The U.S. immigration court system long has been criticized for bias, ineptitude, lack of independence, and more.  The “Report: How Trump administration left indelible mark on U.S. immigration courts by Reade Levinson, Kristina Cooke, Mica Rosenberg” in Reuters underscores how the Trump administration left an “indelible mark” on the U.S. immigration courts. The report summarizes as follows:

“The administration filled two-thirds of the immigration courts’ 520 lifetime positions with judges who, as a whole, have disproportionately ordered deportation, according to a Reuters analysis of more than 800,000 immigration cases decided over the past 20 years.

Judges hired under Trump ordered immigrants deported in 69% of cases, compared to 58% for judges hired as far back as the administration of President Ronald Reagan. Because hundreds of thousands of immigrants have cases before the court each year, that 11 percentage-point difference translates to tens of thousands more people ordered deported each year. Appeals are rarely successful.” (bold added).