How Trump’s Quota Policy Transformed Immigration Judging

Official White House Photo

In new research for ProMarket, Elise Blasingame, Christina Boyd, Roberto Carlos, and Joseph Ornstein look at how the Trump administration used a quota policy for immigration judges (and here) to influence how they decided cases. “The authors find the policy successfully nudged more judges to rule against immigrant plaintiffs.”  (bold added).  Click the link above for details.

“In 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a policy requiring immigration judges to complete a minimum of 700 cases per fiscal year and have no more than 15% of cases overturned on appeal, meaning that immigration judges had to be mindful of what the Trump-appointed Board of Immigration Appeals and attorney general wanted in their decisions. While the stated aim of the policy was to reduce the backlog of immigration cases growing exponentially year-over-year, the political motivations were clear: to pressure immigration judges to order more immigration removals and deportations as quickly as possible. From building the wall at the southern border, to family separation policies in detention centers, Trump was unequivocal in his aims: waging one of the most aggressive anti-immigration campaigns in recent history. The policy was certainly controversial and led some judges to quit. The immigration judges’ union campaigned against it. . . . The immigration judge quota policy was revoked under the Biden administration, but should Trump be re-elected in 2024, he will likely institute a similar policy to influence the incentives and decision-making of immigration judges and other bureaucrats.”

KJ