A U.S. military lawyer who served as a federal immigration judge has been fired after he approved a large number of asylum claims, which is at odds with the goals of the mass deportation policy pursued by the Republican administration of United States President Donald Trump, the Associated Press (AP) learned today.
US Army Reserves Army Attorney Christopher Day began holding hearings in immigration court in Annandale, Virginia, in late October as a temporary immigration judge.
He was fired sometime around December 2, the US National Association of Immigration Judges confirmed.
It's not entirely clear why Day lost his job.
The AP reached out to Day but did not receive a comment from him, and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on personnel matters.
However, November federal data shows that his decisions in asylum cases are out of step with the Trump administration's proclaimed goals.
Namely, Day concluded 11 cases in November, six of which ended with the granting of asylum or some kind of relief that allowed the migrant in question to remain in the US.
Such favorable outcomes in asylum proceedings in the US have become increasingly rare since the Trump administration tried to cut the 3,8 million asylum cases by radically reforming 75 federal immigration courts.
As part of these efforts, at least 100 judges who were deemed too liberal were dismissed.
This summer, the administration relaxed the rules for hiring new judges, so now any lawyer can apply to be a "deportation judge," regardless of their field of practice.
In September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the reassignment of up to 600 military lawyers to handle asylum cases, which defense organizations interpret as an attempt to redefine the traditional duty of a judge to be a fair and impartial arbiter in considering asylum claims, and reduce it to a mere implementation of the White House's mass deportation policy.
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