Ximena Bustillo

The courts are housed in the Justice Department, in the executive branch of government, not the judicial branch.

And that makes it easier for the attorney general to fire them.

Most of the judges this administration fired...

had still been in their two-year probationary period.

But many of those in recent terminations had been with the agency for years.

That expands the scope of who could be targeted by future rounds of firings.

Immigration advocates warn the layoffs contribute to an already years-long backlog for immigrants to have their cases heard.

Ximena Bustillo, NPR News, Washington.

Immigration judges are more like other federal workers than like judges in the judiciary.

The courts are housed in the Justice Department, in the executive branch of government, not the judicial branch.

And that makes it easier for the attorney general to fire them.

Most of the judges this administration fired had still been in their two-year probationary period.

but many of those in recent terminations had been with the agency for years.

That expands the scope of who could be targeted by future rounds of firings.

Immigration advocates warn the layoffs contribute to an already years-long backlog for immigrants to have their cases heard.

Ximena Bustillo, NPR News, Washington.

U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services in a memo on Tuesday said it would pause reviewing all pending applications for green cards, citizenship, or asylum from immigrants of 19 countries listed in a previous travel ban.

President Trump in June announced the travel ban against 12 countries, including Afghanistan, and partial restrictions against seven others.

USCIS also plans to re-review all approved immigration-related requests for anyone from those 19 countries that entered the country since the Biden administration.