Two judges fired from a Massachusetts immigration court say they see their terminations as part of President Trump’s broader attack on the nation’s court system.
“The very institutions that glue our society together are melting in front of our eyes. Our institutions are under attack,” said George Pappas, a judge who was fired this month from the Chelmsford Immigration Court.
He told WBUR’s All Things Considered he faced pressure from his boss to dismiss cases during his time on the bench, which he called an “egregious violation.”
Pappas said that in April, his assistant chief judge told him to grant motions to dismiss when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were at the courthouse.
“If the case was dismissed, more likely than not, as soon as that person would exit the courtroom, he would be arrested by the ICE officers in the hallway,” he said.
Pappas declined to give the name of his assistant chief judge. David Cheng is the only person listed on the U.S. Department of Justice website assigned to the Chelmsford court. WBUR was not able to confirm directly with the assistant chief judge that he told judges to dismiss cases.
Pappas said he thinks his boss was responding to pressure from above.
WBUR reached out to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees all immigration judges and courts nationally. WBUR asked about Pappas’s claims that he was pressured to dismiss cases by his superior and what the reason was for his termination. They declined to comment.
Pappas said he did not dismiss any case that he wouldn’t have otherwise, saying he saw it as his job to “protect due process.”
A growing backlog
The Trump administration has been cutting immigration judges across the country over the past six months. More than half of the judges at the Chelmsford court, the state’s largest immigration court, have been let go or quit since January.
Pappas said cases in Chelmsford are currently being scheduled into 2027. He expects that to go into 2028 fairly quickly.
The case load was crushingly intense even before the staff got smaller, he said.
“I have seen every day the horror stories that people have to live with,” Pappas said of the immigration cases he’s heard. “It’s really affected me.”
Pappas said people waiting for their day in court “will languish in detention even longer.”
Congress recently approved a bill that allocated over $3 billion to the Justice Department for immigration-related activities. That could include hiring more immigration judges to alleviate the growing case backlog — nationwide, the backlog is nearly 4 million cases.
But Pappas said he doesn’t think the administration actually cares about the backlog.
“I think their intent is certainly to gum up the court system,” he said. “The end game is to dismantle the court system.”
Political sway
Pappas received a letter notifying him that his term would not be extended on July 11. He was placed on administrative leave and his last official day as a judge was Tuesday.
He wasn’t given a formal reason, only that “the attorney general has decided not to extend” his term. Immigration judges are appointed by the executive branch, and they get a two-year probationary period before they’re hired permanently.
“ Obviously, I was disappointed, but I knew it was coming,” Pappas said.
He uprooted his life in North Carolina two years ago for the job, leaving behind his private practice of 20 years.
Like Pappas, Kerry Doyle wasn’t given a reason for her termination. Doyle was appointed to serve as a judge in Chelmsford during the Biden administration as well.
She had only spent two months in the position before she received a 4 p.m. email on a Friday relieving her. She had 35 minutes to clear her desk.
“I knew the odds were good that I wouldn’t make it past my two years, but I guess I never imagined it would only be two months,” she said. “It’s supposed to be a civil service hire, so you’re supposed to be hired neutrally without any consideration of your political background,” she added.
Doyle says it’s hard to make sense of it all.
“ There’s really no rational basis for any of it, because they’re ramping up arrests and ramping up removals,” she said. “On the other hand, they’re continuing to fire judges right and left.”
The National Association of Immigration Judges told WBUR that out of roughly 700 judges across the country, nearly 106 have been fired or resigned.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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