Tracy Mumford

From the New York Times, it's the headlines.

I'm Tracy Mumford.

Today's Friday, April 10th.

Here's what we're covering.

In the break room of a courthouse in Massachusetts, workers put up a sign decorated with balloons saying, we'll miss you.

It was part of a goodbye party for an immigration judge.

Then another immigration judge was out and another.

Soon they were having so many goodbye parties, they just left the decorations up.

It was all part of a massive wave of firings the Trump administration has carried out.

A new investigation from The Times shows how the administration has gone after immigration judges specifically, the ones who decide if someone should get asylum or be deported, in its larger effort to reshape the immigration system.

My colleague Nick Nehamas is part of the team who worked on the investigation.

He says immigration courts have long had a reputation for being dysfunctional with a huge backlog of cases.

That's something critics and supporters of immigration agree on.

But he says the way Trump is approaching it has alarmed many judges who work in the system.

They described being systematically pressured to deport more people and threatened with disciplinary action if they didn't.

In response to questions, the Justice Department did not explain how it chose which judges to fire.

And a White House spokeswoman said, quote, You can read the full investigation at NYTimes.com.

Now, on the war with Iran, a few things to know as we head into the weekend.

Tomorrow, in Pakistan, a delegation from the U.S.

is set to meet with Iranian officials to try and hammer out a longer-term peace agreement.