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Original Date Announced
February 28, 2025The Acting Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) issued Policy Memorandum (PM) 24-25 to purportedly address past hiring concerns and reinforce merit-based practices that began in 2021.
PM 25-24 primarily serves as a critique of the Biden Administration’s approach to hiring adjudicators, which includes Immigration Judges, Appellate Immigration Judges, and Administrative Law Judges. It accuses the previous administration's approach of fostering favoritism, ethical conflicts, and inconsistent disciplinary standards. It also denounces the decision to limit vacancy announcements geographically, implying that this practice restricted diversity and fairness in hiring. PM 25-24 specifically alleges and criticizes a 2021 recruitment partnership for the hiring of Immigration Judges with an unnamed advocacy organization. Additionally, it claims that past disciplinary actions against adjudicators were handled without uniform standards.
While the memo presents itself as a corrective measure, it stops short of identifying specific policies to be rescinded or modified. The document ultimately signals a shift in EOIR’s approach, suggesting a return to stricter oversight and centralized control over hiring and disciplinary procedures.
Trump 2.0 [ID #1579]
2025.02.28 EOIR PM 25-24, Adjudicator Personnel MattersEffective Date
February 28, 2025Subsequent Trump and Court Action(s)
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March 14, 2025
2025.03.14 EOIR 25-26 - Additional Adjudicator Personnel Matters
As a supplement to PM 25-24, EOIR issued 25-26 to “reset[] additional personnel policies following the discovery of further problematic personnel practices concerning adjudicators.” It states that all terminations of employment of adjudicators will be forwarded by the EOIR Director for concurrence by the Attorney General. Adjudicators terminated between February 1, 2021 and January 20, 2025 at the end of their initial temporary term appointments—cases which the memorandum states did not receive such concurrence by the Attorney General—may re-apply for any future adjudicator vacancy without prejudice.
The memorandum attacks the validity of the agency's judicial complaint process, asserting that EOIR is “no longer confident in the accuracy or objectivity of performance feedback it receives from parties appearing before an adjudicator." The memo claims that the established judicial complaint process has been "weaponized" by advocates to target certain judges and that baseless complaints have been used as a pretext to terminate them. As a result, absent agency corroboration and "independent verification" of misconduct, EOIR will not rely on such feedback as a basis to terminate an adjudicator after their temporary appointment or subsequent trial period.
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Current Status
NoneOriginal Trump Policy Status
Trump Administration Actions: Agency Directive Change in PracticeSubject Matter: Hearings and AdjudicationsAgencies Affected: EOIR
Documents
Trump-Era Policy Documents
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