SAN DIEGO, CMC – The California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) has condemned United States President Donald J. Trump’s decision to authorise up to 600 military lawyers, including those from the National Guard and reserves, as temporary immigration judges.
HBA’s executive director, Guerline Jozef, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the decision “risks eroding due process and undermining the rights of noncitizens.
“With the immigration court backlog now standing at approximately 3.5 million cases, the Department of Defense’s plan to double the number of immigration judges represents a dangerous shortcut toward militarizing the adjudicatory process,” she said.
She said immigration law is “notoriously intricate, requiring years of specialised training to fairly adjudicate asylum claims, relief petitions, and removal proceedings.
Jozef said military attorneys, trained primarily under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, lack the depth of experience needed to manage life-altering deportation hearings, raising serious concerns about compromised fairness and the violation of immigrants’ rights.”
She said that, rather than addressing the root causes of court delays, such as inadequate staffing, poor funding for legal support services, and systemic barriers to access, “the administration has opted for a militarized and temporary fix.”
The HBA official noted that the American Immigration Lawyers Association, along with legal professionals, has already criticised this initiative as “harmful to the integrity of the immigration court system, asserting that JAGs (Judge Advocate General) are not adequately prepared for the complexity of immigration matters.
“The stakes could not be higher: immigrants often come before courts without counsel, with their futures—whether separation from family, detention, or even deportation—hanging in the balance,” Jozef said.
“Entrusting such pivotal decisions to underqualified personnel not only betrays justice, but it perpetuates a system that disproportionately harms Black and Brown communities, including Haitians.”
She said deploying military lawyers in immigration courts is a recipe for disaster, adding that without meaningful training in immigration law, these temporary judges pose a direct threat to due process and the fundamental rights of asylum seekers.
“Our communities deserve judges committed to justice, not military expediency,” she continued, calling on the Trump administration and Congress to invest in long-term solutions by hiring fully qualified immigration judges, boosting public defense and legal assistance funding, and reforming procedural backlogs, rather than imposing a short-sighted, militarized band-aid”.
Last week, Trump administration officials dispatched several messages to uniformed lawyers soliciting volunteers for immigration judges.
“While a formal tasking is still pending, along with specific details regarding the duration and location of these assignments, we are seeking volunteers for this unique opportunity,” said a message dispatched last Wednesday to active-duty Army attorneys.
The White House also said that the Trump administration was “looking at a variety of options to help resolve the significant backlog of immigration cases, including hiring additional immigration judges.
“This should be a priority that everyone — including those waiting for adjudication — can rally around,” it urged.
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