Trump's administration has systematically purged immigration judges and transformed the court system into a deportation machine, reducing asylum grants to under 10%—the lowest in 20 years. Immigration judges, who work under the executive branch rather than the judicial branch, now face mass firings, unrealistic caseloads, and explicit pressure to deport faster, raising fundamental questions about due process and judicial independence. Immigration judges are executive branch employees answerable to the attorney general and president, not lifetime-appointed judicial branch judges, allowing unprecedented political pressure on their decisions.