocacy.
Patel was the immigration judge for the immigration proceedings for Öztürk, a then-PhD student with Tufts University. Öztürk was detained by ICE for six weeks last year, and had her student visa revoked before her arrest. Earlier, she had co-authored an op-ed criticizing her university's response to Israel and the war in Gaza. She was released last May by a federal judge in her habeas case and had her immigration case pending.
Patel found on Jan. 29 that the Department of Homeland Security hasn't proved that Öztürk should be deported from the U.S. Patel's decision is appealed to the Board of immigration appeals by the Department of Homeland Security.
Froes dismissed deportation proceedings against Mohsen Mahdawi, a then-Columbia University student and Palestinian green card holder who was detained outside of a Vermont office where he was scheduled for an interview to obtain US citizenship last year. Mahdawi had participated in student advocacy for Palestinian human rights. He was released last spring, but had a pending immigration case, and graduated weeks after his release.
Froes ruled the Trump administration hadn't proved the authenticity of a document allegedly written by Sec. of State Marco Rubio. That document claimed Mahdawi's activism threatened US foreign policy goals, but Froes' decision showed government attorneys failed to certify the memo used as evidence correctly. That decision has also been appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals by the government.
"I had no idea, no clue who he was," said Froes of Mahdawi. "I had people texting me saying, 'Oh, you're in the Times.' But I'm like, 'What are you talking about?' That was when I found out that this was high-profile." She said she doesn't "Google who people are."
"I did the case that was in front of me — I look at the record," she said.
Patel said it's hard to tell if the firing was political since it was a very short message. She doesn't think the Öztürk ruling was necessarily the cause.
"I think I could have ruled either way in that case and probably would have still ended up fired, just given the patterns of the firings," she said.
Patel said that she sees a pattern that seems to be aimed at people who have a background in representing immigrants, and that the firings seem "informed by a kind of political agenda to kind of reshape the immigration bench to reflect the policy agenda of the current administration to be one of mass deportations."
In an interview, Froes did not talk about the political ramifications of her firing, but described concern over being a federal civil servant, and single mother of two who was suddenly let go from employment.
"I went in every day to my job. I did the best job that I could do. All of a sudden, I find myself out of a job." she said. "It's unexpected in the sense that I don't have a plan B. It's devastating, personally. And I just hope that my career isn't ruined, and I just don't even know what I'm going to do."
Both Froes and Patel did not say whether they intend to pursue litigation.
The Trump administration has fired more than 100 immigration judges. It has hired over 140 temporary and permanent judges, according to a Department of Justice press releases. Some have a background of working with the Department of Homeland Security or ICE as attorneys.
In Boston's court, only five immigration judges are listed online. Five separate judges and the same assistant chief immigration judge are listed on Chelmford's website, along with two temporary judges.
Massachusetts has at least 148,000 pending immigration court cases, according to TRAC reports' most recent information from February 2026.
Froes said the new recruits seem "well-qualified," but have similar decision-making ideology as she does.
"They've been on a very busy hiring schedule. But the people that they're hiring, their credentials aren't that different than the people who are already there. So I don't understand what they think is going to happen that's different."
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