Turns out military judges are really good at deporting illegals, new data reveals
By Jason Hopkins, Daily Caller News Foundation
JAGS issued deportation orders in 78% of cases throughout November
President Donald Trump’s use of military lawyers as immigration judges appears to be helping boost his mass deportation goals.
Ever since the Trump administration amended official policy in 2025, which allows military personnel to act as temporary immigration judges, illegal migrants have been ordered deported or pushed into voluntary departure at higher rates, according to newly released data. These judges could prove to be major players as the president follows through on a pledge to conduct the largest deportation operation in U.S history.
Military lawyers, also known as judge advocate generals (JAGs), issued deportation orders in 78% of cases throughout November, the first full month JAG judges began issuing rulings, according to information provided by Mobile Pathways, a California-based nonprofit organization that advocates for migrants. This rate was notably higher than the roughly 62% rate of removal orders handed down by regular immigration judges during the same time period.
December data also showed the trend continued, with 95% of cases heard by a JAG judge ending in departure or removal orders, according to Mobile Pathways. During the final month of 2025, roughly 54% of foreigners who appeared before a JAG judge were ordered removed, while another 41% ended their case in voluntary departure.
In general, foreign nationals are roughly 1.5x less likely to receive relief before a JAG judge.
Border hawks, including those who have previously served as immigration judges themselves, have welcomed the tougher rulings.
“It is highly likely that the temporary Immigration Judges seconded from the armed forces have lower approval rates because they aren’t pursuing an ideological agenda, they’re simply reading the relevant statutes and applying them to the facts of their cases in the manner intended by Congress,” Matt O’Brien, deputy executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“And that clearly demonstrates that the Trump Administration is justified in removing career IJs [immigration judges] whose inordinately high approval rates indicate that they are deciding cases on the basis of their ideological preferences rather than on the basis of what the law actually says,” O’Brien stated.
O’Brien is familiar with the role; he began serving as an immigration judge in 2020 before he was fired under the Biden administration, an action he decried as politically motivated. The ousted judge, who had quickly established a high removal record, was beset with repeated motions against him, a situation he said only got worse when President Joe Biden entered the White House.