US Immigration Judges to Dismiss “Deficient” Asylum Cases Without Hearing

Donald Trump’s administration instructed immigration judges to dismiss asylum cases they deem “deficient,” which will deprive some applicants of a court hearing and directly expose them to deportation.

The order was issued by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), an agency of the Department of Justice that oversees the immigration courts. It orders the judges to evaluate whether the case has merit before conceding an asylum hearing.

EOIR noted in a memorandum issued on April 11, 2025 that the legislation states that “adjudicators (judges) can predetermine legally deficient asylum applications without a hearing.”

In addition, the current regulations “expressly” state that no additional hearing is required once an immigration judge determines that an asylum application is subject to certain mandatory grounds for denial.

The entity asserts that this order is consistent with existing laws and that “it would be highly inefficient and make little sense for judges to investigate every fact alleged in an asylum application if it has no bearing on the legal outcome.” In addition, judges “are not required to hear irrelevant evidence”.

EOIR blames judges for backlog in asylum cases

EOIR Acting Director Sirce Owen argued in the memo that judges have a duty “to efficiently manage their dockets” and blamed them for the unprecedented backlog of proceedings facing immigration courts.

“It is clear from the nearly four million pending cases on the EOIR docket that this (efficiency) has not happened,” he said.

Immigration attorney and advisor to the Association of Salvadorans of Los Angeles (Asosal), Fernando Romo, said that the new directive “is a tactic to eliminate the large number of cases in the courts and to deport people who do not qualify more quickly”.

The jurist considers that this instruction is a “consequence” of the avalanche of asylum applications submitted in the last four years.

“Unfortunately we are going to see a lot of abuses by some immigration judges, who are going to feel empowered to deny cases without a hearing,” Romo added.

Attorney Jose Guerrero, when consulted by Univision, agrees. He pointed out: “now the judges can review asylum cases without a hearing and judge whether they are, or could be, legally viable. And if the person didn’t articulate or explain their case correctly when they applied, the judge can then reject it.”

The“Legal in USA” lawyer portal explains that the dismissed cases would be those filed out of time, which do not comply with any of the protected grounds such as: race, religion, nationality, political opinion or belonging to a particular social group. Also in cases where the applicant has a criminal conviction.

“Current immigration regulations state that only one hearing is required if there are disputes about the facts. If the facts are accepted as true but the application is still legally insufficient, a hearing is not necessary. This helps courts avoid wasting time on applications that have no chance of success under the law,” they explain. “Current immigration regulations state that only one hearing is required if there are disputes about the facts. If the facts are accepted as true but the application is still legally insufficient, a hearing is not necessary. This helps courts avoid wasting time on applications that have no chance of success under the law,” they explain.

This is not the first time that Trump tries to put the accelerator on judges to issue more decisions. The Republican already tried to impose quotas in his first administration (2017-2021) but failed to stop the logjam, which has been increasing since Barack Obama’s administration (2009-2017).

Trump and his deportation campaign

Since becoming president, Donald Trump has implemented a series of measures to accelerate immigrant deportations. Among them, the order to cancel the permission to stay legally in the United States to more than half a million Nicaraguan, Cuban, Venezuelan and Haitian migrants who arrived with humanitarian parole , which was stopped on April 14, 2025 by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani.

Five days later, on April 19, the U.S. Supreme Court paused deportations of migrants being removed under the Enemy Alien Act.

This law, which is used in times of war, was invoked by the president on March 14 to expel hundreds of Venezuelans he accuses of belonging to the criminal organization Tren de Aragua. However, there is evidence of cases of migrants who were deported by mistake under this law.

**With information from EFE