The Trump administration has dismissed eight immigration judges in New York City, according to an official from the National Association of Immigration Judges, marking the latest shake-up in the immigration court system after a recently ousted judge filed a discrimination lawsuit.

The judges who were removed had been serving at 26 Federal Plaza. Their dismissal came shortly after Tanya Nemr, a former immigration judge in Ohio who was terminated by the Trump administration, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice alleging unlawful discrimination.

Nemr’s complaint, filed on Monday, claims she was dismissed because of her gender, her dual American-Lebanese nationality, and her previous run for local office as a Democrat, in violation of civil rights law. The lawsuit says she was removed “suddenly” during her probationary period despite receiving “the highest possible performance rating.”

According to the filing, the “rapid and abrupt timing” of her dismissal suggests it was not the result of a fair assessment of her qualifications but part of a broader effort by the new administration to “target disfavored civil servants.”

One case out of 100 others

Nemr was one of more than 100 immigration judges who were dismissed, resigned under a “crossroads” offer from the Office of Government Efficiency, or were reassigned out of the immigration docket, the judges’ union reported.

Since February 2025, more than 100 immigration judges were dismissed or pushed out as the Trump administration moved to overhaul the immigration court system. Critics say the removals were abrupt and politically driven, worsening an already massive case backlog and raising concerns about due process in the courts.

The latest dismissals come as the Department of Homeland Security is actively recruiting new “deportation judges”. In an X post last week, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the positions offer full-time remote work with salaries ranging from $159,951 to $207,500.

Immigrant advocates have criticized the Trump administration for removing immigration judges with deep experience in immigration law at a time when the system faces a backlog of more than 3.7 million cases.

Nemr’s attorneys wrote that she was escorted out of the courthouse at the time of her dismissal and that her supervisor and the acting immigration judge overseeing her docket said they did not know why she was removed. “To this day,” her lawyers added, “the government has offered no rational, legitimate, non-discriminatory explanation for her termination.”

Nemr's removal goes against the Constitution

Shortly after being dismissed, Nemr filed a formal discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity office, which rejected the case. According to the lawsuit, the EEO office concluded that Title VII does not restrict discriminatory dismissal of immigration judges because the statute is said to conflict with executive removal powers under Article II. “This is simply incorrect,” her attorneys countered. “Nothing in the Constitution grants the executive branch the authority to discriminate.”

The complaint describes the Justice Department’s stance that it may dismiss federal employees without providing cause, regardless of civil rights protections, as “a blatant assault on a historic federal law.”

The lawsuit also cites a Justice Department official who submitted a sworn statement outlining traffic violations involving Nemr and two local tax cases from 2010 and 2011. Nemr asserts she had already disclosed these issues during her background check for the judgeship, and her attorneys say the official “created a misleading impression” that these matters were relevant to her dismissal.

Nemr is asking a federal court in Washington, DC, to declare that the government violated her rights, reinstate her to her position, and grant her damages.