Newly released court data shows cases handled by military attorneys acting as immigration judges end in deportation or voluntary departure at significantly higher rates than those overseen by civilian judges.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump’s decision to authorize military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges is coinciding with higher rates of deportation and voluntary departure, according to new data cited in a Daily Caller News Foundation report.
Following a 2025 policy change allowing military personnel to act as immigration judges, cases overseen by judge advocate generals, or JAGs, have resulted in removal orders at higher levels than those issued by traditional immigration judges. The data comes as the Trump administration advances its stated goal of conducting the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
According to figures provided by Mobile Pathways, a California-based nonprofit that tracks immigration court outcomes, JAG judges ordered deportation in 78% of cases during November, the first full month they began issuing rulings. During the same period, civilian immigration judges issued removal orders in approximately 62% of cases.
The trend continued in December. Mobile Pathways data shows that 95% of cases heard by JAG judges that month ended either in removal or voluntary departure. Of those cases, roughly 54% resulted in formal removal orders, while about 41% concluded with voluntary departure. Overall, the data indicates that foreign nationals are approximately 1.5 times less likely to receive relief in cases heard by JAG judges.
Supporters of stricter immigration enforcement have pointed to the figures as evidence that the military lawyers are applying existing statutes more consistently. Matt O’Brien, deputy executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the outcomes reflect a straightforward application of the law.
“It is highly likely that the temporary Immigration Judges seconded from the armed forces have lower approval rates because they aren’t pursuing an ideological agenda, they’re simply reading the relevant statutes and applying them to the facts of their cases in the manner intended by Congress,” O’Brien said.
“And that clearly demonstrates that the Trump Administration is justified in removing career IJs whose inordinately high approval rates indicate that they are deciding cases on the basis of their ideological preferences rather than on the basis of what the law actually says,” he added.
O’Brien previously served as an immigration judge beginning in 2020 and was dismissed during the Biden administration, a move he later criticized as politically motivated, as reported by Fox News. He said his tenure was marked by repeated motions against him and that conditions worsened after President Joe Biden took office.
The expanded use of military lawyers followed policy changes by the Department of Justice, which oversees the immigration court system. An August memo published in the Federal Register outlined new criteria for designating temporary immigration judges. The Trump administration began tapping military lawyers for those roles in October, with the Pentagon authorizing hundreds of JAG officers to serve in support of the DOJ.
The administration has argued that the move is necessary to address an expanding backlog in the immigration court system. Asylum case backlogs reached 2.5 million by the end of fiscal year 2023 and grew to approximately four million cases by January 2025, according to figures cited by the Trump administration in the Federal Register.
Military judges may serve in six-month rotations, with extensions permitted, and administration officials say their deployment is strengthening enforcement capacity as immigration priorities shift.
Upon returning to office, Trump declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, enabling the reallocation of federal resources, including military assets. The administration also applied economic pressure on Mexico, threatening tariffs unless additional border measures were taken, prompting Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to deploy thousands of troops to the region.
As unlawful border crossings reached historically low levels, federal agencies shifted focus to interior enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security has since deployed enforcement surges in cities including Los Angeles and Minneapolis, targeting migrants with outstanding deportation orders.
Those efforts have faced legal resistance. Local officials in Minnesota and Minneapolis are currently suing to limit the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, while a federal judge in December ruled that National Guard troops deployed in Los Angeles had to withdraw.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration’s enforcement measures have already produced large-scale departures. “In President Trump’s first year back in office, nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 675,000 deportations,” Noem said in a public statement issued Jan. 20.
The current enforcement posture marks a departure from the prior administration. During President Biden’s four years in office, the U.S.-Mexico border recorded approximately 8.5 million migrant encounters, according to data cited by the Daily Caller.
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