By Steve Neavling
About 600 military lawyers have been cleared to work as temporary immigration judges, with 150 of them possibly starting this week, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly, NPR reports.
The Justice Department recently lowered the qualifications for temporary judges, removing the requirement for prior immigration experience. The military attorneys will undergo about two weeks of training before hearing cases.
Immigration judges are the only officials who can revoke green cards or issue final removal orders for people who have lived in the country for more than two years. The changes come as the Trump administration speeds up arrests of undocumented immigrants, straining a court system already facing a backlog of nearly 4 million cases.
The Executive Office for Immigration Review has lost more than 100 judges in the past nine months, dropping from about 700. Congress approved more than $3 billion earlier this year for immigration-related hiring, but bringing on permanent judges can take more than a year.
The Department of Homeland Security has also launched a national campaign to recruit deportation officers, investigators, and attorneys, while Trump has backed proposals to deputize National Guard lawyers as immigration judges.
