Trump Has Fired 103 Immigration Judges. Here’s Why That Matters.
These changes apply retroactively, affecting people already in the system for years.
Donald J. Trump took office on January 20, 2025 and between January 20 and 22, 2025, he signed three executive orders (EO) declaring a national emergency at the southern border.
The links to the full executive orders and what they contain will be listed at the bottom of the article.
Now I know that with all that has happened in just 7 short months, it’s easy to forget something that seemed to minor compared to what he’s done since. After all, we are all humans, and we all have a limited capacity for horrible news.
But before you read the rest of this article I need you to remember that this all started with a Sharpie stroke and a press release, and has grown into one of the largest human rights crises in the United States history.
White House officials tried to change the narrative and make the EO’s look like they were just being tough on immigration. But in reality, these were part of something far bigger, and far more dangerous. These weren’t just policy changes. They were the opening moves of a plan to not only target an entire group of people, but to remake the country using immigration as the excuse.
The orders gave Trump and his cronies unlimited power to bring in the military, build new detention centers, block asylum, detain families indefinitely, and sidestep the courts.
Seriously guys, I don’t know why some people seem to have a gap in their memories about how the damn poem ends.
And so, within 48 hours of Trump taking office the “border crisis” became a permanent state of emergency but it didn’t end there.
The Purge of Justice
In July 2025, the Trump administration fired 17 immigration judges in one Friday purge. Two more were fired the following Monday. That alone would’ve been disturbing but it didn’t stop there.
That was just the latest wave in a systematic campaign that’s removed 103 immigration judges since Trump took office again. Most of these judges had years of experience, and during the first purge many who were removed were appointed during the Biden administration.
These judges weren’t corrupt. As I said above, they were competent and many had years of experience. But that in itself was the problem. Trump does not want professionals, he wants loyalists.
Now, if you’ve read some of my previous articles you know I’ve been following the story about the immigration judges since the first purge and on May 29, 2025, I filed a FOIA request asking who was replacing the twenty immigration judges EOIR quietly fired in February. Something they’d done with no formal press release despite this being the precedent for years.
I asked for names, hiring records, job postings, anything. First EOIR delayed the request, called it “unusual,” then claimed the next day that no records exist. None.
So, either they didn’t look, didn’t document it, or they are hiding it. Any way you look at it, this is not just bureaucratic sloppiness. It is a direct threat to due process. These judges decide who stays, who is deported, who is detained and now, no one can explain who is taking their place.
I immediately filed an appeal but I still have not heard back as of July 17th, 2025.
The FOIA denial proves one thing above all: they don’t want us to know who’s deciding the fate of millions of immigrants. Because those decisions are no longer legal. They’re political.
While the courts were being gutted and FOIA requests were disappearing into a black hole, the Trump administration was quietly locking the doors behind every immigrant in ICE custody.
On July 8, 2025, ICE issued a memo declaring that undocumented immigrants were no longer eligible to request bond. Not limited to new arrivals or criminal charges. It applies to everyone including children.
And if you look a little closer, you’ll see they’re also trying to dismantle the Flores Agreement that pesky court order from the 90s that, during Trump’s first term, had the audacity to require that migrant children be given basic things like toothbrushes, beds, and sunlight.
So, this means once ICE picks you up — whether you’ve been here two weeks or twenty years — you don’t get a hearing or judge. You don’t get to argue for your release. You just get a cell and you stay there for months, years. However long it takes for your case to crawl through the system. Age doesn’t matter. Two or sixty, you wait just the same.
All at the “low, low cost” of only $175/day (on average) funded by the American taxpayer.
And they didn’t just apply this going forward. They went backward (retroactive) for years. It means that people who were already living here (people who have homes, families, and jobs) can now be detained indefinitely.
Where are They Putting These People?
Into detention centers that were already bursting at the seams. Back in April 2025, TRAC reported that ICE was holding over 48,000 people. Out of 181 detention facilities, 45 were already over their contracted limits. Some were over by a handful. Others were drowning. Krome North in Miami was built for 600. It held nearly 1,800. Pine Prairie in Louisiana, Karnes County in Texas both packed beyond capacity. That was months ago. The numbers have only grown since.
People are dying in ICE custody. Fifteen so far in 2025 and the year’s not over. Just months ago, I wrote about one woman who died alone in ICE custody after suffering a clear medical emergency, possibly a heart attack turned cardiac arrest. She was given an over-the-counter painkiller and left to die on a mat.
Now we have Alligator Alcatraz (Auschwitz)
And now, deep in the Florida swamps, they’ve built Alligator Alcatraz—a so-called “processing center” run by GardaWorld under an $8 million Trump-era contract. No windows, no showers, no lawyers, no clocks. Just freezing air, constant light, and cages full of men. A janitor fired for filming inside called it what it is: a concentration camp. He said there were already about 500 men held there when he was removed, just days after it opened.
This won’t be the first or the last camp because just days ago Stephen Miller pressured officials in other states to make more of these makeshift “processing” and detention centers. According to draft plans for this facility, minors will be detained here, too.
So, not only are they getting rid of immigration judges. They are building camps and in these camps they’re already laying the groundwork to make National Guard soldiers act as judges inside these camps, and the executive orders Trump signed in January quietly allow it.
The language is vague enough to give the military authority over “processing and adjudication,” which is a fancy way of saying courtroom powers without courtrooms. This isn’t just a local experiment but a national blueprint.
See, the National Guard isn’t bound by the judicial ethics code, they don’t need law degrees, and 61 percent of veterans supported Trump in the 2024 election. However, they are bound by an ethical code, one we can only hope they follow.
Loyalty is the goal. They don’t care about laws and if they can make it work in Florida, they can make it work anywhere.
A concentration camp built over nine days in plastic tents is a built a lot faster and cheaper than a building with running water.
So, Let’s Talk Money
Every detained person is worth about $175 a day in federal money. That’s nearly tens of millions of dollars a day (if not hundreds) straight to the private companies running these prisons. Places so riddled with abuse that they sparked an uprising at the Delaney Hall ICE facility in New Jersey just last month. Places like Alligator Auschwitz.
So, as it stood prior to the bill passing (the amount of money they’re earning is is increasing rapidly) that’s already more than $3 billion in profit annually.
GEO Group alone has already pocketed over $1 billion in ICE contracts this year. CoreCivic and LaSalle Corrections, too. All lining up for their cut. The more people Trump locks up, the richer they get. This was never about “bad hombres” or public safety. It’s a cash cow in shackles based on blatant xenophobia.
Oh, but don’t you fret, my love. They have a place for you, too.
These companies are part of the private prison complex, and even before Trump and Stephen Miller ramped up immigration enforcement, they were already making millions detaining Americans. They don’t discriminate. They’ve got cages for the so-called “homegrowns” as well. Since, you know, he wasn’t able to send Americans to CECOT like he wanted.
These companies didn’t just benefit from this “immigration crackdown” but actually provided the funding for it. GEO and CoreCivic bankrolled Trump’s 2024 campaign. They lobbied for what they knew he would do — what became the “Big Beautiful Bill,” shoving $170 billion toward immigration enforcement. Of that, $49 billion was carved out specifically for new detention infrastructure.
They paid for it by slashing American benefits, all while claiming they were only targeting “criminal aliens.” Yeah, that’s what some people really believe not realizing they’re actually the ones on the chopping block.
Meanwhile, Medicaid is going to be gutted, rural hospitals are already beginning to shutter, and thousands of American families are about to lose life-saving healthcare starting in 2026. But the private prison companies? They were handed blank checks to build more cages.
This is the Architecture of Authoritarianism
History shows us that it starts with executive orders, and ends in concentration camps and genocide. These places staffed by men trained for war but handed robes without rules. It spreads through a network of profiteers who fund the chaos, draft the bills, build the beds, and call it justice.
And it thrives not because the people demanded it, but because most didn’t loo and because within hours headlines change, the stories got too long, the cruelty began to become overwhelming to where you couldn’t look anymore, and then before and before you know it cruelty is background noise.
But if you’re here you know this isn’t just background noise. This is the main event and not only is this a human rights crisis, but a blueprint for a different country. One where loyalty is law, profit is justice, and silence is survival. Worst part? It’s already here.
♥ Note From The Author ♥
As we witness it happening in real time, we’ve all come to realize that authoritarianism doesn’t arrive with a marching band. It creeps in through silence, through distraction, through exhaustion. The moment we stop paying attention, the moment we stop telling the truth out loud, is the moment things get worse.
That’s why I will keep following this not because it’s easy, but because I couldn’t live with myself if I did anything else. And if you’re still reading, I believe you know it matters too.
I invite you to stay with me, to keep learning, to keep questioning, to keep speaking. Because fascists rely on an uneducated public. Subscribe for free to stay in the loop. All of my articles are free no matter what. This information is too important to keep behind a paywall.
They count on people not knowing what’s being done in their name but knowledge is power, and sharing it (not just online; share it everywhere) is an act of defiance. Being informed is a form of resistance, and speaking out is how we make it count.
If you're able to support with a paid subscription, it helps me keep this platform alive, fund FOIA requests, cover investigative costs, and brace for the legal battles that may come
But no matter what, until the day they start locking journalists in the cages, I’ll still be here watching, writing and holding those in power accountable.
Thanks for being here.
— Dissent in Bloom. 🌻
Thank you for reporting Truth from the Gulag. The evil is so obvious and nauseating and heartbreaking. Everyone should know. But everyone won't listen because it is so unbelievable. But I know this is Truth and I will share the Truth in the Darkness.... those who have ears will hear. 🙏🏽😪
As always you tell it as it is ..thx .
Did you see article about Maxwells Taramar ocean survellience business . Talk about a can of worms .....don't get me started but I knew you'd appreciate me putting the buzz in your ear.... more work for you my darlin ...your so good at unraveling the lies and getting down to the truth 😘